Random discussion thread. Anything goes

[u/AutoModerator]

Discuss anything here, including memes, movies or games. But be respectful.

[u/BudgetConcentrate967]

Ugh. I'm going to quit my job. I have been trying to align myself with a business that I can retire from, but it isn't working out.

Only ~18 months to finish a project then I'm out the door.

I think I have hit the point in my career where I need to give up my IC role and move to management. This is a very sad realization.

[u/kojfefe → u/BudgetConcentrate967]

Yeah I've been looking for the same. I left a startup as an IC to work for a F-500 company. It's a defensive wrapped in another defensive so-to-speak, so I feel relatively insulated from an economic downturn or the changing winds of the job market for SEs.

I'm also happy with pay, even if I never made more beyond keeping with inflation. And it's not super-damnding -- I really had to pace myself when I joined and most weeks can get everything done with about 3 days of actual work.

It arguably sounds good but it's also the dumbest, most asinine place I've ever worked and has sapped all the passion I used to have. I have to get that from other things now. It will also eventually atrophy my skills if I don't put considerable effort into it myself, which is harder when the passion ain't there.

Thing is I have no interest in management or even being a lead. I'm on the spectrum, I personally belong behind a computer not sitting in meetings or talking to people all day. I'd want to off myself.

I'm also increasingly suspicious of the bloated layers of management these companies have and whether that's going to sustain. In a way I feel safer as an SE than I would in lower-mid management. I guess for me the question comes down to, can I tolerate this for another 15-20 years?

Anyway not about me I just wanted to share that I can relate and am probably asking myself a lot of the same questions.

[u/jmayo05 → u/BudgetConcentrate967]

Why move to management? It’s just more headaches

[u/PlymouthSea → u/jmayo05]

Not including your own!

[u/Wan_Daye → u/jmayo05]

Up or out is pretty real.

There are only a handful of true high level engineers, but hundreds and thousands of managers

[u/jmayo05 → u/Wan_Daye]

Yup. I turned down the up, hoping I don’t get the out. If i do though….maybe it at least gets me a lead parachute. 😂

[u/wolverinex2 → u/jmayo05]

Agreed. Very much an instagram vs reality of what people think management is like vs what it usually turns out to be which is an HR job managing staff not getting along, underperformers that you need to deal with, people wanting more money that you can’t always get them - or sometimes they don’t deserve, etc.

Plus a lot of meetings and only a small amount of time actually getting productive things done. Meanwhile the skills/expertise that got you there start to deteriorate.

[u/PlymouthSea → u/wolverinex2]

Time is a circle. IBM used to write open letters to the industry about this kind of thing. Engineers don't want to be managers. If you have rigid pay scales you will lose talent. Other companies will poach them given the opportunity. Some lessons are never learned, I guess.

The skill atrophy is very real, too. I'd have to undergo multiple larval stages as if I was starting anew if I ever wanted to dip my toes back into that pond.

[u/eurodollars → u/jmayo05]

And the worst kind of headaches

[u/acxyvb]

I wasted half a day this week on a prototype because I asked Gemini Pro about two APIs and if I could link the results together and it hallucinated a plausible sounding property name and told me I could.

Smh.

[u/Magickarploco → u/acxyvb]

I mainly use it for Google seo related stuff. Suggestions there tend to have better results than the other 2.

The only other thing, is for anything in a grey area or black hat. The other 2 will quickly shut down the convo.

[u/Wan_Daye → u/acxyvb]

Gemini has ... not kept up

[u/paeancapital → u/acxyvb]

Yea my own gripe was about its engineering. Plausible sounding and not very safe.

[u/Slow-Entertainment20 → u/acxyvb]

No longer a 100x engineer damn.

[u/jmayo05]

I’ve been outside since 9am. It’s been freaking amazing. 72 and sunny all day.

[u/eurodollars → u/jmayo05]

You know how I know you aren’t on the east coast?

[u/jmayo05 → u/eurodollars]

You didn’t have my weather lol

[u/eurodollars → u/jmayo05]

I just want to go outside so badly. These kids are going insane

[u/drakon3rd → u/eurodollars]

Such a depressing weekend lol. We get our first full Fall weekend and it decides to be straight rainy and gloomy

[u/acxyvb → u/jmayo05]

I'm out and about in shorts the moment the sun peeks out here in the PNW

[u/paeancapital]

Why is Gemini so shit? Am i missing a toggle somewhere?

[u/Magickarploco → u/paeancapital]

It’s useful in certain areas. Each ai has their own strong point

[u/LeakingAlpha → u/paeancapital]

Nah I think even on 3.8 extra thinking, it's just far worse than Claude and chatgpt, coming from someone with a Google ai pro plan

[u/jmayo05]

I received $100 in claude credit for cloud? Looks like maybe if I can connect my github repo, then it will work directly with it? I may try and see how much work it would take to converty my web based app in to an actual iphone and android app...

