softwarebeware

Do you have a "dotfiles" repository? I know it doesn't cover everything but, as a developer, I can't believe how I ever went years without one.

The author seems unaware that PKD was suffering from schizophrenia by this time. His delusions are more easily explained by his condition rather than his drug use.

Great read though!

In my experience you can easily tell the difference between someone who knows what they're talking about and someone who just googles what they're talking about. I have a feeling that won't change even when people have implants.

I agree that's a valid point and it totally makes sense why people pay for certain things. I'd also observe that SyncThing* obviates it, again for free, but more people would have to know about it and use it.

* https://syncthing.net/

PM’s are their own worst enemy. Only a couple I’ve worked with aren’t a waste of space. Sometimes that’s due to the problem space not needing a PM but often PMs earn their poor reputation.

The point of the essay is buried deep within after a long preamble: facility space at Columbia is an emergency situation. It should rather start out with that fact.

We also really need to find Carmen Sandiego!! :-p

I think you’re on to something there. Most software available today merely does what free software already does, but with specific marketing to make it seem like something people need. For example, all of the below software categories are easily handled with either the software bundled with your operating system or a simple open source download:

- budgeting

- to do / productivity

- book / music / video game / etc. media cataloging

- project planning

- event planning

- file storage

- etc

When someone remarked once that most SaaS products are a front end to a spreadsheet, I just thought, “they’re not wrong.”

Now if people had computer literacy they wouldn’t pay $20 a month for a service their computer already does.

It's definitely not just a problem on IRC, Slack, or Stack Overflow. In real life, if you go up to someone and say something like, "Hey can I talk to you for a second?" The following is almost always true:

a) They do not want to talk to you for "just a second," it will take much longer. b) It is a serious conversation that will require a lot of emotional energy c) It will immediately pre-empt anything else that you are doing right now

So that's why it's bad form. You don't take that same form to total strangers on the internet.

> They assumed every time someone rented a movie, they copied it.

That’s because they did! In my experience at least. I also remember when duplicating a tape at home with two VCRs stopped working, because they scrambled the signal somehow.

Well said

So…not an arbitrary number.

This is what people don’t understand about the psychology of persuasion. Especially tech workers. You can validate the following from your own experience. In a decision made by a team where two options are presented, the person who states a simple justification for their proposal (especially if it plays into existing assumptions or just laziness) will more often “win” the decision than someone offering many better reasons for an alternative.

Baffled me for years until I started to understand that I needed only to offer fewer and simpler reasons to get my ideas implemented.

Why do you think inflation is an “arbitrary number?” I can’t imagine what gave you that idea.

The corner of 3rd and Pine is the center of Seattle because it’s where all public transit intersects and is near the shopping district. It has had so much crime for so long that locals call the McDonalds there “McStabby’s.” It would be great if it felt as safe there as the rest of Seattle. Not sure what the city can do to change it, though.

Good thing "compiling" is in quotes. I don't think it actually meets the definition. It's more like "encoding."

Seriously! Reminds me of the famous story of an undergrad who used a text by Richard Feynman as a source for a college paper, and was graded down by her professor. She then contacted Feynman to obtain justification, but Feynman replied:

"Your instructor was right not to give you any points, for your answer was wrong, as he demonstrated using Gauss’ law. You should, in science, believe logic and arguments, carefully drawn, and not authorities."

https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2020/feynmans-advice-to-wm-s...

The school of life. Seriously. Build stuff and play around. And play around some more. :)

How to get the most out of your 1:1s: cancel them. ;) You almost never need a recurring one and talking about something if/when it's relevant and in context is always better.

Fascinating. And then there’s the question of how do you teach someone to know when they’ve made progress toward something new and unknown? (Such as diagnosing the root cause of a bug or solving a new problem.)

The author coined the term, “security theater.” He argues here that the cards are easy to forge on purpose because they’re also easy to use which is exactly the factor you want to optimize for in a public health crisis.

Nice to see that little has changed! :D

You realize this sounds hostile right? I can’t see a single person granting an interview after receiving it. Even if I like the hiring process you describe here the tone comes across poorly.

Recently while watching "The Last Dance" it struck me how similar Steve Jobs and Michael Jordan were. There's something in them that wouldn't let them "lose."

Yikes, sobering thoughts. My father-in-law keeps saying that if you have knowledge of a nearby nuclear explosion about to happen, the actual best thing to do is get to the center of it.

I would rather see a post about the new thing that someone leaving a particular coding community is choosing instead. That would be constructive and positive. What's better? That's what we need to hear.

It makes me angry to think of how wreckless the generations before millenials were. Lead's risks and damages were well-known long before 1996. And they still didn't ban it until then.

Got it! Given those criteria, my personal feeling is that it would only be possible in Silicon Valley, New York, or Seattle, but it may not be that base salary is at least $200k for senior-level. Moreso that the total compensation would be, particularly in a startup that hasn't gone public yet because the value of the company is speculative.

Great article. I worry that it adhere's to Betteridge's Law of Headlines, though. I hope not!

When you say non-FAANG how do you define it? Technically, the initials each stand for one company so do you mean are there jobs at any company besides those five which fit said criterion?

The only true way to find out is to start talking to recruiters or getting offers.