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Drunk Post: Things I've Learned as a Senior Engineer

by zdw on 4/21/2026, 11:53:45 PM

https://luminousmen.substack.com/p/drunk-post-things-ive-learned-as

Comments

by: sitzkrieg

“a new job in two weeks.” heh, yeah everyone was opining expertise back then when employees had control of the market.

4/22/2026, 1:30:23 AM


by: MathMonkeyMan

&gt; Algorithms and data strictures are important — to a point. I don’t see pharmacist interviews test trivia about organic chemistry. There’s something fucked with our industry’s interview process.<p>Pharmacists have to get a special degree before they can even get an interview, and I&#x27;ve heard that the education is heavy on organic chemistry. Then you get a job as a cashier selling pills.<p>&gt; Hacker news and r&#x2F;programming is only good to get general ideas and keep up-to-date. The comments are almost worthless.<p>You got me.<p>&gt; Once, someone asked me who I looked up to and I said Conan O’Brien [...]<p>He wrote for SNL and studied literature at Harvard, so there&#x27;s probably plenty going on up there.

4/22/2026, 1:46:27 AM


by: ferguess_k

This genuinely looks like that I wrote it...until I saw that LISP line, definitely not me. But do agree with a lot of items in the list, and I happen to be a DE, too.

4/22/2026, 12:05:53 AM


by: YZF

Lost me at dynamic languages. Don&#x27;t build anything of any significance in dynamic languages! ;)<p>Some good points. Laughed at TDD is a cult. I mean a lot of software orgs&#x2F;cultures are cultish (Agile, Scrum, whatnot). At work I often feel I&#x27;m part of a cult.

4/22/2026, 1:32:39 AM