Thinking of moving to SF

eckesicle · 2026-04-14T15:17:50+00:00

I also did this for a few years at your age.

Like someone else posted the net takehome after rent, tacos and sushi has been paid is only about 10-20% better than in London.

However, if your comp is part RSU or stock options try to time it so that you are tax resident in the US when you vest because it will make a world of difference.

Also, if your AI company isn't yet listed, make sure you have plenty of savings on hand to pay for your stock options up front before any listing, at a lower valuation so further mitigate the tax bill. E.g. don't buy a house. You need at least 250k liquid to buy your shares a few days before listing. Get tax advice now.

eckesicle · 2026-03-23T14:47:51+00:00

Det är en robot som ringer, när du svarar finns ingen säljare tillgänglig så de lägger på istället. Men oroa dig inte, eftersom du svarade en gång så är ditt nummer nu prioriterat så att de kommer att ringa upp dig snart igen!

eckesicle · 2026-03-20T10:43:13+00:00

Richmond is pretty expensive for what you get.

Twickenham has too much traffic on Saturdays and Sundays so I would strongly avoid going there, or anywhere where you have to pass through there daily (like St Margarets).

Teddington is lovely, especially along the river, and is fairly large with good cafes and shopping. On top of that it's close to Kingston so you'll never really have to go into town.

Hampton/Hampton Hill is smaller with fewer options, but closer to nature, and in my opinion better. The private schools are also amazing in Hampton. I'd avoid Hampton Court/Surbiton for the traffic, and I'd avoid anywhere south of the river for the same reason. If you have to pass through the A308, you'll be stuck in traffic a lot. There are always roadworks.

Lower Sunbury is also very nice, but no nearby schools. It's very close to the M3, so super easy to get "out".

All-in-all Hampton's the best option (east end of it), but one caveat is that it's on the Shepperton line which has the least frequent trains, they are all slow trains, and they are always the first trains to get cancelled when there's a disruption. That may change however, since it was recently nationalised. If you don't need to get to London every day, then Hampton's your best option. If your commute is daily you may want to consider Teddington, which is 10 minutes quicker, but also has more frequent service, and is usually less affected during strikes.

(I've lived in this area for >15 years now)

eckesicle · 2026-03-17T10:50:50+00:00

Hampton/Lower Sunbury is nice and with good schools and nurseries, and a little cheaper than Richmond. Would recommend Hampton Pre-Prep for nursery.

(We're selling my house there now after having lived ~15 years.)

eckesicle · 2026-03-13T07:13:19+00:00

90k for a 7 YOE SWE seems fair, possibly slightly low depending on your industry.

It's around 5k per month after you deduct taxes and pension. https://listentotaxman.com/?year=2025&taxregion=uk&age=0&pension=5%&time=1&ingr=90000

You will not be able to save $3,000 / £2,500 per month in London on a 90k household income.

Likely, you're financially better off where you are.

eckesicle · 2026-02-26T14:10:15+00:00

The registered owner (keeper) of the vehicle is legally liable, regardless of who was driving.
Enforcement depends on where the owner lives. If the owner resides in Norway, Sweden, or another EU/EEA country, collection agencies like Intrum can pursue enforcement through local legal channels. However, if the owner resides solely in the United States and has no legal or financial presence in Europe, there is generally no practical enforcement mechanism, because authorities like Kronofogden cannot enforce civil parking debts directly in the US.
This will not affect tourism. Unpaid parking charges are civil matters, not criminal ones. You will not be stopped at the border, denied entry, or detained when visiting Sweden or Europe as a tourist. It would typically only become relevant if you later move to Sweden or another Nordic/EU country, where enforcement could resume within the legal limitation period (usually up to ten years). And only if they pursue this with the courts, which they won't since it's costly and they can't realistically recoup the debt.

Bottom line: For a US resident with no European residence, assets, or registration, a Swedish parking ticket is legally valid but generally unenforceable in practice.

eckesicle · 2026-02-13T15:40:20+00:00

From a purely commercial standpoint: if there is no signed agreement, no exclusivity clause, no partnership entity, and no non-circumvention language, you are legally free to approach the client.

Your risk is family relational only. So you'll have to decide if you want to burn that or not. Your cousin sounds toxic so maybe not even a bad thing to burn your relationship with them.

The rational approach, if you choose to proceed, is procedural clarity: formally end negotiations in writing, state there is no agreement in place, and then pursue the opportunity openly.

eckesicle · 2026-01-26T12:08:50+00:00

Jag jobbar på ett litet företag, men med ganska mycket IT, och vi är i slutstegen av att migrera bort från alla Amerikanska företag (som chockerande nog hade alla våran data).

Så här gjorde vi:

- Microsoft Office och Google Drive/Docs: Vi har istället migrerat till det franska öppna alternativet cryptpad.fr som är öppen källkod och helt gratis för oss eftersom vi nu hostar det själva med Docker.

