Viewing profile — drewmassey

Oral exams are terrifying but preparing for one will be an incredible learning experience and give you a ton of confidence later. Source: those 90 minutes I was grilled by the enti…

This is true; my father was - and my husband's parents are - all professors so I know that small town academic life (for tenured faculty) is one flavor of the American Dream. And p…

As a former music history professor who now works in tech, I think the adjunctification of American universities is one of the the worst "best-kept secrets" out there. The sheer nu…

I’ve heard it said that it only exists as a word so that there can also be “offboarding” when people are let go. I do not have a strong opinion about this.

Oh man I've seen Hart making the rounds. The obvious privilege of being a tenured Ivy League professor aside, a few things jump out - Yes it would be nice if drugs were decriminali…

I earned a PhD in the humanities before going into tech. I loved it, and it was a tough slog to make the pivot. I know there is a lot of advice encouraging folks to “optimize their…

Why don’t you just ask them? Not in a confrontational way, but like “hey what are you up to this week?” I’ve worked in orgs from 10-30,000 people and have always been able to at le…

I don’t remember if it was chess or tennis or something else: “The good player is always lucky.”

With all this discussion of revival of old styles in this thread it is worth noting that France saw the revival of chant itself in the 19th century, which is in many ways an echo o…

I’ve handled one of the bay psalm books. It’s very magical even if the object itself is quite humble. If you want to get laughed out of Houghton library ask the staff to page the G…

I was 34 when I switched from historical musicology to professional services. It can be done! All the advice in here is great. Software skews towards being merit and results driven…

I actually used a large screen for a while but have enjoyed the focus that my Mac Book Air requires. Just sublime on full screen. Also, your setup is then uniform if you travel a l…

“Get to know your problem so well that fixing it by writing code is a last resort” I love this stance.

I work at a startup that is using AI to reduce emissions in industrial and data center contexts. I like the big sky approach of this post but so much savings / reduction is an exec…

Ah perhaps I have stale information then. Last I heard retail truvada will run you north of $1,500 per month in the us.

Yeah this is true. The cost of generics is so low but in the United States it remains quite expensive if you don’t have insurance.

For me the biggest surprise in the article is that there are 180,000 men in the United States on Prep. Given a back of the envelope calculation of 4.8m out gay men in America (3% o…

After several weeks of swimming upstream on a greenfield EKS project I switched gears to GKE. The paradigm just felt way better. For large enterprises that need IAM integration on …

I’m a huge admirer or well crafted cli apps, they can massively boost the effectiveness of a team. An oldie but goodie here: https://eng.localytics.com/exploring-cli-best-practices…

GramLabs | Software Engineering (DevOps) | Boston or Washington DC | Full Time Gram Labs is a strongly capitalized AI startup with breakthrough technology that is already making a …

I compiled a works list of the composer Virgil Thomson, who wrote two operas with texts by Stein. I don’t think it is that hard to understand the politics of certain modernist arti…

I actually think the author is really smart to point out boredom as an ingredient in the mix. I’m friends with a pretty successful writer who told me a couple of months ago how har…

This. I transitioned from a (non-STEM) PhD and am now working as a "real" engineer. It is called a "practice" for a reason, you will get better with time as long as you are self-re…

GramLabs | Software Engineering (DevOps / Front End) | Boston or Washington DC | Full Time Gram Labs is a strongly capitalized AI startup with breakthrough technology that is alrea…

I don't disagree that the cost of living and FAANG brain drain will likely challenge the hegemony of Silicon Valley in the short term. What interests me is whether software enginee…