I don't want to live anywhere where I can see my neighbor. These people are choosing this lifestyle. These same people are a massive tax on society because we have to subsidize this lifestyle because it's very expensive to provide services to places where nobody lives. Why would you build a hospital where only 10,000 live? Why spend $5000 to drag fibre to someone's house so that they can pay $50/month for internet access? How can you afford to pave a road where one person has 800ft of frontage and pays $1500 a year in SALT?
Again, at the end of day this is a choice and their choice costs everyone. I can't really feel sorry for these people, it's what you get when you want to go it alone.
My parents were college professors, English teachers, and two things they kept pounding into my head all my life was to one, learn to write a sentence and two, college is not there to teach you a trade it's there to expand your mind. I think it's unfortunate that companies feel that they no longer have to invest in their employees and teach them the job, they have pushed this off on the employees. Sadly, people think college will teach them a job and except for a few degrees Medicine, Law, Engineering it doesn't.
Yep, I moved from Dev to ops many years ago simply because I wanted to talk to someone..anyone. I've been in consulting for the last 20 years and I talk to customers good or bad almost every day and I do get a kick out of it when they are stoked with my work. The funny thing is as I'm getting older and working with more complex and closer to alpha products I find myself writing code to make my life easier, funny how that works. As far as the industry as a whole, I wouldn't recommend it to my kid I think it's dying or at least dying in the US.
you get what you pay for, these companies have been racing to the bottom for years, trying to save that extra penny because IT is considered a cost center and always has been. In addition moving to the cloud is just a way to shrug off responsibility, it's not our fault it's AWS.....actually it is your fault because you were trying trying to save money and you handed off your business to the lowest priced contractor and now are surprised that the contractor doesn't care about your business nearly as much as you do.
I have pretty much the same story, started with a Vic20 (without storage), got the 4K expansion cartridge when my programs stated to exceed the builtin 3.5k, moved on to the Apple 2 and the Commodore 64 and then on to PCs. Mostly learning in basic and then I was doing a lot of dBase in the mid to late 80's, learned C & Fortran in HS and then I learned C, Fortran, PAscal and Assembler in college. The on to VB, C++ and then I pretty much stopped programming for profit in 1999 and moved into operations. In about 2015 I started coding in Python, life is so different when you have Google, stackoverflow and a module that does pretty much anything you want -why didn't this stuff exist why back when.
One of the best classes I took in college was a "learn how to study class", I never had to study before college so I was woefully unprepared for engineering school. Probably the best thing I learned in the class was the Cornell Note Taking Method. I implemented the method the next semester of college and totally crushed it with limited studying, I probably should have continued using it but I was a knucklehead and didn't.
I use them in my home lab. The company is too cheap to provide me with a real lab but $1000, ebay and some creativity I can pretty much do whatever I need to do on my own.
They used to give whoever was on call for the week $200, we had a guy saving up for his wedding so he offered to be on-call for anyone who didn't want to be on call. It was a good deal for him and everybody was happy. It's amazing how cheap companies are today, for $10K you could make a lot of people happy.
before my promotion it was 0-3% and now it's 0-10%, after a decade of 2% (or less) bonuses I almost choked last year when I got 10%. This year I'd be thrilled with 5%.
I actually used to use that line with I'd talk to some of our vendors support people. They'd start dragging that feet, wanting to get rid of me and I'd say, "you do know what project this is right...." and then I'd say if we can't fix this really quickly it will be on the news and your company will get dragged into it and nobody wants to testify to congress that the market place site was down because of a bug in your equipment. It was pretty amazing how people went above and beyond when you put things in the right perspective.
Why? It shouldn't take two months and multiple interviews to hire a quality employee. I've been hired multiple times by large companies tech and otherwise during my first interview. They liked my resume, they liked my experience and I proved that I didn't have a third head and would wear a suit if totally necessary and that was good enough because they needed the worker. The whole process today seems gratuitous, at least in the United States everywhere is still at will employment, if it doesn't work fire them and hire someone else. Frankly I think the process is so long because a company doesn't want to hire new people/a replacement, they'd rather string the workers along with the "we just can't find the prefect fit" and pocket the savings than hire a needed worker that might not be a prefect fit -nobody is a prefect fit. Or maybe the answer is simpler, they really don't need another worker.
