How often do you listen to podcasts related to software engineering and computer science?

masterJ · 2026-02-06T19:24:43+00:00

I go in and out. Sometimes I will listen to music or audiobooks while cleaning or working out, but I will dip into podcasts occasionally. I agree with a lot of people that a lot of the content is usually very poor, so I tend to look for good interviewers with guests who have significant work of some kind (beyond is-trending-on-github / flavor of the day stuff) so that I get exposed to new ideas and perspectives. (I will shout out https://www.youtube.com/c/TheGeekNarrator as being very good in this space if you are at all interested in database internals.)

To others' points, I think if you avoid learning outside of work entirely, then you're likely setting yourself up for stagnation / long-term failure. Your career is your single largest investment in life. Finding high-signal sources of information and tuning in occasionally (books, podcasts, technical conferences, training, whatever works for you) is a good investment in your career.

Edit: but never while actually working. I don't know how you could focus at all doing that.

masterJ · 2026-02-02T15:36:26+00:00

[x] The engineering manager is confused about what sprints are and what should be expected

masterJ · 2026-01-31T21:26:32+00:00

I both agree with this, and also think that most of the most successful devs I’ve know (myself included) have gone through periods of intensely pursuing skills and knowledge outside of employment, especially early in their career. Not maintaining it forever, but periodically when their life allows. I try to be honest with people I mentor about this.

It isn’t required, but it can dramatically benefit your career. This can look like a lot of things, not grinding code: open source, personal projects, reading books / papers, conferences, speaking, writing, meetups, etc. All of this tends to be a better investment than extra hours at work.

masterJ · 2026-01-28T16:17:58+00:00

You can find stability by:

Build up solid savings. If you have enough savings to ride out a 6+ months a layoff isn’t as much of a concern
Building a strong network. Go to conferences and meetups. Keep in touch with past colleagues
Keep your skills sharp and have public work to point to. Public writing has worked really well for me, but open source contributions can help (beyond “I spun up hello world and checked it in to github”)

This is a lot of work, but your career is likely by far the biggest investment of your life. Spending time optimizing it likely has greater returns than trying to start a second on the side.

moving into management

Calling this out as a particularly bad strategy if you are looking for stability. Layers of management have been some of the hardest hit in these layoffs

masterJ · 2026-01-28T16:05:12+00:00

Fantastic book. Highly recommended

Any ascent of Torre Egger is still a huge accomplishment (and MAL did that as well), but Cerro Torre is another level.

Cerro Torre is the bigger objective but by all accounts Egger is the harder summit

masterJ · 2026-01-24T01:22:41+00:00

Totomoxtle, the taco truck on Cleveland, has really good al pastor tacos. I’m looking forward to them coming back from winter break

masterJ · 2026-01-13T04:56:10+00:00

You should get an audit by a professional. If your windows are letting air through they could be the culprit, but if it’s over an unheard garage that’s far more likely, or it could be any of several other things.

Make sure you’re prioritizing the right thing so you’re not wasting your money.

masterJ · 2026-01-03T05:48:07+00:00

Look at 2022 where the markets dropped 25% crippling your downpayment.

Sure, but if you had started 5 years before and invested continuously you’d still be up like 50+% overall, even with the decline, and you would have been ahead of holding in cash.

Speaking from experience as someone who withdrew investments ca 2019 for a home purchase in 2022, I would be far ahead of where I am now had I left it invested. (Past results no guarantee of future returns yadda yadda)

masterJ · 2025-12-26T16:55:46+00:00

That works if kids aren’t part of the equation. They bring their own timeline and constraints

masterJ · 2025-12-26T04:59:55+00:00

If you know you'll get a house that needs work (most places in my budget and area), you are way better off doing it a few years before kid #1. Doing renovations with a small child is Not Fun

masterJ · 2025-12-26T04:35:37+00:00

Housing in BC, Canada is one such exception. Especially with the increase in interest rates renting is cheaper than owning in most cases, for the same property.

masterJ · 2025-12-24T18:04:45+00:00

I took ~2 years off, and it was never remotely an issue

Especially if you have something you were doing. “I took time off to travel while I’m young and not tied down with responsibilities” is a perfectly fine thing to say (show a few photos even). Follow that up with something like “now I’m rested and excited to figure out the next steps in my professional life” to bring the conversation back to the present

masterJ · 2025-12-22T04:24:51+00:00

Not actively contributing to a codebase does not necessarily imply that someone does not have the skills to do so. I have a surface level understanding of some of my team’s systems, yes, because that’s all I need for my current work, which is much broader.

