harryquach

> Money isn’t the only cause of pressure in the world.

Of course not. However having FU money relieves many of them. Taking a moral stance is far less impressive when nothing is on the line.

Yeah, this post is mostly rambling nonsense

> In fact, I’ll just live off dividend income and try to get my new IT startup Fourplex off the ground

It’s easy to say no when the money is not needed.

I have started and stopped journaling times over the years. When I initially got a smart phone, i started taking photos of mundane everyday things. I’ve now been consistently doing this for many years. It just takes a few seconds to take out the phone and snap a few photos. I have many short videos and photos of my kids over the years doing them mundane that I treasure with my life.

This is why I have interest in the FIRE movement. Our lives are short and fleeting. If there is even a small chance I can become financially independent before traditional retirement age, I am going to optimize for that.

Invest as much as possible in retirement accounts. Compound interest is an amazing thing.

Nailed it, one of the least inspiring personalities

I have always tired to find teams/companies with engineers smarter/more experienced than I am. As long as I work with people I can learn from I have avoided stagnation. This can be true in "tech" or non tech companies. The real challenge is identifying engineers who are worth learning from. As soon as I am not learning and growing, I take it as a sign its time to move on.

Is a security clearance required for all positions?

That is a red flag and I would most likely pass on the job. It sounds like they want to potentially use whatever solution you come up with.

I would train hard everyday also. I found this to be the best natural antidepressant. There is something so satisfying about pushing your body and mind with hard physical exercise.

> LLMs and Agents are not automating SWE, but they are changing it.

Until an LLM can translate opaque product requirements into a working feature, including covering the nuances and edge cases of the product, I am not worried. I have written software professionally for 12 years and am convinced people skills are what make or break a successful developer. Kindness, empathy and generally being an easy person to work with are far more important skills (IMO) than knowing how to write software.

I consider myself midcareer and do not plan on making a change anytime soon if ever. I believe as long as I need a career (probably much longer) there will be a need for people who can write software.

This is exaggerated with remote work. I will always be friendly and kind but these people do not actually know me. Like you said, if they did they may not like what they find out.

I am personally more effective remote but obviously that is dependent on the individual. I think its absolutely possible to be effective without having "friends" at work.

An interesting observation I have had. Younger coworkers and those without kids tend to want friends at work rather than just showing up and doing work.

Agreed, nothing wrong with getting along with coworkers but the people I choose to spend time with are not going to be from work

Are you currently looking for a new position? Reddit is not reality, there are jobs open. It may be more difficult now than previous years but its still possible. In my own circle I know of three people, including myself, who have new SDE jobs within the last year.

If I spent too much time on Reddit it fucks with my mind as well. Take some time off social media and take care of yourself.

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The most incredible, mind bending adventure I have taken, in a book.

(The Netflix show although generally true to story does not do the books justice)

Proton is the way. Solid free tier and you can use your own domain with the paid tier

We are living in unprecedented times. Social media (HN included) has created a stage for all 8+ billion of us to “compete” with each other. By definition almost everyone will be mediocre. I struggle with the same imposter syndrome as a software engineer. I am slowly realizing the only solution is to spend less time online.

Unrelated to the article but I opened the link outside my home network and it is almost unreadable. Ads upon ads upon ads, normally this is all blocked by my Pi-hole. Is this really what the internet has become?

"We work six days a week (Mon-Sat) in person in Mission Bay, SF"

https://boards.greenhouse.io/latchbio/jobs/4058387008

They have one developer position open which has a salary range of $140k-$220k USD. This is not worth six days a week in office. They do offer "Team-wide science reading groups" though

I am bullish on the US long term. Other developed countries have a population problem which is going to start causing issues. Sub 1.0 birth rates are a catastrophe for capitalism. The US has enough immigration to keep the population somewhat level.

Even if I was willing to jump into this meat grinder, I dont think I could take it serious with those pretentious photos. This company screams "factory of sadness"

VTSAX and chill

One of, if not the most important financial decision you will make, is who you marry. If you decide to get married, take your time and do not make this decision lightly. Find someone whose financial goals are similar to your own. Mismatched financial philosophies (spender vs saver) and divorce are extremely costly especially as you gain wealth.

I work completely remote. Although I agree with authors points about the daily standup being useless I use it as an opportunity to get “face” time with the rest of my team and build comradery.

Not to be confused with this Amber

https://amber-lang.com/

Haha, was going to post this exact comment

No, the work is pretty meaningless but it does pay the bills and allow me to save a decent amount. For me personally, if my position was not remote, I would be much more depressed.

You life in weeks by Tim Urban

https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html

Highlights how short our lives actually are. This in turn is what gives our time value.