swendoog's comments

Not sure about Linus... I know Wolfram does/did ....

If you can work from home (big if) then you might consider looking into a standing desk + treadmill.

There are some decent options available. The "Autonomous" desk is great, I purchased JUST the legs and use an IKEA top to save money.

Now, I'm looking at the "Treadly" treadmill. Technically, this isn't an "under desk" treadmill, but it's the thinnest treadmill on the market and can be operated without the bars upright. So it's perfect for going under your desk, and then under a bed or a couch when you're not using it.

There aren't many better options when it comes to firmware development. The state of the art, as I understand it currently, is C / C++.

But having worked in many languages (Java, Swift, Scala, Dart, etc.) I have to say, I love C.

Sorry for the delayed response.

It has allowed me to work on some very cool robotics, and IoT projects. I've been able to learn a ton in the process about how computers work. Things like having to learn about how our FreeRTOS scheduler works, have been a fun process and provide some insight (albeit not 1:1) on how larger scale OS's work.

I feel like it's also made me a better programmer on the higher level stuff too. Hard to explain why though. It's not the kind of thing that makes obvious sense. It's not like knowing how to efficiently pack bytes into a struct, somehow helps you be a better Scala or iOS developer. That's just not the case. Rather, there's something about knowing the low-level stuff that just eases my mind when it comes to writing higher level code. I've always been the type of person that gets distracted by needing to know the deeper layer of how something works.

Even in undergraduate classes like biology, I needed to know HOW that mitochondria ACTUALLY handles metabolism. That's what I mean when I say that the lower level stuff "eases my mind". I can call a higher level function, or use some higher level framework, with a clear understanding of how it could (and probably) is implemented. That makes me a better developer, because I can stop asking questions and start making things.

Hey man, I started my career 7 years ago by teaching myself PHP, jQuery, and CSS. First real job was as a "full stack web developer".

I always was in awe of the low level stuff though, so I took every opportunity to move closer and closer to the hardware over the years. I'm now a firmware developer!

Point being, where there's a will there's a way. If you can align some DIVs, you can malloc() some memory and pack bytes efficiently in a struct :) It all comes down to where your interest is.

Unfortunately some work (Mac, and iOS development) requires a Mac OS device.

Uhg, I'd love to be that 50 year old when I arrive at the age. Sadly, I feel like I'm sliding backwards. Oddly, I feel like I was a better, more thoughtful, certainly more energetic developer in my 20's.

I think some of it may be that each job I've taken has forced me to change language / platform multiple times. I'm an iOS, android, C++, C, Java, and python developer. All on production level code. Never an expert of any.

Yes, please do explain further.

From the article:

"A 2009 Pentagon briefing summary of the program prepared by its director at the time asserted that “what was considered science fiction is now science fact,” and that the United States was incapable of defending itself against some of the technologies discovered"

Wait, what? What are the "technologies discovered"?

And what's hilarious is that the top comment in this thread is about starting yet another social network.

Myopic to say the least.

Yet another "solution" that focusses on "affordable" housing, not market rate housing.

The world needs affordable housing, so don't get me wrong. But what's infuriating is how often the conversation stops there. It's always about building more housing and creating affordability programs for the poor. Meanwhile forgetting that even middle class workers are being priced out of the market!

When your middle class can't afford (or can barely afford) the cost of housing, your problem extends beyond just that class.

I don't believe in "trickle down" economies, where consolidation of wealth into the hands of a few "lifts everyone up". What I do believe is important - for everyone - is a healthy, educated, middle class. In a way, the health and success of your middle class is like a barometer for the health of your society as a whole. When your middle class cannot afford to buy a home, cannot afford to begin a family, and cannot afford to live at or above the quality of life of the generation before them something is wrong.

Yes, we need to help the poor. Yes, we SHOULD have programs for that. But the conversation all too often stops there, and market rates are taken for granted.

> "we don’t currently produce in sufficient quantities to make it a sustainable diet for the entire population"

I wonder what we are missing in our crops that, if grown, would bridge this gap?

> "but who really just 'tries' heroin"

Natural. Selection.

I can't help but wonder what it's like to have that kind of money.

Does such a person ever wake up, and wonder how the dice rolled so amazingly in their favor?

Or do they wake up and stand proud, recognizing that they are so successful because of their own hard work and intelligence?

Do they ever think about how insane life is that they ended up with 94 billion, while some people are starving?

I'm not making any moral projection here. I'm not saying there's anything right, or wrong, about that situation. I'm just genuinely curious what it feels like to be in their shoes.

You've been WFH for a long time so I'm sure you've already done this, but...

Early on in my WFH career I had to make it VERY clear to my family (and friends) that when I'm working they need to consider it as being NO DIFFERENT from me being 30 minutes away in an office.

I refuse to structure any part of our life around the belief that I am more available or more flexible.

In practice, yes, I am more available and more flexible. So occasionally, I can do things like run an errand in the middle of the day. But my close group of family/friends understands that this is an exception to the rule. In general, they should consider my work as being no different from theirs.

One aspect of remote work that I feel is often missing from this discussion is the impact on mental health.

Some have alluded to it in posts here but unless you've worked from home for an extended period of time you can't really understand how strong of an impact isolation from your peers really can have.

I believe that everyone's individual need for human interaction varies but we all require it on some level. We take for granted just how much of our social requirements are met by being in an office. Face-to-Face interactions aren't important because they're a better mechanism for developing product... They're important for the individual, because without them your "social brain" will effectively atrophy. Interacting with people on a daily basis is the only way to stay sharp when it comes to social interaction. Slack can't replace that, unfortunately.

Possibly holding cash is useful for when you need to quickly capitalize on a drop in the market?

I have the same damn question - where is all the money going?

Put another way, why is my dollar buying exponentially less than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago? Don't even try to tell me it's inflation.

I don't know the answer. We pay politicians to know those things and to work on finding solutions. Funny how they don't seem any better at understanding the problem and finding a solution than you and me.

So while I don't honestly have any solid understanding, I can only posit that it may have something to do with wealth consolidation [1]. I'm no proponent of socialism or artificially redistributing wealth but I look to the growing divide between the rich and poor in the U.S. (and globally) and can't help but notice it correlates quite strongly with my dollar buying less, and less. Yes, correlation != causation, but you gotta start somewhere.

If you can get past the 90s era cinematography "The Money Makers" is a fascinating documentary which illuminates some of the issues with our monetary system.

https://youtu.be/XbEu-OLMKLQ

[1] The top 0.01% of households, with net assets of over $40m, short-changed the taxman by a whopping 30%.

https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/06/daily-...

Even IF there was a desire among politicians to fix the transportation issues in San Francisco I doubt they'd find a means to do so. It would cost a ton of money and congress has no idea where to get that money from.

The middle class is taxed to capacity. When ~30-40% of your paycheck is taxes (including federal), and another 30-40% is exorbitant rent costs, you're left feeling quite squeezed. I myself for example, simply mark NO on all tax supported programs on the ballot, regardless of their merit.

It sucks because many of those programs are so desperately needed. But asking me to raise my taxes any further is a non-starter. If you include property tax and sales tax in your estimation of how much you're getting taxed the number is astonishing. Yet look around and witness what that buys - failing infrastructure, skyrocketing housing prices, terrible roads, healthcare prices spiraling out of control, an educational system in decline, the list goes on, and on...

It's not that I have an "every man for them self" perspective, it's just that I have believe there are deeper issues with our country that we can't tax ourselves out of.

I think this goes without saying but... if you're a software developer, there's never been a better time to find a new job, at a different company.