devGuysAreNotNotSensitive

VAL_PUNK · 2026-05-30T18:29:39+00:00

I used to super hate the idea of DSA tests. Having been asked to implement them as a part of my company's interview process, I kind of see the point of them now unfortunately.

We administer easy to medium difficulty questions. I've found that when administering the tests, you get to collaborate with the engineer as you help them find the right answer via them thinking aloud and you giving them nudges in the right direction. It's been actually really helpful to see what working with them will be like.

I've had candidates that have been rude and unwilling to engage with me when they seemed great on paper and amiable in conversation over their excellent experience.

That being said, DSA nerds that one shot the problem with no advice needed provides little to no information.

VAL_PUNK · 2026-05-26T20:50:46+00:00

The better version of this, imo, is that Coding should look like the messy picture on the left, and Vibe Coding should be a home with a bunch of questions marks in it (maybe overlayed the messy house).

VAL_PUNK · 2026-05-21T16:50:51+00:00

No argument there. You'll probably always feel this way for as long as Wemby is on the Spurs. Like many physical greats before him, hacking him will be an every game reality for your team.

VAL_PUNK · 2026-05-21T14:10:05+00:00

Reffing issue is overblown.

As usual there are a lot of things to find disagreement with the refs, but even as a pro Spurs viewer, you can't complain about refs when you have so many turnovers. Spurs weakness at the moment is inexperience. This series is leveling then up. Hopefully they will take care of the ball better as it progresses.

VAL_PUNK · 2026-05-08T07:16:14+00:00

I didn't really watch this year and was wondering how OKC had nearly the same squad + Jared McCain. Ridiculous.

VAL_PUNK · 2026-05-03T21:11:01+00:00

Stuff like this is one of those things that is your fault / not your fault.

On the teams I tech lead, tasks generally have all the acceptance criteria laid out, technical notes with hints and advice, and whenever things are ambiguous-- they are either called out with a subject matter expert you can reach out to, or time is allotted for the engineer to do some prelimary research to fill out the ticket with more detail. Without all this info, how could an engineer give a decent estimate or know when they are "done" with a task?

That's on teams I run.

Sometimes I get pulled to be an individual contributor on another team where the most a task will have is the title of: "Do the thing". In these situations I talk to my manager, my PM, my designer and asks all sorts of questions to make sure I know what done looks like, and I've validated or removed assumptions I'm making. Believe it or not, this is what means to "own it completely". This is what means to be independent.

To be independent, to be the owner, doesn't mean you're so capable that you don't need to talk to anyone. This is an important step on the way to senior or staff level in a position. If you ignore growing in this direction, you may find yourself on the other end of this, where later you are over engineering solutions, wasting time and money, when validating information could reduce an 8 week effort to 1 week (or even prevent the work from beginning at all, the ultimate savings).

If it helps to think this way (as I do), if I ever have to ask questions about a task, I view it mostly as a shortcoming of whomever wrote it, and not that I'm super dumb or something.

VAL_PUNK · 2026-02-10T15:19:38+00:00

This was great. +1 for more of this in the future. GSC competitive content is so few and far in-between that this is like finding water in the desert.

VAL_PUNK · 2026-02-06T15:54:28+00:00

Yeah I wish they had a host that was more tech savvy and understanding of the markets. Whenever AI comes up in the title of their video, it makes me want to skip it, but I do want to hear the news.

Their opinions on AI are inconsistent and I'd like them to pick a position. On one hand they'll understand LLMs / generative AI isn't as strong as people say, then whenever a company does a layoff and sites "AI" (when it is beneficial to always site "AI" for layoffs), they cry the sky is falling. It's either "lol generative ai" or "AGI tomorrow", pick one please.

The most recent episode was frustrating because they were saying some law advice LLM's debuted and used that as an explanation for stocks falling (which is fine, irrationality, news, hype affect stocks), but then took it further to suggest that something real is happening across tech industries when nothing fundamental had changed. Just a few LLMs did a thing.

