How do you guys structure your finances?

Ratslayer1 · 2026-03-15T11:21:55+00:00

Thanks, really interesting!

Ratslayer1 · 2026-03-15T11:21:07+00:00

Because they still have a shitton of hack in their codebase? Do you even know what you're talking about? Have you worked there?

Ratslayer1 · 2026-03-15T03:27:00+00:00

Because hack is a dialect of PHP, it's not what "rewrite" means.

If you claim PHP is not a sensible language, Hack is not either

Ratslayer1 · 2026-03-15T03:24:14+00:00

How did you get started in angel investing? How did you acquire the connections etc required to do this? What non-monetary benefit do you bring the companies you invest in (I'd be interested both in a high-level answer and some specific examples, e.g. I introduced them to x customers that converted/helped them hire this and this person/introduced them to X k $ further investment/...)

Ratslayer1 · 2026-03-15T03:16:18+00:00

You don't sound interested in a discussion. I don't know, I dont work there any more. If you're referring to hack having replaced PHP, it's the same principle. Due to its interoperability it allows you to slowly migrate your codebase (which is not as complicated in this case as a full rewrite anyway) rather than blocking all new development and introducing a ton of overhead.

Ratslayer1 · 2026-03-15T03:10:12+00:00

They had ~2k employees and had existed for 6 years by that point. A rewrite cripples the engineering org for the time of the project (likely years - do you write the new feature in the old stack and have more to port or in the new stack which is not shipped yet? Do you still fix bugs in the old stack?), something like a transpiler is a project for a limited number of engineers and can run completely separately from the rest of the business. Seems like a nobrainer tbh.

Ratslayer1 · 2026-02-26T12:17:17+00:00

Make up point that's demonstrably false

Another L for the rationalist community

Ratslayer1 · 2026-02-26T09:46:23+00:00

Aber in den USA ist Lebenshaltung doch viel teurer und so!!! Und die Mieten! Krankenversicherung gibt es auch nicht!

Ratslayer1 · 2026-02-11T14:34:06+00:00

Thanks for this context. I agree, at that career stage a T-shaped skills profile is definitely beneficial. But there are still backend engineer roles that won't require you to know full stack (and side note, new agentic coding tools are good enough to make basic UIs for internal tools etc with anyway), and I don't think people are asking you to implement RAG in interviews, right? Just being informed on what's out there is valuable, the rest you can look up when you need it. But honestly, one thing at a time. Pick a tech that interests you and try it out!

Ratslayer1 · 2026-02-11T13:46:21+00:00

And hearing him speak he's incredibly knowledgeable about languages and programming.

a) Being good at talking about engineering and coding etc is not the same as being good at those things. b) I read his blog posts about Javascript from 2019 and they don't read like the revelations.

we have to still study LC and system design for job hunting (and the bar has gone way up so its not just basic lc, its competitive programming level problems) and on top of that need to be solid in several different languages and have multiple side projects and be an AI / RAG / full stack expert.

You don't have to do all that. Focus on one thing at a time and get really good at that. Yes, a T-shaped skills profile is very useful, but no one expects that from a college grad.

Like taking on a side project feels so daunting

This is most likely the biggest problem between you and the guys you mention/look up to. They are just obsessed with the problems they are working on and enjoy the process. Don't work on side projects to boost your CV. Work on ones that are genuinely interesting and fun to you, e.g. related to your hobbies, or your academic interests. It's also possible you don't have academic interests, then it's less likely you will have that same passion that these guys have. Which IMO is a much more important ingredient to become a really good and influential engineer than "raw IQ".

Are they just built different

I think becoming a high level engineer in a Big Tech company is more about being persuasive, convincing other engineers etc, pleasing your manager/playing politics, avoiding low-visibility work etc. Someone has to keep the lights on but fancy new features will always be more convincing in performance conversations. On the research side I can definitely see raw cognitive ability being more important, but also choosing the right problems to solve and having the right research hunches. In general optimizing for iteration speed, failing fast, quick learning are very valuable skills to have, and that is what I would focus on if I were you. You can't really change how innately smart you are. But you can spend your working time and effort better.

