pysouth

Does anyone else experience pretty severe social isolation in this career?

Posted by Inner_Ad_4725@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 99 comments

pysouth@reddit

Yeah. It has had a severe impact on my mental health and social anxiety. I like a lot about remote work, but it is hard in this way. There are no employers in my area paying nearly as well as mine does. I do social activities outside of work (run club mainly), but I’m married and have young kids so time to do those things is limited. Even before that, I struggled, though. I have 9 YoE. To be honest I learned very early on this is not a good career for my mental health, but I’m decent at it and I make more money than I would otherwise and I can’t really switch careers easily now, with my family situation and responsibilities. I dunno what the answer is, I feel like I’ve tried everything so I don’t have any good advice, just saying that I get it.

Has anyone ever been a part of a successful project?

Posted by TheTimeDictator@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 259 comments

pysouth@reddit

Did you get anything out of the exit, financially? Anything could happen, but I would be very surprised if my company didn’t exit in the next 5 years. I’m a founding engineer, and I’m hoping I’ll feel the same as you when all is said and done but tbh not sure I will unless I make out like a bandit lol

Miss the days of actually training models - struggling with the agent era

Posted by rainchaser3@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 99 comments

pysouth@reddit

Do you have experience outside of LLMs? Plenty of other model training happening outside of the super hyped up LLM space, like in various parts of health tech.

Any programmers actually become farmers or something farmer adjacent?

Posted by qodeninja@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 127 comments

pysouth@reddit

I love it! My grandfather had goats on his watermelon farm when I was a kid, I loved them. They are wiley though. Sheep seem a bit more manageable haha

Any programmers actually become farmers or something farmer adjacent?

Posted by qodeninja@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 127 comments

pysouth@reddit

I’m definitely planning to start a small native plant nursery when I eventually retire, but I’m under no illusion that becoming a full time farmer for my livelihood is a reasonable transition lol. Maybe I’ll get some goats and chickens too. 🐐

I feel like I missed out on the Golden Age of IT work

Posted by AntsyAnswers@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 805 comments

pysouth@reddit

Yeah, if I can ever get to r/coastFIRE I will probably try to get a job at my local university and get a master's degree while working. Not only is tuition covered, but they tend to be a lot more flexible with that kind of thing. Right now cash is king haha

I feel like I missed out on the Golden Age of IT work

Posted by AntsyAnswers@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 805 comments

pysouth@reddit

I’m mixed on it, but that’s more of a comment on my waning care for this career in general. Certainly a good gig, but I’m quickly approaching the “fuck this I want to start a goat farm and never touch a computer again” phase of my life, lol.

I feel like I missed out on the Golden Age of IT work

Posted by AntsyAnswers@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 805 comments

pysouth@reddit

I worked for a small liberal arts college and was technically helpdesk but did a little of everything. I honestly loved it, but the pay was dogshit and the school will almost certainly go bankrupt in the next 10 years. It was already very close to that back in the mid and late 2010s. My career has pivoted me towards more of a SWE doing a lot of “DevOps”/SRE stuff, but if I could go back to that environment with my current pay I probably would. I love higher ed.

How do you handle the stress of knowing that you could be fired at any moment?

Posted by No-Rush-Hour-2422@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 239 comments

pysouth@reddit

I don’t live like a pauper, but I don’t live outside of my means. I have a healthy emergency fund and retirement savings. My wife is a SAHM, but has a career in healthcare, so realistically it’s not like we will be homeless or something if worst case scenario she had to return to work. That really alleviates a lot of anxiety. All that said, it is a big source of stress for me, but I try not to let it control me. Oh, also exercising. Doesn’t solve the problem, but helps me destress.

All work must be done through VM

Posted by Angriestanteater@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 168 comments

pysouth@reddit

I had something like this at my old job at a large investment bank. "VDI (Virtual Desktop Environment)". To be honest, it actually worked fairly well most of the time with low latency, they had most of the kinks worked out. No, it isn't as nice as just doing things "normally" on a laptop, but it shouldn't really be that bad if it's set up correctly. Sounds like your company is just cheaping out and/or doing it poorly.

How many of you have a partner who stays home with the kids?

Posted by mildly-strong-cow@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 148 comments

pysouth@reddit

My wife is a SAHM, but the difference is I’m in MCOL and most of my colleagues live in VHCOL. If we moved to the Bay Area where my company is located and some of my team is located, we would 100% have to both work. My wife was also a healthcare worker pre SAHM life so going back to work at some point is a non issue. Her job will be there. A lot harder if you work in tech or something to take a multi year hiatus.

