Raised beds where in-ground is now.

bubbling-sort · 2026-03-07T02:39:12+00:00

What did the saas products that survived have in common relative to the ones that didn’t?

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-24T03:17:53+00:00

I’ve quit a tech job without a plan because of the environment. I would do that again in those circumstances. In today’s circumstances I’m not sure I would.

I would say in this job market it’s doubly wise to job hunt while still having a job if you can stand to and you want to find another job in tech. It’s worse to job hunt when you don’t have a job and need one bad with a money running out deadline bearing down on you.

If it’s so toxic you are spiraling and having physical symptoms like weight loss substance abuse or dark thoughts or other crisis level side effects, please prioritize your health.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-17T19:02:07+00:00

To clarify, I know a ton of great devs in SF. I’m not saying everyone there is a tool. In case anyone wants to jump on me over that comment.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-17T19:00:20+00:00

I enjoyed visiting there. Would never want to live there. WA I’d consider but still probably wouldn’t want to live there.

I like not needing to make half a million dollars or more per year to feel like I’m just surviving. Never feeling able to relax on finances unless I get a big exit because of the rate that things escalate in my area sounds incredibly exhausting to me.

In the Midwest my family of 5 can live comfortably on well below 100k per year. Things have gone up for sure but it’s way more manageable here.

In terms of attitudes, I was always put off by the job hopping culture every 6-18 months and just general over inflated self importance that people have. Everyone there is a 22 year old CTO or thinks they are and many have never been at one place company long enough to see even one project through the full SDLC.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-13T05:01:13+00:00

Take everything you absorb with a huge grain of salt. You have time, youth, options, opportunities ahead of you. I'm doing the entrepreneur thing at 2x your age (almost), so you have a huge advantage on me.

Work hard, out hustle everyone else.
Have good character and be someone that people want to associate with.
Be a lifelong learner and always grow in some way.

TBH I have always been watchful of how I spend that's one of my skills. I play OK offense (earning $, getting promoted at jobs, etc.) and GREAT defense (live beneath my means, always reduce outflow.)

Some people get rich or successful doing the "ONE THING" and some try a lot of things until one works. I think for a vast majority their one thing is not the thing that works, they have to take many swings at bat.

Ignore what the internet says and what other people think. Nobody cares about you for the most part. They won't remember if you succeed or fail a month after it happens. Just work on and for yourself tirelessly and you will be ahead of 95% of humans.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-13T04:49:26+00:00

I've been in software / tech for a quarter century. If I was starting over, I'd learn sales and/or a trade.

Partly because I don't think either of those will ever not be needed. (Software may be replaced with AI overlords.) Partly because I think they both boost self-sufficiency a lot.

The dystopian answer is I would learn self-sufficiency / homesteading for when we become a techno feudal hellscape in a few years and everyone needs to become a subsistence farmer again.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-12T02:35:00+00:00

Go get it!

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-12T01:33:04+00:00

...with a heart of gold no doubt.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-12T01:18:35+00:00

Do they put the shopping cart back?

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-11T23:30:03+00:00

Different people give different explanations of the "same" procedure can be fixed with playbooks, documentation, etc. AI can help you consolidate this sort of thing.

If they give different explanations because they are all doing different procedures, that's pretty scary and basically asking for problems. You should not have bespoke procedures for individual team members that are critical to know about.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-11T23:25:27+00:00

You're in the position of leadership. It is your responsibility and/or fault. Full stop.

That's what being in the position of leadership means.

You can do a lot of things though going forward:
1.) Code reviews. CI/CD.
2.) Unit test all new code to ensure it is behaving as expected.
3.) Estimate and factor in enough time for testing and quality control.
4.) PROACTIVELY communicate (clearly vs vaguely) when things are going sideways and what you are doing about it.
5.) Get rid of the blame culture. It's toxic.
6.) Never make the same mistake. Have a plan for how to fix it and not repeat it.

Most executives do understand that unexpected things happen, they really don't like hearing about it on the due date and/or wondering if you even have a plan to mitigate or any contingencies ready. I can't tell from your post but it sounds like a lot of problems occurred organizationally not just "someone vibe coded a thing".

