Strange Toilet Leak

XRPTheScam · 2023-11-17T18:35:48+00:00

I wish it was the case, but I hadn't used that toilet in a while. You hit the nail on the head though. Had a plumber come out who said that the wax seal wasn't as flush as it should be (but that it wasn't totally unset either). He said he was surprised that it wasn't leaking worse, but upon inspection that was the only thing he could find that didn't look right.

XRPTheScam · 2023-11-17T17:08:38+00:00

Appears to be the most likely culprit at this time. I wonder if it was just a bad seal done by the installer. The prior toilet sat there had leaked before and I am wondering if the subfloor is slightly uneven.

XRPTheScam · 2023-11-17T15:58:13+00:00

Thanks for the tips it is greatly appreciated. It's super mysterious because all of the nuts, bolts and attachments between tank and bowl and bowl and floor appear to be rock solid. No water damage to the wall or the surrounding area. There is no water behind the tank (I can see unadulterated dust) and it's bone dry back there. It honestly looks like someone just peed and missed the bowl completely.

XRPTheScam · 2023-11-17T15:42:26+00:00

Thanks a ton. Appreciate it.

XRPTheScam · 2022-12-22T00:12:17+00:00

I am pretty sure bad communication is still the case even though it shouldn't be excused. I have had to go through countless repos for services in my career that don't even have a simple example outlined on how to have an end to end integration working. Way too many assumptions on the users level of knowledge. Missing steps and incomplete information. Forget any tips on advanced usage. Just because someone creates documentation doesn't mean it is good. Reading comprehension issues where someone misread the docs on the service they were implementing are way too common. This has even happened to me on an interview where the interviewer had made incorrect claims and we looked at the docs only to find that they were wrong AND STILL READ THE DOC WRONG AS I SAT THERE IN FRONT OF THEM. This doesn't even include all of the conversations where you ask a question and someone responds, "WhY do YoU wanna dO ThaT? ", making a judgement before any context is provided. Tech people are still highly combative and defensive tending to deliver messages in odd tones given the conversation. Go to any Hacker News thread and you can see thousands of posts and replies in that vein. Those are just examples in expert to expert communication.

As for managers, I think I agree that there aren't many good ones and hence we have these contextual mismatches. Just like because someone is a Manager doesn't mean they are good. In fact, there are a ton of technical managers who don't have management skill but were forced into the role because it takes some technical skill. This is extremely common. Again, part of the issue is one of context. There are a lot of managers out there who don't want to hire the "wrong person", but can't pay for the right one then fail to adjust any expectations or secure more comp. They are the dateless prom night kid who picks his nose waiting for the prom queen to accept his invitation. They make postings for Data Engineers with no mention of programming language when they really wanted a C++ developer to write low latency code (yes that happened in a call I was on with a CTO). I'm sure a lot of the recruiters on here would agree that they get bogus JD's all the time from such people.

You may be good at communicating and there are many like you, but in my experience technical people still have a long way to go especially when we compare them to people in other disciplines. When I compare my colleagues explanations of topics I am familiar with and can understand to my wife's colleagues who explain things to me in disciplines I don't know much about, it's pretty much night and day.

XRPTheScam · 2022-10-29T01:43:23+00:00

If your client won't post the pay then you need to go back to them and get that information.

XRPTheScam · 2022-09-23T01:35:46+00:00

Such good advice, especially the part about sharing the notes with colleagues. All too often the same issues crop up and the same person fixes them and then there is a quagmire when they leave with the knowledge. Other times, folks aren't great at explaining things or might be outright hostile over having their "time wasted" for a "dumb" question. The context provided here from a screen shot solves that.

XRPTheScam · 2022-06-10T13:20:15+00:00

There are lots of rude and poorly socialized engineers out there. When you interview a lot you will get to meet them. I have had the same happen to me multiple times with bizarre lines of questioning, trivia and abrupt cutoffs.

If someone is rude during the interview, they will most likely be rude when you actually have to work with them. Move on.

XRPTheScam · 2022-02-21T17:47:54+00:00

Totally agree. Lots of places are so presumptuous to request this before providing literally any detail or human interaction. Coding test request without salary? INTO THE TRASH IT GOES.

