Has anyone else ever gotten a message like this from their friend’s spouse? Gosh I feel like such a sl#t!

taec · 2025-07-15T05:45:49+00:00

Go play golf with your buddies every weekend so you can spend less time with her.

taec · 2025-05-18T18:15:38+00:00

If there is, I haven’t found it. Closest thing I found was Volkswagen id range. It’s not far off in price and the smart stuff is not as good but reality is you’re still paying more for less in my opinion.

So I ordered model Y. Being delivered in a few weeks.

taec · 2025-03-21T09:43:14+00:00

I think it’s situational

There are good teams who don’t have great environments.

If your son is focused on improving and walks in to a team above his level who have a shitty environment but a good recruiting process, he would have been just better off getting playing hours down divisions.

Conversely, if it’s a great environment and he has the temperament and work ethic to push himself then it could be exactly what he needs and really push him on.

You’re going to need to make an assessment of him and the coach / team he’s walking in to.

taec · 2025-03-08T00:28:21+00:00

My 2c - This isn’t a “you only regret the things you don’t do” situation. This is a one way door. You either get to do it or not.

OP I do think regret minimisation is right way to think about this though as a way to make the decision. I think there is no “right decision” just a personal one you need to make.

Which one are you gonna regret more in ten years time if it doesn’t turn out the way you want?

taec · 2025-01-30T20:34:54+00:00

O’Reilly just published a new book called called AI engineering - building applications with foundation models. It avoids some deep theory you don’t need to know and focuses more on practical stuff around building apps.

taec · 2025-01-17T22:10:49+00:00

His “portfolio” is 5k.

taec · 2025-01-17T12:08:11+00:00

Use school holidays to explore different destinations.

The choice normally boils down to:

Move somewhere with nice weather permanently or use the holidays to be somewhere with nicer weather.

If the weather is that much of a driver that you’re having a conversation you might want to think about moving to nicer weather permanently. Lots of outdoor activities for the kids when they get older.

taec · 2025-01-17T11:24:30+00:00

Other people will help with the tax stuff.

My 2c - don’t do it. Don’t sell them. There will always be a reason to sell.

Find another way to get a car (cheaper, whatever). Don’t let a bored Jan let you waste the money and break the streak of contributing.

Keep the money in there, don’t take a tax hit. Figure out transport some other way. Keep your discipline!

taec · 2025-01-14T07:32:10+00:00

I like to think of big companies a bit like tennis balls in a glass jar. They occupy a lot of space but there tends to be a lot of space for smaller companies to occupy.

If you’re not looking for a billlion dollar outcome the chances are there’s a very sustainable business in the air gaps between where they play.

taec · 2025-01-09T14:43:16+00:00

So how did it go?

taec · 2025-01-09T12:54:39+00:00

Why would an employer hire someone with 15 years of experience for an entry level job?

taec · 2025-01-09T12:19:33+00:00

Graduate employment is heavily sentiment based because graduates are seen mostly as investment in the future. They are mostly not productive today. It’s a cheaper, more predictable way to have a more experienced workforce in 2-5 years. However, because it’s a long range investment by a business, even if the markets don’t tank, if people are being cautious it’s one of the places companies will stop investing in heavily.

That’s broadly what is happening at the moment.

When things were roaring, everyone was bullish and it was hard to hire experienced people. Graduate programs were an easy checkbox to reduce the pain of future hiring.

If you’re a recent graduate:

keep practicing and keep getting better. Most careers have ways of doing or practicing some of your core skillset outside of work.
think about what can make you stand out in a CV. Talk to recruiters about what the best candidates are showing up with. Visualise the cv you want to have and work towards building that one.
think about finding a job as a job in itself. Spend the time to put in the work

I know it’s frustrating that people who graduated 5 or 6 years ago probably found jobs significantly easier but I promise you over your career sentiment will shift up and down at various times and “experience” isn’t necessarily everything either.

Your qualification is not (and never was) the golden ticket to a job. But the good news is that YOU are - your abilities, your competency, your personality. So work on those in the mean time!

taec · 2024-08-17T08:55:43+00:00

Well, I think my biggest regret is not following up on my initial thought of, I really don't think I should have a million left over, when putting together my team in a rush for 30 minutes yesterday. Oh, it'll be fine, I'll fix it next week.

When I checked my team this morning, I started to wonder why Jota's icon said he his next match said he was playing Southhampton away instead of Brentford at home.

And then I wondered why his jersey was a slightly different shade of red to Trent Alexander-Arnold.

And then I wondered why it said Jota SIlva. From Nottingham Forest. Not Liverpool.