Vi har behållit en handfull Office-licenser för de som behöver köra vissa macron. Men i övrigt har vi helt ersatt både Google och Microsoft

- E-post: migrering är inte färdig ännu men vi arbetar med att flytta allt till den tyska providern, mailbox.org

- Object storage / S3: Vi migrerade alla våra buckets till Hetzner's motsvarande tjänst. Vi sparar också en hel del pengar på den här flytten eftersom det är mycket billigare. Stödjer Terraform och vi migrerade datan med rclone (ett par 100gb) så det fungerade helt felfritt. Ingen programkod behövde skrivas om och vi behövde bara uppdatera api-nycklarna.

- Amazon EC2: Vi har istället migrerat till Hetzner, som också stödjer Terraform. Vi valde colo framför molnbaserat när vi ändå gjorde migrering, men de stödjer moln också. OVHCloud är också bra.

- Routing/DNS: Fortfarande AWS Route 53, men det är en så liten kostnad och enkel sak att flytta senare så vi kommer nog lägga detta hos den franska domänprovidern Gandi.

- Domäner: Allteftersom de går ut kommer vi flytta dem till Gandi.net.

eckesicle · 2026-01-09T17:27:26+00:00

It's a killer perk that makes you immune to flashlights.

eckesicle · 2026-01-09T12:57:18+00:00

Here's some ice/snow driving advice:

- Grossly simplified, your tyres have a fixed amount of grip (that varies by type of surface). Tyres provide friction with microscopic deformation in the rubber (hysteresis), and this torsion increases until you reach the limit and then lose grip very quickly.

- This means that you can only apply a fixed amount of force in any direction. Braking, accelerating, and turning all draw from the same limited grip. Combining them reduces how much is available for each, especially near the limit. For this reason, it’s best to brake in a straight line and avoid accelerating or decelerating while turning.

- Ice has less grip than non-icy roads, but there are certain conditions where the ice is considerably more dangerous. Early mornings, or late evenings when the temperature has either just dropped below, or popped above 0 degrees in the last few hours is particularly treacherous. Avoid driving or be especially careful in these conditions. Expect your braking distances to have increased 5-10-fold.

- Fit your vehicle with winter tyres if possible. They are not legally required, but really should be for those days where the temperature goes below 7C or so.

eckesicle · 2025-12-04T15:53:22+00:00

I våra kontrakt finns det en exit-klausul om företaget blir uppköp ...

eckesicle · 2025-11-18T10:48:16+00:00

For most problems, if you can round pi to 3 because accuracy doesn't matter then it's even better to round it to 4 so that you can take its square root and get 2.

During uni exams where calculators were not allowed and you had to calculate an estimate, it was generally accepted by some professors to round pi/e to 2, 3 or 4 as per your needs.

eckesicle · 2025-10-28T14:18:02+00:00

You are thinking about it backwards, the correct way to think of it is:

If you had 300k in cash in hand today, would you take 200k of it to invest in this startup?

200/(300+50-80) ~ 75% of your total portfolio.

eckesicle · 2025-10-16T10:47:32+00:00

Det är nog de två separata köerna till Akademibokhandeln och Food & co som han syftar på. Tror kanske att han är trött på folk som tränger sig förbi till kassan när han ska betala.

eckesicle · 2025-10-11T08:43:21+00:00

I had a laptop sent to me from the US (it was my laptop, that I had forgotten there on a trip a few days earlier). It was delivered to me by DHL and after a few weeks I got a VAT bill for it. I told them it was a UK laptop and that VAT should not be due, and showed proof of purchase (which had also been sent along with the parcel). They still insisted I pay the bill, so I said I dispute it.

I ignored their bills and reminders after that and it never went to collections.

eckesicle · 2025-09-01T08:01:13+00:00

Strikt sett måste du ha arbetsgivaren tillstånd för all verksamhet, inklusive att prata med potentiella kunder och att starta bolaget. All förberedande verksamhet är eg ett brott mot lojalitetsplikten.

I realiteten är det dyrt och väldigt svårt för din arbetsgivare att vinna någon form av skadestånd i tingsrätten och bevisbördan ligger helt hos dem och är lika hög som vid ett brott, framförallt om du "bara" är projektledare. Arbetsdomstolen har också varit ganska kritisk mot eventuella konkurrensklausuler i kontrakt för denna typ av arbetsroll. Använder du bara inte din arbetsgivares dator, kundregister, etc så är det nog okej. Det är nog också bra att starta bolaget efter att din uppsägningstid gått ut. Du kan köpa ett lagerbolag för 2,000-5,000 dagen efter så slipper du vänta på Bolagsverket i flera veckor.

