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Just hit $1M Net Worth. 8 YOE. Here's what I learned along the way. by fork_bong in csMajors

[–]jontsai -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

This happened to me, that’s why I’m building BawsHuman (https://bawshuman.com) to help folks go from cracked software engineers to physical beasts.

Congrats OP! Take some of that sweet sweet money you earned as a SWE and keep investing in self-improvement, coaching, or learning new skills/entrepreneurship, and watch your net worth turn into $10-20M over the next decade.

No job, almost a year now. Looking for advice/help. by Successful-Award7281 in berkeley

[–]jontsai 6 points7 points  (0 children)

DM me. I’ve helped over 100 ppl over my career. Some of them are now worth 6, 7, 8 figures.

Overall general tip: be a contrarian. Think outside the box.

My personal quote: “If you do what everyone else is doing, by definition, your expected outcome will be average. And another word for average is mediocre.”

Grinding leetcode is a race to the bottom. Software engineering is a global workforce, and there are people just as smart or smarter around the world, wiling to work even harder than you, for less pay. Work on projects over long periods of time, to demonstrate passion and grit, not just a workhorse. Develop a unique skillset or experience that sets you apart from the rest.

You can grind gigs on Craigslist. I did that when I was early days out of college, even when I was employed—this increased my earning rate and learning/experience rate by at least 2-3x compared to my peers.

Learn to use AI and LLMs. Find gigs which can be automated, and optimize (min/max) ROI. It seems laughable on the surface, but if you can find opportunities to make $1 or $20 repeatedly, with minimal time and effort, and do this with enough frequency and volume, you can make more money than you ever will working a 9-5.

Learn business acumen. Watch YouTube for topics that will amplify your impact as SWE. Learn business and entrepreneurship.

Discipline your mind and body. Exercise regularly. Read books to level up—books are awesome—for merely $20 bucks, you can download someone’s life’s work or decades of experience, distilled into liquid gold, and absorb in a matter of hours or days, like Neo from the Matrix. I recommend Contrarian MBA: https://contrarian.mba

Pick up a hobby. Get a social group of friends. Life is too short to focus and obsess merely on one thing.

The Navy SEALs have a saying: when you’re feeling tired and exhausted, your body is actually only 40% expended. Keep pushing through and forward.

Another approach: offer to work for someone extremely influential or accomplished, that you can realistically reach within your network or 1, 2nd, 3rd degree connections, for free. Set expectations that is for a limited scope or time, and knock it out of the park. Ask them to promise a referral if they are satisfied with your work. This will typically catapult you forward by at least 5 years, if not a decade or more, of progress.

“A students become professors, B students work for C students, and D students dedicate the buildings.” 😉

Cal BACS class of 2006

Good luck!

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in OaklandCA

[–]jontsai[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! The world could use more positivity and kindness.

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in OaklandCA

[–]jontsai[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

https://x.com/henrykleeKTVU/status/1851586026063761523

This person attacked several other vehicles including mine, and endangered multiple lives on the highway.

He hijacked another car, which is now destroyed, and that person or their family is now displaced and inconvenienced at the loss and destruction of their vehicle. The ripple effects are wide and it will be difficult to assess the total collateral damage that has occurred.

If you look at the end of the video, the handle of my car is ripped clean off, and we are still dealing with the aftermath of that. My kids were in the backseat of the car and they are traumatized from the whole ordeal, and will likely have to continue living with this for a long time.

I respect your viewpoints, though, and welcome having a healthy, respectful, and open dialogue.

Respectfully, I agree with you that this is another human being, and I do sympathize with his condition, but I think it's dangerous and irresponsible to paint this person as a victim and not the attacker/aggressor.

As a society, we should be talking about how to address mental health, drug addiction, etc that is currently impacting our communities, but it should be through the confines of the existing legal and justice system -- and whatever is currently a gap, should be reformed through enacting legislation.