Hiring SWEs and EMs — what are the negatives of hiring Amazon people?

Posted by Full_Top3691@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 347 comments

pysouth@reddit

Thanks for posting this, so true. I really liked my job at the startup I work for, I was there from the beginning and I liked our culture and team dynamics as we were growing. Lots of good people. Then we hired a guy from $big_company who was a great engineer, but definitely had a connection to our founders, and came in with ideas about what our company “should” be doing. Unsurprisingly he usurped everyone else and became the engineering lead and within a month implemented stack ranking. The morale is abysmal and I hate my work environment now, it’s really a bummer.

Heavily depressed in this field and not sure where to go next. Do I leave the field or what next?

Posted by Legitimate-mostlet@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 85 comments

pysouth@reddit

I worked in higher ed IT before I started working in development. I honestly loved it and would really like to work in that environment again, but yeah, that environment is in a really bad place at the moment for many reasons.

AI’s Serious Python Bias: Concerns of LLMs Preferring One Language

Posted by yangzhou1993@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 97 comments

pysouth@reddit

I’m more on the DevOps/SRE/cloud eng side. So, familiar with Python, but not getting deep into the weeds with things like Django on a regular basis the way a standard backend dev would. I’ve been trying to dip back into feature work more lately and was working on our Django codebase. I naively tried to use Cursor as well as VS Code/Copilot to refactor some code, add new models & mutations, etc., and my god. I really should have just skipped even trying with the LLMs, genuinely wasted so much time because of exactly what you said. Even for relatively basic queries and the like. Now, one could argue I was using the tool wrong or prompting poorly and that’s probably true to a degree, but it took me, someone who is rusty with this stuff, exponentially less time to do the work the old school way after I just said fuck the LLM entirely.

Shocked by consistently unreasonable AI startup requirements in my job hunt

Posted by snowbeast93@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 240 comments

[8 YoE] Told that I've effectively hit the ceiling for comp at my company. Unsure how to proceed.

Posted by pysouth@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 14 comments

pysouth@reddit (OP)

Yeah, this is kind of where I've settled. I know I have it good so don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining I'm not getting paid enough -- but I've always considered myself a fairly high achiever and now it's like alright... guess this is it, what now?

Is this the whope quiet qutting I've been hearing about?

Posted by jellybubblegum@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 54 comments

pysouth@reddit

Dealing with this now. Used get 5s on my reviews but we have a manager who doesn’t give anyone over a 3. I don’t care about the number so much but like damn dude why try hard if you’re just gonna tell me I suck, or at best, an average

Does anyone in tech still make 5–10 year plans? Everything moves so fast now, I wonder if long-term thinking is even realistic.

Posted by N4ji-DX@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 285 comments

pysouth@reddit

My only plan is to stay employed. Keep my emergency fund up. Our company is growing more than ever and our revenue/profit is increasing and yet we are also firing more people than ever for "performance". Just trying to keep the ship sailing at this point, I've lost all optimism for anything else.

Why Engineers Hate Their Managers (And What to Do About It)

Posted by Acceptable-Courage-9@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 58 comments

pysouth@reddit

Yeah, as a person, I like my manager quite a bit. I enjoyed talks and having a few drinks with him at company events before he was promoted. In the context of work now that he’s a manager, though, I’m just waiting for the day my number is pulled and I’m one of “performance related” (not willing to pull 60 hour weeks) layoffs.

What’s one “Americanism” you secretly love, even if it’s cheesy?

Posted by Nandou_B@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 1862 comments

pysouth@reddit

Congrats! There’s a lot of stress for sure, but my son is almost 2 now and can genuinely have fun and enjoy times like these and it’s so so fun. It’s the best. Seeing him play with the neighbor kids with the water table or spraying them with the hose and hearing them lose their minds with laughter just makes my day

How much vacation does an average American get ?

Posted by IntrospectiveHuman@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 2864 comments

pysouth@reddit

Yeah for me it means, in practice, like 4 weeks per year (which is good by US standards), but I'd probably get PIP'd if I tried to take > 1 week at once lmao

What is filling your 96 gallon trash bins each week?

