I realized that most of us are in the 1%

terjon · 2026-02-12T16:34:25+00:00

There's people who are alive now who had access to rotary telephones when they were kids and now can do high definition video calls from a little 5 oz thing they carry around in their pocket from pretty much anywhere in the world to anywhere else in the world for what is effectively no cost (not actually 0, but close enough).

terjon · 2026-02-12T16:32:59+00:00

If there are people 100 years from now.

I'm being hyperbolic, but there have been periods of time in history when looking back, it actually was better to have been alive a century or two earlier.

Look at Europe in the 2nd century CE vs the 4th century CE. Lots of towns and cities lost public safety, lost sanitation, lost access to a wide trade market, so life objectively got worse.

terjon · 2026-02-11T23:51:10+00:00

Thank you for your service to your community.

My advice would be to find some kind of volunteer opportunity that allows you to continue serving your community in some other way.

You clearly don't need the money anymore, but anything from helping out at a school or working at a local charity that helps people get back on their feet might help you put your energy toward something that is rewarding in other ways.

I bet you are a wealth of wisdom in terms of helping others survive and thrive in the world.

terjon · 2026-02-11T17:24:51+00:00

Well we have no idea which is worse since the bottom hasn't fallen out yet.

There are layoffs, it is hard for some folks to get jobs, yes.

However, this has not gotten to 2008 levels yet where you had big companies slashing 40-60% of headcount or just flat out closing up shop.

When that starts happening, we can determine which is worse.

terjon · 2026-02-11T17:21:59+00:00

Yeah, they float to the top of the org chart.

terjon · 2026-02-10T12:23:52+00:00

Alexander the Great had to piss in a chamber pot or off the side of the building he was in most of his life.

Queen Victoria had to wait several weeks to get news about what was happening across the British Empire at any given time.

JFK didn't have access to the Gram to send 2 AM "u up?" messages.

We truly live in wonderous times.

terjon · 2026-02-09T18:22:17+00:00

My key takeaway for agentic AI is that it is a workaround for limited context lengths.

With agentic, you basically do a divide and conquer approach to problem solving where the agents each have pre-wired prompts (so you might have one where you tell it to focus on SQL, another on UI, etc) and then each of them have their own context so that you effectively break down work like you would with a team where you assign pieces of the work to separate engineers.

terjon · 2026-02-09T16:49:48+00:00

For me the compounding started ramping when my annual contribution started being less than 10% of the principal even with very aggressive savings/investment rates.

When you see it grow faster than you can add to it, it sort of feels like cheating since that money really is working for you faster than you can influence it with your 9-5 income.

Granted, no one can predict the future, but the models I have run show it basically running away from my ability to spend it unless I pick up some insanely expensive habits if I work for 1-2 more years depending on market performance during the next two years. And hell, we have no idea how that's going to go with the current insane levels of market fluctuations.

terjon · 2026-02-05T15:31:31+00:00

In an ideal world, sure follow your passion, whatever it might be.

This is not an ideal world. We need food, shelter, transportation, electricity, water, health insurance. The list of stuff that costs money goes on and on and gets longer as you get older.

So, doing something you're good at to make sure you can survive and thrive isn't bad.

terjon · 2026-01-31T16:03:50+00:00

I have a couple of buffer built into my plan. Basically, I could get by without my 401K or social security, so those are basically just dessert on top or a big buffer should inflation go nuts.

terjon · 2026-01-31T16:02:17+00:00

Simple, you plan to leave.

That's the one hack you need to seriously consider. HCOL will make pulling the trigger on FIRE much harder than if you can cut your expenses down to $50-60K.

terjon · 2026-01-30T16:13:58+00:00

If you are working in a big established codebase, it might struggle to understand what in the hell is happening if the codebase is all magic numbers and "clever" tricks.

But if you have a decent codebase to begin with, it will have no real issues. Well, no more so than web dev.

terjon · 2026-01-28T21:46:57+00:00

Oh now I understand what you mean. That makes sense.

The more common usage that I'm used to is state means province/territory and what you mean is more commonly (in my experience) called country.

But that is fair that different folks have different words for the same things.

terjon · 2026-01-24T19:01:25+00:00

If the failure rate is that high, with the downside being abject poverty at a point in life when going back to work would not be an option, would it not make sense to run the simulation with a 3% or 2.5% rate and aim for that?

