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I'd like to share a small success story. The place I'm working at currently sells a lot of different software products that all use the same underlying proprietary database. Because all the products depend on the same database backend, it's really easy for a developer working on one product to reach in and rummage around in the database of another product to get the information they want. Often it's easier to do that than following the intended API. As a result, the code base is littered with internal implementation variables that are now forever fixed in behavior and value because they're de facto part of the API and we can't change them without breaking products belonging to other teams in the same company. Earlier this month I successfully talked a developer on another team into using the correct API instead of rummaging around in my database and reading the value "directly". The database value currently happens to be a 1:1 mapping to the API output, but I can't guarantee that will always be the case (and in fact is likely not to be since this is for a new feature and the values changed twice in the month before release). It felt good.
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Jan 9, 2023 04:01
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Saw a guy asking how to get a recruiter to send him for staff position interviews even though he's only L5. Almost rolled my eyes and thought that if he can't solve the problem of how to persuade a person to do a small task then he probably isn't ready for staff level work. Then remembered I once asked how to do that here and cringed a little bit. 
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Jan 15, 2023 19:34
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If you don't look back on what you've done and cringe occasionally you're not learning.
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Jan 15, 2023 20:19
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ultrafilter posted:If you don't look back on what you've done and cringe occasionally you're not learning.
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Jan 15, 2023 21:20
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Oh thank god.
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Jan 15, 2023 21:32
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ultrafilter posted:If you don't look back on what you've done and cringe occasionally you're not posting. fixed
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Jan 15, 2023 21:43
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oliveoil posted:Saw a guy asking how to get a recruiter to send him for staff position interviews even though he's only L5. i think you could land IC7 if you grind leetcode enough
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Jan 17, 2023 04:34
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I just heard from a trusted source that my team is likely to be reduced dramatically Friday unless a miracle occurs. I feel like assigning my entire team leetcode problems to prepare them for the worst case, but no idea how to handle taking care of these folks in a professional way. Operations will likely continue with a skeleton crew for the foreseeable future (due to contractual obligations ~2 years) and I will (probably) still be on the team after Friday. Anyone navigate something similar? Also likely the severance package will be a joke, I am extremely frustrated.
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Jan 17, 2023 18:09
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Glimm posted:I just heard from a trusted source that my team is likely to be reduced dramatically Friday unless a miracle occurs. I feel like assigning my entire team leetcode problems to prepare them for the worst case, but no idea how to handle taking care of these folks in a professional way. Reach out to recruiters in your network for them. Are you the one notifying? Keep things matter of fact going through the exit packet. If you're in a large-ish org, your HR contacts should be able to help you through the process. Prepare for additional staff to leave. If you're not impacted, identify why it happened and whether now is a good opportunity to exit.
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Jan 17, 2023 18:20
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“Now” is always a good opportunity to exit tech.
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Jan 17, 2023 22:09
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Pollyanna posted:“Now” is always a good opportunity to exit tech. but what if I need money?
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Jan 17, 2023 22:13
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At least you’ll die cold but happy you aren’t in tech.
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Jan 17, 2023 22:15
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idk pollyanna i get the feeling you hate working as such more than you hate working in tech working in tech owns, we get paid a poo poo ton to work on problems that aren't really our problems. it's just that, you know, it'd be better if i could gently caress around with stuff i care about all day instead of doing my dayjob. but it beats the poo poo out of breaking your back for 30 years in a factory or watching children die of preventable diseases while you beg their parents to give them medicine or having to suck karen off every time she gets mad at a front-of-house worker and asks to speak to the manager or whatever  the above is true even for good jobs
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Jan 17, 2023 22:29
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https://www.seattletimes.com/business/the-happiest-least-stressful-most-meaningful-jobs-in-america/quote:Agriculture, logging and forestry have the highest levels of self-reported happiness – and lowest levels of self-reported stress – of any major industry category, according to our analysis of thousands of time journals from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey. (Additional reporting sharpened our focus on lumberjacks and foresters, but almost everyone who works on farms or in forests stands out.) I can totally believe that.
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Jan 17, 2023 22:54
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they just don't have the time or energy to think about how unhappy they are
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Jan 17, 2023 23:06
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forestry is also the most dangerous job there is, iirc fake edit: second https://www.statista.com/chart/26595/number-of-deaths-on-the-job-per-100000-full-time-equivalent-workers-in-the-us/
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Jan 17, 2023 23:10
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Achmed Jones posted:idk pollyanna i get the feeling you hate working as such more than you hate working in tech  Volguus posted:https://www.seattletimes.com/business/the-happiest-least-stressful-most-meaningful-jobs-in-america/ I do not believe they have talked to anyone who has ever worked on a farm. Absolutely everyone I have ever talked to who makes a living farming has been absolutely ground down by it. All the successful farmers I know spent the bare minimum of time actually farming and put most of their resources into making money with side hustles. My family has a farm and every single one of my 12 aunts and uncles (not counting spouses) could not get far enough away from it (except one couple who moved onto the farm and now sell the water rights, notably, not actually farming). The other side of the family had a more profitable farm, but none of their 4 kids was willing to work it so they ended up selling it. I worked for a company that makes farming tech (tractors and tractor accessories) and we'd get to talk to farmers sometimes. I've talked to a lot of farmers. It is not a fun job. If you think dealing with PMs and middle-management is bad, wait until you get told by the agribusiness buyer that they're cutting the price they buy corn/soy/milk/whatever you grow for half as much as last year and your choices are to take it or get nothing because you grow too much to sell effectively at a farmer's market but too little to sell to a grocery store direct. I have a garden and I know lots of people who garden or even have small acre farms as hobbies. Even most of them think it's a lot of hard work, but fresh food of varieties that can be optimized for flavor instead of shelf-life is worth it. I don't have any personal experience with the logging industry. I suppose it's possible loggers are happy, but it's hard to believe. LLSix fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Jan 17, 2023 |
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Jan 17, 2023 23:16
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tend to believe there's an american culture of lying your fuckin tits off to peeps about how happy you are, too, and it goes harder in rural america
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Jan 17, 2023 23:20
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being in nature is good for humans
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Jan 17, 2023 23:38
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bob dobbs is dead posted:forestry is also the most dangerous job there is, iirc surrounded by trees? frequent run-ins with danger that keep me feeling alive and thankful? hell yeah
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Jan 18, 2023 00:04
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I once read a quote that stuck with me from a woman trying to keep her 19th century homestead farm going all alone after her husband died - "everything on a farm is either hungry or heavy"
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Jan 18, 2023 00:19
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my grandfather, who was a logger then a farmer, loved to show off his hands which were missing three (3) of the expected number of fingers so until your carpal tunnel gets really bad, there is that plus to programming
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Jan 18, 2023 00:26
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"go into a trade" say the tech workers, "humans weren't meant to work in an office" "go sit at a desk and touch a computer," say the tradespeople, "so you do not have to worry about being electrocuted every day"
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Jan 18, 2023 00:35
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There is also the factor of having to constantly learn new poo poo and worry about not being able to get hired for the inevitable next interview. Forestry you go home at the end of the day and don't have to think about it.
