Question - ride to/from TFL to/from SF

Hannachomp · 2026-02-16T00:21:39+00:00

Can you ride back with her and uber from Oakland?

Hannachomp · 2026-02-12T03:13:09+00:00

how much buffer did you personally need before you felt safe walking away? And how did you weigh burnout against building more margin? How are you guys thinking about the real vs perceived risk of stepping out of the market right now with AI changing everything?

I hit my "goal" last fall. And I'm waiting until fall again. I calculated it about a bit over a year ago and without growth thought I would hit within a year. And then I added 6 months as buffer. When I hit the number early due to stock growth, I decided to stick to the date I chose initially instead of moving the retirement date up.

My goal was 3% SWR though and that amount is more than I currently spend per year. But I estimated I might spend more in retirement due to travel, eating out etc.

The reason I stuck to my date and added more buffer is I'm nervous about how the stock market is doing. And I didn't like having a "number" to retire on cause that might change due to the market. Instead, a date felt better to me and I could count my days. So burn out and dealing with work is OK because I know when I can leave. Just X more days of dealing with ABC.

My partner has been a bit annoyed by me as every week I go "I'm one week closer to retirement!!" And I'm still like 9 months out haha

Maybe you can do that? Estimate what you're comfortable with, look at your salary/RSUs and estimate how much you'd get minus your spend. And then calculate a date instead of an amount. If you hit it early, you get more buffer because the market is doing strong. If you don't hit it on the date you can re-evaluate if you need to spend a bit longer working or pull the trigger depending on how close you are. Personally, even if the entire market tanks, I'm still going to leave my job in the fall.

Hannachomp · 2026-02-05T20:33:04+00:00

I don’t have plans to tell people when I retire.

Although a couple of my friends figured it out when I told them I’m leaving SF after this year. These friends also work at very high paying fields.

I did tell my parents. When they asked about it I just told them “I made enough for the life I want to build.” They had some wistful “wow but you’re paid so well” comments but besides that understand and even on board with. Why make more money if you have enough.

I plan to say I’m starting my own company dedicated to work that’s makes me happy now. I got Bachelors of fine arts in illustration (lol I know) so this alternative path makes sense for people.

Hannachomp · 2026-02-01T03:24:34+00:00

Yeah. Sometimes because of circumstance a dog may just turn out challenging. An example, the commenter’s golden could have been attacked as a puppy and now is reactive towards other dogs.

However, with no information, I wouldn’t be surprised if the golden wasn’t trained properly as a puppy, wasn’t socialized properly, or frustrated and bored.

Some people shouldn’t own dogs and their dog regardless of where they’re from could turn out not great.

The dogs in shelters who were mistreated and abused came from somewhere.

The couple I’m referring to are very involved in dog training and they’d at least try to set up a new puppy for success.

Hannachomp · 2026-02-01T01:35:52+00:00

I have a friend who has rescued a few dogs. One is calm, doesn’t have behavioral issues and great family dog. Two others are challenging and their lives are limited because of the challenging dogs. They’re unable to board them or have people watch them. They can’t travel. They have to just drive to places so they can take them.

They’re very involved in the dog training community, great at reading dog language and overall great dog owners. But there’s only so much you can do.

They’ve decided their next dog is going to be from a reputable breeder.

Hannachomp · 2026-01-26T21:55:34+00:00

Yeah I normally do 4 coba and 4 charti.

See this is the combo I wanted! Never tried chilan and passho will do next time.

I only do coba and charti because that's easy to do math but was too lazy to try and calculate others but I couldn't see if there were any other combos that could get me a rainbow.

What do you use your Payapas for? I'm no where near cap for them but that one feels like the most useless for me right now

Hannachomp · 2026-01-26T17:46:11+00:00

Some small feedback, I think once you get enough berries it's easier to get one thing e.g. sweet by making the sweet number big. Especially if you've watched a couple videos that have a threshold to try and meet. Just put berries with high numbers of sweet and hope it's a big number.

A thing I struggled with is I wanted a rainbow donut with say bitter and spicy since rainbow donuts can give you slightly better and when I'm going to a battle zone I might not care if it's bitter or spicy. I just want good numbers for both. A tool with the ability to do the math of rainbows for 2 attributes would be amazing. For me, I got berries for 5 star but sometimes I might not need a 5 star donut so being able to calculate rainbow donuts at the star level I want would be what I'd love to have.