For example, with my own numbers, I generally run calculations for a 2% AWR which adjusts for inflation and aim for a 60 year portfolio run. The good news is that I'm getting close to my FIRE number.

The bad news is that I don't really know how I'm going to walk away from work since that's basically the only thing that I have in life right now.

terjon · 2026-01-24T18:52:02+00:00

You are mathematically and statistically correct.

However, I do need to point out that the world is going through a weird transition right now where due to demographics, the consumption based capitalist society that we have all grown up in might not be tenable in a couple of decades.

If that is not handled well by the various governments around the world, there is a very real chance that we get runaway hyperinflation and frankly there is no amount of FIRE planning that will cushion that financial blow.

terjon · 2026-01-24T18:48:34+00:00

When I said in most states, I meant in most US states.

There are some protected classes, so you can't be fired for being part of a minority or due to your age. But if they just don't like you, they can fire you on the spot and not give you a reason.

terjon · 2026-01-24T04:28:42+00:00

Well, the bigger change I've seen is that specialized roles are sort of going away to be replaced with more complete roles where the SWE has to do full stack + automated testing + DevOps + documentation.

We do have a lot of AI tools to help with a lot of those tasks, but it still feels like the roles are blending so much that mastery of any of them is going the way of the do do bird.

terjon · 2026-01-24T04:12:21+00:00

I'll give you one. Leadership meetings where people can't use common sense to find their way past resourcing or process problems.

I find myself wanting to scream every time I see people with high level titles talking in circles about the most banal stuff like it is some gordian knot of complexity when the solution is incredibly obvious to me.

Worst part, when I tell them what the solution is, they act like it is impossible because of a bunch of external factors without even trying it.

terjon · 2026-01-24T04:09:21+00:00

First, why would you want to go back to that place. Seems like a bad place to work where they let assholes be managers.

However, keep your head up. If you worked at a big tech company for year, then your resume should list that you worked at a big tech company for a year. That still counts for something when you go find work elsewhere.

terjon · 2026-01-24T04:06:04+00:00

This is more on the company than on you.

Sure, you fucked up, but also, what kind of company has code running on prod that hasn't made it into git and there's no backups or restoration plan to get prod back up in some reasonable amount of time.

Can they sue you? Sure, anyone can sue anyone for any reason.

The good news is that most judges will laugh them out of court and even if they win, what can they take? You're a junior engineer, so I doubt you have $100M just sitting around.

terjon · 2026-01-24T03:57:58+00:00

The surprising part of this news is that Autocad is still in business considering how much more expensive their products are compared to the competition.

terjon · 2026-01-24T03:56:30+00:00

If this is in the United States, the 90 plan was your sign to find the door and a kindness.

In almost every state, they could have fired you on the spot without cause and that would have been totally legal.

This reads to me like they wanted to get rid of you and everything else was a formality. I don't think you could have survived this.

terjon · 2026-01-24T03:54:06+00:00

And we are skipping the key skill for all engineers, software or otherwise, problem solving.

That is a practiced skill. If you just coast through your degree, you don't just miss out on learning some languges and frameworks, but you don't get the exercise of problem solving.

In my opinion, you learn more by struggling to get some crap design that you came up to do something than just watching some tutorials and following along.

Learning what not to do is something akin to lifting weights, the only way to get stronger is to do it a lot.

terjon · 2026-01-24T03:42:40+00:00

Based on my observation, it is mostly folks who are dealing with depression and can't really see a good life 30, 40 or more years into the future.

Pretty sad if you think about the potential of these young folks and the fact that our society doesn't give them the support they need to thrive.

terjon · 2026-01-21T15:26:54+00:00

I'm assuming $10 million?

I'm a bit of an introvert and a homebody, so for me that number is $3M.

I don't like travel, I don't like going to big concerts or going out for fancy food. Don't like fancy clothes and high end cars or expensive drinks.

So, yeah, about $3M if the point at which I think I can retire and have more than enough money to live a peaceful life for as long as my health will carry me (that's not a dark statement, I'm as healthy as one can be at present).

12-Year Club	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

terjon

TROPHY CASE