anon-sre-srm (u/anon-sre-srm)

anon-sre-srm commented on The curse of the senior software engineer yieldcode.blog/post/the-c... · Posted by u/thunderbong

anon-sre-srm · 2 years ago

The other curse is to progress to IC7-9 (non manager) at MAANG making 500k-900k and unable to be hired anywhere else. The only place to go is to stay at a megacorp. Thankfully, some of these megacorps violate this article's "curse" rule and allow IC <-> M transitions somewhat freely.

It behooves IC7-9 to instead work on side hustles that can turn into profitable businesses, leveraging their employment pedigree and potential early adopters in industry, because working for a corporation is risky and plateaus.

anon-sre-srm commented on Experienced engineers are struggling to get hired twitter.com/Carnage4Life/... · Posted by u/crhulls

Ancapistani · 2 years ago

> And many candidates are asking for 400k+ salaries.

I don’t understand this.

Yes, for some engineers, in some roles, in some locations it makes sense - but that’s a tiny part of the overall market.

I’m 40, live in a rural area in a Southern US state, and have right at twenty years’ experience. I’ve worked a big companies, have been the first tech hire at a startup, and have specialized somewhat in healthtech. I feel like I’m the best I’ve ever been; I have room to grow but I know exactly where that room is and how to make it happen. I’ve done everything from knocking out new tickets every day from a queue to architecting large distributed systems. I love my current job that consists mostly of two things: figuring out what the product side of the org actually wants/needs and making sure it gets done, and supporting all of the other engineers with internal tooling and support.

I make $170k base.

There is equity to consider there as well, but equity in an early-stage startup that doesn’t yet have a firm exit strategy. That’s not compensation - that’s a lottery ticket.

You can get junior engineers in my area for $60-70k, and mid-career around $120k.

I’m at the point where I believe I could _justify_ a salary of $400k… just not in my current role. Not in any engineering role that consists primarily of actual engineering work. That’s the kind of money I’d expect if I were looking at an engineering director or CTO position. I’m very comfortable at my current rate; moving “up” into those roles would require significantly more of my time and energy. My kids are teenagers, and I want to be able not only to spend time with them, but to actually leave work at work sometimes and focus on supporting them. I don’t plan to target those roles for another ~7-10 years.

anon-sre-srm · 2 years ago

To afford to buy a home (average value of $2.2m) where I grew up in a barely middle class area, it requires a minimum income of 400k USD. That's just a middle class home with nothing fancy.

And you're lecturing us that it's preposterous.

I guess you don't understand what things cost and the needs of real people who aren't billionaires.

anon-sre-srm commented on How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s kottke.org/24/03/how-phot... · Posted by u/bookofjoe

ted_bunny · 2 years ago

Older even than the Pony Express.

anon-sre-srm · 2 years ago

Western Union predates the Pony Express by about 10 years, which operated for only 18 months. It was the Webvan and WU was the Amazon.

anon-sre-srm commented on How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s kottke.org/24/03/how-phot... · Posted by u/bookofjoe

fanf2 · 2 years ago

Fax machines go way back to the 1800s, before phones, surprisingly old! Another classic is Tim Hunkin’s secret life of the fax machine https://youtu.be/yuUyt9RG7pk which features a clip from the video in TFA.

anon-sre-srm · 2 years ago

Pantelegraph -> wirephoto / radiofax / teleautograph -> telex / weatherfax -> fax

anon-sre-srm commented on 'If anything happens, it's not suicide': Boeing whistleblower before death abcnews4.com/news/local/i... · Posted by u/BostonFern

XorNot · 2 years ago

Option 0: people tend to be blindsided when someone in their life suffering from depression kills themselves. This is because if you see it coming, usually you go all out to intervene. It is ridiculously common for people to report that someone who seemed like they enduring mental hardship "was doing better" in the days before their suicide.

I'm finding the immediate "it was an an assassination" rhetoric gross and unproductive here, because what it's dismissing is a very real problem: becoming a whistleblower tends to ruin people's lives between the media scrutiny, the legal scrutiny, the career jeopardy and being in and out of court rooms. Marriages breakdown, and people get depressed or develop substance problems.

"He was assassinated" is just casually ignoring the fact that Boeing can kill this man dead completely legally through the normal shitshow which is the legal wringer whistleblowers get put through.

anon-sre-srm · 2 years ago

Duh. I mentioned A to dismiss it rather than invite inevitable conspiracy theories.

His lawyers came out almost immediately claiming he seemed in good spirits. Perhaps this was a superficial assessment or he was hiding his true feelings.

Like I said, wait until the investigation is complete because we don't know. It seems like the friend and media are grabbing attention rather than doing anything constructive.

anon-sre-srm commented on CA train project needs another $100B to complete route from San Fran to LA kcra.com/article/californ... · Posted by u/lando2319

hayst4ck · 2 years ago

I've spent large amounts of time in other countries. America is an absolute embarrassment.

There are countries you can go where it feels like the government actually cares about trying to help people have a better life. There are countries where infrastructure projects get completed. There are countries where infrastructure isn't just completed, it's good. There are countries where the administrative overhead of health care is 2% instead of (a likely underestimated) 25%.

You can't fix infrastructure policy, or any other policy, in America without first fixing campaign finance reform.

As long as senators and justices can be openly bought and sold there is no hope of getting responsible leadership that acts in the interests of citizens.

Very good video explaining the core issue of American politics by Harvard Law professor and founder of creative commons Lawrence Lessig-- Our democracy no longer represents the people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJy8vTu66tE

anon-sre-srm · 2 years ago

Yep. America has the simultaneous problems of being both too spread out and too busy/dense in most areas without sufficient public transport. There has been a widespread, long-term lack of planning to arrange smaller residential areas closer to commercial and industrial areas. It's largely dependent on long commutes and automobile commutes, which is unnecessarily expensive and wasteful.

anon-sre-srm commented on CA train project needs another $100B to complete route from San Fran to LA kcra.com/article/californ... · Posted by u/lando2319

anarchogeek · 2 years ago

There needs to be massive reform in the way infrastructure is built in the US yet nobody is even proposing a fix.

anon-sre-srm · 2 years ago

Must first start with the political operating system that cannot be reformed from within. After that happens, then it's possible to have sensible governance and effectively implementing megaprojects. Public-private "partnerships" are just subsidies to corporate profits.

anon-sre-srm commented on CA train project needs another $100B to complete route from San Fran to LA kcra.com/article/californ... · Posted by u/lando2319

anon-sre-srm · 2 years ago

Title author clearly isn't from CA. They've been hyping HSR since the 80's. Never gonna happen without lots of pork barrel waste and, like VTA light rail, no one's going to use it. Americans are in love with meat agriculture, political toxicity, feelings over knowledge and competency, uninformed opinions, and single occupant vehicles stuck in traffic with long commutes.

anon-sre-srm commented on The Mark Williams Company and the COHERENT operating system abortretry.fail/p/the-mar... · Posted by u/rbanffy

anon-sre-srm · 2 years ago

I can see why they sold even fewer than Apple LISAs. Crazy prices.