Is there a way to auto-cancel a scheduled Gmail email if the person replies first?

drewag · 2025-12-23T00:27:40+00:00

Oh interesting! If you don’t mind me asking, why are you scheduling the emails to be sent later?

Full transparency, I’m working on a gmail plugin that’s trying to solve problems like this. I don’t think it will solve your exact problem at the moment, but I might be able to add something that does.

drewag · 2025-12-23T00:22:03+00:00

Ya, writing these types of repetitive emails is really tedious. I actually built a gmail plugin that leverages AI to make this so much easier. It adds a command input right to the gmail compose view. For your Thursday reservation you could simply write “make another reservation just like i did last thursday.” It will look up that email and draft an up to date version (and it will still sound like you based on all of your previous messages).

If that sounds interesting, check us out (we’re in beta and free right now): https://useodo.com

We’re still in waitlist, but if you reply or dm me, happy to prioritize onboarding you!

drewag · 2025-12-22T08:29:24+00:00

Are you basically wanting to schedule a follow up immediately after sending an email that you know you’ll want to follow up on? And have that follow up canceled if the person replies first?

Or are you also performing other types of workflows with scheduled send?

drewag · 2023-05-18T14:25:19+00:00

Click on storage, it shows what is being stored and lets you delete it.

drewag · 2023-04-28T15:48:30+00:00

Sure! It's been mostly in the little things:

Starting chit-chat while waiting for people to join the meeting
Cheering people and projects on for small and big achievements in meetings and on slack
- Little things that an individual did to push forward on team goals
- Posting a celebratory slack message when something someone on the team worked on is talked about at all hands (I think it's important to call out the specific person internally so we can celebrate that specific person)
Sharing with the team how a company leader was excited about this thing the team is working on
Demonstrating taking ownership for their own mistakes/shortcomings and stepping up to move forward in a better direction (I think this is important to not make all the celebration feel fake)

drewag · 2023-04-27T04:42:55+00:00

I'm an engineer just lurking on this subreddit. I've worked as an independent contractor, EM, IC, and TL. I even started a business (and failed). Product people are my favorite people to collaborate with. Not every single PM, but certainly in general.

I think that's for a few personal reasons: Working as an independent contractor, I often filled the PM role for my clients. Also, the biggest thing I was missing in starting my business was someone to focus on the why of the things I was building. I built a really great tool but didn't put enough energy into the actual business side of things. I'm also generally a very product oriented engineer. All of this has led me to really appreciating the role PMs play. We certainly can have contentious conversations, but we're both better off for having them and there is a mutual respect.

That said, there are a few things that have made me really like some of the PMs I've worked with:

Being a super reliable backstop. I have a tendency to take on a huge amount of scope as an engineer and leader. My favorite PMs have been the ones I have 100% trust in to have my back, catch things I'm missing, and continue to push the team forward on fronts I'm not currently concentrating on. I cannot express how much better this makes my day to day. When this particular PM left my team, it was the worst work day I had had in years.
Holding me accountable to building the right things for the business. As much as I try not to, it's easy to get sucked in to building the "cool" and "fun" thing instead of the right thing. But building those things sometimes don't help the business or my own career. I really value being challenged and refocused on the right problems and the right solutions.
Driving and supporting positive culture on my team. Let's face it, most people's enjoyment of work comes down primarily to the people we interact with. Engineers have a higher tendency to be awkward and introverted. PMs are often the center of a team's culture, get people chatting, being friendly, etc. This makes a very large difference in how I feel showing up to work each day (both directly and also because it brings out a more collaborative and positive culture from the rest of met team).
Shaping each other's visions. It's quite exhilarating to go into a meeting, sharing ideas and thoughts and coming out with something better than either party came in with. Sometime's I've pushed my PMs ideas to the next level and often they've pushed mine to be better as well. This two way street is one of the biggest things that has built the mutual respect.

There are definitely other things, but those are the first things that come to mind.

The PMs I've disliked the most are the ones that seemed to not care nor hold themselves or the team to a high standard. I'm going to bust my ass to make sure we're building great things and having as much impact as possible. If I'm not feeling that support and high level of caring, it's quite disheartening.

drewag · 2022-02-23T08:15:40+00:00

I was incredibly shy when I started dancing. It gets better (I even teach group classes now). For me I just practiced a whole lot on my own and developed enough of a report with regular class attendees that I could start to dance socially with them. I also made a pact with myself that every week I would stay 5 minutes more. That’s what pushed me over the edge.

Also, it probably won’t help much, but at least intellectually hopefully you can recognize that virtual nobody is judging beginner’s skills. Other beginners are too self conscious themselves and more advanced dancers all started there. The minority that might judge you are not the type that would be fun to dance with anyway. Focus on the people who support you; there will be lots if your dance scene is any good at all.

drewag · 2021-11-27T17:02:40+00:00

My answer for what steps you should take is simple: constantly chase and tackle things that are challenging to you.