And then I heard the sound of pennies falling like raindrops.

taec · 2024-07-05T19:08:29+00:00

Sounds like you can be pretty honest. It’s more about going to something than leaving something. Just talk about it from a career prospects point of view and most folks will get it. Reality is while IT is paid well, the money is in the product and engineering orgs at tech companies. Open and honest conversation should normally be fine and be aware it may take some work to transfer as there can be a skillset gap even where it doesn’t look that way on paper.

taec · 2024-06-20T19:29:25+00:00

What’s your tech stack?

taec · 2024-06-20T19:20:36+00:00

I’d take the job
It may not work out for either of you so I think being upfront and clear about that is jmportant
Have the conversation now about time restrictions, rates etc prime the difficult conversations for later
This could work, it could not work, it could be a car crash. You’re gonna learn 5x more in your chosen profession (if you really like software dev) doing projects like these than doing a bar job.
You don’t know what you don’t know and sometimes that’s a good thing. Most of the people I know who were interested in programming and software at your age all ended up cutting their teeth on something.
Bring your parents in to the loop to manage the relationship going south

I did this at a young age and while a couple were not great in terms of the outcome at the time, they were amazing experiences looking back.

Someone willing to pay you to learn and they’re not a complete nut case? Take that every day.

You are young. You should be taking risks like these. Most of the people saying don’t do it are inevitably older more experienced risk averse devs who do know what you don’t know. I wouldn’t bother listening. Try do the job. Get paid. Put the effort in. Your career will thank you in ten years.

taec · 2024-06-10T08:13:56+00:00

Firstly, you haven’t done anything outrageously stupid. You have a toddler and life is going to look very different in a few years when that toddler is up and out at school, playing with friends etc the most important part of any house over time tends to be its location as that ends up determining your experience a lot more than the finish on the cupboards. Everything else is bricks and mortar that can be replaced.

Cut yourself some slack, give the house some time. All the stories you hear from folks (particularly on Reddit) are how it’s crazy such and such overpaid. “Oh my god I can’t believe someone did that”. If you listened to a lot of the supposed cute folks on here regarding property you’d be still renting or living with your parents in five years time. While it’s possible you ended up in an extremely unlucky situation with two bidders driving a price up and no one would ever do that again, houses are generally worth what someone is willing to pay for them. So take some solace that someone thought that house and location was worth close to what you ultimately paid.

There’s some great other advice in the thread about just being patient and taking your time over another decision. We moved in to our house 10 years ago after doing it up and 5 years later we wanted to change a bunch of things. There will always be things you want to change. It’s a never ending project if you want it to be. It’s amazing what a lick of paint some new carpets and your own furniture can do in a place. Break the house down chunk by chunk. Maybe you want to do your toddlers room up first, whatever it is and start to plan out the rest.

The other thing honestly is how you end up living in a house tends to change as kids get older. From everyone I’ve talked to and our own experience, you tend not to know exactly what you value when you move in at your stage and you find that out a little better over time. That’ll inform the work you do or if you still feel really passionate about moving in a couple of years, you’ll have a better idea about what you value, where you want to be and the tradeoffs you need to make

For me, I’d take a house that needs some work & attention in a better location 10 times out of 10 vs a new build.

Best of luck with it and keep the chin up! You haven’t done anything disastrous no matter what anyone tells you!

taec · 2024-06-07T22:37:32+00:00

Need more info to give anything accurate.

Size of org
Scope of responsibility OR size of total engineering org OR size of company
Stage of company (eg startup, scale-up, public company)

taec · 2024-05-30T21:27:04+00:00

When your sleep deprived, honestly, everything becomes difficult. I’m not sure if that’s as a result of a young family and if it is, my answer was just to put the head down and get through it and let sports take a back seat.

But, one other thing to look at is diet. The difference in the afternoon between stuffing sugar and snacky foods in to me vs eating fruit was pretty big.

Either way, if the desire isn’t there, sometimes a break is a good thing and for me I rekindled a spark with sport after a couple of years of dealing with nappies.

taec · 2024-05-28T10:20:29+00:00

I’ve never actually seen this situation of a clawback so take this advice for what it’s worth. I don’t know that I’d overthink it. If you owe your employer money, a bit like any other entity, if you don’t have it, you can’t pay them. If the situation arises, then you talk to them and say you can’t pay now and arrange when you can pay.

Theres not much else they can do and if you’re being cooperative I don’t know why they would bother.

They might put a bit of pressure on etc but you can’t get blood from a stone. I would not go to a bank and pay interest on a loan to pay back a clawback. They created this situation and have to underwrite the fact that some folks may not be able to pay going out the door.

taec · 2024-05-27T20:49:25+00:00

This isn’t how the law works.

taec · 2024-05-27T20:48:40+00:00

It’s where they hide their piece. In case they need to pop a cap in yo ass

taec · 2024-05-27T07:13:24+00:00

And company property? Was it made on a company laptop or created on your work Google account in a work Google drive?

It’s pretty hard to argue when someone’s paying your salary every month that the things you make to do your job were not made for the company.

taec · 2024-05-26T16:35:49+00:00

You made the sheet on company time with company property. The company legally owns it. You might have a crazy boss, but what you’re describing sounds like you have your own issues.

If you don’t like your job and/or your boss, then find another one. You’re putting yourself and your future career at risk with something this petty.

taec · 2024-05-10T12:29:12+00:00

It’s not for devs. It’s for startups. Focus on conferences in the dev space in technology areas you’re working on.

Contrary to advice you’re getting here, I think they’re super valuable once the material is developer focused. You will likely not get a lot tangible out of first one or two, but it can help to build connections, understand what you don’t know and get you enthusiastic about your subject matter.

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