Do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend? If not, get on that. Go have sex. This is not a suggestion, it’s a prescription.
Have sex, get an emotional attachment, fall in love. Obviously there are risks associated with all this.
I was insanely career obsessed. Found someone I adore. Helped me recalibrate my brain. They didn’t love me back the same, so I had other problems. But I grew a lot as a person.
What is the downside? I was thinking it could compromise software security, although my layman understanding is we’re better off if the open source community finds and makes problems visible?
Or there are other software secrets that we wouldn’t want state adversaries to see, like things that block your access under export control laws?
I think capitalism is a wonderful thing, having been born and lived half my life in communist rule. But in my older age I’m jaded maybe. If you have the means to control media and outright buy out influence and outcomes, of course you don’t need to use brute force to suppress the population. I think that’s the natural evolution of capitalism. It enriches many along the way but ultimately power goes to a smaller and smaller minority.
It’s not exactly the question you’re asking, but what I’m trying to say is, this is the natural outcome of our economic system. Tech organizations involvement in politics is a side effect.
Get a gym membership. Learn to squat, bench press, do some pulling motions.
Drink plenty of water.
Walk. You don’t have to do cardio exercise but try to walk every single day. At least 20-30 minutes. If you take a bus, get off earlier or later so you can walk.
Floss your teeth. If you get gum disease it’s permanent. It’s not that hard to get. Once your gums are diseased, they will recede slowly (or fast), and it will be painful to eat certain foods.
Seriously, please take care of your physical/fitness health and dental health.
No matter how much you love your work, the more you put in, the more others will take advantage of you if it suits them. Draw healthy boundaries. Don’t work every night or weekend. Use that time to read, go into nature, learn about the world, travel, and so on. Anyone who tells you money isn’t everything or “we don’t want people just in it for money” can fuck off. They’re there for MONEY. You don’t need to obsess with money, but your career is a means to financial freedom. Don’t kill yourself especially if your hard work is getting others promotions and making them rich while you merely just stay employed or get meager raises.
Also prioritize family and having a kid earlier than later. You won’t understand until you have a kid, but your children are your most valuable treasure. Once you have child, you’ll do anything for him or her. Bring that joy sooner than later.
I’m in leadership ic role at a big tec company. We pride ourselves in engineering.
hiring bar was dropped. expecting a mid level engineer to work with a byte buffer is considered “too complex” and non differentiated work.
the literal goal is to pump out features written up by mba/product team. none of these mbas use the product mind you. theyre chasing stupid features they think vice presidents want, because the thinking is it will drive promotions.
this is a cynical post and i will stop here. my org has problem of incentives. nothing else. you incentivize wrong things then this happens
At my work, I have colleagues who speak English as a second language. Many of them are using LLMs to up their document and other writing.
It’s actually quite awful. It’s obvious the text is LLM generated because of the verbose, generic writing style. It communicates clearly but without substance. Not gonna lie, I secretly judge these people.
Have sex, get an emotional attachment, fall in love. Obviously there are risks associated with all this.
I was insanely career obsessed. Found someone I adore. Helped me recalibrate my brain. They didn’t love me back the same, so I had other problems. But I grew a lot as a person.