[greenie_beans]

i have all this (though i only work 4-6 hours a day when selling my time to other people), and i also have side income selling sweet potatoes and it didn't take much of my precious free time away. currently, it's earning me a similar hourly rate as my development rate (senior developer/lead developer/architecting infrastructure, etc). you are correct that it doesn't replace my income, but that was never the point. that income will help me weather any job loss etc, but more importantly, against your advice, i can potentially grow the business to a point that it replaces my income. and if you really want to be like, "that will never pay your bills," then that is 100% false if i put all of that income into stocks and the money grows to a point twenty years from now that i can use that money to pay my bills. and i'm also able to find a job quickly if i need to, just like you. which i guess, based on your experience, one can be extremely shortsighted person and still find a job quickly.

[scarface_74]

I have a years worth of expenses in in an HYSA outside of my retirement accounts that will help me “weather a job loss” and a set of skills that I’m 100% sure that someone will give me a job or contract before my money runs out. I work full time for a consulting company now - and I’ve worked in cloud consulting for almost five years including three and half working at AWS.

I have been working professionally for 28 years across 10 jobs. I assure you I’m not “short sighted”.

[greenie_beans]

i'm happy for you and glad you figured out a way to navigate this rough finanical world. but we live in a different world now. i'm 33 and that strategy just will not be as reliable in the future. it's a losing strategy imo, at least for what i want out of life. what works for me might not work for you. telling other people that their approach is wrong is very shortsighted.

[scarface_74]

I mentored an intern when I was at AWS and worked with a few other new grads and continued to mentor the returning intern after they graduated.

After three or four years in the industry, if they suck up everything they can and take advantage of every opportunity, they will be set.

The same is true to a much lesser extent on the enterprise dev. I tell people on that side just not to be a “ticket taker” and volunteer to have larger more impactful products - “don’t be the bullet. Be the gun”

[greenie_beans]

i've been mentored by dudes in their 50s who think they are providing a good to the world by mentoring young people (aka dad energy), then later received real mentorship from folks my age and a decade older than me. most likely they took what you said with a grain of salt and realized that you are out of touch.

[scarface_74]

It’s “dad energy” that you are doing. I’m telling people to “grind leetcode and work for a FAANG” (tm r/cscareerquestions) and to learn how to pass system design and behavioral interviews and pointing them to resources.

Whose advice is going to lead to better outcomes? Doing drop shipping from Ali baba and selling sweet potatoes on line or mine?

While I haven’t had to pass a coding interview at BigTech, I have had to pass system design and behavioral interviews at one and I have conducted a couple at BigTech.

I’m telling them to work to demonstrate skills with working at increasing “scope”, “impact” and “dealing with ambiguity”.

https://www.levels.fyi/blog/swe-level-framework.html

I know first hand the leveling guidelines at one of the BigTech companies and 2nd hand about another. From working at one less than 2 years ago.

My latest project I’m leading is a Kubernetes + Generative AI project.

Do you really think I’m someone who doesn’t have a pulse on the modern tech landscape?

[greenie_beans]

i wasn't suggesting that you were out of touch with technology, i was talking about career/life strategies. i believe that what worked for your generation isn't as sure a thing for my generation, and building various small revenue streams is a better approach. this is how i see it from my point of view as a younger person observing the world around me and where i fit in. a lot of people tell me that your way is right for me, but i disagree. a corporate 9-5 makes me want to kms, not exaggerating. i think we have fundamentally different worldviews and that's ok.

> My latest project I’m leading is a Kubernetes + Generative AI project.

we are no different. i'm leading a project to deploy an etl pipeline on azure kubernetes right now.