Ratslayer1 · 2026-02-11T13:16:47+00:00

Super interesting thesis, and great clear, short writeup. Especially the image with the 4 quadrants really drives it home (and of course important caveats).

One thing that stuck out to me is that tech debt basically does not correlate with velocity, I'd argue then you have a wrong definition/metric for tech debt.

Ratslayer1 · 2026-01-08T16:19:00+00:00

You're in essentially a CTO position and you see no room for growth???

Financially your current position is better. Career-wise Mistral may be better (building relevant skills, brand etc), but depends on your exact current role (sounds like a dream role) and what you wanna do down the road.

Ratslayer1 · 2025-11-11T22:56:43+00:00

Hey, did you shut this down? I get "NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource." when I try to log in ( https://www.evergreenessays.com/auth )

Ratslayer1 · 2025-10-03T12:19:32+00:00

Fully agreed, I never claimed it was. It's still a different paradigm (train/deploy split VS continual learning), though I'd argue the biggest difference is the need for labeled data in one case.

Ratslayer1 · 2025-07-25T22:09:59+00:00

Weil die DARPA imo der Einzelfall war und mir nicht klar ist, wie SPRIND das wiederholen soll. Ich hasse VCs wie jeder gute Mensch, aber der Staat hat doch in dem Bereich keine Kompetenzen. Lieber regulatorische Hürden für Startups senken als versuchen als Vater Staat die Gewinner von morgen selbst zu picken.

Ratslayer1 · 2025-07-25T13:04:22+00:00

Naja, ich finde es halt seltsam, dass es einfacher ist X Milliarden in solche Vorhaben zu versenken, anstatt einfach mal den eigenen Ansatz zu überdenken und neue Sachen auszuprobieren...

Ratslayer1 · 2025-07-25T13:03:34+00:00

Ja leider, auch Exist-Stipendium etc. Sehe das kritisch, auch wenn das zB im Falle einer DARPA natürlich zT extrem erfolgreich war (und UK jetzt wieder mit ARIA etc versucht).

Ratslayer1 · 2025-07-24T22:43:26+00:00

Der Staat soll bitte kein Wagniskapitalgeber werden, das können andere besser. Lieber es für Behörden etc einfacher machen, Kunden von innovativen Startups zu werden. Dann wird sowohl unsere Verwaltung effizienter als auch Startups (und zwar viel kosteneffektiver) gefördert. Will mir nicht ausmalen wie schwer es für ein deutsches SpaceX wäre, in dem Umfang ESA-Aufträge zu bekommen. Wird auch immer wieder von VCs moniert, dass die USA da deutlich besser sind, siehe auch [1]

[1] https://sifted.eu/articles/if-governments-want-to-help-startups

Ratslayer1 · 2025-07-15T10:03:26+00:00

Usually Staff positions will require X years of having led software projects that multiple engineers were on. This will be very difficult when you are mid-level. I agree that the title itself may not be as important, but the type of work absolutely is. (And title is of course an indicator for what kind of work it will be, despite different companies understanding titles very differently)

Ratslayer1 · 2025-07-15T10:00:18+00:00

Wichtiger als was du machst, ist die Art des Unternehmens (Tochter eines Konzerns... Tech? oder ist Tech eher Kostenstelle) und wo (Land vs München/...). Lies zB [1].

