ddelt

I love reading about and visualizing about mental models. This site is great for quickly and concisely internalizing them! Thank you for making it!

Another great resource for folks who like reading about these: https://fs.blog/mental-models/

I've actually read the mental models series of books put out by the above author, and I also highly recommend those for a deeper dive.

I’m also just like you. So much so that what you just described speaks volumes to me. I’m going to read the book you just recommended. Thank you!

I try to give interview feedback on every interview I go on, where I am the person being interviewed. Obviously, companies who provide me with actionable or useful feedback get actionable and useful feedback from me in return:

Interviewer: you have great interpersonal communication but I think you need a bit more knowledge in python techniques XYZ. I like being up front and transparent, and the python stuff is a big deal to us, so although you had a great set of traits, we want someone stronger in python.

Me: Thank you for giving me a clear indication on what was important, where I was strong, and most importantly, for not giving me a “we’ll call you if we want to move forward” response. I highly respect you for not wasting my time unnecessarily.

Hot take: you could hire someone who did absolutely well in the interview, and they could find a few weeks into the job that they loathe everyone, and go on a social media rampage.

What I’m getting at is, there will always be bad apples, or people who react in a way that damages your organization. But not providing useful feedback to people who ask for it simply because one person went crazy is punishing a lot more people because of that one. Who knows if all of their negative karma ends up being worse in the grand scheme of things?

I personally avoid applying to places that other engineers tell me to avoid because I trust their opinion more than I trust a company selling me the highlight reel in an interview. If a trusted engineer said he got a rejection in an interview, asked for feedback, and none was given, I’d avoid that place too.

I'm assuming you mean management who has the latitude to determine an overall raise % irrespective of how much money that costs until it's implemented for their team members. In other words, management who gets to define how much the raises affect the budget.

The reason I assume that is, I've come to learn working in huge IT organizations that things work much differently than they did at a small startup. At a small startup, the VP/CEO assigning the high % raises could determine how much money would be spent on raises for the year, down to the individual contributor level, and factor in things like "we need to pay this one guy way more this year to retain him, because he's responsible for XYZ which is making us a lot of money" etc.

In contrast, at a huge IT organization, IT leadership is assigned pools of money specifically for merit increases, and have very little latitude to request more. Any requests for more needs to be framed in the argument around why a team of over 50+ (in other words, an organizational unit) requires an increase in funding. Typically though, those buckets of money are assigned by financial teams who have little visibility into the individual contributors in the technology space. It's then up to the IT leadership who's given that pool of money to split it among team members. Given that choice, it's typically only enough to give people a 1-2% merit increase, with about 10% of the highest performers getting a little more (3-4%).

I think if it were up to IT leaders in large orgs, they would assign raises based on merit, but they rarely have access to purse strings.

I am alive today because someone close by me knew how to do this. I hope others never need to use it, but I hope everyone 'knows' how to use it.

Jesus. I’m really impressed that the person who legitimately owned the domain was able to regain control of the gun and stop the attacker.

For me, once I became aware of the fact that it is now a commonplace activity to pay for falsified reviews, and there are technology platforms that scan reviews to determine if they are fake or not... almost any review I read on a mainstream shopping platform is suspect to me now. Which is unfortunate, because that's where most of the convenience and value as a consumer is to me.

If I now want to make a purchase based heavily on user reviews, I do like many of the other posters here have said: I look at the reviews and low and high middle of the spectrum, have to read each review for obvious, glaring generalizations and seek out language that implies real-world usage vs. hyperbole, and use other features at my disposal, including a verified reviewer stamp (if on Amazon), tools like FakeSpot or ReviewMeta, and reading reviews from competing shopping platforms for the same item if possible (if shopping on Amazon for a widget, look for reviews on eBay or the website of the widget manufacturer). If it's a technology purchase, I'll also look up a bunch of reviews from at least 3-4 technology review platforms, placing a greater weight on those who have included screenshots of their actual usage of the product, which tend to imply a greater deal of rigor to go through for a fake review (but this doesn't mean it's completely trustworthy either).

These additional forms of verification, on one hand, could be likened to how we used to shop before internet shopping was a thing (we'd ask a bunch of people for reviews in real life, visit a bunch of stores and window shop, and perhaps read about it in a newspaper or try it ourselves in a real-life demo in the store), but at the end of the day, I choose to shop online for the convenience vs. brick and mortar stores, and this is the unfortunate evolution of that technology.

Anecdata, but I’d say 90% of the piracy from people who would otherwise legitimately paid for content I’ve seen or read about falls into one or more of four categories:

1. The person can’t legally access the content at all, due to age, country of residence, or other imposed barrier 2. The person can’t afford the entire price of the content 3. The content has no form of sample/trial/demo, which imposes a fear of buying without fully understanding whether or not the purchase provides value 4. The person actually has or was planning to buy the content legally, but diverted due to DRM which is only present in the legal copies.

