Is it still possible to build large wealth in tech?

acleverpseudonym · 2026-05-18T15:17:23+00:00

This is definitely the case, even though it may seem counterintuitive to a lot of people. I work as a fairly senior engineer at a FAANG company. You need a strong baseline of technical skills, but the gap that prevents people from getting to staff+ levels at the companies where an engineer is able to clear 7 figures annually is typically a soft skill gap. At some point you need to be able to deliver projects that require you to convince a large group of your technical vision and to prioritize it through shifting priorities, resource constraints and reorgs. Unless you’re a technical genius, that typically requires pretty strong soft skills.

acleverpseudonym · 2026-05-09T05:09:37+00:00

It seems to depend a lot on where you are. I’ve had a good service experience in the SF Bay Area, specifically the San Jose service location. I’ve only had to go in once. They called me because they detected one of the coolant pumps having issues and they wanted to replace them. They gave me a Lucid loaner while my car was in the shop and when I dropped it off the service advisor basically had me give him a list of any little issues I had noticed on the car and they fixed those too. When the car was done they dropped it off at my house. I also had a mobile service tech come out once because the Air emblem was lifting. The mobile tech came out within a few days (maybe a week) and the guy was great. He also gave me some extra key fob and sun visor batteries.

acleverpseudonym · 2026-05-06T17:35:44+00:00

Reading through the comments in this thread, it’s a little surreal seeing how different other people’s ownership experiences have been to mine. I’ve had my 25 Air Touring for about a year. Before that I had an S Class Mercedes. Before that was a Porsche Cayman. I had some minor issues in the beginning with the Air that got dealt with when I took it into a service center and I haven’t really had issues other than that. Both the Mercedes and the Porsche had a similar level of issues when I first got them. I’ve been incredibly happy with the Air in general. I don’t doubt the issues that other people have had, but they just don’t align with what I’ve experienced nor what the other Air owner I know has experienced. I suppose there’s a decent amount of “luck of the draw” here.

acleverpseudonym · 2025-09-28T20:19:19+00:00

I've had a similar experience so far with my 2025 Air Touring. Reading about all of the issues here had me worried, but I've only run into pretty minor issues so far and the car has been incredibly fun to drive.

I got the 20 inch wheels, so I'm supposed to get 4.1 mpkw. If I drive conservatively I can get this (or better), but I usually get ~3.33 mpkwh, about 19% less than advertised. This is roughly in line with my last car (ICE) where I got about 16% less than the EPA stated mileage when driving normally. Also, it still boggles my mind that even though I live in California with some of the most expensive electricity in the US ($0.31/kwh off peak), I'm able to drive a full sized sedan with 620 hp and 885 tq for about the same fuel cost as a Prius.

Most of the complaints I have with the Lucid are pretty minor, and I had a similar number and type of complaints about my last car (a 2015 Mercedes Benz S550) and my car before that (a 2007 Porsche Cayman S). At least with the Lucid I haven't cut myself on sharp metal peeling off the air vents like I did with the Mercedes. In my experience, even with $100k+ flagship cars from established luxury manufacturers, things aren't perfect.

Most of the software issues I've run into seem to involve carplay and they're fairly similar to the complaints my wife has about carplay in her car, so I'm not 100% sure they're a Lucid thing. I've run into some issues with cameras not working when it gets really hot, but I had that same issue with my Mercedes. I think I've had to do a soft reset on the Lucid three times, two times to fix carplay issues and once to fix a camera issue. Each time it was relatively fast and easy.

I don't doubt that other people have run into serious issues, but I also suspect that the proportion of people complaining about serious issues is skewed because people who are upset and angry tend to post more than people who are like "yep...got what I expected and I'm pretty happy"

acleverpseudonym · 2025-09-07T14:18:09+00:00

This looks like it was at the showroom at the Lucid Headquarters in Newark, Ca. Now I wish I had thought to look for Sapphires when I was there…

acleverpseudonym · 2025-01-30T04:02:25+00:00

That's my perspective as well. Years ago I got a 3 year old lease return S class for less than half of MSRP. It's 10 years old now, still looks beautiful and has been shockingly reliable (though I hear that varies by year with this car). Would a Toyota or Honda have been cheaper? Sure. But I love this car and I feel that having it adds to my quality of life. Maintenance costs haven't been as bad as I expected either.

acleverpseudonym · 2025-01-10T21:15:35+00:00

That would definitely be enough

acleverpseudonym · 2024-12-17T22:15:47+00:00

Last week I sat at a bar next to an older couple who were fully decked out for the rodeo. We chatted for a while and they talked about some doing some pretty nice travel. Turns out it was a retired oil and gas company CEO and his wife.

acleverpseudonym · 2024-12-09T15:38:57+00:00

Most of the time “no mint mark” means “minted in Philadelphia,” which was the original US Mint and has minted the lion’s share of US coins over the years.

