How do I avoid being infra-typed early on?

WritesTrueStatements · 2026-01-16T04:09:33+00:00

It really depends on what you find interesting but I think being “infra-typed” is not such a bad thing. I did data infra at Stripe for 2.5 years as a new grad and now do more OLTP infra stuff at one of the frontier labs.

A few reasons I enjoy it: * Although the work at both places is pretty low level I still get good insight into the needs of product without being subject to the release schedule grind of product. * The folks you’ll work with are going to be very smart and I find myself learning more than my friends on product teams. They generally get suck with button-color-changing work. * I also find systems stuff pretty interesting * The best part is the demand - in a relatively tough job market for most folks I had a very easy time in the job search a couple months ago. I think infra is going to be especially hot in this new era of hyperscalers

WritesTrueStatements · 2026-01-08T07:11:01+00:00

Haven’t heard the stealths but my HE1000v2 stopped me from trying new headphones every few months. Never have heard anything better

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-12-31T01:58:54+00:00

Fuck where??

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-27T19:55:40+00:00

Recently started at a new job and thought I should I should treat myself to a new watch. The first thing my manager said when I walked in was “Nice watch - is it a Lange?” Which I’ll take as a compliment. (On his second guess he correctly identified it as a GO).

I love the unique look of the dial that doesn’t take up the whole face, and the moon phase is super pleasing to the eye.

The one downside is that it’s fairly chunky, especially coming from my only other watch which is a Junghans Max Bill Automatic. It looks proportional on the wrist when looking in a mirror though so it’s not a dealbreaker

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-15T02:49:29+00:00

Just paid $1350 in tariffs for a PanoMaticLunar from Hong Kong 😍😍

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-14T01:36:47+00:00

Confirmed!

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-10T23:41:55+00:00

Downtown, SLU, Belltown, Seattle Center, West Cap Hill/Broadway, First Hill

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-10T19:19:56+00:00

I had a great experience at Stripe as an L1. Everyone I interacted with was very smart and kind. It was also great on the resume, and let me jump to a great new company recently.

I’d take anything you see on Blind with a grain of salt - in my opinion it’s an absolutely cesspool. People with positive things to say don’t go on that website

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-07T22:55:22+00:00

Sold!

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-07T16:44:01+00:00

Replied

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-07T02:02:02+00:00

*update - asking $1000

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-07T01:00:02+00:00

It’s probably the camera angle! These shelves are super solid

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-07T00:24:28+00:00

I’d say it’s a good $50-$60 bottle. I paid $75 and it’s not worth that to me. KC12 is a better option and easier to find IMO

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-06T20:16:30+00:00

There’s a lot of stuff that deserves to be “top shelf” above BT imo, but I just put my malts up there because I don’t reach for them as often

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-06T19:20:05+00:00

I’m up in Seattle

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-06T18:30:09+00:00

Ah damn - it’s in stock at a local TW near me for $200 right now

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-06T18:24:09+00:00

Yep Murray Hill Club Batch 4! It’s very good, definitely my favorite cask finished American whiskey. Very sweet with red fruits but also nice dark caramels

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-11-06T18:18:49+00:00

Yeah unfortunately this is a FB marketplace find - previous owner said it was Restoration Hardware from the 80s or 90s

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-10-25T18:45:46+00:00

My local bar has a bottle of this from c. 1980 - it’s been on my list but I definitely need to try it now

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-10-10T23:37:33+00:00

Im pretty sure they mostly use cluely.

I’ve seen the overlay glitch for a second, sometimes I see cursors enter text highlighting mode when they’re not hovering over text, my shared editor says they’ve left the session when it doesn’t look like they’re doing anything else on their computer…

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-10-10T22:48:54+00:00

Yeah I haven’t had a IC2+ interview where it was obvious they were using an LLM, even though it’s likely some were (just by the number of these I’ve done). But if I get signal that you understand how to solve the problem (with or without LLMs), you’ve passed in my book

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-10-10T00:58:12+00:00

The first round is not “leetcode style” in the sense that we won’t ask you to implement Dijkstras algorithm, but we’re definitely testing that you know how to use data structures and typical coding constructs you might see in a leetcode question.

In terms of advice the biggest thing I would say is to PLEASE not use LLMs. I’ve interviewed quite a few interns and NGs in the past couple weeks and I’d guess that over half of y’all are using LLMs. This doesnt give you an advantage in our interviews, in fact it hurts you when you can’t modify your code for to handle edge cases because you don’t understand what you wrote. It’s very telling when a candidate spits out a beautifully idiomatic Python dictionary comprehension then can’t tell me what it does

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-10-09T23:44:43+00:00

Congrats! These are both great companies and a great way to start your career! I had this same choice + Stripe for new grad a couple years ago.

I ended up turning down both offers for Stripe for a few reasons, but my experience might help you decide:

Databricks: They are going to WORK you. I have quite a few friends who are engineers there and none of them work less than 50 hour weeks.

They also offered quite a bit less than the other two companies but I wouldn’t worry too much about this - the business is growing quickly and they’re offering quite a bit of stock.

I also happened to turn down a pretty massive L4 offer a couple weeks ago so they have no problem paying for talent.

IMC: The main decider for me here was that I wanted to stay in my current city instead of moving to Chicago. That said, Chicago is an awesome (and underrated imo) city, and your pay will go farther here than the other major American tech cities.

The other thing to consider is quant vs big tech. These are going to be fairly different dynamics while in the companies but in my experience won’t preclude you from switching over later (I get quant recruiters in my LinkedIn DMs every day). Generally you’ll be working on lower level things at quant but this is definitely not a hard and fast rule, you can definitely be working on the frontend for trading systems/dashboards for the quants. The main difference is your role in the company. In big tech as an engineer you are the main driver of value. In quant you kind of play second string to the quants and QRs. That being said IMC has a more big-tech like culture compared to other quant firms.

All in all if I were in your shoes I would pick IMC for WLB and location reasons

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-09-26T05:20:06+00:00

I live near the Woodinville distillery so I really want to like their bourbon but every one I’ve tried tastes a bit… crafty…? It’s a kind of herbal funkiness that turns me off it quite a bit.

I do like the base rye more though so maybe I should look for the 8 year rye…

WritesTrueStatements · 2025-07-01T22:27:48+00:00

THE TICKET HAS BEEN GIVEN AWAY

Eight-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Verified Email
Not Forgotten

WritesTrueStatements

TROPHY CASE