All of these reasons indicate that the issue lies outside of the piracy, at least in my eyes. So I’m happy at least one nation has adopted some modern legislation about this topic.

It sounds like you are already set monetarily, and that you are assured a job at either Google or Facebook (but that you choose not to work there on your own volition).

My question to you is - why can't Duck Duck Go afford you?

Everyone who has not worked in the heavily regulated finance industry should read the above post, because this person speaks the truth.

I'd love to find this community too.

Apart from technical forums like this, one thing 'Id add that I'm seeking, personally, is all of what you said + a willingness to enjoy life and not obsess over work. A community where people find enjoyment in talking with others as opposed to just bragging about what they did when they weren't at work would be a plus.

Absolutely this. Early 20s it was always motivation, and now it's mostly indifference. Whether that's getting older, wiser, being burned out too many times, or learning to appreciate things outside of professional success in life... either way, it doesn't bother me nearly as much as it used to.

Thank you for posting this. Not sure how many times these same points need to be repeated for it to sink in.

Amen - I came here to say exactly this; thank you for pointing it out.

Personally, the skeptic in me believes if the NSA is losing interest in a major data collection program like this, then they are deflecting the narrative from focusing on an even more impressive and accurate data collection program that they have developed and are ready to deploy out into the world. I’m putting on my tinfoil hat at this point, but every day I read HN I’m surprised at what is capable, given the right technology, money, and time.

In one way I do agree with you (there are some clear cases where a junior candidate is asking for way too much, without skill to back it up), but my impression of recruiting in the tech space is that, in large part, this industry is undergoing a shift in the balance of power, where employers are finding it difficult to dictate salaries for job titles. In my opinion, it is really refreshing to see that talent actually feels empowered enough to ask themselves if they are worth more, and confident enough to turn down roles for ones that pay more.

My personal anecdote is that I took the first tech job that was offered as a junior, a little bit before this reversal started taking place, and as a result, I left a lot of money on the table. Years later, I realized that if I had just said no, and extended my search a little bit longer, or had role models telling me my knowledge at the time was worth a lot more, I might be worth a lot more right now (factoring in compound interest with sensible investing of excess profit from work + modest lifestyle).

I was wondering why I was receiving 404s and 500s all day.

Location: San Antonio, TX

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: AWS, Java, Javascript, Go, Python, DevOps CI/CD, Jenkins, SDET Experience, Git, AD

Résumé/CV: Available on email request

Email: rrrasti@yahoo.com

Experienced and thrives in smaller, inclusive cultures where generalist developers can learn and tackle problems together. Experience with common DevOps technologies such as Jenkins and setting up build pipelines, as well as SDET development for .NET, Java, and Angular applications.

Loves learning, continuous improvement, and fitness.

The world seems to become more and more like Minority Report every day I read an article like this.

You have a great outlook on things in my opinion. Cheers!

As someone who is not making 800k at Netflix, I want to say you are definitely doing pretty well in my opinion. Congrats!

I graduated college a year early (21 years old), but it took me almost 4 years in the industry before my compensation even got close to 70k.

I feel slightly motivated, but mostly crushed by these crazy TC levels.

Although I know I'm doing fairly decent for myself, as someone who is very critical of my own progress or lack of, it feels very disheartening to see people my age making 10x what I am, simply because they are located in SV, doing the same work.

In my area, short of being extremely fortunate to land some amazing fully-remote job, there is not one tech company that pays out anywhere close to 300k+ TC, unless you are in senior leadership or just consulting/doing work on the side.

I understand the reasons for the big disparity, but still... feels bad man.

Where in my comment did I suggest that the employee be given a handout?

Perhaps I'm not working for companies who are as ruthless as you and the other commenter, but as my previous comments alluded to, I actually have updated my CV, and left jobs for other, better jobs, mostly because there was a work-life balance improvement to be gained from the move. And yes, the work-life balance improvement in all situations was a more accepting and flexible remote-work policy. And that was after using available avenues (asking manager(s), 1-1s, etc) to see if a WFH arrangement was viable.

In all cases, I did so with tact and professionalism.

That might be getting lost in translation, because your comment seems to indicate that I just walked into my bosses office and complained that my life sucks and I need to work from home, or else. And that I should be given a handout.

In my opinion, you use what avenues are available to you to see if WFH is possible. If it's important to you, and you aren't getting met half-way, then it's time to start looking elsewhere.

I don't necessarily disagree with the first point that you raised, but I would posit that if my quality of life sucks as an engineer, eventually that will become the employers problem when I update my cv and find work with a better quality of life, potentially too soon or at the wrong time.

Moreover, an employer is 'selling' their reputation to potential talent as well as selling their product.

This has been my experience thus far as well. It hasn't really mattered how well I could frame productivity or measurable improvements in my quality of life to an immediate manager or team - ultimately if the senior leadership dislikes the idea of remote work, each level beneath them will hesitate to fully embrace it.