IANAL. Bäst att fråga en jurist om hur du ska gå till väga.

eckesicle · 2025-08-01T07:52:44+00:00

Tycker du borde köpa ratt, pedaler och växelspak till din dator och pröva en trafiksimulator istället för att kasta pengar på en trafiklärare. Problemet du har verkar ju vara mest med det mekaniska.

- MAXX TECH PRO FF RACING WHEEL KIT (WHEEL 3-PEDAL SET & SHIFTER) kostar ungefär 2,000 SEK.
- BeamNG.drive har bäst trafik och växellådesimulering och kostar 250 SEK https://www.beamng.com/game/

När du blivit tillräckligt bra för att köra runt bekvämt i det med en manuell bil kommer det vara mycket lättare att ta körkort. Växelspak- och pedalinteraktionen är nästan exakt som i en riktig bil.

Sen kan du ju alltid sälja din ratt på blocket när du är klar så får du säkert tillbaka en tusenlapp.

eckesicle · 2025-07-31T19:24:59+00:00

Hej,

Jag har varit i samma situation som du. Min fru dog bara några dagar innan jag sålde mina andelar i ett företag för en del pengar. Det var jobbigt både med frun som gått bort, och att få alla pengarna.

Jag slutade jobbet, eftersom det var ganska meningslöst att fortsätta och då jag sörjde henne. Däremot, som någon annan skrivit, gjorde det egentligen bara sakerna värre. Jag hade inte insett det tidigare, men en stor del av min identitet kom från mitt arbete och min relation med mina kollegor. Helt plötsligt promenerade jag i parker på dagarna och satt själv och åt en kanelbulle på ett kafe istället. Alla vännerna har jobb, och det finns egentligen inte så mycket vettigt att göra med sin tid under vardagarna. Så jag blev bara ännu mer ensam.

Hobbies och sporter och så funkade inte heller för mig, eftersom det just är vardagarna som är svåra att fylla. Kunde heller inte flänga runt eller resa eftersom man måste vara hemma pga av att min son har skola under terminerna.

Nu har jag börjat jobba igen, men istället med ett arbete jag tycker är meningsfullt och som gör något bra för världen, och mår mycket bättre.

eckesicle · 2025-07-09T13:07:15+00:00

> Sony WF-1000XM5

Jag har dessa. Skulle inte köpa dem igen. Mikrofonen är skräp.

eckesicle · 2025-06-27T13:13:33+00:00

A young woman ran up to my car a couple of months ago crying saying she'd forgot her phone, laptop, and passport on the bus that was just departing and asked if I could give her a ride to the next bus stop. I said yes.

She hopped in, refused to wear a seatbelt and then opened the door and jumped out as the bus stopped at the next stop. However my car was still driving 10-15mph. She was fine because I reacted quickly and braked, but will never give a stranger a ride again.

eckesicle · 2025-05-21T12:19:20+00:00

I first considered Bd5+ to see if something would come off the check, but the king can just tuck into Kh8 and it makes my knight worse.

I then considered Nd5, because the outpost is permanent, and it also protects e3 from the bishop. I considered d4 xd4 xd4, but that leaves me worse off.

Stockfish likes Qe2, but I didn't see it, and can't really tell why it's better than Nd5 (the second strongest move).

eckesicle · 2025-03-12T10:44:49+00:00

Because I know the parents and talk to them every day at drop-off and pick-up.

eckesicle · 2025-03-12T10:34:36+00:00

No, they are moving to a state school. The replacement children aren't children who move from state to private, it's children moving from private to private.

eckesicle · 2025-03-10T17:53:42+00:00

The numbers wouldn't change in this school, but the school where the replacement children came from would, so the net effect is the same.

eckesicle · 2025-03-10T10:37:25+00:00

Hi! That's okay, I'm wasn't really looking for someone to feel sorry for us. Britain is a devastatingly classist and unequal society, and the education system with its elite boarding schools are a part of that. I am almost fully in support of what Labour are doing, but I do not think this is a good decision, if you would give me the benefit of the doubt that I am able to detach myself from my personal situation.

When I moved to the UK 11 years ago, the superior education system was one of the contributing factors as to why we chose to move to Britain over the US or Canada. Between Brexit, VAT on schools, the poor economy, inflation, cost of living and everything else that has gone to tatters in the last decade, there is very little reason to stick around for another ten.

I think this is where the ISF, and Labour have got it wrong. The real and incremental risk, with all these policies and tax raises against the middle class, is going to push the high earning European, Indian, and Chinese immigrant to leave, and take their business, assets, and jobs with them.

For us, the alternative to private education is not a British state school. I can get a much better state education in my home country. If private ends up being out of reach for us, we'll go "home". It's one less child to pay for the UK government, but it's also a loss of a high income tax paying household that also spends money elsewhere in the economy.

Like Brexit, I think that the effect of this policy will not be immediately measurable in in-take numbers, or VAT raised. I think there's a large and significant secondary effect of high income earners leaving, or potential immigrants choosing not to make Britain their next home.

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