elharo

I also see bugs others, especially developers, are blind too. I've wasted I'm not sure how many hours reporting bugs to unresponsive companies and teams. Often the problem is not only that the developers cannot see or believe the bugs, but that there is no channel for reporting them. Even many open source projects resist receiving and addressing bug reports submitted by users. Commercial companies actively shield developers from users to the point where 9-figure customers have to escalate to a VP (who they can actually talk to because they're a hundred-million dollar customer) to get action on a serious bug affecting them, instead of just emailing the SWE 3 who's ultimately going to make the one line fix after the message gets passed down through many layers of emergency meetings.

When I worked at Google, it was at least possible to report bugs internally with some hope they would be addressed. Sometimes you could even fix them yourself, given enough time and the relevant skills. Bug bankruptcy was still a thing. Teams would simply throw away all the SWE-years that had gone into documenting and reporting issues in their systems. But there was some possibility you'd get action, at least if you were a squeaky enough wheel and used the right back channels. But now that I'm outside the plex, there's basically no mechanism to report issues unless you're a tech vlogger with a large following inside Google or a >= $100,000,000 customer. Most other companies are much the same. They're not just blind to bugs. They're deliberately putting bags over their heads to keep from seeing what users are telling them.

And this is why GPL is the way to go. The Apache License is designed to enable this bad behavior. It's a feature, not a bug.

Yes, a terminal master's degree in CS is absolutely worth it for a person in your position looking to make a career switch. It will help you learn things you do not know and qualify you for many jobs you would not currently be considered for. A CS masters is not the only way to do what you're trying to do, but it may be the easiest. You do not have to attend a prestige university or a win a scholarship to make this path worthwhile, though certainly those things are nice if you can get them.

I would not say the same thing to someone who already has a BS in CS; but for someone looking for a career switch like you are, it makes a lot of sense.

Depends on where you are, the cost of renting vs. owning, and whether you plan to move. If you expect to be moving in the next 5 years or so (more likely in your 20s than your 40s) then home ownership usually doesn't make sense.

Real estate is also a lot less liquid than stocks, and that can be a concern too.

This is easy. You want a low cost index fund. Vanguard has a number of good ones. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund is probably the best bet. 0.05% expense ratio for admiral shares, a bit more for investor shares. They're a few others that only cover the S&P 500, or include some bonds, or have more international exposure but at your age and savings level it's not worth agonizing over the differences. Just go with the broadest, lowest cost stock fund you can find.

I feel for you. As it happens I am sitting in a Holiday Inn in Queens where Air India put us after yesterday's Dec. 17 flight 102 from JFK to Delhi (i.e. the return trip of your route, maybe even the same plane?) returned to JFK after unspecified mechanical difficulties about an hour into the flight.

No one at Air India is picking up the phone except for an international call center that thinks the plane is still in the air. No one has given us any information about when or if we'll get to Delhi or on what flight.

At least we got to deplane. Air India then sent my wife and me to the wrong hotel, which was not ready for us and could not transport us to the correct hotel. (Kudos to the Radisson though for calling Air India and figuring out where we were supposed to be.) We ended up waiting in the subfreezing cold for the Holiday Inn shuttle that never came (despite repeated assurances from the hotel that the van was arriving "momentarily") for almost an hour before giving up and taking a cab.

I grew up in New Orleans, lived there for some of my adult life, still have much family there, and return frequently so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the place. The message of this city comes through loud and clear to me: have fun.

Now that doesn't (always) mean acting like a drunken idiot in the French Quarter. It basically means enjoy yourself. If that means getting drunk, fine. But it may also mean hanging out on the porch and watching the sunset, having a fine meal with friends at your favorite restaurant, going to mass on Sunday, fishing for nothing in particular in Bayou St. John, or visiting the lakefront with your dog. But don't take anything too seriously, don't work too hard, and don't sweat the small stuff.

New Orleans tells you that by far the most important thing in life is not whether you're rich, attractive, skinny, or powerful. It's how much you enjoy the path you're on. New Orleans admires poor and happy far more than any other place I've ever lived. Rich and happy is good too, but not all that different by the standards of the place.

Hmm, maybe that's why I'm not all that rich or successful despite living in New York for the other half of my life. :-)