I've found that companies that promote work-life balance as one of their strengths are the best places to ask or test the waters.

Right, but I believe his method was trying to optimize retention.

Depending on well you retain information through a block of constant study time vs. a much smaller, long-view approach to the same amount of material, could be the determining factor on which strategy you choose.

I noticed a few things.

1) My digestion improved after about a week. But during that week, I became really frustrated that my typical 'elimination' time completely changed i.e. I was used to going to the bathroom in the morning, after coffee, but now found myself having to go in the evenings.

2) My productivity took a massive nose-dive until I got used to not drinking coffee, and then, despite all of the blogs I read on the subject, it did NOT return to "coffee-baseline". I no longer felt like there was a funk, but I also was clearly not performing at the same level as while I was drinking coffee.

3) I noticed I started getting depression like symptoms after I had completely weaned off of it. I don't think this would happen to everyone, but I think one of the primary reasons I was drawn to coffee in the first place was that it seems to have an anti-depressant effect on me when I drink enough of it (really any caffeine/stimulant does this though)

4) I primarily drink coffee during the first 8 hours of my day, so after a month of cold-turkey, I found that I had an intense time trying to stay awake around lunch time, with a second-wind of energy returning to me around 2PM. I found that I felt more energetic in the last 4 hours of my day prior to bedtime. Because of this, I found it more difficult to get to sleep, because I had grown accustomed to that exhausted feeling I would get near the tail end of the day, so adhering to a set bedtime was a challenge.

5) Probably the biggest gain was a massive boost in right-brained thinking. What I mean by that is, while drinking coffee, very clearly defined, left-brained tasks (like researching a problem, coding, writing something down, exercise, etc) were what I preferred to do. But after eliminating coffee for a while, I found that I was thinking a lot more creatively about things, and daydreaming more. Coming up with unique ideas for things I'd like to do/make. The problem with this was that I no longer felt the drive/motivation, or the mental acuity to actually do them. I felt like I could have better conversations with people, and was friendlier overall. I just basically wanted to draw pictures and hang out with my friends all the time. I enjoyed lunch more and noticed the subtleties in food a lot more.

There were a lot more very small effects. Ultimately I returned to coffee/caffeine. If I could work in an industry where I could maintain the same standard of living but could rely on purely physical strength and skill, rather than mental information work, I'd probably eliminate stimulants altogether, and be healthier for it. I just find that to be competitive and basically maintain my job, I need the stimulants as a crutch, because there are so many more people who are better at development and naturally interested/motivated in it more than me.

These are just my opinions from a (probably naive and uneducated) glace:

1) Those who come from full-time employment jobs usually have obligations, families, bills, etc, and would like to do freelancing if they were reasonably sure they could make just as much or more as their current work. However, I haven't seen many stop-gap solutions which can bridge the time between when you are making above-average salaried income -> making practically nothing with high uncertainty while you build a client-base -> making good freelancing money. It's another way of saying "this is the same mental hurdle which prevents full-time people from starting their own business".

2) Part-time freelancing or moonlighting is an attractive option, but most of the freelancing opportunities I've encountered do not offer flexible timing; i.e. they seem to be a replacement 30+ hour per week commitment with no benefits that you would typically get from full-time employment. So the question here would be - how do people optimally find these sorts of engagements, while, as @beeskneecaps stated, not "competing on those freelance bidding war sites that are full of lowballing spammers".

3) Whether you are already employed or seeking freelancing from the start, how best to market yourself and find your first real clients? When I say real, I don't mean a $5 job where you update someone's resume, but I mean, like, how do you find a legitimate corporate entity or person(s) who will work with you closely to write a contract for a legitimate body of work, avoid legal potholes, and deliver, by yourself?

As it's probably obvious from my posts (my point of view is from someone working in FTE), how can you make the transition into freelancing 'actually make sense' for folks in FTE?

I am also struggling with bad habits. I guess it really depends on the habit, but the closest thing I've found to a 'hack' is not really a hack - it's the same concept that drug rehab centers use to get people off of addictive substances. That concept is complete removal or isolation from the bad habit, and surrounding yourself with people, so that you would feel shame if you continued the bad habit around those people. During this 'social' confinement period, you realize that you didn't need to do that bad habit in the first place.

Obviously it would be sort of difficult to apply this concept with nail biting, but to give you an example, I really struggle with eating food in the middle of the night. So what I noticed was, after I took a week-long vacation to another country with family, and due to hotel circumstances, had to share the same hotel room, I stopped eating in the middle of the night (wouldn't want family to see me gorging on shit while they are trying to sleep at 1:00 AM and suffer the shame of that). For 7 days I did that, and it was just long enough to come back home and continue that momentum, because after day 5 I started wondering why it was so hard to stop doing that in the first place.