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Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

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Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#401

Post by lotsofpulp »

arielweisberg wrote: post #319
koolba wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The usual generic financial advice I give is: - Maximize every retirement vehicle offered to you (max 401k, HSA, etc). - Pretend that any money you sock away for retirement doesn't exist. This is best done with automated withdrawals so you never even consider it money in your checking account. - Learn to cook. This doesn't actually save much money at the individual level but is huge for families. - Set up separate ac…

Avoiding new cars is not something I agree with. A new inexpensive Toyota Corolla will have cheaper financing, fewer miles, and a longer warranty and fewer years at the starting to get expensive to maintain stage. You also have to price in the true cost of an old car once it reaches the age of unreliability if you intend to drive into the ground. Just one failure on a road trip can result in expensive alternate trans…

If you want to extract the most value, and you have multiple cars in your family with 1 car being not mission critical, then you should always buy new, keep up with maintenance, and use them until they’re run into the ground.

As long as you have 1 car that someone doesn’t absolutely need, or at least everyday, then you have time to shop around when your oldest one breaks down.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#402

Post by eru »

arielweisberg wrote: post #319
koolba wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The usual generic financial advice I give is: - Maximize every retirement vehicle offered to you (max 401k, HSA, etc). - Pretend that any money you sock away for retirement doesn't exist. This is best done with automated withdrawals so you never even consider it money in your checking account. - Learn to cook. This doesn't actually save much money at the individual level but is huge for families. - Set up separate ac…

Avoiding new cars is not something I agree with. A new inexpensive Toyota Corolla will have cheaper financing, fewer miles, and a longer warranty and fewer years at the starting to get expensive to maintain stage. You also have to price in the true cost of an old car once it reaches the age of unreliability if you intend to drive into the ground. Just one failure on a road trip can result in expensive alternate trans…

Just buy eg a three year old Toyota Corolla?

(Only speculating. Out of personal preference I only live in places where you don't need a car.)

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#403

Post by eru »

dkns wrote: post #374
smileysteve wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Learn to cook. This doesn't actually save much money at the individual level but is huge for families. I'd say it can save a ton of money at the individual level and is likely much healthier, and often time as well (probably biased because I can passively cook because I understand the science of cooking) My example meal that is paleo friendly is grilled chicken breast and frozen vegetables; my dinners cost ~ $3/d…

Any recommended reading on passive cooking? Sounds like something that would be really useful for me.

Look up eg Sous Vide cooking.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#404

Post by eru »

zip1234 wrote: post #333
shimon wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Start with Scott Adams' financial checklist: https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/scott-adams-financial-advice/ Note the item about hiring a fee-based financial advisor. I hired one starting a few years ago even though I am pretty good at this stuff, but I think they're especially helpful for newbies to establish good expectations and habits.

I'm not sure it is clear what fee-based means in the article. There are some that get a commission based on the products that they sell. In other words, the mutual fund that they use they might get a cut of. A fee-only adviser is one who takes a certain percentage each year. This is the kind that you want as it is in their best interest to grow your account and they won't move your money unnecessarily just to generat…

I thought fee-based means you just pay them a fixed fee you agree on up front? (And their interests are aligned insofar as they want repeat customers and you to tell your friends to use them?)

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#405

Post by nostrademons »

mo1ok wrote: post #269
sidlls wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a different (admittedly controversial) take, having been on the "tech ladder" for some time now (as a Senior SWE and Lead Engineer): most individual contributors overestimate how much value they actually provide, especially in the Bay Area. That isn't to say we're not under-appreciated and under-compensated (we are both). But realistically much of the time work we do is easily done by literally thousands of ot…

I agree and both disagree. I'm working right now for a client that is a large corporation that didn't do any of those "fad" things - and it is _tremendously_ costly. For example, one team has spent several weeks and thousands of dollars to get another team's SOAP integration working correctly, when it would have taken five minutes in REST. The codebase did not follow a "elegant" practice and is an absolute spaghetti…

SOAP was the fad before REST. And spaghetti code is usually the result of fulfilling customer's requests without taking (/wasting, depending on your perspective) the time to rewrite & refactor.

