- Hey, Merry Christmas!
I did invest my time on more specific technologies, not following the mainstream, I accepted a 35% cut, but on smaller and promising small company that smells like startup, but it's actually an small business sharply focused on some types of customers. No VC funding.
I'm also a father of a daughter and I'm "training" her to understand that she needs to sell something that is not abstract.
As a computer scientist, I still sell implementations in form of code, but I dearly assumed many years ago that this (abstract product X concrete product) could be the difference to put food on my table - and now on my daughter's table - or not.
I'm far from highly successful because I'm still fighting this urge to just focus on code, but luckily that understanding above make me talk to any kind of person that is not a coder as well. Understanding business in general, meet concrete needs on different types of industries and so on.
I'm not from the US, so take that into account. I was near shoring to the US, now I'm doing that, but to the EU. I moved to a different market.
Also I'm fully invested in using AI a lot. With that I feel as a senior dev that indeed I don't need as many juniors as before, and I dearly miss having some junior dev to ask the "dumb" questions that I forgot to ask myself sometimes. AI still does not fill that role.
What helped me with AI is not caring as much about the number of LOC as before, as long I met the product's needs.
I hope you can find some comfort, keep your temper cool, so your daughter can feel that as well. That she has at least someone to hold and float.
My best wishes and I hope that 2026 could bring better luck.
- As an introvert living in Rio de Janeiro, I can tell you that a lot of being happier in a hot climate with a lot of people around is just a social mask.
When I start deep questions about financial safety, the future and so on, just by asking I can be labelled as a pessimist. And I'm far from that.
I'm a fairly resolved and confident introvert, but I know many timid people that feel ashamed that they don't feel "happy" in these large group of people, that are extremely agitated and yelling around to grab some piece of attention they need.
And what is being shown in social media, documentaries and etc is just one pov.
- Is there a way (like a CSS rule or something similar) that when you look at the main strudel window, it only shows the piano rolls, punch cards, sliders, etc - but not the code?
Maybe with just the comments? This would be killer, since I have dual displays, and on one I can just focus on the code, the other one can have all the visual stuff.
I'm using this plugin, but having the code twice distracts me a lot (but I prefer the original neovim instead the integrated vim mode inside strudel).
Thanks in advance!
- Wow, I started learning recently, I didn't know you can change the theme.
Also this music brings really good vibes!
I get more motivated when I can see it working directly and change some code here and there!
Thanks for sharing.
- Intelligence in my book includes error correction. Questioning possible mistakes is part of wisdom.
So the understanding that AI and HI are different entities altogether with only a subset of communication protocols between them will become more and more obvious, like some comments here are already implicitly telling.
- I think it's quite the opposite, diacritics teach me how to speak a language that I'm not native.
Portuguese don't use as many as Romanian, but they are very useful. After all what's the difference between avó and avô and just avo?
We don't use in very informal settings, like Whatsapp chat, because a native reader can infer from the context. And that's how English without them works, right?
Actually I wanted the English language to have some, so the tiny differences in certain constructions would be more obvious.
- You can do what I do.
My doctor let me change my dosage whenever I feel. She trusts me for this. She is also an ADHDer herself.
I've found that depending on circumstances I can do well with 10~20mg of the cheapest generic methilfenidate, non LR/XR/whatever, so in my country is USD 10/20 per month. I went as high as 50mg of the USD 100/mo famous ones.
Over time with my other therapist (psych) I trained myself to have some discipline processing my feelings, etc. Understanding the routines that were lacking.
Here it's common to have regular meetings the psychiatrist/psychologist combo. So different perspectives.
My biggest issues were knowing what to do, but not getting it consistently, like:
- getting x minutes of sunlight during the morning, and be consistent almost everyday
- drink water even on hyper focus moments
- pay more attention to breathing even when I'm in the zone doing a lot of apparently rewarding tasks
- trying to stop on unproductive hyper focus moments, realizing when they come
But the medication is necessary, since changing habits, specially the bad ones is harder.
I use the meds as an opportunity to understand myself and having easier time relearning my habits, and getting rid of the bad ones.
good luck!
- Thanks for the recommendation.
I was using the browser feature that disables the mobile mode on smartphones.
The autodub feature should be disabled asap. Or at least have a way to disable globally on all my devices.
- I'm a heavy AdBlock user, I pay for YT premium, and I paid Nebula for 2 years, also I try to buy some albums on Bandcamp even with YT music subscription. What more they do want?
And I do use referral codes for the content creators I do like. My Amazon referrals do still work.
As a mostly software backend dev I even visualize the JS guy saying "it's solved" when he forgets to tell that the correct choice is to do the counting on the backend, period. Not hacking a crappy JS snippet calling a different host.
I obviously ask for more time to make sure it's reliable.
I literally saw something similar happening around some years ago in a adjacent team I was working.
I want to pay with money, not attention. Both at the same time? Non negotiable.
- Yes, but you can have a similar setup to what he is describing, just with different commands.
