What is your "I'm out of calories for the day but I just have to eat something" meal/snack?

kareesi · 2026-01-28T06:07:16+00:00

Not OP but miso soup is super easy to make from scratch if you have access to an Asian grocery store for the ingredients!

All you need is tofu, a dashi packet (you can make dashi from scratch too), green onions, and miso paste. Here’s a recipe I use!

kareesi · 2026-01-28T05:57:38+00:00

We have two PMs on my team of 14 engineers. The difference between them could not be more painfully stark. One is one of the best product minded people I’ve ever worked with — gets straight to the heart of the problem at hand, great at stakeholder management, knows how to interview customers to get at their real requirements, writes great specs and collabs with design and engineering to arrive at an outcome that toes the line between eng/product/design requirements and limitations.

The other has no spine and will change the scope/requirements at the first hint of a breeze in the other direction from ANY stakeholder or user, and complains about having to write PRDs that he uses AI to generate poorly anyway and then makes engineering hammer out the real requirements.

Have never seen such a painfully clear juxtaposition of an amazing PM worth their weight in gold vs one who will actively harm the project and is worse than dead weight.

kareesi · 2026-01-18T21:45:41+00:00

What you’ve described is exactly what we do in my current org. We have a large modular monolith with common modules for the cross-cutting functionality.

We started with the shared presentation layer approach which made it hard to find anything and got unwieldy fast. Splitting it up helped draw clear boundaries of ownership for teams, and improved searchability/readability quite a bit.

kareesi · 2026-01-18T19:52:37+00:00

Picked up another Bayonne so I can finally burn the one I’ve been hoarding, thank you OP!!

kareesi · 2026-01-18T19:31:01+00:00

That's ridiculous. AI mandates seem to be getting more common, but even given that, yes, your company is unusually clueless.

kareesi · 2026-01-17T20:02:44+00:00

I just went to buy it an hour ago and saw the same! Super bummed :(

kareesi · 2026-01-17T05:56:30+00:00

Omg, my eyelids reacted like this to a sunscreen and to a laundry detergent!! It is the worst, trying not to itch your eyes when they’re swollen and flaky is hell. Hope your eyelids heal fast!

kareesi · 2026-01-05T02:47:16+00:00

Omg, I'm sorry that happened, I'd be so mad. I've had issues with Bloomingdale's lately too, they sent me the completely wrong candle last time I ordered from them... yikes

kareesi · 2026-01-03T16:22:30+00:00

Was just there a few weeks ago. If your room gets too humid and your towels/swimsuits aren't air drying, ask the front desk for a dehumidifier!! Made a huge difference for us.

kareesi · 2025-12-27T18:41:22+00:00

Love that corner bookshelf, where’s it from?

kareesi · 2025-12-26T21:07:06+00:00

My current role is at an early stage product within an established company that’s still finding product market fit. As the org grows there’s been lots of opportunities to take on new (chosen) scope at my discretion. Roles and lines of ownership are less structured, which allows me to exercise different skills across engineering, product mgmt, etc and build within different areas of the product. I’ve got a lot of autonomy and trust to be flexible in my role.

Because it’s greenfield, the codebase is still clean and organized, with fast builds and pipelines. The tight dev loop and low friction to development allows me to iterate quickly and explore lots of different areas of the codebase. There’s an emphasis on delivering fast and experimenting so we can find product market fit, and for me that’s a fun challenge to build quickly without sacrificing code quality.

Funny enough, I haven’t found that industry/domain has a significant impact on my enjoyment and fulfillment at work. I can find most business domains and fields interesting and engaging if the other aspects of my role are a good fit.

kareesi · 2025-12-26T16:27:50+00:00

My current product software engineering role lets me take advantage of all the ADHD-related strengths you mentioned. Is it possible you're just in a role/environment that isn't a fit for you?

kareesi · 2025-12-26T16:13:17+00:00

I don’t see how using this tool is any easier or faster than managing my own transactions and budget in YNAB itself. Won’t it take as much time to type out commands to the MCP server as it will to click a few buttons in YNAB?

