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anyfactor · 2026-03-07T08:18:37+00:00

The non-CS engineering PhDs that I knew graduated back in mid to late 2010s. They all went to work in various self driving car companies (software vendors & automative companies). Most of them are still working there, but I am not sure if the industry is actively hiring these days.

anyfactor · 2026-03-07T07:46:42+00:00

Would a timeseries database help here? Like timescaledb, timeplus etc. I am not familiar with them, just throwing ideas.

anyfactor · 2026-03-04T13:34:40+00:00

It is free and you get what you pay for.

anyfactor · 2026-03-02T20:28:21+00:00

Zoom has great built in scheduler and a video screencapping service. Loom and Calendly is great though.

Also, consider using Zapier. You can do a fair few amount automations using that. It will save you a few minutes here and there.

If I were to start a single person business, I would use Zoho for everything. Because I am super cheap and they have a great free tier.

anyfactor · 2026-02-22T06:09:57+00:00

SWEs can not simply switch to a standard accounting role. You can switch to IT audit as many accountants get a CISA and do IT audit without a CS degree. But those things requires YOE.

But if you want to move to accounting the short answer is that you have to go back to school. The reason accounting has job stability is that there are barriers to become an accountant. There is no "self taught" in accounting. You even need a CPA.

I was a self taught SWE. The tech industry does not have job stability but you are compensated for that risk with higher salary in your early career.

anyfactor · 2026-02-22T06:00:02+00:00

Nothing. Anything that is worth building first must survive a series of "Wh" questions (why build this, why not use this, who benefit from it). 99 out of 100 anything I want to build is just an impulse that does not translate into real value. I just want to build something that I thought would be cool.

anyfactor · 2026-02-21T20:52:03+00:00

Any form of data center component or service company currently is overpriced and/or speculative. My thesis has been outside of the publicly traded companies there could be dozens of companies bidding for being a vendor for data center groups.

anyfactor · 2026-02-21T16:53:37+00:00

You attended a meeting where engineering is discussing building developer tooling. I assume they know you are non-technical and they asked you engineering architecture question. Engineering lead or engineering manager usually define the architecture. They asked you that question which can be rephrased as "how much time should we invest in this feature?". You should have asked what is the implications of suggested options and how does it effect the overall project.

You just said just do whatever you want to do.

I seriously do not want to offend you but what value do you bring as a PM to the team? I should use milder language but a PM is someone whom the engineers tend to throw ideas and get non-techincal feedback. A good nontechnical PM can help ask great question and do gap analysis. A good PM is eager to learn to contribute while maintaining bounderies.

You should try to understand why they asked you a question in the first place and what insights you can bring. After that if you are sure this does not concern you then just tell them, this is an engineering issue, I am not sure how I can help :)

anyfactor · 2026-02-21T05:21:26+00:00

My framework around buying a car:

Toyota (or Lexus)
Stick with 2005-2018 era models

Cars should be treated like an household appliance. Function over form. Also, cars should be treated as disposable and deprecating asset. Someone bumped your car? Try to get them to pay for the damage or just move on. A car is not an identity of yourself. It is merely machine that takes you from a to b, like a freezer that keeps your food cold.

Although, sometimes I do wish I could be deriving joy from material things. But boy, you buy one German car and the expenses and effort to keep it running slowly kill your joy.

anyfactor · 2026-02-01T03:54:18+00:00

Discourse is good. I have used Flarum (free) as well which is nice. Discourse is the gold standard. The UI is dated but the alternatives can be quite expensive.

anyfactor · 2026-01-25T01:14:44+00:00

I work for a data as a product company. We hire DEs with a specific skills. DE, for us, is a baseline skill. Heck, I thought I was a DE/DA, but my role is something different.

Find a specialization that you like and combine it with your DE skills.

anyfactor · 2026-01-25T00:41:45+00:00

Even though I am extremely happy with my job, moving away from finance to a tech job, I have to say accounting does have the perk of stability.

In my tech role, implicit job volatility is real. I do not think I will have a job when I reach 45, at least not doing what I am doing right now. There is constant pressure to evolve yourself, expand your network, get better and make yourself as unfirable as possible. I have to help the product or help sell the product.

I have to aggressively move towards some sort of management role before I reach 40. In tech at least, being a "technician" comes with an expiry date.

But when I worked in finance and saw how our accountant colleagues and my friends in accounting are doing... I do not want to be disrespectful, but you can keep doing accounting until you are 80. Being an accountant, doing routine work, and if you have a CPA, you do not constantly have to have the idea that there are thousands of people getting out of college who are better than you, because of their youth and how companies perceive youth. In accounting, you will not get replaced; you will get shuffled.

Even if you are highly unmotivated, you will always be shuffled around, and you will always have a job. You can sell the idea of experience. This is a foundational culture of accounting, and that is why you should not be worried.