Posted by ActiveDinner3497@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 604 comments

pysouth@reddit

Only time mine ever gets full is if I forget to put it out for a week so there’s old trash in there from the previous week, or there is some other circumstance like holidays. Even then it’s rarely totally full. We are a family of 3, I imagine if we had more kids it’d fill up faster and as our toddler gets older I’m sure he will generate more trash.

What foods do Americans typically eat on Easter? And is it "required" like turkey is on Thanksgiving?

Posted by Square-Dragonfruit76@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 2146 comments

pysouth@reddit

I feel ya. I was born and raised in Mobile and lived there until my early/mid 20s. Don’t miss some things about it but it for sure has a fun unique culture and the food is great

What foods do Americans typically eat on Easter? And is it "required" like turkey is on Thanksgiving?

Posted by Square-Dragonfruit76@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 2146 comments

pysouth@reddit

Are you from Louisiana/the gulf coast? Our menu was always pretty similar except no pad Thai and maybe brisket instead of ribs

Do you consider not using washcloths to shower, to be unhygienic?

Posted by Glass_Jeweler@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 628 comments

pysouth@reddit

I’m white and I don’t know any peoples houses I’ve been to that don’t have washcloths or loofahs including my own. Growing up I always had one or the other. I didn’t realize it was a thing to shower without one until I got on Reddit lol

Which is the largest city in your state that attracts very few or almost no tourists?

Posted by lucapal1@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 1282 comments

pysouth@reddit

Montgomery sucks ass. I live in Birmingham and love it. Am from Mobile and I’m glad I moved, but downtown is pretty great, especially nowadays. Montgomery is just straight up ass.

For those who are devs and feel physically great what is your life and routine like?

Posted by spla58@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 445 comments

pysouth@reddit

I used to lift 3-4x a week and run 5x a week and felt fucking amazing. Guaranteed if you do that you’ll feel fantastic especially if your diet is even remotely decent. Then I had a kid and now I barely run and am sick all the time. Fuck me

What did you do that got you promoted, and what did you think would get you promoted but didn’t?

Posted by Consistent-Art8132@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 210 comments

pysouth@reddit

Haven't been promoted. I thought for a long time, though, that making substantial contributions and being a high performer would get me promoted. In reality, I saw my colleague get promoted in a year (I had been there for 3 years for more context), and while he was a good developer, his real superpowers were making the team more efficient and, unsurprisingly, intentionally making himself closer to the big bosses. He was a force multiplier, and while it's not like he created huge, singular, amazing features, he helped each team member deliver a lot faster, gave really good code reviews, etc. We are undoubtedly a better team because of his contributions, even if I can't really name any huge features he built off the top of my head. That said, he also very clearly was "in" with the bosses in a way that no one else had ever really been able to accomplish. So that certainly contributed to it.

What’d your employer give you for Christmas?

Posted by _BearsEatBeets__@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 483 comments

New parent sleep deprivation is killing me

Posted by noodlebucket@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 119 comments

pysouth@reddit

This is where a lactation consultant, often covered by insurance, can be helpful. I fed my son every other feed to allow my wife to sleep more, and he still breastfeeds well, strongly prefers it.

How bad do we think Layoff Season will be in 2025?

Posted by auximines_minotaur@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 137 comments

pysouth@reddit

Yeah I’m a bit nervous of this. My job has been fairly chill with remote and I’ve been remote since 2020. Feel like the tides going to change for the worse.

Are there cafes or other places in the United States specifically geared towards disabled people?

Posted by atyl1144@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 110 comments

Is sitting for hours at the table after eating not common in USA?

Posted by WillingnessNew533@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 1397 comments

pysouth@reddit

I haven’t lived there or anywhere in Europe for that matter, but that was my experience visiting Italy. Some of my family is from Turkey and it felt like basically the same thing. Open table? Okay stay all evening. No table? Probably better if you just go find somewhere else to eat.

Company claims 1,000 percent price hike drove it from VMware to open source rival

Posted by oweillnet@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 211 comments

pysouth@reddit

Lots of hospital IT still using it for, presumably, the reasons you mentioned. I don’t work for a hospital, but we are a vendor for a lot of them and many use VMWare.

Oncall should be Tuesday to Tuesday

Posted by ForgotMyPassword17@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 80 comments

pysouth@reddit

We do Wed-Wed and everyone seems to prefer it. We continuously deploy so from that perspective it doesn’t make a difference.

