Average Software Engineer
I’m sitting on my couch dopey off Oxycodone following a hip arthroscopy. There’s a heat wave in the Northeast that has me sweltering at 86 in my apartment. Despite the circumstances, I’m happy to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. It can be hard to be patriotic, but I am proud to be an American. I look at China’s ability to mobilize (artificial intelligence, high speed rail, renewable energy) and…
It's Saturday night, and I have some leftovers. Let's heat them up and consciously relax for a bit. Boot up the 65" TCL. Mind you, I had to factory reset it a couple of months ago after first getting it because Google TV was full of ads. Now, it's disconnected from the internet. The default HDMI input is my Apple TV. For all its faults, Apple hasn't been user-hostile, and the UI is friendly. It's…
I tried. I really did. I love Twitter but I’m taking yet another break. Lord knows how long this one will last. The itch to compulsively check my phone hasn’t gone away. However, I feel slightly better overall. Measuring stress and vibes is difficult and would probably only worsen my neuroticism so the feeling is just that. No data. Twitter rules. For someone wired like me, it is the ultimate…
It seems like everyone is talking about Claude Code . I have some thoughts. It’s been about 2 months since starting my new role at Altana . Officially, my role, as it still stands, is Software Engineer , but I’d characterize how I work today as significantly different compared to a year ago. Living in the New Reality Nowadays, I don’t find myself writing much code. Most of my time is spent nudging…
Fall 2025 Update It's been a while since I last screamed into the digital void. Why not write an update on a rainy Sunday evening? The rise of AI tools has had a detrimental effect on my confidence in my writing abilities — a topic for another day. So, start simple. What's been going on in my life? Mortality I still contemplate the inevitable passage of time on a semi-regular basis. I will say it…
It has been one month since I quit my job. I have come to think of this moment in my life as a factory reset. Everything once considered essential has either fallen away or surrendered to inertia: I am unemployed. I am homeless. 1 I am single. The system’s been stripped down to its bare essentials, just core functionality. Reset By conventional standards, I was doing fine: A job that paid well No…
October 6th, 2024, marked approximately 21,000 days until my 85th birthday. A few months ago, I installed a minimal Countdown widget to track the number of days until then. The choice of my 85th birthday was mostly arbitrary. While the average life expectancy today is below 80 , I liked 85 as a number, so I went with it. The past 18 months have brought numerous tribulations, intensifying my…
One of my goals for this year is to cultivate a writing habit. After writing this, I can say it will definitely be my most challenging as well. Writing about writing, or wanting to write, in this case, is probably cliche, but I figure it is a good a place as any to start. After all, if we believe that we should be intentional about what we want to do, then we should have clearly defined…