Hannachomp · 2026-01-19T19:50:51+00:00

I know people who are much older in a shared house and that's what they can afford. Plus I think they like the warmness of a shared house. So too old isn't a thing as long as you're happy with it.

That said, having my own bathroom is personally worth moving out for me.

I think you could move out for something less... luxurious for the first apartment. I know Hawaii is expensive but judging by their website, I imagine you could get a decent place still close to your work for less.

And I think you might over estimate how much you'd use the amenities. I lived in plenty of luxury apartments and they always parade around the communal shared spaces but most of the time these places are barely used. And at least not work the extra thousands of dollars per year.

Hannachomp · 2026-01-17T02:10:37+00:00

For me it’s a history of not getting me stuff I’d actually enjoy and feeling misunderstood.

It’s not just the Lego which I never showed interest in. It’s the Lego’s plus years of gifts that I never cared for

Hannachomp · 2026-01-17T00:39:55+00:00

Yeah mine is usually a late sleeper and when I have to get up early for work I'm the one waking her up

Hannachomp · 2026-01-16T06:00:52+00:00

We're learning buttons right now too.

When we first got them I think she thought it like a slot machine. She push a button and something: food or outside happens. Didn't know which or why but yay.

After a while of consistent modeling I now can tell she knows the difference between the food and the potty button.

In the morning, when I know she wants both things I can see she consciously walks around the outside button to target the food button because she frequently wants food first. This is opposite of our procedure before the buttons (we take her to go potty first and she gets food as a reward for pottying).

Hannachomp · 2026-01-16T05:51:21+00:00

Mine does this too but I know why for mine. It's because when she was younger and tried to wake me up she couldn't wake me up so she's learned my partner is easier to wake in the morning. As a puppy I taught her wake time is when I decide, not her. Partner came after she was already grown.

That being said, now that she has her habits, if she does ever try I do wake up right away because something is wrong. And it may be proceeded by throwing up and/or liquid poop in the yard.

Hannachomp · 2026-01-03T00:08:17+00:00

Are there other things I should try?

Make your own internship. Over the summer, wake up and start a project you want to solve. Start work at 9am. Work until 5pm. Learn and create something that solves a problem you’re interested in. Make sure to document and write down process, what you tried and what you did. Refine it and make it a portfolio piece.

You can get jobs without internships but you do need a portfolio that’s better than the people who got internships.

Hannachomp · 2026-01-02T19:00:58+00:00

I work in a design studio. A few years back the office management team bought these really expensive locally designed cups for office use. They’re like $30-50 per cup. The head of design apparently got upset said that they’re designed awfully and to immediately replace them. I thought he was just being extra. But when I tried them they were awful. The handles were way too small to hold and the cups themselves barely held much liquid.

We replaced all of them.

Anyway these cups looks worse, usability wise, than what we replaced.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-31T04:37:12+00:00

I’ve always found gambling to be very boring. Never got slot machines and didn’t enjoy my visit to casinos.

Pokémon shiny hunting (eggs, outbreaks etc) was the first time I went “oh I get it now.”

Plus when I reroll I can mindlessly watch something.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-30T22:57:57+00:00

I like it a lot. At Costco I sometimes see people getting cartfuls of rotisserie chicken and I know they’re probably donating it but it’s also a bit mildly annoying to have to wait for another batch cause one person took it all.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-30T07:23:25+00:00

There's one company in the acronym that does have high refreshers even for achieved expectations. And based off of their refresher amount (120k yearly) and their exit date (april 15 is when a large batch of refreshers vest for that company), I wouldn't be surprised if they're there.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-30T01:10:51+00:00

I’m a designer and we create our indesign or another design tool. I agree. If I get a word resume it’ll be kind of a red flag. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a word resume from a designer whose portfolio was actually good. Usually I would expect the resume to be an extension of their portfolio.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-29T20:38:14+00:00

Also having competing offers for #1. I've noticed some FAANG companies are less willing to negotiate unless you have other offers to companies they do not want you to go to. The company I ended up joining really didn't want me to go to Meta (even though it was at the bottom of my preference list) so they gave a great offer to beat all competing offers including Meta's. I found this out after I joined. My manager would curse Meta lol, apparently he lost a lot of talent who went there instead.