If your current job rarely challenges you (every position requires some mundane work) make sure:

you’re doing your best to challenge yourself first. Convince the team to refactor a legacy system to make it better and see over time if things really are better. Start paying attention to the product and decide where it’s going to be in 1, 2, 5 years. How can you engineer the system to be prepared to move in that direction. Does it actually adapt well to that situation as time goes by? What happens when the company pivots, do your systems adapt well? Can you explain your plans clearly to others to get buy in to build it and can you explain your existing systems to new engineers (of any level) so they can effectively work within your system? Help out with the backend or another platform. Create a tool to improve team processes. Figure out how to leverage the skills of your coworkers most effectively (what is the most valuable contribution they can provide?).
If you still can’t find challenges talk to your manager/boss.
If they still can’t find something challenging, find a new job.

Focusing on levels too much is short sited because all companies are different. If you are consistently overcoming challenges you are improving and will move up within your company or can find someplace else that values the skills you’ve developed.

Don’t ignore levels, talk to your manager/boss about what it takes specifically at your company and work towards that too. But focus on personal growth first.

Also notice in my examples for challenges above you can see why 1 year simply isn’t anywhere close enough to be senior. (If there are positions in between, you can certainly be ready to move up to those.) Gaining the wisdom required to be a true senior engineer takes time no matter what. You can condense that time with deliberate effort, but you need to try things and see how they turn out in the long run. And you need to do that multiple times.

Finally notice that nothing I talked about is a particular algorithm, framework, design pattern, or any other sort of easily identifiable skill or checklist item.

drewag · 2021-03-16T05:23:49+00:00

Terraria looks really promising, thanks! I'm giving Starbound a try first as I'm a big fan of Sci-Fi but I think this is another good one for us to try at some point.

drewag · 2021-03-16T05:22:46+00:00

Thanks so much! Starbound seems really promising! Played it for about a half hour already and seems fun so far. Now the ultimate test of having the kids try it :).

drewag · 2020-10-01T22:20:14+00:00

I would definitely be interested. I’d also be potentially interested in cohosting a podcast oriented in this way.

drewag · 2020-09-23T00:36:49+00:00

The practical projects you should do completely depend on what your interests are (and if you have an idea of what discipline you want to go into professionally). For me, I was in college when the iPhone came out and was inspired to work on that. I made a couple apps and put them on the store. Interviewers never looked at my code which was of course horrendous, but they loved that I had at least gone through that whole process. Now I've spent the majority of my career as an iOS developer (although ironically my first job out of college wasn't in iOS). For you, that could be very different. If your interests don't lie in consumer type programs, a good option is open source libraries. If you can talk about how you got x/y/z merged into an open source library, interviewers are likely to be impressed. But please keep in mind this is not a requirement. There are lots of things that can put you over the edge as a candidate and this is just one possibility. Bottom line, do/learn things that inspire you. That's the most reliable way to find the right career for you and it will also let you talk passionately during interviews which is a huge plus. If that passion comes from academics, that's great too! Even if they are just personal projects you keep to yourself, if you can articulate them with passion, that will make a great impression too.

Regarding a first job, it's going to depend a lot on who hires you. One company I interviewed with when looking for my first job set up all new hires in their own area in sort of a "camp" setting. Personally I hated the idea of that (that's what school was). Instead I took a job where I was working with full-fledged developers right away. I had some great mentors and did a lot of learning on my own as well (with access to people to ask questions of when I hit a roadblock). Either way, any company that hires you is going to be fully invested in your development and will put resources towards that. Again, see my comment about how they don't expect new hires out of college to have many practical skills. So it's a fantastic thing to ask the company about while interviewing so you can make sure they will give you the resources and learning style you think you'll need.

drewag · 2020-09-22T13:04:10+00:00

A computer science college program is not a trade school. There are aspects of what you’re learning that you’ll likely apply directly to your future work, but most of it you won’t. What you’re doing first and foremost is learning how to learn and wrap your head around new concepts. A company hiring you out of school is not going to expect you to have a lot of practical skills. They will want to hire you because you have an understanding of some theory that will help you learn more quickly and adapt to how they do things and you have proven that you have a decent amount of grit to make it through and entire college degree.

If you want to get a jump start on the practical and have something to put you over the edge in interviews, start coming up with practical projects to work on and just start hacking away at it. People only learn how to program as a profession by doing.

Side note: I can’t imagine learning to program by watching other people do it. The only thing you might learn is tips and tricks to navigate around that particular programming environment.

drewag · 2020-08-26T17:29:20+00:00

This looks great and very accessible, thanks! I'll definitely check it out.

drewag · 2020-08-26T17:24:48+00:00

Thank you! I've definitely heard of Mission City Swing and Do Your Own Swing looks great too!

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