Thanks for the reply. This is the scenario I want basically. But won't have US family to lean on. $650 for tax filing sounds cheap, I've heard it's in the low thousands especially when considering business taxes.

A course is nothing. I've long felt that Software Engineering should follow suit of many other engineering disciplines and push responsibility down to engineers. Like how when a bridge falls, an engineer has to answer for it.

I don't know exactly how that looks, and yes there are many issues with it, but we're living in the age of cowboy coding.

I agree. Software engineers are approaching a level of societal impact that it would be appropriate to start thinking about professional ethics systems similar to Canada's Iron Ring (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring).

I also think there's a long, long way between here and there, especially in the US. Requiring ethics in CS programs seems more immediately attainable to me, but I agree that it isn't a standalone fix.

The iron ring is symbolic, just like that ethics course.

A Professional Engineer license and the passing down of liability to the individual is what's needed IMO

Even better!

I did what you dream of. It's fun for 3-6 months. But it's only fun - not an existential cure. That could only be found in friends/loved ones.

In all software jobs I've had (small, medium, and big tech), there's been no question about my start time. This has allowed me to sleep until 9-10am, and start work at 11. Huge help for getting any amount of good work out of me.

Unless your team has "core hours" which basically align with US school hours and standup is at the top of that block...

But, yeah, generally this is true and is something that I miss from my FTE days. (I'm in tech sales now, and our hours are whatever fits into our customers' calendars...sometimes that means I start at 11, other times I'm going to be on an 08:00 zoom and like it!)

Yeah, this is the problem for me. Society is orientated around morning hours, and kids are the big one here.

When I had a job I rarely had to interact with others, it was pretty easy. I could wake up early on the one day a week or less I needed to do some silly meeting, handle it, and go pass out for a couple hours and come back refreshed.

When it's your daily routine, it's effectively impossible. I can try to sleep in on the weekends, but that's really about it to catch up on decent sleep.

The days I can sleep in until 10-11am I am markedly more productive and just generally happy. But those are very rare now. Just the hours from 6am when my wife wakes up and gets out of bed until 9-10am are crazy in terms of how much better sleep I get overall. The previous 5-6 hours almost are immaterial. I could go to bed at 4am those nights and not notice a difference between going to bed at 11pm.

Actually I'd love to see this metric.

New Project for me!(I'm laid off, so I got time)

As an old user of thinkpads for years, on a Macbook the trackpad is as much under your thumb as the trackpoint is under your index finger and I find the trackpad far more accurate and less strain to use. In fact, my work-at-home setup is macbook pro, open face so i can use the keyboard+trackpad but external monitor so my posture isn't terrible.

I subscribed 2 years ago and it took over 2 weeks to actually get my first paper at my door. I live in NYC..

Cancellation wasn't difficult though, and didn't require me to call anyone.

I loved this. And love when someone chats me up at the gym more than just "you using this?". See you around the gym, my guy.

Anyone else's inbox slammed with recruiters, more than it ever has been in the past? Feels like there's 10x the jobs available, but perhaps it's just that LLMs have automated a recruiter's job and they're letting the slop fly

Mine is too. Absolutely no outreach from the major players however. Mostly AI startups with a few larger/older SaaS startups sprinkled in.

No, but it used to be.

What mediums are you using for recruiters to contact you? Do you have a linked-in or are you applying directly to recruiting companies? Are you active anywhere else?

Genuinely interested in how you're receiving so many recruitment emails. That used to be my go to way to hit the job market.

I'm not applying at all! Happy employed and not looking. They're mailing me through linkedIn (i have a profile, and it's not set to looking and i'm completely inactive there), and or finding my email on the internet somehow and going direct.

Thanks, I must just be going through a string of bad luck. I have a profile on Linkedin and my email is out there. Hoping things change for the better. I was laid off not long after Covid and have been having trouble finding something steady since.

Depends on your geo. If you're in the Bay, NYC, and maybe a few other hubs hiring remains strong.

The "inshoring" hubs like RTP and Denver or those hubs that are dominated by a handful of oversized companies like Seattle are the worst impacted.

I get lots of AI companies in my inbox, not much else. Surprisingly I got a bite recently because my linkedin says I have worked with eBPF.

Nope its totally dead

Mine is, but it’s AI generated slop from gmail addresses, for some kind of scam

This advice was also given to me if I ever get caught in the rain while camping and soak my shoes. Bring some newspaper for both a firestarter and for leaving in your shoes overnight, and wake up to dry shoes!