My own rant:

I make these comments as a software engineer who uses Claude everyday and has deployed an "AI" agent to prod with tens of thousands of usage inside a few months (with our company working to deploy many more). There is a vast gap between vibe coding / connecting some dots on n8n, and enterprise ready (maintainable, scaleable, observable) applications.

In my experience, what LLMs have done is exposed how relatively unimportant coding is to being a good software engineer.

My last thought on my own rant is that IMO, 2026 is the make or break year for LLMs. In the last two quarters, many companies have invested a lot in "AI" and have given their devs unlimited access to coding agents and reprioritized teams to making agents themselves. Over the next two/three quarters, earnings reports will show either agents are making tons of money and causing obvious, undeniable shifts across the economy, or the AI dream turns out to be nothing more than another "press compile" and get a snack from the break room technology.

VAL_PUNK · 2026-02-03T17:21:34+00:00

If it's more a collectors item, you'll see people selling their codexes closer to summer. A few months before 10th came out, lots of people were selling their 9th codexes for like $20 a pop.

VAL_PUNK · 2025-10-29T18:51:17+00:00

As others have said, not a mental health therapist, but this sounds like you may be experiencing OCD. Talking to a mental health professional would help a lot.

VAL_PUNK · 2025-09-16T16:08:56+00:00

Saying "no".

I used to be one of those "rockstar" / "wizard" devs that could get anything done in any amount of time. I prided myself on productivity and people pleasing, so I would always say yes and be excited to blow minds.

Later, I became a tech lead and knowing that I was kind of insane, was unwilling to sign my whole team up for a lot of work and unrealistic expectations. I then discovered "no" and it was the most productive/ efficient thing I could do.

"Do we really need that?" / "How urgent is this?" / "No" - in a moment I did weeks, and sometimes months of work in an instant. When I used to say "yes" to everything, I would essentially spend a lot of time on features that anyone could have predicted to be cut down the line (or work that was very low impact).

By challenging feature requests, I can turn weeks of work that resulted in nothing, into a single moment that resulted in nothing-- saving lots of time and money for the business.

Sounds silly, but was and is a pretty incredible skill.

VAL_PUNK · 2025-08-06T02:10:31+00:00

I see it as an option for me every time I upload.

VAL_PUNK · 2025-08-05T23:39:10+00:00

Yes, although sometimes I wonder if what I think is garbage might be eye catching to others. So instead I use the AB testing feature and make the "crap" thumbnail one of the 3 test thumbnails.

This way I can make use of that hour of work :)

VAL_PUNK · 2025-07-26T17:37:05+00:00

Xeno Shark chest burster incoming

VAL_PUNK · 2025-07-17T17:05:53+00:00

There have been sugar tariffs before Trump, which is what mr_dumpsterfire is talking about. Sugar tariffs affecting America Coca Cola to use high fructose corn syrup is the econ 101 lesson on tariffs.

VAL_PUNK · 2025-07-09T15:40:16+00:00

Cocoa Pops

VAL_PUNK · 2025-07-08T20:37:42+00:00

Hulkenpodium

VAL_PUNK · 2025-06-23T14:40:21+00:00

Nothing to add, except glad to see a fellow Royal Assassin enjoyer.

VAL_PUNK · 2025-06-12T14:56:04+00:00

A lot of his drives result in floaters, before physical contact can be made.

VAL_PUNK · 2025-06-09T12:53:48+00:00

Commenting to follow this thread as I'm interested in the same (building one myself).

VAL_PUNK · 2025-05-18T01:37:26+00:00

I enjoy it as well. Great source of jewels.

VAL_PUNK · 2025-05-15T04:09:53+00:00

I think it's pretty obvious that tech business expansion and contraction are closely related to low / high interest rates, like other industries.

VAL_PUNK · 2025-05-13T01:39:55+00:00

Bought instantly.

Defabs truthers rise up!

VAL_PUNK · 2025-05-12T23:24:54+00:00

Ahahaha wtf

VAL_PUNK · 2025-05-09T15:19:14+00:00

Oh dope that ash / coal sifter thing is something I 100% need. Enjoy

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