zdbrandon

Location: Los Angeles

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: Possibly to New York or the Bay Area

Technologies: Typescript/Javascript, React, Node, C#, Firebase, Supabase, Postgres, GCP, AWS, Azure

Email: See Résumé/CV

Résumé/CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TcfEHQasPFiTUV5UuYTEFUkBeNE...

Hi:

- I'm a senior full-stack developer with over 10 years of professional experience.

- Worked with companies of all sizes. Most recently helped take a company from 60 employees to over 3,000.

- Took a few months off to be with the little ones before they started pre-school/daycare.

That's a bit like saying that if you want to sail from Europe to America, you should jump in a boat and let the wind take you there naturally. Don't touch the sails.

The entire hypothesis behind a formal DEI program -- whether or not you agree with it -- is that DEI doesn't happen naturally. Humans tend to gravitate toward (I.E. hire) people similar to themselves for various reasons, and that has to be purposely shifted if the organization is aiming for diversity. If they don't care where they end up, that's a different story.

The story is implying that whenever this happens to you -- forgetting why you came into a room -- the truth is that you were attacked by a vampire that made you forget the reason you were there, as well as the attack itself.

Not quite. Cost savings is only one of the many things that can lure a customer toward a purchase. While Louis Vuitton would love to keep costs low, they wouldn't do it at the expense of their status as a luxury brand.

"Bean counter" logic implies putting cost savings above all else, like maybe Walmart or Amazon would do.

I hope airplane customers (the airlines) care as much about safety as they do cost savings, since their customers certainly do.

You sell 10-20% 4, 5, or sometimes more times in an effort to increase the size of the pie while your share of the pie decreases.

I don't think I've ever once been "break-checked" in 15 years of driving. Is that something that only happens to people who habitually drive too close to the car in front of them? (Tailgating as we call it here.)

Thanks!

Aside: If you don't mind sharing; which url and reader are you using? Either my reader or url is so slow that I only saw the amended title in my feed. My url tries to grab only the most popular posts, so that may be the largest contributor, but I'd love to know if there's a faster way.

Apple's stance of "it never leaves your device" seems to be working so far.

Looks like Gen Z is outpacing the previous two generations in home ownership. So this is likely a false prediction.

Sure this works for creative endeavors. Now what would motivate someone to pick fruit in the summer Sun? Or clean toilets in a corporate office?

Sure you could say, "there are some people who just enjoy picking fruit." But are there enough people to satisfy the demand? And even if there are, what do you do with them as that demand decreases? The people who love picking fruit will have to clean toilets.

Profits, not revenue. But the point remains.

Hoping for greater fools in the private market I presume. Sort of like "why buy stock in a public company that never pays dividends?"

As someone who was considering using one of those "banks" in the coming months, this whole ordeal makes me want to stick with Chase, Wells Fargo, etc. Stripe integrations be damned.

Not that I see it either, but if it were that easy to see, we'd be in the upswing. Fortune favors the bold.

It's "MBA circle jerk" to understand that taking out debt at a lower rate than the ROI you use the debt for is advantageous?

Are you asking “how could you not have known this before?”, or “how could you think that this is good advice?”

Either way, it seems you’ve taken rather strong offense to such a small, and rather kind point.

The same piece of advice can be life changing, completely irrelevant, or anywhere in between; depending on the life the recipient has lived before receiving it.

So it’s natural that some readers will scroll through any list of advice and find little of use, while others are able to put the words to good use.

My takeaway (not necessarily from the article, but from pondering on it) is that status is a lure. It has a certain gravity, and pulls others toward you who are playing in that same specific status game. It makes people want to be around you. Yes, you will feel this at first. So my next question was, why would I want people around me for my status?

I think then, the trick is to use this lure to actually make more friends with people you wouldn’t otherwise have met. No longer because of your status, but because of all the qualities of true friendship (spending time together, self-disclosure, support in times of need, etc).

With that you may lead a more fulfilling life. Would this be possible completely ignoring status? Is it even possible to completely ignore status? (Not just pretending not to play the game, but actually never thinking of how you’re perceived by others.)

I guess my answer is, status == gravity. Gravity leads to more connections. Connections to friends if you work at it. Friends to a better life.

Find a well dressed celebrity your age, and mimic their style.

I wouldn’t call 2.5 years the “outcome”. You have kids with a much deeper horizon in mind.

Also work from home and 100% disagree. Can hardly get anything done with a 4 month old.

Merit alone? In America?

Would it have soothed you if he began the article with: “Though the advice in this article is necessary, it alone is not sufficient to achieve success. Luck also plays a large factor. You need both. You will also need to obtain financial leverage. Hard work at McDonald’s is not the type that this article addresses.”? It seems unnecessary to me, particularly because he’s already written articles on these subjects. [1] [2]

Also, as another person that doesn’t believe in free will, I find it interesting that you thought it necessary to critique the way PG handled this subject matter, as if he had any choice.

But then again, neither did you.

Edit, forgot to link the articles. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html [2] http://www.paulgraham.com/really.html

That answer is different for everyone. Maybe the article should be “How to determine whether you should work harder”, but at the end of the day I’m not sure anyone can be convinced by an article.

If you don’t have any anxieties based in the lack of having attained something specific, then you probably won’t (and maybe shouldn’t) work hard at all.

The framework that I have for myself, is to figure out which letter from MAPS [1] is missing from the work, and then figure out how to fill it. I’ve found that if I have all 4, then it’s much easier to work hard without asking myself “why” every day.

[1] Usually known as CAR, but I find MAPS more helpful:

Mastery: Do you enjoy geeking out about the subject matter? When others correct you, or show you a better way to do something, are you annoyed or delighted? If annoyed, this may be something you should be delegating if you can.

Autonomy: Do you feel sufficiently powerful enough to accomplish the tasks you deem necessary for your goals, and in the way you want to accomplish them?

Purpose: Is this goal helpful to anyone? Is anyone counting on you to accomplish this?

Social Interaction: Do you enjoy spending time with the people you’re working with?

“Societal success” in this sense is relative to others’ performance, and as such will always be “hard”, because the person aiming for this success is by definition aiming to be a statistical outlier.

I did almost the exact same thing in the last year. (2 days a week)

For me it came from handing in my 2 weeks notice to take some time off from a company I worked for for over 5 years at the time, and then being offered a schedule of my choosing instead. I didn’t even know it was an option, else I would have just asked instead of quitting.

So if you’ve been there a while, and can afford it, I’d suggest you ask your current employer.