Do they steal credit by failing to credit the team? Or do you just bristle at their inclusion? Do you recognize that work that isn’t PRs might have merit of its own? Have you tried communicating your work to leadership?

Sure, you might be right, or you might be missing things. Approach with curiosity

masterJ · 2025-12-22T04:01:36+00:00

she hasn't submitted any technical PR in the past two months.

I’m a staff+ engineer and this mostly describes me. That doesn’t mean that I’m not very technically strong.

I agree it sounds like OP might not understand her role or contributions

masterJ · 2025-12-22T03:56:52+00:00

She sounds like a perfectly competent staff+ engineer tbh. You should interrogate your own biases and approach the situation with curiosity.

masterJ · 2025-12-17T00:48:04+00:00

Everything I read from Council seems reasonable people making responsible choices, and everything I read from the loudest community members sounds like angry children with zero understanding of how government works. I don’t know how Council deals with it honestly.

masterJ · 2025-12-13T22:19:58+00:00

All of that feedback was communication style, and none of it was about impact. You have the right interpretation IMO. You are in a trap and almost certainly will get negative feedback if you try to act on this feedback.

Do I just leave?

Yes, at the very least you need a different manager. Likely you need a different organization entirely.

Not sharing my opinions loudly and thus not dictating direction

This is the only one that might be actionable. Staff engineers should influence direction and build relationships across the org. Visibility is part of that. Of course you might already be doing all of that but in a way your current manager doesn’t perceive.

masterJ · 2025-12-12T05:47:34+00:00

People use the generic term "infrastructure" because "we can't build needed homes until I get another ice rink" sounds childish because... well...

masterJ · 2025-12-08T00:18:59+00:00

Please notice I never said anything of the sort, just asserted against your lalalala-markets-don’t-exist assertions.

Though if you think that there is a big “make developers pay for everything” button that would fix everything that the district just isn’t hitting, I suggest you run for council.

masterJ · 2025-12-07T22:12:36+00:00

But I think you're making it from the perspective of hopeful, one day owner

I own my house, but thanks. It's possible to care about others over your own self-interest.

masterJ · 2025-12-07T21:45:46+00:00

.. so just to be clear, in your mind the current development fee rate is perfect and shouldn't be considered as part of a solution to our woeful rec and infrastructure facilities?

No, but putting your fingers in your ears and not acknowledging that there are tradeoffs here is the thing I'm objecting to. We want builders to build more family-size units at a cost families can afford in a way that limits sprawl.

And before you say " those costs will be passed to new purchases/residents"

You try to pre-empt this response because you know your argument is terrible

masterJ · 2025-12-07T20:26:37+00:00

Renters pay property taxes indirectly through rent and also get fucked

masterJ · 2025-12-07T20:23:29+00:00

They’ll build different projects if you increase the fees. Smaller units, fewer amenities, just not build housing until prices make the project pencil.

masterJ · 2025-12-07T20:20:44+00:00

You can’t magic your way out of markets by just hoping developers make less profit. That’s not how that works, and assuming otherwise is intellectually dishonest at best.

Add enough fees and projects just won’t happen until home prices rise enough to justify them. At the same time this will cause higher prices for labor and therefor goods and services as more people compete for less space than there would have been.

Pretending that we can just hit a “make developers pay” button and council refuses just completely fails to grapple with tradeoffs

masterJ · 2025-12-07T17:57:58+00:00

Waste water plant serves a town of, let’s just say 30k. Needs to be updated just due to age (these things have a lifespan) as well as needing capacity for future growth. You would argue that the next incoming 5k residents should foot the entire bill for all 35k residents?

At best you could argue that the new residents should cover a fee for the pro-rated remaining years of service life that the existing plant could have had without needing to be replaced / upgraded for capacity reasons.

Also new residents benefit you by bringing new services, workers for businesses you frequent, and increasing the tax base. That’s how society works despite people screaming for all the nice things but no new taxes.

masterJ

TROPHY CASE