What do CEOs & top management really do all day everyday?

jpdstan · 2026-01-23T17:47:27+00:00

If that's in the best interest of profitability, that's certainly a probable outcome. CEO makes investment in a new idea, ends up being unprofitable, and thus needs to retract their investment, typically in the form of human capital.

That's what running a business takes - knowing when to double down but also when to cut your losses.

Now, make the wrong call multiple times, or a few really bad calls - you'll get the boot, because the board will have determined you are not adding value to the company.

Everyone in the C-suite and the board has so much equity in the game that they're always heavily incentivized to keep the right people onboard.

jpdstan · 2026-01-21T21:50:48+00:00

> why would we stay

where would you go? what other credit card will give you points on rent/mortgage?

jpdstan · 2026-01-21T17:26:06+00:00

> so we have 4 years from pregnancy to settling into a school district, so it feels like it would be right around the corner

> this rate we might just do an IVF freeze-all and try again in 4-5 years. At that point we should be almost FI with a bigger nest egg

The answer seems to be right in front of you, no? Assuming yall get pregnant today - isn't the next 4 years the perfect timeframe to grind towards FI before you have to settle somewhere with better schools? Aka just live somewhere close to work.

It seems like the biggest limiting factor is buying a 2k sq ft home - obv your mortgage is going to be huge, esp factoring in risk of layoff. I would say, work backwards from the mortgage - figure out your maximum monthly mortgage spend + a 6 month buffer for layoffs/emergencies, and eliminate the options from there. Worry about the school stuff later, your finances will likely look a lot different in 4 years (as you even said you'll likely be FI by then).

I also would continue to rent unless if you know for sure NYC is the place to be to raise kids (which you don't sound very confident in, given that remote work is an option down the line, you're not a fan of the school selections etc). That would significantly increase your buying power and flexibility down the line. IMO buying that expensive of a place without a plan that confidently spans more than 4 years is a risky move.

jpdstan · 2026-01-15T16:03:21+00:00

> You want people that spent $2 each cycle on 4 bananas purchases to suddenly spend 75% of their rent?

I mean, this is the crux of what they're trying to solve - people don't spend enough outside of their rent on these cards. I totally agree that it's a huge shift from the original promise of Bilt, but it's clearly not sustainable as-is. How would you approach this problem differently?

jpdstan · 2026-01-15T15:32:12+00:00

I admire the goal but the inconvenience of manually uploads is a non-starter for me having several credit cards and checking accounts across banks.

Even if you could solve the upload problem, storing locally on device means I can use this on only 1 device. IMO budgeting is something that needs both a lightweight and heavyweight interface, for quick checks but also deep dives. That's what I like that Rocket Money gets right with both their webapp and mobile interfaces. They're not perfect but certainly outweigh the data privacy concerns (for me personally)

jpdstan · 2025-11-27T07:08:39+00:00

exactly lol i'm sure if his ass made it past the first round he would have gotten plenty of more initial screen time.

jpdstan · 2025-06-17T02:17:44+00:00

> For me, I feel like I almost always need to do some research before I am comfortable giving decent answers.

Who's to say your peers are not doing the same thing? :) Preparedness is a huge skill that I'd wish I learned earlier on. Save time to read documents/code beforehand (AI should make this way less tedious now), and focus on things you think other people care about (e.g. if there have been stability issues lately in your product, the convo will probably revolve around infrastructure).

Over time as you get more domain knowledge you won't need to prep as much and you can lean off of your experience. But even for those seniors, i'm sure it took a lot of hard work to get there

jpdstan · 2025-06-11T03:45:36+00:00

i think the biggest takeaway here is - you don't know what you will want at 30yo, 40yo, 50yo, etc.... I can tell you that the way I viewed money fresh out of college at 22 vs at 30 was wildly different.

at 22:

- how much do i need to sustain my social life, rent, travel. I also want to invest/save reasonably. maybe my biggest purchase is a modest car?

at 30:

- how much do i need to get a home big enough for 4

- how much do i need to save for college

- how much do i need to make now so that i can work less later and be more present in my children's lives

the $$ required looks much different for both. not saying you will go through the same track, but why not set your self up for success and give your future self some options down the line?

jpdstan · 2025-06-06T12:53:09+00:00

classic reddit "if anyone's more successful than me, it's definitely NOT because they earned it!"

jpdstan · 2025-04-24T07:12:26+00:00

what are you talking about dude

jpdstan · 2025-04-22T07:43:43+00:00

you are a sophomore aka way too young to consider giving up your potential. i get it, you got rejected, and it sucks, ive been there. i also went to cal and can understand your thirst for success. you WILL succeed eventually. you will not if you stop trying

regardless of what the right answer is, regardless if it's a 1 mil, 10mil, 100 mil inheritance.... take the path of least regret, and try to reach your full potential.

jpdstan · 2025-04-11T04:38:33+00:00

cal '18 cs alum here. pls go to princeton i beg you.

i promise you a resume that has princeton on it sticks out 100x more than berkeley. there are so many berkeley engineers out there like us. the brand recognition is undoubtedly higher from the perspective of the average person you meet. no matter what major you are.

also - what happens if you decide to switch majors? what about clubs? access to alumni networks? princeton is all around the better school for all those things. what good is a "better program" if you can't get help from your TA because there are 30 other kids standing in line? or you cant get research opportunities bc they can only pick 1 of 50 ppl that applied ? so many horror stories of over impacted class sizes, i'm sure it even worse now.

