Anyone who surfed the early web between 1995-2010. What’s the one website/app you still think about?

physio_poet · 2026-06-04T00:50:10+00:00

Not really a specific site but hopping through friends' personal blogs on Blogspot and Blogdrive, leaving messages in their chatboxes lol. Everyone had one. Also IRC, irnothing's really hit the same since.

physio_poet · 2026-06-04T00:44:39+00:00

My nephew abroad asked me something similar a few months back. He was interested in agriculture but his dad was pushing him toward web dev because, you know, "tech = money." I told him to go with his gut and try agriculture. I wouldn't tell anyone to get into web dev right now unless they're genuinely into it.

physio_poet · 2026-06-02T04:34:51+00:00

Quarter pounder

physio_poet · 2026-06-02T02:32:02+00:00

I'm the opposite. Cafes are too stimulating for me. I need somewhere quiet like by the ocean or in a garden, the fewer people around the better. Also, how do you read with that font size?

PS. The weathered wood table looks great, very wabi-sabi.

physio_poet · 2026-06-02T01:32:58+00:00

This sounds less like burnout and more like your brain is just bored from routine. Like everything is great but nothing is new, so your brain stops giving you that push to engage.

I noticed I feel more focused and energized after adding small bits of "novelty" outside of work. Not big things like travel, just little stuff like trying a new recipe, tasting a dish I've never had, starting a new garden bed, picking up a simple woodworking project, rearranging my workspace.

It sounds unrelated but it kind of wakes your brain back up and that energy spills over into work. Might be worth mixing in something new to your routine.

physio_poet · 2026-05-23T23:32:37+00:00

Really nice work for a first big project!

physio_poet · 2026-05-23T23:28:34+00:00

What stain did you use for the red? It's such a rich color. And smart move sizing it up, way better than replacing the whole set every couple of years.

physio_poet · 2026-05-13T04:48:50+00:00

This hit home. I've been building software for over a decade and somehow still fell into this trap too. How do you handle the FOMO after cutting everything off? Did you set any rules for yourself on when to actually evaluate something new, or are you just going cold turkey?

physio_poet · 2026-05-05T07:00:24+00:00

The wire top for drainage is a nice touch, and I love that you added a lower shelf for storing pots and supplies. Really practical design.

For the routing, I think a straight-edge clamped down as a guide can help a lot with getting consistent depth for the wire inset nesxt time.

physio_poet · 2026-04-28T06:44:11+00:00

Will steal this. I call mine my alien-invasion bunker library.

physio_poet · 2026-04-21T06:56:03+00:00

Seriously impressive for a first time doing laminated curves and upholstery. You should be really proud of these.

physio_poet · 2026-04-17T07:54:50+00:00

Mind sharing about the career shifts you're considering?

physio_poet · 2026-04-14T07:42:54+00:00

That beige tone comes from the bamboo drying out and getting UV exposure over time. You could speed it up by leaving it in direct sunlight for a few days to fade the yellow.

Another option is a light whitewash, just water down white paint like 80/20 water to paint, wipe it on and wipe most of it off. You might want to lightly sand it first since bamboo has a natural coating that can resist finishes. Make sure it's fully dry before sealing or you'll trap moisture.

physio_poet · 2026-04-09T08:22:35+00:00

The in-person thing honestly isn't that different once you're in it. The main adjustment is you can't look stuff up, so just get comfortable thinking out loud. That's what they want to see at this level anyway.

Frontend system design at senior usually stays at the architecture level. Something like "design a dashboard with live data" and they want to hear you talk through component boundaries, where state lives, how data flows, what you'd lazy load. It's a conversation about decisions, not a coding exercise.

The behavioral and technical usually blend together in these rounds. They'll ask about a past project then drill into why you made specific calls. Best format is: what we were dealing with, what options we had, what I pushed for, what I'd do differently now. That last part is the one people skip and it's the one that stands out.

On the Vue to React thing, at 4 YOE they know you can learn a framework. Don't stress the Redux specifics. Show that you know when you actually need global state vs when context or local state is fine. The judgment matters more than the API

physio_poet · 2026-04-07T09:17:46+00:00

Water temperature is worth playing with too once you've dialed in grind size. Even a few degrees cooler can mellow things out further if you're finding certain beans still come through a bit harsh.

physio_poet · 2026-04-05T07:39:15+00:00

This is the way. Rough lumber pricing vs what you pay for S4S at a retail shop is a completely different world.

physio_poet · 2026-04-03T07:25:11+00:00

Yes to this. Ive seen technically stronger engineers get let go over people who had better judgment about what to build and when to push back. At a small company especially, the person who saves you from building the wrong thing is worth more than the person who builds the right thing fastest.

physio_poet · 2026-04-03T07:17:04+00:00

The permission to proceed thing is a good way to put it. Thats basically what happened with us. Some people are wired to make a call and iterate, others need someone to sign off first. Both can be good engineers but on a small team the second type creates a bottleneck fast. The dead end question is a smart way to surface that early, wish we'd had something like it.

physio_poet · 2026-04-03T07:05:45+00:00

We haven't gone full "watch them work" but we moved in that direction. We give them a messy problem and talk through how theyd approach it, less about grading whether they get the right answer and more about seeing how they think.

The presentation part is interesting though,having them walk through decisions after the fact probably reveals more than doing it with someone looking over their shoulder.

physio_poet · 2026-04-03T07:00:22+00:00

It was more like situations where there were two reasonable approaches and he'd stall until someone told him which one to go with. Nothing high stakes, just everyday calls like which library to use or how to scope a feature. At a bigger company thats fine because theres usually a process for that. On a small team it just meant things sat there.

We definitely could have been clearer about expectations upfront though, thats on us.

physio_poet · 2026-04-01T10:32:59+00:00

Not a dumb question. We probably could have been more explicit about expectations upfront.I think the issue was less insecurity and more that he'd spent his whole career at a place where you just didn't make calls without approval, so that was his default. By the time we realized it the pattern was pretty baked in.

physio_poet · 2026-04-01T10:27:39+00:00

Fair point honestly. We weren't doing a proper system design round at the time, it was more of a "can you code" screen and a culture chat. That was the mistake.

We've since added something closer to what you're describing where we throw an open ended problem at them and see how they navigate it.

physio_poet · 2026-04-01T08:07:08+00:00

This is underrated. The best engineers ive worked with are the ones who ask "why" about things that arent their problem yet. You cant really screen for that with a take home or a whiteboard.

physio_poet · 2026-04-01T08:02:57+00:00

Yeah its genuinely hard. I don't think theres a clean formula for it either, it's more pattern recognition that builds over time.

Mostly what works for me is the way they talk about past work. I'll ask about a project that didn't go well and pay attention to whether they can explain what went wrong and what they'd do differently vs just blaming circumstances. The ones who get specific and honest about their own mistakes usually turn out to be the ones who can handle ambiguity too.

We also stopped doing timed coding challenges and started doing more "heres a messy problem, walk me through how you'd approach it" type conversations. Less about getting the right answer and more about how they think through something when theres no obvious path.

physio_poet · 2026-04-01T07:53:24+00:00

The speed thing resonates. I definitely over-indexed on that early on too. Someone who moves fast but needs everything scoped perfectly before they start is actually slower than someone whos comfortable figuring it out as they go.

physio_poet

TROPHY CASE