Have been in tech as an engineer/co-founder since 1992. from the dot com era, thru the financial crisis and now whatever this is. Have been pipped, laid off, fired and kicked out as a co-founder. #layoffs #tech #google #adobe #meta #apple AMA 2/22/23 1800 Eastern (US): Edit 1: Blind is rate limiting so there will be delays in responding. 2/23/23 1230 Eastern (US) Edit 2: Closing this out at 1300 Eastern (US) 1800 GMT Thank you all for question and dialogue. Good luck navigating the next 30 years. TC: >700 YOE: See Title NW: >5mil Since so many asked
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What is your advice to someone in tech with just a few year’s experience?
Don't let this become your life. It can be all encompassing and that's not healthy.
Tabs or spaces?
Tabs all day every day
Tabs are for tabular data... AKA tables, not code 30 years of fail
Can you Invert a binary tree?
Recursive or iterative?
Stack or queue?
Do you have update on AK62?
Yoo yaar ya nee 😂
It’s a AMA, so chumma asked 😅
What's stackoverflow equivalent back in 1992?
Asking your co-workers questions. And books
O’Reilly books in particular. I once had a nearly complete set of their XWindows books.
Please share the stories behind each of these - pipped, laid off, fired and kicked out as a co-founder.
First time I was pipped I was an L8. New VP who wanted to make his mark and he and I clashed. I went from being promo'd in March to pip in Sept. I was laid off when the company I was working for had declining revenue for 6 straight quarters. It was an in person meeting with my manager, no HR just an envelope and a goodbye. Being kicked out as a co-founder was one of the hardest thing. After going from zero to series B, we had differing views on where the company should go. The other co-founders had better relations with the board than I did. I left with diluted equity and a very bruised ego. Company went public 8 years later. Still pissed about that.
Been a co-founder twice. It becomes your life from pre-seed to at least series B. I see many of my peers do it over and over again. I don't have it in me. No regrets.
Do you feel like you have job security after all the back and forth you’ve been through?
I don’t think he needs job security anymore
There was never job security. That's been the lie Big Tech told you all these days.
How have you managed your expectation of career growth and work-life balance? Any tips thinking back?
This is a hard question to answer. I have grinded out 100 hour weeks and tried to work the promo path at big tech companies. Each time I came away feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled. While my bank account got big, it seemed to have chipped away at my sense of well being.
What would you advice a 27 yr old (who’s fresh out of Masters program) to do?
Find a way to make enough money to insulate yourself from the effects of social and political instability and the ravages of climate change and/or start working on ways to address those issues. It's about to get real and it will be ugly.
can you expand on this? what are some key things you'd invest in & what $ amount per area to address those issues to keep yourself insulated?
Why are you on blind?
for the culture! ;-)
Men of culture :)