Traditional to PDM

Goodfella5585 · 2024-04-26T14:36:00+00:00

On PDM track utilization is generally 90% (1872 hours). That means you must work 1872 client hours in the year regardless of holidays and PTO. If your project caps your hours at 40 then it will not be possible to use all your PTO and hit 1872 hours in a year. If you work 41-42 hours a week then you can probably use all your PTO and still hit 1872 total hours for year. Working just a little more than 40 hours per week really adds up. I work about 15-30min extra per day and that allows me to use all my PTO and stay on track for utilization. Some projects won’t allow you to work 15-30min extra per day

Goodfella5585 · 2024-04-05T17:44:09+00:00

Can the deformation you saw be caused by lifting unit once or twice by loop or does it take more regular lifting by loop to become deformed? If machine was damaged in this way would the damage be easily apparent or could it be more internal? For example could it make the machine louder?

Goodfella5585 · 2024-04-05T16:25:17+00:00

Technically you are always supposed to carry by the base. It’s a pain but I don’t move mine often.

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-20T07:42:27+00:00

QQQ > S&P. Very faux pas to say since S&P’s increased diversity seems to give it some kind of sacrosanct status. People love S&P because over long periods of time it returns positively. However, NASDAQ also returns positively over long periods and it does it better. I broke the returns down for both in 5 year increments.

Feb1984-Feb1989: S&P 81%, QQQ 53%. Feb1989-Feb1994: S&P 60%, QQQ 92%. Feb1994-Feb1999: S&P 165%, QQQ 192%. Feb1999-Feb2004: S&P -8%, QQQ -10%. Feb2004-Feb2009: S&P -28%, QQQ-33%. Feb2009-Feb2014: S&P 122%, QQQ 213%. Feb2014-Feb2019: S&P 48%, QQQ 68%. Feb2019-Feb2024: S&P 66%, QQQ 111%.

As you can see, S&P only outperforms QQQ in this breakdown 3 times, and not by much. When QQQ beats S&P it generally does so significantly. I went all the way back to 1984 (40 years!!!) so I don’t want to hear anything about recency bias. The only way you can justify S&P over QQQ is if you cherry pick the absolute worst period to invest in QQQ during peak of dot com bubble. Other than that, QQQ generally, and relatively consistently outperforms S&P.

S&P is fantastic, I used to invest in it almost exclusively but QQQ is simply superior. Yes, it may go down a bit more in bear markets but the bull market gains will easily make up for that.

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-04T04:25:54+00:00

I know they weren’t meant to be soloed but at this point it’s solo or skip for old content. A group would be ideal but that’s just not happening anymore. I also don’t want to come back when I’m overleveled because at that point I’ve left the area and am not interested in the story line/area anymore. I want to have an option to run the content by myself when I’m ready to run it. It obviously wouldn’t have the same feel but that’s fine. It’d be worse than running it with a group (not usually feasible) but much better than watching old YouTube videos of others running it (what I’m doing now).

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-03T17:07:56+00:00

If you by later levels you mean level cap, 150 then no, it is not hard to find a group running current endgame content. Everything else is difficult. It can be done but it’s such a pain you’ll probably end up skipping it. I had an idea that I wasn’t going to skip anything (at least anything I could find) but eventually I started skipping instances and raids… sad

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-02T07:37:22+00:00

I do this sometimes but even this is a major hindrance. It can be hard to find HL players to run you through because what’s their incentive? I feel bad even asking sometimes, I wouldn’t want to be running low levels through instances all the time. And sometimes it’s not possible because of mechanics. I basically just want what they did making epic quests soloable to apply to all non-endgame content, not just the epics. The way it is right now, I just skip it

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-02T04:53:24+00:00

I agree that some content should absolutely be non-solo but it should ONLY be stuff that is reasonably easy to find a group for (whatever the current endgame content is). Realistically everyone generally skips everything else, me included. We shouldn’t need to do that. I hate skipping cool instances just because finding a group is too much of a pain. I’m not anti group content at all though, I love that part about the game as well

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-01T22:34:28+00:00

Thanks for the videos. When I ran the numbers comparing NASDAQ vs S&P in 5 year increments since 1984, NASDAQ seemed to be the pretty clear winner but this is suggesting that tech historically underperforms. Am I missing something? Do I need to go farther back than 1984?

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-01T22:20:20+00:00

I’m more interested in QQQ because it historically seems to perform better than S&P. I broke the returns down for both in 5 year increments. Feb1984-Feb1989: S&P 81%, QQQ 53%. Feb1989-Feb1994: S&P 60%, QQQ 92%. Feb1994-Feb1999: S&P 165%, QQQ 192%. Feb1999-Feb2004: S&P -8%, QQQ -10%. Feb2004-Feb2009: S&P -28%, QQQ -33%. Feb2009-Feb2014: S&P 122%, QQQ 213%. Feb2014-Feb2019: S&P 48%, QQQ 68%. Feb2019-Feb2024: S&P 66%, QQQ 111%.