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Jan 18, 2023 01:23
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Gildiss posted:There is also the factor of having to constantly learn new poo poo and worry about not being able to get hired for the inevitable next interview. I think you might be overlooking the possibility that in forestry the next interview isn’t inevitable
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Jan 18, 2023 02:19
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Steve French posted:I think you might be overlooking the possibility that in forestry the next interview isn’t inevitable Fingers crossed. I can see at least 5 South Korean military installations from my home office window, and at the rate their weapons and machines are misfiring and malfunctioning these days, I too will hopefully have no inevitable "next interview".
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Jan 18, 2023 02:42
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Achmed Jones posted:"go into a trade" say the tech workers, "humans weren't meant to work in an office" My friend lost his dad this way. I don't know the details but presumably some guy on his site made a mistake and it killed him. Like yeah tech is some bullshit but at least your coworkers bad commits don't put you in severe physical danger.
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Jan 18, 2023 06:13
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well, unless you work at tesla and also drive a tesla. in which case you've made your lithium ion fire, and now you die in it
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Jan 18, 2023 07:10
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Tech has some tedious stuff in it, but overall it's one of the best jobs you can have. But everyone else gets to moan about their jobs, so why shouldn't we?
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Jan 18, 2023 10:28
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We've got to complain, tech is an industry with a host of ethical problems. I guess I'll work in an ethical industry, like
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Jan 18, 2023 14:58
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There is no purely ethical ______.Achmed Jones posted:idk pollyanna i get the feeling you hate working as such more than you hate working in tech Yup!!! So the problem isn’t so much the state I’m in as it is the attitude and behavior I’m bringing to it. Which right now is not great because of organizational frustrations. I’m working on it  quote:
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Jan 18, 2023 16:31
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I'm pretty sure that image was one of many things I showed to my ex that elicited a response of, "You should go to therapy." lol
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Jan 18, 2023 16:51
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CPColin posted:I'm pretty sure that image was one of many things I showed to my ex that elicited a response of, "You should go to therapy." lol Good advice.
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Jan 18, 2023 17:58
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One little bit of bumper sticker wisdom that has always stuck with me is "Of course work sucks. If it didn't, they wouldn't have to pay someone to do it."
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Jan 18, 2023 18:04
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LLSix posted:Good advice. Going to therapy gave me the courage and clarity to realize we needed to break up, too!
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Jan 18, 2023 18:25
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Working in tech is great, but it is also far enough from any kind of reality that absolutely idiotic decisions can get made and nobody will get an arm chopped off or anything. Sometimes, staring out the window and thinking is legitimate work, sometimes the phrase "We have an AI platform in the cloud that can make this much easier" is legit, and sometimes either one of those things are the sign of someone absolutely useless. Tech isn't the only place where that's a problem, but it is the place that bills itself as a field that impacts the real world, but that's not visible at the engineering level.
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Jan 18, 2023 18:45
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This article remains relevant.quote:Every friend I have with a job that involves picking up something heavier than a laptop more than twice a week eventually finds a way to slip something like this into conversation: “Bro, you don’t work hard. I just worked a 4700-hour week digging a tunnel under Mordor with a screwdriver.”
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Jan 18, 2023 18:52
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In the book Pandemic! by Zizek he talks about the unique type of stress, or exhaustion, that people who work in industries like tech experience. In fields that require cooperative creative work we are not just asked to perform repetitive tasks, although we do plenty of those, we are also asked to take on a level of responsibility for the profitability of the company we work for that traditionally would rest with the top brass, the capitalists. We are also pitted against the people we are meant to accomplish this together with, other tech people, and compete with them for recognition and promotions while we are asked to be one big happy family.
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Jan 18, 2023 20:04
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Saw a funny chat gpt thing. The guy asks it to solve two sum using the exact leetcode problem description. It gives a good answer. He changes one word: from "can not use one number twice" to "can use one number twice". It spits out an answer that is completely terrible and doesn't compile with the wrong big O analysis to boot. Good poo poo!
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Jan 18, 2023 20:39
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Yeah but wait till gpt4 comes out and enables thousands of wrong answers
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Jan 19, 2023 02:34
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