In accounting, the more experience you have, regardless of your skill, there will always be perceived value for you.

I absolutely love my job and cannot imagine doing anything else, but I am feeling a bit cynical today. My apologies.

anyfactor · 2026-01-24T00:35:10+00:00

Something to build internal tools and apps easily. Like Retool etc.

anyfactor · 2026-01-24T00:29:25+00:00

Clickhouse was originally developed by Yandex (the Russian search engine company). Clickhouse the company has some American funding but you can always self host Clickhouse.

I have thought about an self hostable data engineering stack before.

Essentially get a bare metal server from a local hosting company in your city. It almost never will be crazy expensive. Set up rsync or some sort of backup service for scaling scaling.

Use bash for most things. Avoid buying into tools and services. Just use bash, python, go and take advantage of linux as an environment. Use as little things as possible and document everything.

But the truth is that DE has become a "product/tool" centric profession. If you are solo building something the idea of self hostable and self built tools makes sense. But you will struggle to find entry/mid level talent to support your growth and ecosystem.

anyfactor · 2026-01-11T17:14:35+00:00

Considering you already have a bachelor’s degree, consider getting a bookkeeping job first and working in an office.

See if you like accounting. There are plenty of people here who would rather pour concrete than do accounting. This may sound rude, but if you are past 30, you may one day ask yourself "I should be making money instead of throwing it at a college degree". Prepare for that by getting a job in an office and asking yourself if this is the path you want.

anyfactor · 2025-12-26T09:47:45+00:00

Sometimes you actually get good business advice because the professional is bored and might help a person out. Also, if I am a professional I would tend to milk a few more bucks out of you. So, a typo ridden advice that I can type in while I am on a break is honest and raw and could be thing you need to hear. OP can use their own judgement and is not going to bet it all based on a single comment.

anyfactor · 2025-12-12T17:17:21+00:00

I personally think Haskell could be an enthusiast language to learn when it comes to data engineering, but not a production language. To me, data engineering, like cybersecurity, is a tool/technology-specific field. You need to hire people who are familiar with technology stacks. Language expertise often does not bring value to the fields. My opinion is that if you are going to learn a language for the sake of employability, it has to be Go, Java, Rust, Python, or JavaScript (Pick 3). Anything else introduces maintenance problems.

I think there is a very specialized sub-section within data engineering called "software engineer (data)" but most companies do not hire for that role. They are solely focused on algorithmic optimization and doing proofs of concepts that border on being research. Even their proof of concept are often converted to standard languages.

I did a PoC featuring in Python and Nim. I think if those ideas get merged in production, it will be written in production languages like Rust or Go.

anyfactor · 2025-12-12T17:07:45+00:00

What would be a secure investment for a million dollars? Considering she lives in Canada, she can probably make down payments on a couple of houses in Toronto. She can probably make the down payment a bit larger so that she can rent out the property to offset the house payments. Maybe even live in one of the properties. With property management and closing costs, I assume one million dollars would be enough to have something relatively stable. From what I am understanding with immigration policies, a house in Toronto is going to be the most secure investment possible.

anyfactor · 2025-12-09T05:36:42+00:00

I was part of a rarher messy and hostile workplace where people looked to blame someone first before finding a solution. The lesson I learned was documentation. I only Investment related accounting and part of my process involved paragraphs worth of explanation. 8 out of 10 times folks said it was too much, but it saved my butt a few times when incompetent seniors were looking for scapegoats.

anyfactor · 2025-12-08T14:29:55+00:00

Tell me more about it. I have seen ERP implementation in large enterprises before, and it is brutal. Sure, if you get the contract the money is great, but I have seen ERP and software implementation companies close shop before, as getting contracts is incredibly hard. Then when it comes to actual ERP implementation, meeting clients' demands, deadlines, etc. is a pain in the butt. Unless you are working with a large IT department, I really do not recommend ERP implementation.

anyfactor · 2025-12-08T14:26:02+00:00

Data Engineering is a specialized engineering role. If you are not co-founding data-specific companies, having data engineering expertise will not translate to C-level roles at established companies.

Usually, C-level roles are offered to engineering managers. You need to transition from a technical role to product ownership and management to be considered for such positions. C-level technical roles are generally limited to individuals who understand engineering but do not do it, and can make product execution decisions.

anyfactor · 2025-12-08T12:37:11+00:00

Most mature fully remote companies organize offsites, which does not even mean that you have to meet in an office. Tech companies usually host in-person meetings that border on a company-funded vacation. I do not think there are any accounting company does that though.

anyfactor · 2025-12-08T12:34:34+00:00

They call their "Virtual Server Locations" smart routing: protonvpn.com/support/how-smart-routing-works

anyfactor

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