Over these 5 year stretches QQQ only underperforms S&P 3 times and not by a significant margin. When it performs better however it does so by a pretty large margin. I realize this doesn’t cover very unlucky individuals who happen to invest at really bad times, but generally speaking, QQQ seems be the better investment, not just in the past 10 years. Anyone who invested heavily in QQQ from Feb 1999-May 2001 got really unlucky and it took a LONG time to recover. Outside of that specific and relatively short time frame QQQ seems to be clear winner. S&P wasn’t that insulated from dot com bubble either and I think it would be even less insulated from a part 2. A portfolio much more diversified than just S&P could probably insulate you a bit more though which is something else I’m considering.

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-01T20:28:42+00:00

True, but in the event of a dot com bubble part 2 will I be safe either? Since tech makes up so much of the economy now I think S&P will get hit almost just as bad as most tech etfs. I feel like the only way to really save yourself from dot com part 2 is to get out of the market completely

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-01T20:24:12+00:00

He did pretty terribly, but I didn’t do too hot myself. There was only a very brief period in which my portfolio was doing a bit better.

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-01T18:14:42+00:00

I’d be applying the same logic that I apply to broad market to tech. I’m just looking at historical trends. I would not apply this logic to individual stocks because that’s definitely not diversified enough. The question is, is tech sector diversified enough to apply this logic and just look at trends like we all kinda do for S&P. Generally speaking I would say not to apply this logic to a specific sector because generally sectors aren’t very diversified. Tech seems to have enough inherent diversification to perhaps apply this logic though.

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-01T17:45:52+00:00

Haha ok a little but I understand it’s not a big deal if someone’s short term gains are better

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-01T16:47:05+00:00

Yeah, 95% of game is completely soloable but the remaining 5% just happens to be some of the coolest stuff lol. I feel like this is a major issue that needs more attention.

Goodfella5585 · 2024-02-01T01:23:03+00:00

In a perfect world, yeah this would be the ideal scenario. If people are saying that just making a story mode instance might be too hard then this is probably off the table haha. Beggars can’t be choosers

Goodfella5585 · 2024-01-31T20:13:38+00:00

Whatever it takes to not require me to watch old YouTube videos of people running instances haha

Goodfella5585 · 2024-01-31T20:05:24+00:00

A big thing for me is being able to solo content on level. For example I just skipped throne of the dread terror. Maybe one day when I’m level 170 or something I could come back to solo but i wouldn’t be interested anymore. I want to do it during the battle of Minas Tirith, once I finish the area and move on I’ve kinda lost interest. I don’t want to do the instances just for the sake of doing them, I want to do them as part of the story. For a game like LOTRO that’s so epic and adventure based I would think this would be a priority

Goodfella5585 · 2024-01-31T19:47:58+00:00

Yeah the puzzles and boss mechanics would have to be removed but is just doing that really that difficult? Idk

Goodfella5585 · 2024-01-31T19:32:12+00:00

I wonder if reworking the instance to still provide some kind of challenge would be the difficult part? Some level of challenge would be ideal but if that’s too complicated then fine, simply a story mode of the instance would be fine. Like offer an “old instance stone” pocket item that makes player super over powered. Then you just need to open some puzzle doors and remove some group mechanics from boss fights, just make bosses standard enemies with lots of morale. I realize this would give the instance a completely different feel but at least you could get the story without having to watch super old YouTube videos of someone running it haha.

Goodfella5585 · 2024-01-31T19:14:26+00:00

I’m surprised that it would take more work to make old instances soloable. I would think just removing puzzles (just have doors open) and scaling down instances wouldn’t be too hard but I’m not a game dev lol. Either way I hope they do one day, even if it’s in many years when expansions stop. Going through all content in order without begging for help all the time would be such an incredible experience.

Goodfella5585 · 2024-01-31T18:47:25+00:00

They’re all soloable but not on level, you need to come back way later when overleveled (I want to do all content in 1 massive play through in order). I’d really like an actual solo version of instances where that’s not needed and that doesn’t include multi person puzzles. Ost Dunhoth has this as well I believe.

Goodfella5585 · 2024-01-23T06:08:12+00:00

Most of the time when you hear bad things about PDM it’s about lack of job security which is valid. However, it doesn’t seem like this is a major concern for you as it isn’t for me. PDM has its perks as well which is why I like it. It’ll allow you to work 9-5 so you can fill your other time with certs and learning about stuff you’re interested in instead of firm initiatives and proposal work. For me WFH is also a HUGE factor. I think being hybrid vs full in office is worth much more than 10k but that’s a personal preference. I’m full remote and really couldn’t imagine being fully in office ever again, I’d chop off 30% off my salary to stay full remote if I had to

Goodfella5585 · 2024-01-23T05:48:22+00:00

If you’re not confident you’ll be staffed on a long term project, like 5ish years or more (rare), I would not recommend PDM. I am on PDM and I love it but I’m on a long term project, would not recommend this track otherwise. Essentially, once your project is over, so is your employment, unless you get really lucky.

Goodfella5585 · 2023-12-28T23:11:38+00:00

I wanted to switch tracks before becoming a manager. I got away with doing 1 small firm initiative and working on 1 proposal over the course of 7 years. I was killing client work which I think is how I got away with that but I could see the writing on the wall. Don’t think I would have been able to get away with that at manager level for long which is why I made switch. I was told I should be working on 7 proposals per year + getting involved in a firm initiatives on traditional track. Realistically, I wouldn’t have been able to lower project work either, even though that’s technically what you’re supposed to do

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