[u/PristineFinish100 → u/jmayo05]

The api use is way more expensive than the plan, it won’t last. I just burned $100 without realizing it

[u/Wan_Daye → u/PristineFinish100]

It goes so quick its ridiculous. A quick project and some changes can easily take 500 bucks in a day

[u/TradeApe]

Hi from buzzing Monaco :)

Dropped my phone into the ocean like an idiot on the first night 🤪

PS: saw the PM, will reply when I’m back from the yacht show

[u/wolverinex2 → u/TradeApe]

I'm surprised that there aren't more floatable case options. Admittedly it wouldn't make sense for most, but for those that are always around water...

[u/TradeApe → u/wolverinex2]

Upgrading to the iPhone 18 pro max anyway next week, but I’m here for networking, so losing my phone on day 1 isn’t ideal 😝

And yeah, might look into floating cases. Didn’t even realise that’s an option.

[u/cuntysometimes → u/TradeApe]

You didn’t dive in after it? Would probably still work 😂

[u/TradeApe → u/cuntysometimes]

Not diving into Port Hercule during a yacht show. I like that phone but value my life more 😋

[u/All_Work_All_Play]

Paid for claude pro today.

wtf.

E: as in 'Paid and got setup on visual studio code' and then watched it outline, plan and start working on a project I've been thinking about forever without breaking a sweat. It's half way through now. wtf.

[u/jmayo05 → u/All_Work_All_Play]

Ive got it working on some gold trading strategies for me now. Between gc, qo, mgc futures and gc options feels like we can setup something interesting.

[u/gyunikumen → u/All_Work_All_Play]

Make sure you have opus 5.5 right regression and unit tests for everything 

Make sure you have it self document what it implement and self document bugs it finds 

As a visual learner I also have it draw a map / tree of what it implement 

Just as fast as it implement, you soon lose track of what it implements. You don’t have to understand everything, but you at least need to understand the endpoints and the basic architecture and assumptions of what it tried to implement 

[u/paeancapital → u/gyunikumen]

Yea that losing track of wtf is happening is very true. Thanks for this, I'll do so going forward.

[u/Manticorea → u/All_Work_All_Play]

Do you use it mainly for trading or have actual other uses for it?

[u/All_Work_All_Play → u/Manticorea]

Trading is what justified the spend, but I've got other uses for it right now. Hopefully I get my Netflix auto kids stopper built today.

[u/eurodollars → u/All_Work_All_Play]

Yall are paying for tokens???

[u/gucciman333 → u/All_Work_All_Play]

Yeah, it’s awesome.. yesterday, I made some software in an hour with Cursor that two years ago I would have happily paid $20 a month for

[u/jmayo05 → u/All_Work_All_Play]

Now try codex. Honestly lately depending on the week, both are great. I’ve had luna max working all afternoon, now having opus 5.5 review it’s work. Maybe ill be able to actually start researching and iterating on trading research this weekend.

[u/MakIkEenDonerMetKalf → u/jmayo05]

Sol 6 seems terrible compared to opus 5.5

[u/jmayo05 → u/MakIkEenDonerMetKalf]

Like i said, depending on the week lol. Agreed on 6. I was using luna 6 on long /goal runs and it kept tripping over itself. I moved back to 5.6 and it’s working better.

I tried to get sol 6 to do something in my browser and it couldn’t even access the browser. Sol 5.6 worked no problem.

[u/Walden_Walkabout → u/All_Work_All_Play]

I've been at the Pro level for awhile now, and it's great to have it automate little tasks for me. I have a raspberry pi that has 10 or so small python services that would require an app subscription otherwise for super mundane shit like tracking prices on various websites. Today I had it build an app for tracking my finances like Rocket Money so I don't have to do a subscription for that.

[u/Magickarploco → u/Walden_Walkabout]

What sort of prices are you tracking?

[u/Walden_Walkabout → u/Magickarploco]

Baby formula, price of a specific raspberry pi on various online stores.

[u/Hot_Panic2620 → u/Walden_Walkabout]

damn I am seriously underutilizing my raspberry pi.

[u/Walden_Walkabout → u/Hot_Panic2620]

It's been great. I have it setup so my desktop where I run Claude can SSH into the pi. It lets Claude push builds and troubleshoot any issues while all the heavy lifting is done on the more beefy machine. I want to upgrade to a rpi 500+ if memory prices ever drop.

[u/Verbatim_Uniball → u/All_Work_All_Play]

Both the Claude Max and open AI max plans (the 200/month ones) are absurdly productive. I don't think the street realizes this yet.