smarmgoblin

It’s more common than you think. I graduated in 2013 and can tell you there were minimal opportunities to learn how to operate a Linux command line (if you didn’t already want to). Most jobs will set you up with some IDE with the codebase preloaded and a big green compile button, it’s just easy to avoid I guess.

I’ve been using Linux since 2008 and it’s the most high-yield skill set I have, it makes everything simpler and I encourage others to learn it.

Most definitions of coasting would involve not working hard.

> When it comes to Thinkpads and other similar laptops - get one without the dedicated Nvidia GPU. That is just a nightmare on Linux.

Second this. I got a Thinkpad P1 off eBay (basically the X1C with a dedicated GPU) from a similar recommendation thread on HN somewhere and actually have gotten it to work but this aspect has been difficult to sort out.

I wonder, do you see this changing now that the strategy of growth-at-all-costs is, at least for now, receiving more scrutiny?

Unfortunately my take is probably not the whole story. There’s likely some grain of truth to this reporting in terms of a reduction in force being planned, but nobody is sure what form or strategy will be employed.

BREAKING: 6% of workforce will be ranked in the sixth percentile.

This “news” is from back in May when the new performance management system buckets were released.

Did they really? I hadn’t heard about that.

I think it’s more of a trajectory than the current state of the world to be quite honest, but if you’ll engage with my more conspiratorial speculations — you can imagine software development would have to be one of the last activities to be subject to severe tool restriction out of the box.

I think a lot of this will happen under the goal of unifying the laptop and phone/tablet experience.

> As a toy yes, or as a specialised tool for video or audio rendering

I think this is a useful framing. Apple markets an appliance like a microwave or a refrigerator — both of those are computers in a sense but function only in a specific narrow capacity. You can warm a potato (if it’s in one location and the door is closed), but you can’t move arbitrary bytes around regardless of the capacity of the underlying hardware.

On your Mac you have a way to watch movies, play music, even browse the web. General purpose computing I think is just not the overall goal of these devices.

This is a great instinct and I recommend everyone do this.

There’s a ton of resources on this, unfortunately subject to this predictable effect where spam proliferation easily overwhelms your ability to discover useful resources in reasonable time period.

Michael Bazzell has a book on OSINT (and a blog/podcast) which I can recommend for an initial dive. Good starting point for action would be his data broker checklist.

That’s wild! I’m not very good but if black offered me a draw in this position my thought would be “his pawn is faster, so why would he offer a draw? Unless he thinks he’s losing for some reason…” which would be the hint to look for the tactic.

I guess in many queen/king endgames you can have perpetual checks, but accepting the draw wouldn’t be my first instinct.

No. I did attend medical school a while back though, when I certainly knew more about the specific reactions involved here.

Unfortunately most missle silos in the US are located in the rural midwest.

These are pretty often contraindicated in cases like this, especially when the patient is also managing anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds.

Google is only fully remote for a small subset of its workforce, and even then it has to be arranged using their system. In the right location though $300k is certainly possible.

Unfortunately pay in this industry is largely determined by your location. You can work your whole life in say, South Carolina and just barely pass six figures, or move to Seattle and triple your salary overnight. Exceptions are surely on the rise but it’s still a matter of negotiating your value and expertise with what the org is willing to pay.

So with that said I still think it could be worthwhile if you can dedicate the time to a bootcamp which can provide leads to the types of jobs you want. You’ve still got some time in the workforce to build a knowledge base and accelerate your career, but I wouldn’t count on FAANG salary numbers right out of the gate.

I have to agree. In this case it’s more an internal thing: I’m 32 and took a few years off software to pursue other things (where I spent most of my time writing software as fortune would have it), result being a lot of my colleagues are half a decade younger than me having settled into Staff Engineer positions.

I don’t feel that I should be anything higher than L4 but at the same time it’s hard not to feel the FOMO and insecurity that comes with being “behind” in a hot market.

Thanks for the advice and affirmation. I’ll stick to the plan.

Serious question, how do you deal with FOMO? I’ve been at FAANG for about a year, coming from startups and lower-paying companies before.

Internally it’s nothing but complaints about comp and attrition, but to me it’s the best I’ve ever been paid. My idea was to stay here long term and learn a ton before thinking about leaving, but does anyone do that anymore? Maybe I’m being naive.

Yes it’s a standard part of the interview cycle at Amazon. Usually two questions in an hour or something, and you code solutions which the test platform grades. They’re on par with leetcode easy IME, but I just find it to be a pain so I won’t do it again.

I’m sure it’s helpful to weed out applicants who actually cannot code, but what’s the point in doing it twice?

Thank you!

It was unpleasant but at the end of the day it was just one guy.

What gets me is that every recruiter who reaches out (hundreds by now I estimate) wants me to complete their timed coding test to qualify to interview again.

I found Google’s interview process comparatively much more respectful (although more demanding), and have been happy working there instead.

Please don’t try the oxygen tank idea. It’s counterintuitive but 100% O2 isn’t good for you (unless you need it to get enough saturation, and the alternative is hypoxemia).

You asked for weird tips, so here’s mine. Caffeine pills instead of coffee. Gives you more room for water which is good for you, good for weight loss, and fills you up a bit. Plus replaces coffee which typically includes sugar (or replaces energy drinks which can have way more sugar). Double plus, you’ll get more consistent doses of caffeine which is even an appetite suppressant. All that, and you’ll still have the energy for whatever workout you want to do. Just make sure you keep some calories in and lots of water. And be careful, start slow like 100-200mg unless you know what you’re doing.

Good luck!

I interviewed with AWS about a year ago. Knocked the programming/system design interviews out of the park, but it was clear the LP interviewer simply didn’t believe I was being truthful about the example I gave (included a period where my team had no direct manager, which is abnormal). He also had a programming question for me but we didn’t have time for him to explain it.

No offer, recruiter emphasized that they were halving the “cool off” period for me (so I could interview again soon), and maybe they do this for everyone, but it’s clear there was one interview making the difference here. Interesting that this is apparently a common problem.