261–270 of 348 posts
People in this industry are generally competent and willing to work. Leadership is a variable though. And it can make or break a project.
I fail two interviews one is from Google and one is from Facebook. now I am rethinking about my ability towards coding and algorithms.
I got rejected by Google even though I thought my coding interview went well. I bombed the interview with Amazon and somehow they gave me an offer as an SDE1 even though I wasn't a fresh grad and had 3 years experience. My director refers to me as a rock star. My total comp this year is just north of $240K. I was promoted about 13 months in. I'm told repeatedly I'm one of the top engineers in my org and admired and r…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
- Many well known people in tech are charlatans. I'd love if you could expand on this topic. What do you mean by charlatans?
I'm not the OP but I would guess it's because most of the tech leaders aren't there because they did something great and are all knowing, but more because they were at the right place at the right time and met the right people. You could replace any of those people with 10,000 other people with similar qualifications and they would do just as well.
The 'Appeal to Authority' fallacy creates a feedback loop here too. They mislead to gain authority. They use that new authority to gain more opportunities to mislead.
You can put more effort in and potentially make more money. You can not make more time, no matter how hard you try. You can pay someone to do something to free up a portion of your time, which you can then use as you see fit. You need to prioritize how you spend your time. This is not a one-time exercise. It's an ongoing process. You look at the things that you do in a given day, week, month, and year. You see how th…
- Many well known people in tech are charlatans. - There is no integrity in keeping silent when witnessing wrongdoing, even when speaking out may harm your current business prospects. - Most "interesting" ideas in tech currently simply aren't. - "Software Craftsmanship" is a scam. - Programmers are far less logical than they would themselves believe. - Non-tech project managers in tech teams are beyond useless; they'…
Taken from http://manifesto.softwarecraftsmanship.org/ "Not only working software, but also well-crafted software Not only responding to change, but also steadily adding value Not only individuals and interactions, but also a community of professionals Not only customer collaboration, but also productive partnerships" I fail to see the "scam" here. Your follow-on comments seem to take issue with some of the popular o…
In practice however, it's a different reality.
Let's not forget that SC's perhaps most infamous proponent once said that C++ is a "man's language", and that Java is an "oestrogen" language.
* Five co-founders are too many. * If you are working on someone else's crappy idea, think about working on your own crappy idea. * Call people you might need later when you don't need them. Or they tend to disappear when you do need them. * Learn about the stock market and invest right away. You'll make money, lose money, then understand money. * Build as many projects as time allows. It's nice to have the option to…
Do you have any no-bs sources to learn about stock investments? Right now it would be gambling for me.
My ex fancied herself a day trader and spent an amazing amount of time researching trading, back-testing trading strategies, and coming up with new strategies. This was over around a decade. In the end, her "can't lose" strategy (high leveraged investment in a RITE with some sort of a "even if it fails we get our money back" option coverage) resulted in six figures just disappearing. I never got any sort of answer on what happened there, we were divorcing at the time and she wouldn't say anything about it. I'm pretty sure she didn't take it an run, she was just too embarrassed about it.
What has worked best for me is: - Invest early. When I was 19 I nearly took out a $10K loan to put into an investment account, just as a sort of "forced saving". I loved the toys, so that was a good way to make sure I got money into that. I wish I could go back and actually do that.
- Make sure you are taking advantage of your free money. I have a friend that isn't taking advantage of his work's 3% matching. I max out my Simple contributions.
- Putting money in a low-fees investment account. I have the bulk of it in a "targeted retirement account" at Vanguard, with the target retirement age set to around 70, which keeps it a bit more aggressive right now when I don't need the money and can contribute more.
I work from home so I'm on the phone a reasonable amount - I always walk around on my calls. It also gives you a screen break and really helps with problem solving.
I've also become more away of my dips in productivity. Unless you're doing something mundane you can't smash out great results for 8-10 hours every day. Switch tasks, go for a walk (outside this time), make a tea etc. Make sure your lunch break is something totally different to give your mind a break (I go watch TV).
* Five co-founders are too many. * If you are working on someone else's crappy idea, think about working on your own crappy idea. * Call people you might need later when you don't need them. Or they tend to disappear when you do need them. * Learn about the stock market and invest right away. You'll make money, lose money, then understand money. * Build as many projects as time allows. It's nice to have the option to…
Do you have any no-bs sources to learn about stock investments? Right now it would be gambling for me.
For me I have learned that there comes a point when you need to work differently in order to protect your health and family well being. Big salaries are great, but when the price for that is massive amounts of overtime that takes you away from your family it just isn't worth it. Now I work for myself and I love it. Hobbies are vitally important to keeping you happy and healthy, don't neglect them. When you get a spee…
> For me I have learned that there comes a point when you need to work differently in order to protect your health and family well being. Big salaries are great, but when the price for that is massive amounts of overtime that takes you away from your family it just isn't worth it. >... >Family comes first, always. I didn't learn this in the past 12 months, but a recent event has definitely reaffirmed this: stick to y…
Over the last ten years it has gone from no overtime to "Can you do a wee bit of overtime?", then "You are working this weekend" to not even asking me and just expecting me to be in the office working late.
It came to a head last August when I was at a big-4 consultancy. The usual email about ordering dinner went around, that was code for we are all working late tonight. I said "Sorry, I don't need any I'm off home". Within a minute the project manager was at my desk saying "Well, we clearly have a problem and you need to fix it now." They were always so careful to not actually say the word overtime, it was all code such as asking us what we wanted for dinner or telling us that the security man would be locking up late and the like.
That was the point when I knew that I had to change things.
The worst thing was that I had told that company I could not work late as my wife worked evenings and we have kids. I got a note added to my contract acknowledging this, but they wouldn't honour it. They even went as far as suggesting that I hire a babysitter or ask my wife to give up her clients. They were oblivious to the fact that I would rather be with my children than earning €100k.
I should have done it sooner. About five years ago I was a company that claimed to be family friendly, but was anything but. During my annual review I was marked down for not "Giving Time to the Company" basically not doing overtime. I said that expecting me to give away my skills for free was unprofessional. I was told that I was unprofessional for even thinking that. That is when I should have taken the plunge to go it alone, but I held out hoping for a better employer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's easy to be cynical, but it's important to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Of course you can make friends at work, but no, they're not going to be the kind of friends whose shoulders you can cry on when a relationship goes south, but if you can have a discussion about non-work matters, if you could imagine having them over for a backyard barbecue, "friend" still seems like a reasonable term. Even…
I think you;re missing the point. Not being cynical or semantically pure. Least ways I don't think so. Nothing wrong with drinking buddies or casual friends at the local cycling club or wherever your hobby interests lie. But they won't be true friends in the sense of people you could call on for advice or assistance if life has just presented you with "a challenge". What has surprised me over the years is how poorly…
Yes, it's important to be able to gauge the degree of closeness accurately (at least not be very wrong about someone being a close friend), but that's a bit of a different concern, imo.
>> seems like a great way to convince yourself that you're an unlikeable person with no friends
> I have no idea at all how you arrive here. :)
Having many friends is generally considered important for general wellbeing, and is a social success-criterion. If you're telling yourself that all those people who enjoy being around you and that you enjoy being around (even if they might probably not be there for you in a deep crisis) aren't friends, that they're somehow fake, it's easy to get lost. At the very least, it's easy to rationalise not spending time with them. And you'll certainly never have a chance to convert any of them to "real" friends.