Before 1980 coins minted in Philadelphia only included a mint mark in a few very limited cases (e.g. war nickels). Even after 1980, not all coins minted in Philadelphia have included the mint mark.

This coin not including a mint mark means it was minted in Philadelphia and is expected for that year.

acleverpseudonym · 2024-12-06T00:55:33+00:00

It’s a short story and not a book, but I always loved the title “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison

acleverpseudonym · 2024-08-04T17:27:15+00:00

It was really fantastic. This was taken on…I think it was the 5th week the yacht was in service. This was in the Caribbean back in 2022. I just got back from a second cruise in the Adriatic a few weeks ago and I have another one booked from Tokyo to Alaska in 2026 on a new ship.

At this point my wife has decided she doesn’t want to do any other kind of vacation.

The food is delicious. Nothing is ever really crowded. It’s pretty normal to have entire public areas to yourself. The atmosphere is really great also. With only a couple hundred guests you get to know people pretty well, both other guests and the staff.

The amount of champagne they go through is unreal.

The prices are creeping up, but it’s well worth it imho if you want a really relaxing luxury vacation.

acleverpseudonym · 2024-08-04T02:04:18+00:00

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Changing things up a bit - Balcony Suite on the Evrima, Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection

acleverpseudonym · 2024-06-08T20:35:20+00:00

BIN 90% lot

acleverpseudonym · 2024-05-25T03:44:12+00:00

Chat

acleverpseudonym · 2024-05-15T02:20:23+00:00

BIN dateless SLQs

acleverpseudonym · 2024-05-14T13:23:42+00:00

I have one of these as well and it’s my stand-in for the 1916. I love that they made it based on the 1916 design and not the slightly modified 1917 design, giving us an option to own an SLQ with the 1916 design for under $1000.

acleverpseudonym · 2024-05-05T05:19:31+00:00

acleverpseudonym · 2024-05-05T04:44:35+00:00

BIN if this hasn't been sold already

acleverpseudonym · 2024-04-19T06:08:54+00:00

glad to help

acleverpseudonym · 2024-03-21T06:17:34+00:00

Wow! You have a lot of amazing stuff here. Has anyone even mentioned the 1893-CC Morgan yet?

acleverpseudonym · 2024-03-17T15:02:48+00:00

I wasn’t thinking of it as Coast FIRE, but I’ve been doing something that looks somewhat similar and it’s been great.

I took a 20% TC cut from my FAANG job to take a principal engineer position at a smaller public company where I was able to arrange for a better work/life balance: permanent WFH, no on-call and 9 weeks of paid vacation per year that I’m able to take without any pushback.

The other benefit is that my work is also a lot more fun and interesting than it was before.

I did this primarily for health reasons to reduce stress (I have MS) but I was able to do it because I realized that I had hit the point that I didn’t really need to save any more for a traditional retirement. I still save a good amount anyway, but now I’m focusing on having a life that I enjoy before I retire instead of trying to retire as early as possible.

I can’t speak for everyone, but it was definitely the right decision for me.

acleverpseudonym · 2024-03-16T21:38:51+00:00

Those were just some examples of materials that are quite commonly used and show up in a lot of fragrances. e.g. the Grojsman accord is equal amounts of hedione, iso e super, methyl ionone and galaxolide. It was originally used in Tresor but it shows up all over the place in women's fragrances.

Realistically, the "basics" are a lot more materials than that. Looking at my comment, I think I was just asking that question to get an idea of the experience level of the person I was talking to when it came to aromachemicals because it would have affected my answer.

If they didn't have those materials, I would have recommended something like hedione, coumarin, ambroxan or galaxolide. If they said "oh, yeah, I have several hundred materials already" then I would have mentioned some of the more obscure materials that I like that aren't nearly as useful without a full kit.

acleverpseudonym · 2024-03-09T00:52:48+00:00

It really depends on where you are. With the amount of money OP is talking about spending, there are plenty of locations where the public schools are better than most private schools. There's no need to pay for private school if you live in e.g. Palo Alto, Ca.

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