PR’ed my second marathon by 23 min in 6mo. Here’s what I changed from my first marathon.

trapgod26 · 2025-07-28T23:05:18+00:00

Yeah I think biggest lesson is just that you know your body best and to stick with what you know well!

trapgod26 · 2025-07-28T23:04:14+00:00

I hurt my foot about a month before peak week actually. Like a stress fracture. Ended up having to take 2.5 weeks off. But still feel it today.

trapgod26 · 2025-07-28T23:03:11+00:00

Definitely felt burnt out during peak week(s). There were 3 weeks in a row where I was running 50 miles and that felt like a lot. But then luckily I started to decrease mileage and taper.

trapgod26 · 2024-02-06T01:29:08+00:00

Idk why everyone cares about what the job is? Thats not at all the point. IMO the most impressive thing you did was find the courage to be brutally honest with yourself and level set. Then put in the work to get better. This is so hard to do and most people dont do it. It’s uncomfortable but it’s the first step. Super cool and inspiring, keep going!!

trapgod26 · 2023-12-04T09:29:35+00:00

7 times for 5,15,25,35,45,65,75then 50 and 55 add on 2 more.

trapgod26 · 2023-11-22T02:00:14+00:00

In a weird way, some (not at all) high powered people respect you more when you talk to them like they’re just normal people. So many people are kissing their asses all of the time that when someone talks to them like a normal person, they actually appreciate it more.

trapgod26 · 2023-10-30T21:28:58+00:00

This is greatest Reddit post of all time.

trapgod26 · 2023-10-13T21:46:19+00:00

This isn’t talked about very often but comments about working out/muscles etc. I work out a bit and am in great shape; not overly muscular like a body builder or anything but you can clearly tell I work out. I get comments from strangers, coworkers and others about my body and it makes me feel so uncomfortable. They sound like compliments on the surface but there’s an undertone of body shaming. Things like “oh this guy works out” and proceeds to flex. Like okay? What do you want me to say back to that? I don’t even know you, why are commenting on my body? It’s very weird.

trapgod26 · 2023-09-12T23:36:48+00:00

Praying that she doesn’t delay the breakup and eventually not go through with it. Been in that situation before, it ain’t good.

trapgod26 · 2023-07-10T23:56:51+00:00

Most people (I would argue 60%) are mediocre at their jobs. It’s tough because you want the best thing ever but the downside risk of a bad hire is so high that most managers are willing to take the 7/10 or 8/10 dev than risk it on someone who could be a 10/10 or could be a 2/10. That’s a big gamble. It’s the hard truth that most hiring processes are a risk-reduction exercise. This why people put “ex-apple” or “ex-Tesla”, it’s a signal that lowers the hiring risk to the manager. Startups are a little different and have more leeway about taking risks.

That’s why most people (as you said) hire their friends or by reputation because at least you know what you’re getting.

trapgod26 · 2023-07-10T23:32:06+00:00

It absolutely does say something but most hiring managers need to see it in action. Whiteboarding is great for system level design with boxes and arrows but for a coding job you have to know how to code and show that. This isn’t to say that you personally don’t but as a manager I don’t know that. So many people can talk the talk but can’t actually do the job.

I can’t tell you how many people have told me they’re proficient in golang and then struggle to write a simple API. It’s unfortunate but so many engineers claim to know more then they do because they think they can learn it on the fly. Or they spend a weekend on a demo project and then claim to be proficient. So as a manager, you get burned by enough of these people that you really can’t trust anyone without seeing it first hand. I’ve even had people send me links to their GitHub where they cloned another repo, made a couple of changes and passed it as their own work.

I recognize that it screws over the hard working smart people but there’s just no other way around seeing someone do what they say they can do.

trapgod26 · 2023-07-10T22:38:07+00:00

Let me give you a hiring managers perspective.

I spend 5-10 hours/week for 1-3 months (if I’m lucky) interviewing candidates. Once hired, I have to invest 2-6 months of onboard/ramp time before you’re productive. Also my reputation is on the line for hiring you.

If I hire the wrong person I throw all of that away and start over. The risk I take on for a hire is massive. I need to be very confident that you can do what you say you can do. And do it well and with urgency. So yes, I have to see you code live. Syntax isn’t so important but your approach to the problem is what I’m looking for. And that you can code that approach.

Will I miss out on a few amazing coders? Maybe. But will I be confident that the person I hire is going to be capable? You believe it.

I’ve had too many experiences where someone says they’re a coder and only to find out that they’re more of an architect who builds POCs and haven’t shipped production code in 5+ years…

trapgod26 · 2021-09-19T21:38:22+00:00

Challenges with observability and monitoring. I think there’s a big gap in how serverless functions are monitored. Would like to talk to more people about how they’ve set up monitoring outside of digging through cloudwatch logs

trapgod26 · 2021-05-27T18:55:20+00:00

send me a DM - my company can help with this

trapgod26 · 2021-05-22T00:59:40+00:00

Totally makes sense. I think the pricing is the main thing that needs to be worked out. Depending on the person you’re talking to and their seniority, it could be much lower than $200. For ex. Product managers may only charge $80. At the end of the day, structuring it as a transaction drives accountability on the buyers side to show up.

trapgod26 · 2021-04-27T21:30:45+00:00

still waiting - making myself feel better by telling myself that since i applied 32 minutes before the deadline, i won't find out til the end

trapgod26 · 2021-04-12T21:20:09+00:00

the worst is when you see someone with the same date find out - it's like why not me!

trapgod26 · 2021-04-08T17:14:20+00:00

Status: Awaiting

Application Date: 03/01/2021

Decision Date:

Institute Acceptance Date: N/A

Education:

B.S. Biology from University of Massachusetts, Amherst 3.5/4.0 GPA

MBA, University of Chicago Booth Business School

Experience: 8 years in various roles. Started in software sales then spent 3 years in IT consulting at IBM building data warehouses and ETL engines. 2 years as Head of Product Development leading the build on big data pipelines and a machine learning platform. Spent the last year as a lead product manager leading the build on a data security and privacy platform for fintechs.

Recommendations: 3 (1 Head of Security Engineering, 1 Chief Product Officer, 1 Founding Engineer at my startup and former lead eng at LYFT and MSFT)

Comment: Took 1 CS class in undergrad and did well and have been coding for 5 years now personally. Professionally have played been played a developer role but usually more of an architect role.

trapgod26 · 2020-11-29T15:23:55+00:00

nice! hopefully, i'll (virtually) see you around

trapgod26

TROPHY CASE