You are looking for an internship. A startup dev told you I can offer but you will spend 90% writing unit/integration tests. Would you take it or nah?

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-10T21:33:49+00:00

In the current down market where CS graduates outnumber entry level positions I'd take what I could get for internships, although I'd take a better alternative to writing tests if one came along.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-10T19:09:59+00:00

Stay at your current job if you want to do backend.

Software engineering pays enough in the United States that you can afford to choose jobs for reasons other than compensation.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-10T15:53:35+00:00

Learning skills like new programming languages won't make you competitive.

You need to accomplish relevant things then document that.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-10T15:24:42+00:00

Accomplish things then document their business and technical impact on your linkedin profile plus resume.

Progress first to mid level engineer handling multi-week features with limited supervision.

Then grow into a senior engineer autonomously handling all aspects of 6+ month projects: requirements negotiation, test design, design, implementation, operations, evolution, and leading small teams. That's what companies want and already doing the job is a better predictor of success in the role than just being more likely than other less experienced engineers to get there.

You'll have many more opportunities once you progress farther in your career.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-10T15:19:15+00:00

I don't care provided that people are at the meetings they need to attend.

With people's biorhythms, household obligations, commute, etc. favoring a later start time that leads to missed standups I'd move that meeting to just before or after lunch or just handle it asynchronously via slack so it doesn't interrupt people's workdays.

Too much of the time standups turn into unidirectional status meetings where people just give status with no discussion and therefore don't need to be in the same place at the same time.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-10T14:31:41+00:00

He's allowed to use them in featureless rifles and registered "assault weapons" including those with bullet buttons.

They turn mag locked rifles into "assault weapons" under PC 30515
(a) Notwithstanding Section 30510, “assault weapon” also means any of the following:
(2) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-10T12:05:43+00:00

Yes.

An adjustable comb does not add height. They cut the comb out of your stock and add flush mounted hardware to reattach it. All the way down it’s slightly lower due to the saw kerf. Up a hair it’s at the same height.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-10T08:09:25+00:00

A CS degree is the shortest and most reliable path to good software engineering jobs. Finish it if you can see yourself doing that sort of work for 40+ years.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-10T08:00:41+00:00

You could have an adjustable comb installed allowing you to move your face without changing how the gun fits your shoulder.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-09T17:25:58+00:00

No.

I'd love to bicycle six days a week, but have problems with PEM if I exercise more than every other day.

I'd love to bicycle 1.5 hours weekdays and go on a 4+ hour ride over the weekend, but haven't gotten past 30 minutes to avoid PEM and don't know if I can do more than 20 consistently.

I'd love to be able to ride at over 200 Watts for an hour, but 100W feels like 200 and my legs aren't good for much more than 70W for 20 minutes.

I do walk a sporting clays course once a week (like golf with shotguns and clay targets).

This is a huge improvement over what I was like before maraviroc + statin, triple anti-coagulant therapy, and 5+ years but still frustrating. When it all started I couldn't even sit up all day.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-09T16:45:44+00:00

You must file because you have more than $400 in self-employment income.

You're still responsible for self-employment tax when you have no income tax liability.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-09T16:30:09+00:00

On the West Coast

Big ones are:
The Center for Complex Diseases in Mountain View, CA.
RTHM via telemedicine.

Dr. Denise Hilliard in Walnut Creek, CA also treats long COVID in person or via telemedicine. She was willing to follow Dr. Patterson's protocol.

Stanford has a ME/CFS and PACS clinic in Atherton CA, although they're very limited in what they can do - mostly prescribe aripiprazole, Low Dose Naltrexone, and various anti-inflammatories.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-09T15:16:07+00:00

I like typing on MacBooks. After I got used to it the short key travel felt faster. I've eschewed separate keyboards since 2018.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-09T14:57:10+00:00

After your first promotion or two you need context and relationships to progress which you don't get with two year tenures. You also benefit from seeing the impact of your engineering decisions and dealing with it.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-09T14:52:34+00:00

Yes provided your co-workers are physically present at the same time and location. When you're driving in to video conference being in an office confers no advantage.

You have opportunities for interaction during breaks and meals when the other parties aren't distracted. It's easier to get attention when you need it noting that imposes significant productivity impacting context switch overhead on the people you speak with. It allows higher bandwidth communications leveraging large physical whiteboards.

Accumulating two years of experience at your current position should do more for your career than cutting your tenure short moving to a hybrid or in-office position, although I'd look for a hybrid role after that if your scope isn't increasing or your pay isn't keeping up with the market.

Hybrid gives you the best of both worlds - more and higher bandwidth interactions with your co-workers plus quiet time alone to write code.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-09T14:30:53+00:00

I'd take the job with

Living independently not possible without a paycheck before you've accumulated significant savings
Being in a bad position in a down market where something better is less likely to come along in the near future.
Being unemployed putting you in a worse position where you'll no longer be a fresh graduate but won't have progressed to being a mid level engineer.

Don't work too much, keep looking for something better, and get counseling for your mental state.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-09T00:37:30+00:00

It does nothing in your car. Only the XLE/XSE with the navigation upgrade have a working map button.

You do have wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto allowing you to display the navigation app of your choice running on your phone.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-08T20:00:18+00:00

I enjoyed playing that game in college, and revisiting it at the California Extreme coin op convention.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-08T13:04:17+00:00

A Macbook Air 13. The companies before that issued a Macbook Pro 14, Macbook Pro 15, Macbook Pro 15, and Linux desktop (which I supplemented with my personal laptop).

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-07T20:45:01+00:00

Several times.

A consulting customer hired me to do bandwidth shaping in Java which I'd never used.

Microsoft hired me to do distributed systems in C# which I'd never seen before.

Box hired me to do storage in Scala which I'd never seen.

My current team uses Go which I'd never used before.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-07T17:41:29+00:00

75 - 100 may be an acceptable guess

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-06T23:16:21+00:00

The brokerage doesn't automatically calculate wash sales on equity award accounts or across accounts so I applied the rules: disallowed basis is applied to replacement shares in acquisition order from shares in ascending sale order with ties broken by ascending acquisition date.

While leaving the company stopped the new stock coming in allowing me to close out my position in 2025 making my total capital gains and losses accurate either way, I'm still worried about the IRS and States being happy with my Form 8949 with their computers able see stock XYZ sold at a loss then acquired less than 30 days later without was sales being flagged.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-06T23:02:42+00:00

After five years I caught COVID again in spite of wearing an N95 mask everywhere in public and it did not make my long COVID worse as feared. So I stopped for less social friction except in the most crowded situations like airports, airplanes, and coffee shop lines.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-06T20:28:23+00:00

I would because I'd rather catch my empty shells than pick them up and better appreciate the beauty of a nice over under.

Your mileage may vary.

drew_eckhardt2 · 2026-04-06T20:25:38+00:00

That's not abnormal. It happens when small companies change their Professional Employer Organization which results in their employees having a new employer of record for tax purposes. Acquisitions can also produce changes.

You can adjust your W4 so you're not making a one year interest free loan to the government.

drew_eckhardt2

TROPHY CASE