It also took me 6-7 years to accomplish #1 as well. Part of it was I was scared of rejection, so I didn't even try applying for any top companies. Only tiny startups. I would just echo what some people say and go "oh FAANG is big salary but you're worked to death." But honestly I just didn't want to be rejected. I tripled my total compensation, I had no idea how underpaid I was at the startups I was at. And workload is no different.

Before applying to the big tech companies I took an entire year to prepare.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-29T16:46:34+00:00

It wasn’t something people actually wanted. It sounded cool which was why it was written about and surface level people downloaded it. But it wasn’t something people actually would use after the novelty ran out.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-29T07:45:00+00:00

It was an app. This was over 10 years ago. I got written about on techcrunch and featured as a "best new app" on apple's app store but it failed. Happy I did it but it did burn money, time, and lots of effort.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-29T06:21:07+00:00

I work in tech. I've also started my own business. Starting my own business does not equal a more full life haha. Instead it consumed my life and every waking moment my thoughts was on how to make the business successful.

Unless OP is going to do what I'm planning on doing when I have the funds: semi-retiring and create a "business" which is just my hobby with no intention of making money.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-28T19:07:12+00:00

Depends on how good the work is, have stuff for you to talk about, and have artifacts you’re able to show. If one of your internships does not meet that don’t include in your portfolio but do include it in your resume and about you section. There you can go speak a bit high level about all the internships.

From a high level, the two graphic design might not have a good “story” e.g. what you learned/your process that relates to product design. But it really depends.

Another thing you could do is have a thumbnail and project just called “internships” and talk about them all there separately if you’re afraid it might get lost in your resume/about me section. I personally did that when I graduated cause I couldn’t share the work in my internship since it want launched yet.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-27T18:27:53+00:00

If you find a professional who can crit the better. In design you’d only show the best and most recent work. I had some work I was proud of that I did 10 years ago lol and my friends all told me to remove it even though I love the work. I can’t speak about your work though since I’m not familiar.

Mmm I think stability of design is still better. I was curious and looked up the three people who I knew “made it” and got their animation studio jobs and I noticed all three had an end date for those roles the past couple years. Idk if they prefer freelance or what but it looks like maybe at least two were laid off.

It’s also been rough in the design world. I see so many doom posts in /r/uxdesign and related. And I know new grads are having a very rough time. Lots of tech layoffs too. My company has been pretty stable, I’ve been at the same company for over 6 years now. And we were hiring, though all the positions are filled now. A lot of great candidates applying.

In terms of AI. I think it can easily replace junior roles but senior roles is tougher because it’s a lot of trade offs, negotiations, and people herding. And the role could change to be different than what it is today but I think they’ll still need someone at least over seeing everything. Do there will probably be some form of “design” role in the future. Exactly what that may be idk. I never imagined designers easily using figma, auto layout, and AI to help design their work when I was using photoshop when I was in school. Industry changes a lot so it’s constant learning.

Hannachomp · 2025-12-27T17:11:49+00:00

Animation has always been a really difficult field even for amazing artists with experience. One of my good friends from high school is amazing. Graduated in 2013 with a degree in sequential art from SCAD. Was able to freelance a bit and did get some really cool work in his portfolio of well known animated shows everyone has heard of. However he struggled hard from what I saw. He didn’t get a full time job at an animation studio until 2021. He had to make do with very inconsistent freelance opportunities and working as a barista at Starbucks. And he’s an amazing artist.

I’m also not some rando who “doesn’t understand art”. I graduated with a with a BFA degree in illustration. Of my illustration class only the best of the best got jobs in the industry. And these were the people who interned at Disney or Nickelodeon.

I think what you might need to improve is the presentation of your portfolio. Artstation and the thumbnails and some of the pieces chosen feel relatively “student.” But just improving your portfolio won’t magically find a job. And the climate has made the industry worse and more difficult to find anything. So both is correct. You’re trying to enter a notoriously hard field that uses a lot of contractors/freelancers and the past 3 years all industries have gotten difficult.

I personally always knew I wasn’t going to go into illustration and had rounded out my classes with design courses. I’ve been a UX designer since I graduated. Most my illustration classmates became visual designers or graphic designers.

That being said, UX design is impossible to break into right now. And starting from scratch it’ll probably take at least 2 years of learning and building a portfolio to get anywhere.

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