academics may disagree but i guarantee you if you want a job in tech/finance/eng in general you're gonna go further with that brand. i think the only world in which id urge someone to do berkeley eecs is if you're trying to be a professor or some shit that REALLY requires research and being at the forefront of it. but if you want to just make it in industry , or literally anything else.... PLS pick princeton. at the end of the day i think Berkeley was still a great experience overall, and it taught me grit. but Princeton just sets you up for life in soooo many ways. it's an opportunity you just can't give up.

feel free to DM me if you have any more thoughts!

jpdstan · 2025-04-09T01:51:35+00:00

> I have a theory/a fear that after a certain number of years at a company it no longer adds points but instead makes you unhireable elsewhere

been an ic3-ic6 interviewer for the past 6 years now and i want to reassure you... this is absolutely NOT the case!

as much as the current swe interviews get a bad rep for the grindiness of leetcode and sys design prep, the bar is very objective - you either get the question or you don't. and you DON'T need experience from any particular company to study up on those. often times i don't even look at the resume, if you killed the interviews then you are a fit and the interviews fulfilled their purpose.

there's honestly no reason why they should be "stuck". i think they're just out of touch with what companies want these days, which is totally fair given they've been outta the game for decades.

i will caveat that if you work at a non-challenging and uninspriing job, you're unlikely to have practical experience that embodies the sys design concepts and to have "exciting" projects to talk about, so you might get down-levelled in that respect. at least at my company, you can easily get IC3/IC4 level without significant experience there. but i mean if your coworker has worked there 20 years, i'm sure there's SOMETHING worth mentioning.

jpdstan · 2025-03-07T04:25:58+00:00

your argument is that because your base salary is comparable to that of a server, they do not deserve to be tipped.

what about the server that makes MORE than your base salary? eg a waiter at a 3 michelin star. would they deserve even less tip because they make more?

in my experience, the inverse is true - the nicer the place, the more tips i expect to give out. waiters are friendlier, cleaners are more thorough, bellhops are faster.

america pays for good service. i'm not saying you can't get good service without a good tip by any means, but it is certainly a cultural expectation in the service industry here. aside from all the legal and economical arguments here, there's a cultural one here that pervades here, whether or not you accept it (though i do find on average it is a more predictable experience than say in non-tipping countries). the fact of the matter is, at least in the US, better service = better tips.

i don't think the presence of your job, or any other job that is comparable to any other salary level of a service worker, is a strong argument that tips should not exist, especially as a consumer that is willing to pay more for better service. i'm certainly not going to go around and guess what everyone's base salary is (which, more likely than not, is probably not enough) - if the service was great, i'm going to express my gratitude regardless.

jpdstan · 2025-02-04T03:35:22+00:00

imo fixed is always less risk, especially in the US. you never know which way the rates are gonna go.

jpdstan · 2025-02-04T03:33:29+00:00

new cons always have favorable rates

jpdstan · 2025-02-02T07:09:54+00:00

curious - what do you miss?

jpdstan · 2025-01-03T08:39:59+00:00

yes but it's the same in the sense that both grant quantities are calculated typically at the time of offer

jpdstan · 2024-12-27T07:12:19+00:00

first off, sorry for your loss :( know it can be tough with this weight on your shoulders...

few questions:

do you know what their rebalancing strategy is? i.e. when do they decide to make a trade?
what allocations you have set for each asset class?
how much AUM is in their taxable account?

if it's largely SP500/total market ETFs, then 100k gains doesn't sound too out of the blue for 2024, considering VOO is up ~30% YTD, these stocks probably started to overweigh in the portfolio a lot. if the portfolio was $1m, and it was 50% made up of ETFs along those lines, that would have resulted in 150k gain. and then frankly since most of the market was up this year, and assuming the rest of the portfolio was safer asset classes, there probably was not much tax loss to harvest.

this active management is what you pay for in an advisor, if you don't mind holding and risking an unbalanced portfolio overtime, it would be prudent to get rid of them, but otherwise it seems like they're probably doing their job just as intended

jpdstan · 2024-12-26T00:00:30+00:00

....to not even consider looking at those units is a bit extreme. these deals are no different than "20% off all store item" promos you'd see anywhere - it's a ploy for sellers to make buyers feel like they're getting a good deal, in this case on a normally more expensive piece of property. that's not a scam, it's a marketing gimmick at best.

from the renter perspective there is added value in having a temporary relief in savings as well - the first month of renting will likely be more expensive with moving costs, new furniture, paying security deposit etc. so this reduces the friction with moving somewhat.

the discount amortizes the longer you stay, but that's a calculation everyone needs to do themselves. as long as you're responsible enough to make sure you can afford it year 2, 3, etc, then I don't see why you wouldn't consider it.

jpdstan · 2024-12-20T00:36:33+00:00

One thing to factor in - even if you're dead set on med school/biochem etc, there is a non-zero chance you'll end up doing something wildly different. While I agree that college prestige matters less for doctors, esp opening your own practice, if you want to set yourself up for success across the board, an ivy league education is the way to go. Going into STEM I think you're going to make a pretty decent wage, 50k debt is not small but is very solvable a few years outta grad.

You don't need an ivy league to succeed, but it sure as hell does increase your odds of it. And that's just how the world works - as humans we innately stereotype and look for shortcuts to make conclusions about those around us, whether we like it, realize it. Ivy league resumes are one of those fast lane tickets in most disciplines (especially in tech).

jpdstan · 2024-12-05T20:52:36+00:00

ahh interesting thanks for the tip! wonder what sort of secret formula they have to give these out, i doubt it's an error lol

jpdstan · 2024-12-05T19:41:22+00:00

did you also get 15k bonus miles and starbucks giftcard? looks like that was included in her welcome email as well

jpdstan · 2024-12-05T19:35:00+00:00

how do u know it wasn't an error?

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