How much do you work on Friday afternoons?

Posted by Imaginary-Cupcake328@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 147 comments

I do not see any SWE in their 50s

Posted by WeekendCautious3377@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 696 comments

pysouth@reddit

A lot of people fall into one of these camps: * went into management/non eng role * took less glamorous/career driven roles for better WLB as they grew their families. Sometimes this is still SWE, but sometimes just random other careers, sometimes still related to tech/IT * FIRE Personally, I hope to FIRE in my early 50s, if that doesn’t work out, I’d be ok with just taking a chill job with low stress to spend time with my kids and wife. Doubt I’ll be grinding at startups in my 50s as a SWE.

Worth getting a bachelors after 11 years as a systems engineer?

Posted by TerrificGeek90@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 394 comments

pysouth@reddit

It’s affordable, self paced, and online. So pretty well geared towards people already working full time. That’s about it. I’m a SWE, but working on my CS BS there now. Sure, I could’ve gone to my local university, but I have a 9 month old and a full time job, it just felt impractical to do that kind of thing right now. I’m sure many others are in a similar boat.

Google Staff Engineer shares how reading whitepapers took his career to the next level

Posted by xxjcutlerxx@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 332 comments

Mental Health in Software Engineering

Posted by bndrz@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 185 comments

pysouth@reddit

I agree but it’s definitely easier said than done. I tell myself that all the time, and I’d say 75% of the time I don’t stress. But then I think about my wife and kid, and my mortgage, and random emergencies that can happen, and how I’d probably be fine for a while if terminated but also… maybe not. Maybe I just need therapy lol

"Java is here to stay": Popular programming language to remain on business hit lists in 2024

Posted by Franco1875@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 623 comments

pysouth@reddit

Interestingly, this is why Maven was amazing for my last job. Didn't need a bunch of non-standard things for a relatively uninteresting corporate CRUD app, so reducing the introduction of possible footguns was nice. One project related to that moved to Gradle, and it was a huge headache because there were more ways to do things than was necessary for us. Looking back on it of course I can see pros/cons to both, depending on the context and requirements.

"Java is here to stay": Popular programming language to remain on business hit lists in 2024

Posted by Franco1875@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 623 comments

pysouth@reddit

I used to work in large Java projects at my old job at an IB. Maven is awesome and very easy to use, I do not get the hate for it. I work mostly with Python now and prefer Java's build, dependency mgmt, etc., systems. Gradle though... not a fan.

Shipping quality software in hostile environments

Posted by allixsenos@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 22 comments

pysouth@reddit

> We have test suites that depend on fixtures Can you explain why this is bad? We use fixtures extensively and I’m not sure why using them would be considered bad practice. They work well for us. I am referring to fixtures in PyTest, not sure if you are talking about something else.

A CS Degree is not needed to be successful as a Software Engineer

Posted by gregorojstersek@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 157 comments

pysouth@reddit

I’m working on getting one despite working in this industry for going on 7 years now. If anything it’s insurance against some automated filter yeeting out my resume due to a lack of degree.

It's a nightmare being a sysadmin in Tulsa right now.

Posted by darkcravix@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 185 comments

pysouth@reddit

Grew up on the Gulf Coast and worked in IT there for a few years, dealt with the same thing basically every year. Why do you think the help desk guy at your small college has the power to get the internet back lol?

How do you know when relocating was a bad idea and you should go home?

Posted by No-Perspective2389@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 63 comments

pysouth@reddit

I don’t think it’s goofy at all. Leaving the US seems like a pipe dream for my family, but not having to drive everywhere is a big factor in why I’d like to leave. Being able to walk around and take public transport locally and regionally greatly increases health and QoL.

Trainee with a gaming addiction

Posted by blokeVSmachine@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 476 comments

What's the big problem with "always being a foreigner"?

Posted by 0orbellen@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 254 comments

pysouth@reddit

As someone from the US with a lot of family from the Middle East and the Mediterranean, it’s hilarious that people consider Americans loud.

Anyone know anything about Mobile, Alabama?

Posted by DonutInseminator@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 247 comments

Anyone know anything about Mobile, Alabama?

Posted by DonutInseminator@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 247 comments

pysouth@reddit

I grew up there. Most of my family still lives there. We always joked it was the city of perpetual potential. Cool history, fun downtown area, near the water, etc., yet somehow it is just a trap and a completely depressing place to live with very little true growth.