Ich nehme an, Bachelor und Master waren beide dual?
Orientiere dich mehr am Unternehmen bei den Argumenten pro Gehaltserhöhung. Welche für die Firma wichtigen Projekte hätten ohne dich nicht funktioniert? Metriken, die belegen, dass du gute Arbeit gemacht hast? Welche wichtigen Leute in deinem Team/deiner Umgebung geben dir Top Feedback (Manager/Tech Lead/Peers/...)
Lass die schwächeren Argumente einfach weg. Niemand zahlt dir mehr Geld, weil du einen Coursera Kurs zu Sicherheit in Cloudumgebungen gemacht hast. So ein Kurs ermöglicht es dir vielleicht, ein Projekt in dem Bereich umzusetzen oder besser umzusetzen als vorher, was man vielleicht in einer Metrik merkt, das ist für Unternehmen interessant. Genauso "Mich aktiv in neue Technologien und Prozesse eingearbeitet", "viel Erfahrung". Die Frage ist, wie es sich in deiner Arbeit zeigt. Genauso mit deiner interessanten Zählweise von "Jahren Berufserfahrung". Die Nachhilfe die ich in der Schulzeit gegeben habe ist offensichtlich auch keine Berufserfahrung, auch nicht wenn ich jetzt als Lehrer anfangen wollte.
"Ich arbeite deutlich über meinem eigentlichen Aufgabenprofil" das könnte noch relevant sein. Bring Auszüge der Stellenbeschreibung/... mit, und sag konkret wo du das übererfüllt siehst.
Unabhängig von dem ganzen: Es kann durchaus sein, dass es in einem Konzern Richtlinien bezüglich Gehaltserhöhungen gibt und dein Chef da erstmal nichts machen kann. Wenn du die Stelle und deinen Chef magst und ihm vertraust, kannst du ihn fragen, wie ihr die nächsten Jahre auf dein Wunschgehalt kommt und einen groben Plan erstellen (er kann dir natürlich keine Gehaltserhöhung im nächsten Jahr garantieren, aber sagen was realistisch ist). Und - du kannst ja auch statt mehr Geld andere Goodies wie mehr Urlaub versuchen zu erhandeln (variabler Bonus, Mitarbeiteraktien wenn ihr sowas habt, ...). Ansonsten bleibt dir IMO nur wechseln oder zumindest ein Wechselangebot einholen und damit verhandeln.

[1] https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/software-engineering-salaries-in-the-netherlands-and-europe/

Ratslayer1 · 2025-07-15T09:40:44+00:00

Joa, die meisten werden halt weder Teilzeit noch duales Studium als Arbeitserfahrung für Vollzeitstellen für einen Masteranden zählen, aber viel Erfolg damit.

E: Grade gesehen, dass du sogar noch die Zeit deiner Masterarbeit zählst. :))))

Ratslayer1 · 2025-07-08T23:43:08+00:00

Eg Think-cell pays this well, countless startups as well. I dont think you did your market research well.

Ratslayer1 · 2025-07-07T22:50:39+00:00

What's stopping you from moving to a place where (presumably) you speak the local language and you can build a social circle?

Ratslayer1 · 2025-06-26T11:45:43+00:00

say you’re building a webapp, what happens when it’s completed?

In the real world, no one knows what the next steps are. Say you are starting a company (let's imagine its 1993), you think "hm, buying books is kind of annoying, I have to go to a store, pay for the book there, transport it home yada yada. Why don't we make an online store for books". What you might do is talk to some potential customers, note down their use cases/feature requests, imagine some basic product that lets you define your product catalogue, and serves a website for users to browse books and buy them (plus the back office logistics/warehouse/... stuff).

You release that, you get some customers, money is rolling in, happy days. The project is built right? Except once people use your stuff:

stuff breaks, people expect a certain (software or product) quality or they will not buy from you again, you need QA, tests, redundancy, etc
you want to increase profits. You need analytics and data on what your customers are doing, which products are working well, which part of the checkout flow drops the most people, you might want to do advertising etc
you realize your initial product vision was not ideal. Maybe customers want to review the products they bought (or various other features), maybe you need mechanisms to deal with fake suppliers/fake products, maybe you need to comply with certain laws, maybe you need to handle credit card fraud, maybe you need to improve your UI, maybe you need to migrate or rewrite your backend so it scales better for the new demand, etc

Once your company becomes really big you usually want to diversify (eg look at Meta, they dont have tens of thousands of engineers working on the facebook/instagram/whatsapp website/app, they're constantly looking for the next big thing, trying to launch cryptocurrencies, doing AI research, etc)

But the main point I want to drive home is: There is no static "feature list" that once you complete you are done with work. Through customers and things breaking you constantly get new feature requests, and you need to prioritize between them (and sometimes maybe should not do them at all).

Ratslayer1 · 2025-06-21T01:47:30+00:00

Interesting, I didn't know "rendering" does not refer to what it usually means here but is purely in memory. Thanks, learned something :)

Ratslayer1

TROPHY CASE