It sounds like you really don't need to fill the position, is that true? I know when I hire it's because I need someone yesterday not in the next year. The multiple interviews and hoops that applicants have to jump through are akin to fraternity hazing not a interview process especially for non-entry level positions. My last three positions I was hired during my first interview, my guess is that today that would be unheard of, again I question if there is really a need to fill the position or the company is just adding another worker.
I worked in the "rescue team" for a couple of years and the politics was one of the reasons I left, you never knew when the supreme court would stick their nose in and you'd be out of a job. I used to describe that job as having 100 bosses, 55 of those bosses wanted you to do your job for the least amount of money as possible and the other 45 wanted you to fail.
Most recruiters don't know the difference between C-shell and a seashell, why would you expect them to understand a topic most IT people can't fully grasp?
I have no issue with my Indian coworkers but my company has all but said they are trying to replace me with off shore workers. I do a lot of quotes for services and while the off shore guys are much cheaper they pad the crap out of their bids, where they will take 250 hours, we'll do it in under 100h, that difference makes us almost the same price. So then it's up to the to decide do they want it cheap or fast. But I can see the clock on the wall ticking.
That's where a flat rate comes in, it's $1000 if it takes an hour or a week. They are buying your knowledge as much as they are buying your time. I used to stand up equipment that my company charged ~$6000 for and I could do the job in about 2 hours, my company thought it took 4 days. Normally I'd take my time, do long lunches and knock it out in 2 days (it's hard to work that slow). Then one time I was in a pissy mood and knocked it out in 2h, I called up my boss to tell him I was done and I'd be on the next plane home -we had a good relationship so it we weren't at odds with each other but he asked me to look busy and not tell the customer that I was finished until the next day. I get it people think if you can do something quick that there's no value to it so when I do deliveries I try not make it look too easy and even if I can be done in 15 minutes I might take an hour or two.
I'm not Faang but I am OG SV and the problem with a lot of these large, very flat companies is that once you reach a certain level you are stuck and it really takes an ask of god to get a promotion. That said we're paid well and the job is a place where you can stay for a decade or two if you want. As far as doing your own thing, have you talked to your partner about this? When I was young and trying to make a lot of money quickly my now wife was happy to work a steady job and provide the health insurance while I chased startup after startup. In the event that one of those startup took an unexpected crash she could cover the bills. If I was the sole source of income I likely would have taken a much safer route, taking care of my family is my priority, making a killing is nice but not required. If I were you I'd stay at your well paying job and see what you can do during your free time, when you get to the point where you can no longer do both then quit but until then you'll have an income -I had a business once where for the first three years we didn't break even so I'd be the boss during the day and then go baby sit a data center for the second shift, it was how my employees got paid, as a business owner you do what you have to do to keep the doors open.
There are benefits to charging hourly, if the customer doesn't want to listen, drags their feel or are simply indecisive who cares you just bill another hour, it doesn't matter if the project takes 6 weeks or 6 years as long as the check clears. On the other had I really dislike T&M gigs because I am really good at what I do and I bust my ass when I am engaged, working hourly is great for the customer and not so great for me. I am constantly asked how long it will take me to do this project or that project and if I give them a real number it's not worth our time to engage -we spend more time getting the sale than the actual service. That said the number only works for me, another consultant might take up to 5 times as long to do the same project due to lack of experience and the fact that they like to work slower. Fixed bid is great if you are allowed to knock things out but if it's a highly regulated site where everything requires a meeting or two go with th T&M.
I had the same title for 20 year Technical Consultant 3 and then I made the massive jump to TC4, every idiot that can log into Azure is now a Senior Sysadmin and if they can fumble their way through a Linux install they are the IT director (with 2 years of experience total). Titles in our industry aren't worth anything, I equate it to the startup with three employees and their titles are CEO, COO and COT....
I think you are on to something. When I started coding in 1980 you really had to figure things out and what you coded was your code, you wrote every bit of it. Why, because we didn't have Stackoverflow, Github or Google to help us out t best we had a friend who also liked to code and they might help you but it was still all you. Now coding seems a lot more like cutting and pasting of someone else's code and making it work for you, so much of the heavy lifting has been done by someone els, the equivalent of knowing how to drive vs knowing how to build the car that you are driving. As you said now being a programmer is where the money is, I can assure you that making big dollars was on nobodies mind in the '80's. If anything being a programmer back then was anti-social, something that people would make fun of you over not something that was praised now every unemployed idiot is encouraged to "learn to program". You did it because it was something that interested you, you enjoyed it and to be quiet frank unless you wanted to be a Cobal or PL1 programmer there weren't a lot of jobs out there certainly not for the PC.
