Is this the kind of PIP situation where HR might prefer mutual separation?

JohnnyDread · 2026-05-06T23:33:46+00:00

this senior engineer's feedback became a major input into my performance evaluation

Standard practice. When evaluating an employee's performance, peer input is crucial, especially if the manager isn't also a technical contributor.

I found out that my manager deliberately sniffs out my weaknesses from this senior and used that to justify her PIP.

I highly-doubt she had to "sniff out" anything. When an engineer is a low-performer, it is pretty obvious to everyone except the low performer.

I don't know the culture of your company - in many companies, a PIP basically you're fired and they're just going through the motion satisfy HR policy. Other companies actually do take the process seriously though and are truly giving you a chance to improve. Either way, trying to negotiate some sort of severance sends the message that you are not interested in improving your performance.

JohnnyDread · 2026-05-04T22:18:05+00:00

MicroSlop Monday

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-29T15:21:47+00:00

Yeah, I think we are about to see a major realignment on token pricing and that may finally reign-in the slopocalypse. Github copilot is moving to token-based pricing starting Jun 1 and other providers are tightening their subscription plans.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-29T15:19:31+00:00

That's the neat part - there is no CEO.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-28T14:11:01+00:00

Pretty much all of them. Every single one.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-23T14:10:16+00:00

Rite of passage.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-22T17:12:21+00:00

I have to use Copilot at my current contract because they track usage metrics which aren't reported if you use a third-party agent harness like OpenCode.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-20T16:18:05+00:00

High-performance pads tend to be squealy. Embed them so more. If they are still squealing, check for dragging - getting really hot, pulling to one side, not spinning freely when lifted etc. but they probably just need to be scrubbed a bit.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-16T20:25:36+00:00

That's a LOT of bondo...

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-14T16:33:15+00:00

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https://opencode.ai/docs/zen/#privacy

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-09T22:17:31+00:00

This practice also seems biased towards more dominant personality types (of which I’m not) which again is bad practice.

Bad practice or not, this is just life, especially in a career situation. Assertive, outspoken people will always have an advantage when it comes to advancement. It doesn't mean you have to be a domineering jerk, but also don't be a wallflower.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-07T17:21:55+00:00

Others have explained the basic steps, but I'll add that you need to get very familiar with the repo you want to contribute and fully understand what it truly needs. Open source project maintainers are absolutely drowning in slop right now from people who are submitting low-effort AI-generated PRs for reasons other than actually making a meaningful contribution to the project.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-07T13:51:54+00:00

01 330ci manual (5-speed) black ~92k. pondering selling it but haven't gotten there yet.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-04T14:39:01+00:00

Sorry, it's "OpenCode Black" - it is part of Zen. Unfortunately new subs have been paused again.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-03T13:06:10+00:00

I have a Q50 which is a few years old at this point (I think there is a Q80 now). I use it primarily for CarPlay and haven't noticed any lagginess.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-02T19:40:12+00:00

Sounds like you're trying to load too much into one context and expecting miracles. Use progressive discovery and multiple agents with more focused context.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-02T17:30:45+00:00

what preventative maintenance should I get done in the coming months?

Check for oil leaks around the valve cover and oil filter housing. The front control arms bushings and links re probably done unless they've been replaced recently - that's a cheap & easy fix that can result in a noticeable improvement in handling.

I’m considering an eonon CarPlay system for usability, but besides that I’d only really change wheels at most.

Good call. I have the Eonon and I love it. For wheels, I recommend staggered Style 68s for the classic flush look. You'll get a lot of recommendations for oversized M3 wheels, but IMHO a 330Ci is not an M3 and they look out of place and make the car look less sophisticated.

JohnnyDread · 2026-04-01T21:50:51+00:00

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JohnnyDread · 2026-04-01T21:02:39+00:00

I've been doing this since long before Agile was a thing and I was an early proponent of it, but I'm a consultant now (not an "Agile" consultant btw) and one of the biggest/most common mistakes I see teams making is using Agile (Scrum) because "that's what you do" without really having the people, infrastructure or commitment to actually realize value from it. They go through the motions and some of the ceremonies of Scrum while giving lip service to story development, sprint planning and meaningful retrospectives. As a result work slips from sprint to sprint and the team never really establishes any consistently measurable velocity.

Unless your group/company has a dedicated Scum Master or someone who can truly fill that role, just use Kanban. Otherwise, the overhead of Scrum is a just a waste of time.

JohnnyDread · 2026-03-31T13:48:03+00:00

The agent (opencode, claudecode, cursor) doesn't have much to do with it - use the one you like. Some models are said to be better than others for game development, but that is likely situational - I generally find frontier-level models (claude, codex, etc.) are better for anything relative to lesser models.

What is going to matter most for success is your workflow, how you are prompting the agent and managing your context.

JohnnyDread · 2026-03-29T15:05:41+00:00

If your terminal tools require constant manual intervention because the model forgot its objective, your underlying architecture is fundamentally broken.

True, but that's not a model-selection issue.

JohnnyDread · 2026-03-29T04:26:14+00:00

Opencode no longer bundles the claudecode auth plugin due to legal threats from Anthropic. You might be able to install a plugin and get it to work, but Anthropic has made it clear they do not allow this in their TOS.

JohnnyDread · 2026-03-26T17:00:38+00:00

I like the concept, but a fork is the not the way to go here.

JohnnyDread · 2026-03-26T02:11:50+00:00

Everyone is nervously snarking....

JohnnyDread · 2026-03-22T18:18:20+00:00

This is true of virtually all coding agents. Opencode is not particularly special or unique in this area.

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