This'll probably come across as depressing to most of the engineers in the audience, but I don't see this as an example of a company that did anything wrong. Rather, it's a company that did everything right but did it too early. They followed the fad of the early 2000s; there was no way to know then that a better fad would come out in the mid 2000s. And they're still around (and a "large corporation") now, which indicates that from a customer & business POV, they've actually been more successful than ~99% of other technology companies founded in that era.

If you're successful, you too can get to have the kindergartners of today complain about what an idiot you are. That's the best-case outcome, though: more likely, nobody will use your code or it will be thrown away a year later for the newer, shinier fad.

(The more positive spin on this is that our industry actually is making progress, and quite rapidly. What other industry can you look at the best practices of 15 years ago and say "What idiots we all were back then!"?)

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#406

Post by eru »

volkk wrote: post #321
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that isn't enough. Don't buy it unless you honestly believe that your life will be better for having bought it. Take the time and really think about it before making a purchase. You'll be shocked how much useless impulse buying the average person does.

Personally, it's so difficult for me to find out how to calculate value. I'm sure ultimately there is some formula thats perfect for me, but who the hell knows what it is. For instance--I've basically stopped touching my PS4, but this new game came out 2 weeks ago which I wanted to play. I figured, I'll probably get bored of it in under a week, but I bought it anyway. And of course, as predicted, I was bored within 1…

I guess at least you know that it was just entertainment, and didn't delude yourself. Not worse or better than watching a movie or reading a novel.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#407

Post by lotsofpulp »

humanrebar wrote: post #185
cachemiss wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of them I'd wager. Issue is, and it was for me, is that moving out of an area where I can walk down the street and get another great job to an area where the only great job is the one that this hypothetical company is offering just wasn't worth the risk. I have a wife and kids, and so do most specialized senior engineers.

> I have a wife and kids... Sure, so minimal commute times and affordability of family homes in areas with good schools should be very appealing to many of the specialized senior engineers. Moving the family is a pain, sure, but that just means the pitch needs to include why it's worth it for the family. And it means that senior engineers move cities less often. It doesn't mean they move less altogether. Idle thought…

I wouldn’t value a guarantee of employment by a startup, especially not one measured in years. The nature of a startup is that it’s risky, and risky things fail. Unless they put up some type of bond or buy an annuity with the employee as a beneficiary, I don’t see how that works. And they wouldn’t be able to afford it anyway.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#409

Post by brianwawok »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #342
unabst wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the one that actually creates value No. We all create value. Businesses, when running smoothly, are like a well oiled machine. Nothing is redundant. Garbage is collected. Businesses is cutthroat industries cannot afford to be redundant. I always wondered why all cars had 4 wheels. Turns out, the 3 wheeled car is horrible (see Top Gear), a 5 wheeled car is pointless, and a 2 wheeled car is a motorcycle. But when you…

This is exactly right. I've been in all three roles and all three are essential to success. I can also relate to the notion that the engineers do all the work, which was a sentiment I shared early in my career before I understood the kinds of problems executives and founders had to solve. I cringe when I hear an executive say "How hard can it be? Get some bright bulbs in here and have code up a solution that doesn't…

This times 100.

It is easy to sit around as a dev and complain about what the suits are doing, when the devs do all the work. I don't think the same devs would be very happy if they switched jobs for a day (and in the same thought, I don't think the suite would do that well coding either).

(Edit: I have only done the dev and founder role here. But I just had about 10 executives tell me what kind of treats I was in for. I believed them, just from what I had learned in two of the roles).

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#410

Post by lotsofpulp »

derefr wrote: post #106
alexandercrohde wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for comparison, I lived in SF for about 4 years. I saved a huge amount of money. I lived with 3 roommates to save money, I sold my car, you won't get stabbed anywhere in SF (so live in the sketchy area it'll get nicer each year). My rent was $1,200 a month, a lucky find. Now don't get me wrong I hated living there, no girls, homelessness everywhere smelled like garbage, and a self-obsession that pretended to be…

> no girls Now consider: what would you do if you were already married and wanted to do this? (Meaning, move to the Bay with your SO, not leave them behind.)

Make sure you marry another high earner, because you’ll be competing with other households pulling in $300k+. Then get one set of in laws to live with you to defray babysitting costs and time.
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