I'm using niri instead hyperland. I can either use `sed` on it's configuration file (on/off, resolution, position) or for some of its configurations I can use the cli (for output scale).
- This is the way...
- Did you looked at Forex few hours before tarif announcements against Brazil (BRL vs USD) then few days later with the EU (EUR vs USD)?
You're looking at the wrong board despite thinking about the same game.
- A professor in my very first semester called "crazy finger syndrome" the attempts to go straight to the code without decomposing the problem from a business or user perspective. It was a long time ago. It was a CS curriculum
I miss her jokes against anxious nerds that just wanted to code :(
Don't forget the rise of boot camps where some educators are not always aligned with some sort of higher ethical standards.
- Paying in installments is cultural (buy now, pay later, auto financed in 12 months).
Pix will add this in the next months.
I bought my Nintendo Switch 2 in 10x monthly payments, but I already paid back to the back and they gave me back the interest and some cashback as well.
So there's a lot of flexibility by using Credit Cards currently.
Also the idea of cashbacks and travel "miles" is widespread among the middle and upper middle class.
But for instance I'm getting some good deals where is better to get a discount on the nominal price than getting the cashback and so on.
It depends on the merchant.
The smaller merchants are definitely the bigg winners, since they don't have so much leverage negotiating card fees with banks.
But at least here in my city, smaller sellers and shops are still not managing properly, they ask you to show a receipt that can be forged, instead of asking their banks how to confirm transactions instantly from their side (yes they do have products for that where they pay a bit more, but still nowhere near the credit card fees).
So the usual. Merchants and business owners without a vision wants the employees to check all transactions, but don't provide adequate tools.
In some transactions it ends up taking more time because the merchant is still uneducated on how to properly confirm the transactions, then I just ask to switch to credit card.
- There's the small claims courts for that, strong consumer protection laws.
Also some banks are offering insurance on trial basis already.
But yeah, I prefer CC on international platforms, or if the cashback is higher than the discount they offer via Pix (5% to 20%).
Lenovo offered me 20% on a Laptop recently through Pix.
With the discount I paid a bit more on broader support, keep your disks, liquid damage protection.
- With stronger consumer protection laws I will just send the thing back. If the merchant does not honor, is an easy case to win on the small claims courts.
The risk is buying from shady merchants and platforms that don't care about the legal system, or can delay the resolution of the dispute.
For instance buying from China on AliExpress, I will obviously not use Pix (through AliPay), but my credit card.
- Not always. I tried to buy a laptop on Lenovo's website. They rejected my credit cards several times, despite my Serasa credit rating maxed out, etc etc.
But then they offered me the laptop with enough discount that was a no brainer. I obviously calculated the difference between 1x, 12x with the hidden interest - cashback and Pix.
So 3 days lost trying to buy the thing, then instant approval and next day delivery when I paid with Pix.
When I bought the NSW2 on pre sale, it was better to use installments, get some cashback, etc.
- I did that and went "back".
Most of the projects I do for money are on Github and Gitlab.
I got my hands on things like YT videos explaining, official docs, cheatsheets.
About 4 hours exploring, trying to use with some side projects.
I did the same decades ago from CVS/SVN to git (even tried Hg). At that time it was obvious the "revolution" + "evolution" effect. Also git provided some transition tools that were easier to use from my pov.
Now it's just "evolution".
I see the added power to work with different "branches" simultaneously, move commits in different order in a way that is easier to have some better management logic, etc.
This is basically compelling if you work on different facets on big monorepos.
But I want to work on one thing a time nowadays, do something reliable, instead several features simultaneously, even with AI assistance, so the gains are not that huge, yet.
Like you I ended up using git commands again naturally. Stopping using svn commands eons ago felt amazing.
- I went last year to Lisbon and Barcelona, from Brazil with 0 cash in any currency.
I had a debit card with some hundreds of EUR already charged, but I ended up using it with an NFC enabled smartphone.
No issues at all, even going in far places outside Barcelona. Everyone very receptive in BCN.
I looked at ATM terminals and they seemed full of rules and complications. I tried to get some cash just to collect the notes as a souvenir, but I gave up.
Again, everyone accepted my NFC enabled smartphone, I tested my debit NFC card and my local bank CC NFC card as well
So I think ATMs present a lot of friction for sure.
So much so that I can reduce the medication when I feel my routine is healthy enough.
No overdoing neither under doing. Taking care of hyper focus is more important than anything else. Learning to transfer the rewards from highly rewarding things (videogames) to the chores.
During my gaming sessions as well, playing harder modes repeatedly without giving up.
It's very important this aspect of reframing things. Pursuing healthier outcomes by changing the routine.
Unfortunately a really close person to me is taking much higher dosages, but it's not seeing this way, neither the doctor of this person frames the same way like my doctor is doing.
I went all up to 50mg, using generics or whatnot, extended release or regular ones, now I'm a happy camper on 10mg. Will go to 20mg because I need to force myself into more exercises, usually I take 30 minutes before these sessions of "boring" routines.
More important than anything is having an honest discussion with my psychiatrist about the role and objectives of taking the medication.