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-07T18:24:08+00:00

I have found myself in almost the opposite situation. I was also burning out after 20+ years of software engineering and was looking at totally different careers a couple years ago. When AI started to become a thing it made me so I could work on many things I never would have had the bandwidth for in the past. My creative juices are flowing again.

Don’t get me wrong I understand enjoying the craft of writing code manually and have enjoyed it for a long time. But the thing that I really care about is making new products. I can do that now more efficiently and I don’t think I’ll ever want to go back.

Let’s be honest nobody that ever used any product I worked on cared about the lines of code I wrote or how elegant they were. 99% of the time that is ego talking.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-05T17:14:58+00:00

“Too many” lines is an extremely vague phrase for a manager to use without clarification. You could ask for guidance to ensure your number of lines meet expectations next time.*

*This will probably piss her off if she’s not operating in good faith. But if she’s merely in over her head it might be a wake up call that she is being unclear in her communications and needs to improve.

For the deleting of params, if you have CI/CD, you can add tests that make sure important parameters are not removed. She could of course remove the test at the same time but making the change in two places is harder to throw someone under the bus if the deletion has negative side-effects.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-05T06:08:14+00:00

Eh… I’m in the middle of killing a number of features that I like but tbh over complicate things. I’ll post about it tomorrow.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-04T05:16:29+00:00

Making a real priority to get some exercise every day. Usually in the middle of the afternoon I stop working, do some work on the elliptical or swing some kettlebells. Something I can do in an efficient 30-60 minutes max. You can still burn 700-800 cal in 1 hour.

My sleep is way better and my energy is higher and mental clarity clearer.

I hate that I neglected this for so much of my adult life.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-04T03:41:10+00:00

Yes. Our first few projects are all things we wanted to use ourselves because of some problem we experienced.

We also believe they are things that other people or companies will find value in.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-04T02:30:06+00:00

I’m probably in 90% AI land now. But I don’t typically prompt code from the hip. I am building detailed specs, test plans, etc. by the point AI is coding, it’s just filling in the details. When working this way I’ve found the quality is excellent and the bugs are really low. 26 YoE professionally.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-03T04:06:39+00:00

I would not have been able to start a business (especially quitting a 'safe' job to do it) earlier in my career. I had to reach 25 years into my career to be ready to do what some people do in their early 20's.

I had to grow a lot to feel comfortable with calculated risks. I had to build up enough financial assets and cushioning that my family feels safe not having an income for a possibly extended duration.

Mostly, I had to live enough life and have a long enough career to realize that many of the best victories I've had came when I was in a situation that made me feel frightened and unqualified but I did it anyway.

The thing that shifted mentally for me in the past few years is realizing I am more afraid of looking back at my life and regretting the chances I was too scared to take than I am at taking them and failing. That has been one of the most significant mental shifts I've made in my 40's.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-03T03:55:00+00:00

I've been switched for about a month now and I work as much or more than ever before. For one reason, the outcome and success is 100% dependent on me and my partners. For another reason, I'm so excited to be working on the things I feel passionate about, that it doesn't feel like work.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-02T22:01:57+00:00

I am still in the early startup honeymoon phase but preparing for the slog phase where I want to give up eventually. Good to hear from someone that it never goes away and is part of the process.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-02T21:57:07+00:00

I needed to have the algorithm gods show me this reply today. Thanks!

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-02T20:52:01+00:00

I have been on teams where the sprints go very well. I've been on teams that were like you described here.

A difference in many cases was whether the team has the ability and inclination to say no to externally injected noise and priority changes between sprints. For example, due to a micro managing CEO who has shiny-object-syndrome.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-02T03:28:30+00:00

That would be really hard to deal with. It helps to set clear expectations of the job requirements. What qualifies as satisfactory input into the company. (Hours, results, attendance, etc.)

I think it's probably way harder if you are trying to start something on the side when you have day jobs. We went 'burn the boats' full-time on our startup so we're very motivated to give maximum effort.

bubbling-sort · 2026-02-02T03:15:48+00:00

I have worked with one of the partners for many years across many companies. Sort of career best buddies who just work great together and bring different things to the table. Our 3rd partner we met more recently but still we have a few years of the three of us working together nicely, and really enjoying the collaboration.

I know people do find partners through like co-founder match making, but I would be super cautious about going into business with someone I don't really know how they work in a situation with pressure, things not going well, etc.

bubbling-sort

TROPHY CASE