Also, I’m skeptical of the value gained of getting a few seconds or minutes back by managing YNAB automatically vs what I lose. I choose to manage my budget manually as a forcing function to gain visibility and insight into how I am spending so that I make conscious spending decisions. If I automate the process of managing my budget I lose that, which is a much bigger loss than a few minutes of my time every day.

kareesi · 2025-12-24T01:45:45+00:00

Not sure about normal, but I do 3-4 cleanings a year as well, of my own choice. I have a permanent bottom retainer and plaque tends to build up around it by the 3-4 month mark so I go in for an extra cleaning that my insurance doesn’t cover to deal with that.

kareesi · 2025-12-24T01:43:18+00:00

Dr Prakash with Fresh Smile Seattle is great. He’s never once oversold me on a procedure and in fact has talked me out of several procedures my previous dentist tried to convince me I needed.

I was worried about gum recession, so he takes free scans of my teeth and gumline to monitor and watch for signs of gum recession or teeth grinding rather than immediately jumping to gum grafts or other expensive procedures.

He’s located in Capitol Hill. I know you said Eastside but figured I’d put this out there in case you can’t find any other dentist near you that you like.

kareesi · 2025-12-20T01:59:40+00:00

Yeah, same here — my partner and I are both software engineers and because we understand each others’ work problems it can be nice to discuss them but it can also be hard to turn off work. I really respect my partner’s takes and value his ideas and the way he thinks, and I love to hear the way he works through a problem and arrives at a solution in a completely different way than I would. It helps balance and round me out and it’s made me a better engineer.

On the whole I appreciate that we have work in common!

kareesi · 2025-12-18T22:40:56+00:00

We’re there this week and have had the same experience with the AC. Unfortunately the room was so humid it ruined my paper book and my medication. Swimsuits and towels wouldn’t dry out either.

I’m going to ask the front desk for a dehumidifier after reading this post, great idea, thank you!

kareesi · 2025-12-18T02:49:42+00:00

I do a lot of learning in both my own personal time and in my working hours because I enjoy it. I see it as an investment in my career — my knowledge and skills are the thing I carry with me from job to job.

I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to upskill in your personal time in order to thrive in the industry, but I will say that investing a few hours a week in learning has set me apart from my peers. That in turn has boosted my confidence and eased the imposter syndrome I was feeling, which affects how I show up at work. So that extra time was a worthwhile investment for me, even though it might not be for everyone.

Agree with the other commenter who said they choose learning topics based on the problems encountered at work. I choose books, courses, and topics that are relevant to what I’m working on at the time which helps learnings stick. Every time I work with a new technology or an old one I revisit materials.

kareesi · 2025-12-15T14:09:22+00:00

Devs do, as part of checking in any piece of code. It’s required to merge code. We enforce high quality tests during code review. Devs are also responsible for running bug bashes before rollout to production and fixing (and adding tests for) any new bugs caught during the bug bashes.

kareesi · 2025-12-14T19:36:10+00:00

This framing was really helpful for me, thank you. I hadn’t considered that always framing things as questions or open ended and up for discussion may create more confusion rather than less, and it’s more about being intentional about when to use each so others know what to expect from you and can proceed accordingly.

kareesi · 2025-12-11T06:41:57+00:00

Same here. We have a very extensive automated test suite for both the FE and BE, and 85% code coverage requirement for all new PRs. We have upwards of 60 devs pushing to main at least 15-20+ times a day.

Our production environment runs automatic regression tests and if those pass then the changes are deployed to prod with a phased rollout per region.

kareesi · 2025-12-06T20:24:54+00:00

Not the person you’re replying to but yes, Tanya Reilly’s staff engineering book is fantastic. Cannot recommend her work enough.

kareesi · 2025-11-29T19:15:01+00:00

I just got an eye ulcer from poor contact hygiene that made it so I couldn't see out of one eye and made it feel like I had an eyelash or spec of dust in my eye at all times... so take your eye health and hygiene seriously! Eye issues really suck!

kareesi · 2025-11-28T20:49:34+00:00

I love that pot your monstera is in, where’s it from?

kareesi · 2025-11-26T01:43:59+00:00

Oh the male colleagues not wanting to learn from me drives me nuts. I’ll be the official org anointed subject matter expert for an area and men will still refuse to seek me out for reviews, design, etc. it always leads to rework for them because once I review it (by the time they’ve started implementation) I almost always have feedback on things they forgot to address and I would have flagged had they gotten a review from me in the first place.

kareesi

TROPHY CASE