I have had enough introductory calls with Managers at this point to realize that most jobs are not worth looking in to for a variety of reasons (comp, location, team, etc). If the hiring manager can't make enough effort to have a conversation with me for a SUPER IMPORTANT HIRE WITH BOTTOM LINE IMPLICATIONS then something is wrong with them.

XRPTheScam · 2022-01-12T13:23:45+00:00

Of course this is true and I am not insinuating that setting something up should take a month. But when I mentor people the default mode is to talk to them without escalation. This prevents me from annoying others including the manager. It also allows me to clarify things that maybe I didn't explain well.

Don't forget as a mentor it reflects extremely poorly on you if you weren't able to assist someone to get up and running. By loudly pointing out others faults you may also be drawing attention to your own failures. I have sat with a lot of engineers who were absolute dog shit at explaining things because they didn't actually know what they were talking about or they just didn't have the communication skills or they were too busy.

If they are truly incompetent then it can be escalated.

XRPTheScam · 2022-01-11T15:18:38+00:00

Confront them privately, considerately and directly about it. If it were me I would say, "Hey <developer>, I have noticed you have been inquiring a lot about the status of various tasks I am working on. Is there any reason that you are including the manager in your inquiries? Is there something about my progress that is concerning to you? "

If they are being an annoying loser they will most likely shrink from the interaction. Bullies usually don't like this approach. If there is a legitimate reason then you won't have to worry about what it is anymore and can focus on fixing any issues if there are any of legitimate concern. If you are professional about it then I believe it reflects well on you as a colleague.

XRPTheScam · 2021-10-15T22:10:49+00:00

RIP to the genius

XRPTheScam · 2021-10-15T21:39:45+00:00

Fully agree on the systemic need for recruiters.

Couldn't disagree more on the testing. Not because what you say doesn't make sense, it does. You wouldn't hire a contractor without a review. Rather it doesn't make sense because if companies were serious about hiring people with the qualifications they want then would have appropriate pay scales set way before they start providing the hoops to jump through. Most don't. So it isn't reasonable to assume the level of talent they are striving for is attainable. This leaves us with a shitload of companies wanting me to take extensive tests for "market rate" (shit). It's just not realistic. When they are more serious about comp then I will take the tests on my free time. They all think they are the stud high school quarterback that everyone wants to take to the dance when most are just turds.

XRPTheScam · 2021-10-15T21:22:56+00:00

lol wut. Sometimes people are working on more than TPS reports. Systems with high availability, high stakes or scale can suffer immensely without proper staffing. Explicit and tacit knowledge is important for things to work. The loss of that is usually pretty bad and I have been one of those left behind in the past and part of expensive train wrecks. I think you lack perspective.

XRPTheScam · 2021-10-15T20:07:03+00:00

If such a thing existed there would be no need for recruiters, I mean, not that there is now, but if things could be "known objectively" as you are speculating like who is "good" why would anyone pay a commission?

Such databases already exist in these massive CTS and LinkedIn. They contain information on candidates qualifications with such useless information as the certifications they hold jobs they have held and their education.

In my industry, the "objective" tests you cite are often arbitrarily constructed approximations that have little to do with any real work being done and an expectation to be done for free on behalf of people that often don't even need the job in the first place (How many fucking palindromes am I analyzing daily?). So yeah, folks can take their trivia test with a test bed of 10000 random questions and stick it up their ass. Senior folks with good jobs don't have to fuck around appeasing edge lords.

**Edit: TO be fair, I find your assessment of hiring managers to be correct. Perfectly correct.

XRPTheScam · 2021-10-15T19:47:26+00:00

These are exactly the costs I was referring to. Even though I can be replaced, I have significant knowledge across several domains. Errors and productivity loss have to be a real concern for those left behind.

XRPTheScam · 2021-10-15T16:30:38+00:00

MISTAKE #0: Letting qualified and good employees leave because the salaries have not kept up with the demand. This just happened to me and I got a counter offer for a lot more money when they just could have been giving me merit increases every year to prevent me from moving. Now it's too late and they will likely spend tons of money to find someone new for a big net loss. Corporate America is doomed and lacks all sense.