So you've gone from a group of people that got into programming because it peaked their interest and their hobby became their occupation to a group of people who look at programming as a way to make a lot of money. I'm not saying these people aren't talented and don't enjoy what they do I just think they are coming from a different angle than us grey beards. I also think the real problem is figuring something out on your own is no longer a thing, if there's a problem you go straight to google for the answer and while efficient it screws with the learning process and it reduces new and novel ideas.
Sailboats use sea water in their toilets all the time but using it would require two systems, one fresh and another brackish. Very doable but more expensive. I believe they've also use grey water for toilets and plants but again it requires splitting the systems and having storage.
They were the "cool kid" on the block but every kid grows up, becomes an adult and is no longer cool. Th same can be said about Tesla, their roadster was without a doubt a cool looking car and the fact that it was electric made it even cooler. Since then it's rode the "scrappy new start up road" busting the balls of the large auto manufacturers but Elon is getting a little long in the tooth and soft in the head, the upper income liberals don't like what's coming out of his mouth and considering the price they'd be better off purchasing their over priced EV from Mercedes or BMW. Further it's a pretty well known fact that Teslas are horrible cars, Kia quality at BMW prices. Finally like anything that's considered cool everyone wants on the band wagon, Teslas are no longer just for the monied tech mom it's open to everyone including Uber drivers, yep Uber made a deal with Tesla so instead of being edgy a Tesla is what picks you up when you go to the airport -to quote Memphis Raines, " I saw three of these parked outside the local Starbucks this morning, which tells me only one thing. There's too many self-Indulgent wieners in this city with too much bloody money! Now, if I was driving a 1967 275 GTB four-cam...". Nobody is going to drop $70K to drive the same car and Uber driver drives.
Really? I don't think due process and law enforcement have anything to do with one another. Law enforcement arrests people on made up laws all the time just because they are doing something the law enforcement officer doesn't like, there is no consideration of presumption of innocence. Law enforcement's job is to enforce "the law" as they interpenetrate it -unlike civilians where "ignorance of the law is not an excuse" in law enforcement they certainly an go with ignorance of the law as long as the judge thinks it's "reasonable". Let's not forget the police have been embedding themselves in peaceful protest groups for the last 100 years.
Nothing new here. I remember when the Cubs stopped selling tickets via a line wrapped around Wrigley to a wristband "to cut down on scalpers". I lucked out and ended up 57th in line. You could only buy 4 tickets per game so in theory only 240 tickets would have been sold by the time I got to buy. I was only looking for bleacher seats (cheap and fun at the time) and there were about 5000 seats available. By the time I got to buy every weekend bleacher seat was sold out with the exception of April, May and September. Who bought the other 4700 seats? The answer of course was the scalpers. Back then (90's) bleacher seats were $12 and the ball park was down the block so it was a nice option on the weekend to go see the game, have a few beers (4 for $18), it wasn't much more expensive than going to the movies. Now it's $35 for the same seat and beers are $18 each, Wrigley is still down the block but at those prices I'll just catch the matinee for $12 and a $12 popcorn.
who knows maybe in Bloombergs old age he's trying to grow a soul. He's realizing that he can't take it with him and he's been a shit steward while he's been on earth, maybe he's trying o to correct the error of his ways...or he's afraid he's going to hell.
I live in a large city, I drive a small car and I only drive about 3000 miles per year. Right now gas is ~$5.35/g at the station down the street and it's ~0.18/KW. It takes 114KW to "fill" a Tesla S, so ~$20.50. The range on a Tesla S is 405 miles, so ~19.75 miles /dollar. My VW gets ~30MPG or ~5.6 miles/dollar. The numbers make sense as does the range, I don't know many people who drive over 400 miles per day ever. The issue as I see it is quality and price, Tesla is sub-Kia quality at BMW prices. Honestly I think a lot of people are just looking for an excuse not to move to an EV, just like they did with going to unleaded gas or using LED bulbs. Everything is going electric and people that can't see that are just willfully blind -the Saudis knew this years ago, I'm not sure why so many people think it's a surprise.
As far as soul, what is stopping auto makers from making cool looking cars, honestly I don't know. One of the things I thought was cool about the Tesla 1 was that it was a good looking convertible and not something that looked like a rolling doorstop (Prius). Maybe EV will usher in a new generation of car makers that will make good looking cars again, we can hope.