I started in Microsoft development and saw code that made me cry. I switched to Java because developers with self respect wrote elegant code in Java. But Java frustrated me because of the effort to result ratio; for the amount of time I would spend coding and configuring, I had very little to show for it. I like to build things quickly and see people interact with them heavily. Javascript gives me both of these.
And it's becoming more adopted as the lingua franca of app development; I can write server side code, rich client web interfaces, and native mobile apps using nothing but Javascript as the coding language.
There are ways of getting around it. Travel to S.E Asia and meet some expats who have retired there. For some countries this is easier to get around than others. Mostly, people just do border runs when their 90 days are up.
Suggest Appcelerator or Phonegap due to your web skills and the speed with which you can pump out an app. I had a full working app in 3 months that ran on both Android and iPhone. One code base.
I would have thought that the obvious advantage of this over scooter-kid is the time saving over someone in traffic. It would take potentially half the time to deliver to some areas by air. With the major side benefit that your pizza is less soggy when it arrives, which means a noticeable improvement in product quality.
I remember reading that Richard Branson does much the same. When a team gets above 20 people, he splits the team up. Similar reasons - so that the culture kept within a team was better because everyone knew each other well.
For anybody who is interested in the concept of verifiable voting protocols, and a real life election applying them, I am currently working on the front end of such an application, with the election to be held in November 2014 for our state election.
We are working with academics in Surrey, UK, and elsewhere on the cryptography and verifiability of the election. So I can't answer any of the hard questions, but can point you at some of the documentation that Surrey has developed, shown below.
1 - nobody would get a pay rise because "If I give you a pay rise, then I have to give everyone a pay rise" would be the mantra of managers in an established organisation. Anything less would create arguments.
2 - the ego of every employee. "Oh, right, just because he's an engineer, he's more important than me in marketing ... which one of us improves how much profit you generate?" ... and so for every other class of employee. even between engineers - "I'm sorry, but I'm better than that guy because of X, Y and Z (subjective reasons) and I should get paid more."
The extension of 2 is - "If I don't get paid the same as that guy then I'm not working nearly as hard as I have been ... I mean - what's the point?"
I started in Microsoft development and saw code that made me cry. I switched to Java because developers with self respect wrote elegant code in Java. But Java frustrated me because of the effort to result ratio; for the amount of time I would spend coding and configuring, I had very little to show for it. I like to build things quickly and see people interact with them heavily. Javascript gives me both of these.
And it's becoming more adopted as the lingua franca of app development; I can write server side code, rich client web interfaces, and native mobile apps using nothing but Javascript as the coding language.