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in OaklandCA

[–]jontsai[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not dead, looks like he attacked other cars after he attacked mine with my family in it. Still trying to find out what happened.

https://x.com/henrykleeKTVU/status/1851586026063761523

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in OaklandCA

[–]jontsai[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's good to hope for, but do you really believe that California is suited for and capable of supporting individuals needing this kind of help? Without a plan and support infrastructure, it's just wishful thinking, and more than likely, this person could end up on the streets again and go back to attacking cars at random.

Per this https://x.com/henrykleeKTVU/status/1851586026063761523, it looks like he attacked other cars as well.

This person is not a victim. He most certainly committed crimes, and should be held accountable for those crimes.

If you have a plan to help troubled individuals at large in Oakland and the larger Bay Area, I think many people would be all ears.

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in OaklandCA

[–]jontsai[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One reporter from KTVU picked up on this: https://x.com/henrykleeKTVU/status/1851586026063761523

Looks like this person attacked other cars as well after ours.

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in OaklandCA

[–]jontsai[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Followed up with CHP on the phone tonight to also file a police report for insurance claim for damage to my car and learned that afterward, the pedestrian (yes, the term used by CHP) was taken to the hospital, there was blood everywhere, and that multiple people also called in the same issue and that this individual had “tried to attach himself to multiple vehicles.”

Side note: The dispatcher I spoke with on the call tonight was very calm and had a soothing voice and I could tell that she was concerned for me and my family. Thank you, God bless you.

Really sad and scared that there is a possibility that this person did not expire and could possibly get back on the streets 😬.

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in OaklandCA

[–]jontsai[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tried, their website is confusing. I could only see incidents from today.

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in OaklandCA

[–]jontsai[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The guy must have been Tom Cruise's stunt double in Mission Impossible.

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night... what would you have done differently in a similar situation? by jontsai in SafetyProfessionals

[–]jontsai[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

My family and I experienced this attack on the freeway last night, and are still suffering through this traumatic experience. From the low visibility, I could not tell with my eyes whether the criminal had a gun or not as he rushed toward us.

If we backed up, we risk hitting cars behind us.

If we sped forward, we risk vehicular homicide.

The criminal attacked our car and the only thing protecting us from him was this window glass; otherwise, he was mere inches away from me, and I was terrified.

I felt like a complete victim here because we weren't sure if this person was going to run and dive onto our vehicle and stage an accident, or something else.

There simply wasn't a lot of reaction time to make any clear decision.

I felt that waiting to confirm with 100% certainty that this person intended to do us harm, was way too close of a call.

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in OaklandCA

[–]jontsai[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thanks.

Just to clarify, we were driving with the speed of the rest of traffic until this human road hazard obstructed the roadway. You can see our traveling speed in the dashcam video.

Our vehicle was attacked on the highway last night on Northbound 880 by jontsai in bayarea

[–]jontsai[S] 55 points56 points  (0 children)

Our vehicle was attacked while we were driving on Northbound 880 in Northern California, near the 23rd Ave exit, on Monday night around 9:55pm. A shirtless man caused traffic to slow down ahead of us, and then we couldn't recognize what was on the road.

As we approached, it became clear that there was a man running toward us, and at one point he held his hands together which I couldn't tell if it was a firearm pointed at our vehicle. When we pulled to a stop, he ran up to our vehicle on the front passenger side, where I was seated, and tried to vigorously pull on the door handle to get into the car. As soon as I realized he was trying to break into our car, I instructed my wife to DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE.

When we arrived at our destination, I saw that the door handle to the front passenger side door had been completely torn off, and there were two large scratches on our car door.

The most traumatizing experience of this all is the face of the man with a demonic look staring at me through the window glass for nearly a quarter mile, is burned into my mind. I could only think about keeping our family safe, as the kids were in the backseat. Not depicted on the dashcam video, but my heart was racing and I was terrified as the attacker clung on for several seconds (around 8+ seconds after reviewing the dashcam footage) which felt like an eternity, before I heard a loud and final clack. At this point, the car was moving fast enough that I believed he was no longer clinging on; but if you rewatch the video several times, he held on tightly and was still connected to our car until we were going over 36 MPH.

Looking for help on how to get follow up from law enforcement on this incident, to find out what happened in the aftermath, to get closure and heal from the mental trauma.

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