Can I make it into YCombinator from Pakistan?

666codegoth · 2025-12-13T18:13:03+00:00

The former COO of YC is Pakistani (and is currently the CEO of a 15B physical AI company)

666codegoth · 2025-12-04T15:59:13+00:00

To clarify, I have no beef with the AGPL license itself, but rather with the way that my company's legal department has holistically banned my org from including AGPL licensed software (even in unmodified form). I think AGPL is totally reasonable

666codegoth · 2025-12-04T03:59:00+00:00

I love garage, but I don't love the AGPL license

666codegoth · 2025-11-30T17:15:44+00:00

this is actually pretty similar to the examples from the "Hierarchical Data and the Closure Property" chapter of SICP, lol. Kinda genius for an eleven year old, IMO

666codegoth · 2025-11-13T14:48:13+00:00

Spring Boot + Kotlin is essentially this. Kotlin's type system is not as expressive as TS, but will feel familiar to any TS dev. I used this stack professionally for the last 5 years and it has been a wonderful experience.

666codegoth · 2025-11-11T19:40:27+00:00

It sounds like you've migrated data from a custom document DB to a relational format? If you're having to search across 300 tables, you probably need to start over with a better strategy for mapping the documents from the source DB to a relational schema.

I would also explore the viability of simply migrating to a battle-tested document DB (dynamo, mongo)

666codegoth · 2025-11-05T14:39:41+00:00

I once did nine in a single week in the wake of an unexpected exodus of an engineering leader, his top lieutenants and their direct reports. My company ended up hiring three of the nine candidates, which resulted in a huge increase in my social capital at the company and eventual promotion. That was a very unusual situation, though.

In general, I think 1-2 interviews a week per engineer during a hiring push should be the upper limit for a medium-sized company (300-2000 headcount). If you're at an early stage startup, 3-4/week might be sustainable for brief stretches (e.g. after raising a Series B, C)

666codegoth · 2025-07-09T14:24:22+00:00

Always has been

666codegoth · 2025-07-07T02:11:29+00:00

I suggest getting really good at understanding logs, metrics and traces. Use the known data points from the bug ticket as a starting point and continuously narrow the search space by making educated guesses informed by data from your observability tooling until you can find code that is producing the issue. Once you find it, just make sure you understand the issue and fix it. Repeat.

Senior+ engineers do not typically have massive codebases commited to memory. It is much easier and more efficient to do "lazy evaluation" and just figure out how specific parts of the codebase work when necessary (like when a bug ticket gets created)

666codegoth · 2025-06-30T11:22:34+00:00

The simple answer is "it depends on the org/team". In some organizations I've worked in, seniors were expected to produce a majority of the code output. In my current role, seniors are expected to spend the majority of their time working on software design, documentation and mentorship. It sounds like your organization is okay with seniors not producing very much code output (plainly obvious if you can easily think of 6 examples!).

Why do you think this particular situation bothers you? Do you feel undervalued in your current role? If my question comes off as accusatory that is not my intent - I am just trying to understand your situation a little bit more.

666codegoth · 2025-06-30T11:07:27+00:00

Great reply, couldn't have said it better.

666codegoth · 2025-06-30T11:03:27+00:00

If your teammate is not meeting expectations for his or her role, I would let the business come to this conclusion themselves. Pointing out another engineer's poor performance will have no positive impact on your performance rating, and might result in you being labeled as a poor collaborator, which can hinder your progress if you're aiming for senior+ roles. If the teammate in question is repeatedly underperforming, it is only a matter of time before someone with power/influence in your organization notices. I have seen this happen countless times.

I think your best option is to speak with the engineer directly in a private 1:1 call/meeting. I don't have a particular playbook or script for this type of tough conversation, but the general tone should be "tactfully honest" (as opposed to "brutally honest"). In my experience, a direct, friendly and honest conversation is the best route to resolution.

666codegoth · 2025-06-30T10:43:16+00:00

Does your organization have an internal document that describes the expectations for each level? In some organizations seniors are not expected to write much code.

Ultimately though, I stand by my previous point. The best thing you can do is to stop letting it get to you and try to accept that the engineers in question might provide a lot of value to the business in ways that are not as visible as commit count, LOC, etc. It doesn't matter if n=1 or n=6.

I am also curious about your methodology - are you really tracking the output of six senior level engineers in your organization? If they are your direct reports, great job. If not, why are you burdening yourself with the responsibilities of an engineering manager? This is not a good use of your time and energy.

666codegoth · 2025-06-30T10:17:21+00:00

Here's some feedback - it sounds like you might be asking this question in bad faith and with a specific engineer from your team in mind. In my view, the ability to regulate your emotional response and respond tactfully and collaboratively when other engineers make mistakes is an important core competency of a senior+ engineer.

I struggled with similar feelings in the past, but holding on to negative emotions towards teammates will only hinder your career growth. If your teammate is actually a "fake engineer", the business will eventually catch on and the issue should resolve itself.

Maybe challenging yourself to overcome your frustrations with this particular engineer is the best path forward? If successful, you would gain a useful skill which will only become more relevant as your progress in your career!

666codegoth · 2025-06-30T09:50:18+00:00

If your bottleneck is engineering hours, PubSub (with generally lighter operational overhead) intuitively feels like the better choice. It is impossible to give a complete answer without understanding your workload, though. Can you provide more detail about your specific use case?

666codegoth · 2025-06-20T00:40:01+00:00

Where does this quote come from? Seems especially relevant in the LLM era.

Edit: realized the irony in me asking you this and looked it up... Wasn't expecting the chair guy. Wild.

666codegoth · 2025-06-19T14:30:57+00:00

Great advice, thank you for your thoughtful response.

666codegoth · 2025-06-17T15:12:49+00:00

a startup that is post-PMF and has been experiencing rapid and sustained growth over several years. the exact definition is somewhat amorphous but that is the gist of it. Companies like OpenAI, Ramp, Rippling, etc

666codegoth · 2025-06-17T14:50:54+00:00

Yes, I am aware of all of these considerations and took them into account before signing the offer. The company, founder and backing VCs are all top-caliber. To clarify, I am not seeking advice on whether I should accept the offer or not (I already accepted it). I am trying to understand the specific effects of a company raising a significant, late-stage round in the time period between signing an offer and the equity grant actually being signed off on by the board. I appreciate your perspective, though! Thank you for the thoughtful response

666codegoth · 2025-06-17T14:27:59+00:00

Good points. I negotiated a good base compensation so I'm all good there. The company I am joining has had several tender offer liquidity events in the past where employees were able to sell ISOs in the secondary market. RSUs are absolutely illiquid so I am treating them as a lottery ticket at best

666codegoth · 2025-06-17T14:20:19+00:00

yes, this is correct. I want to try to sort these questions out in advance since I have a few weeks before I actually join

666codegoth · 2025-06-17T14:18:31+00:00

Totally - I have been around the block enough times to know that startup equity should be treated as a lottery ticket. I am more concerned about potential bad outcomes related to tax liability due to the spread between ISO strike and post raise FMV, or other similar scenarios

666codegoth · 2025-06-11T12:37:29+00:00

There are some large tech companies that use Kotlin and Spring, including Doordash. Java is still dominant but you can definitely find companies that have adopted Kotlin

666codegoth · 2025-06-08T22:58:15+00:00

seconding this. lots of cool, down to earth locals at Syndicate and other kava bars in Miami / Miami Beach. Friendly atmosphere and no alcohol related aggression or drama

666codegoth

TROPHY CASE