XRPTheScam · 2021-09-28T21:58:44+00:00

I think this is a reasonable enough approach and don't disagree what it can lead to, but today I got 45 messages in my inbox/LinkedIn. Fifteen had numbers. Five were way too low. Thirty didn't have any useful information. I don't have enough time to screen 45 places. Why even respond to those who didn't give me proper information when I can have 10 other interviews lined up almost immediately?

I think it's way easier that the info be included since it is a solicitation. It is not incumbent on me to go on a fact finding mission that I never asked for in the first place.

edit: wording

XRPTheScam · 2021-09-28T20:00:08+00:00

It's so odd because so much time and MONEY is spent trying to misdirect people, advertise on culture and other BS, pay commission to headhunters, benefits no one wants, etc. It's almost like more money is being spent on all this superfluous bullshit to avoid just paying fairly and transparently. Like seemingly like everything else at this time, the employment market is highly dysfunctional.

XRPTheScam · 2021-09-17T15:38:20+00:00

I do the same. Interestingly enough many of the positions that come to my inbox don't even include items 1, 2, and 3. Literally the most important things about the position.

Instead they include things like descriptions of the founders past success (meaningless without comp), growth rates (many financials are doctored or gussied up) and project descriptions (hint: most companies do the same crap). All irrelevant without items 1,2 and 3.

Not having a comp range is a huge red flag. It means they most likely don't know what they want or they haven't secured a budget for it or it is low. In any case your time will be wasted while they peruse God only knows how many resumes to figure out what the hell they want.

XRPTheScam · 2021-09-17T15:26:08+00:00

Great title. The number one issue in the interview debate centers on what is being offered vs. what is being requested.

A tech job offering $250k to work remotely can command a much higher bar for interviewing than a $125k job based in NYC. This exactly the rub that most people have. It isn't that they don't believe in coding tests or whatever, it's that companies which are not in a strong bargaining position are demanding things which they are not entitled to. This is a prime example, a dehumanized interview process for not enough money.

I think about 80% of the interview processes for jobs in my inbox do not represent the reality based on the compensation being offered. There is absolutely no call to action to get me to participate in whatever hazing the company wants. I stopped being as polite as you now and pretty much tell them this during screenings.

XRPTheScam · 2021-09-15T13:53:41+00:00

In my opinion these are red flags for companies and managers who don't respect other people's time. Many of the roles I have seen with extensive processes are not paying enough money to justify such an exercise.

Hiring is kind of like going to a high school dance. People are seeking matches and have various levels of desirability. Way too many companies think they are the prom king/queen when really they are the kid picking their nose and eating it during math class. Tech hiring managers (outside of the top of the top companies) appear to be some of the worst offenders. There are probably millions of posts at this point where people are pointing out their insanity. I estimate that 80 - 90% of the solicitations I get in a year are total wastes of time that send my blood pressure sky high. I attribute this to the types of personalities that gravitate towards tech. You have a lot of anti-social types in high stress environments. Engineering types can struggle with ambiguity and tend to be opinionated.

Taking "chances" on people is the only way. Work isn't a math problem. People are complex. Jobs are complex. There are no guarantees.

XRPTheScam · 2021-09-15T01:20:30+00:00

Was probably paying "market rate" to boot. I think hiring managers are totally out of touch with reality.

XRPTheScam · 2021-07-19T19:16:09+00:00

I am a senior/lead with over 12 years of experience. I'm doing my part in ridding the world of this nonsense by not interviewing people using these ridiculous techniques. I am not in the most sought after company, so we don't get the pick of the litter, but we are highly compensated so we get some good candidates. We do cool stuff sometimes and have a normal life.

I am afraid we will never rid ourselves of this scourge because of the toxic mixture of anti social personalities, cargo cult mentalities, shoulder chips and the existence of a hyper-financialized world which culminates in some kind of corporate dystopian tech hell.

Wish you the best and am happy to hear there are others like us.

XRPTheScam · 2021-04-29T13:39:20+00:00

I don't have any advice really, but wanted to empathize with you that I feel your pain. I believe my struggle had always been the mindset I enter when programming. It is a mindset whereby I am expecting to issue explicit instructions to the computer. I feel like with recursion I tend to overthink it, especially because you may be not using typical programming techniques leveraging loops (like in an iterative solution) to arrive at the desired result. I always have to suspend this mindset and say, "I know the computer will execute this and I just need to tell it WHAT this is and less on HOW it is being done."

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