uncle retweeted
Techniques i use daily as a senior software engineer:
1. writing before coding
i start with a doc, comments, or a rough design. if i can’t explain it clearly, i’m not ready to code it.
2. reading code more than writing code
most bugs and design flaws are already in the codebase. understanding existing systems is leverage.
3. thinking in failure modes
timeouts, retries, partial failures, backpressure. i constantly ask “what breaks first?”
4. measuring before optimizing
logs, metrics, traces first. intuition lies, numbers don’t.
5. designing for deletion
every abstraction should be easy to remove. if it can’t be deleted, it’s probably too heavy.
6. simplifying hot paths
critical paths get boring, explicit, predictable code. cleverness is pushed to the edges.
7. making trade-offs explicit
latency vs consistency, speed vs safety. i state them clearly so everyone aligns.
8. writing code for the next reader
clear names, small functions, obvious control flow. future-me is the main customer.
9. using constraints intentionally
limits on memory, timeouts, rate limits. constraints create stable systems.
10. continuous refactoring
small improvements daily. waiting for a “big rewrite” is how systems rot.
unavailable
uncle retweeted
Andrej Karpathy literally built the neural networks running inside coding assistants.
He taught the world deep learning at Stanford. He ran AI at Tesla.
If he feels “dramatically behind” as a programmer… that tells you everything about where we are.
The confession here is that raw intelligence and deep technical knowledge no longer guarantee mastery. The new stack isn’t about understanding transformers or writing elegant algorithms. It’s about orchestrating a zoo of stochastic systems that nobody fully controls.
Karpathy’s list is revealing: agents, subagents, prompts, contexts, memory, modes, permissions, tools, plugins, skills, hooks, MCP, LSP, slash commands, workflows, IDE integrations. That’s 15+ new primitives that didn’t exist 18 months ago. Each one evolving weekly.
The mental model problem is real. Traditional engineering gives you deterministic systems. You write code, it does exactly what you wrote. Now you’re managing entities that are “fundamentally stochastic, fallible, unintelligible and changing.”
His “alien tool with no manual” framing is exactly right. We’re all reverse-engineering capabilities in real-time. The documentation is always out of date. The best practices from 3 months ago are already wrong.
The magnitude 9 earthquake isn’t coming. It already hit. The aftershocks are the new normal.
I've never felt this much behind as a programmer. The profession is being dramatically refactored as the bits contributed by the programmer are increasingly sparse and between. I have a sense that I could be 10X more powerful if I just properly string together what has become available over the last ~year and a failure to claim the boost feels decidedly like skill issue. There's a new programmable layer of abstraction to master (in addition to the usual layers below) involving agents, subagents, their prompts, contexts, memory, modes, permissions, tools, plugins, skills, hooks, MCP, LSP, slash commands, workflows, IDE integrations, and a need to build an all-encompassing mental model for strengths and pitfalls of fundamentally stochastic, fallible, unintelligible and changing entities suddenly intermingled with what used to be good old fashioned engineering. Clearly some powerful alien tool was handed around except it comes with no manual and everyone has to figure out how to hold it and operate it, while the resulting magnitude 9 earthquake is rocking the profession. Roll up your sleeves to not fall behind.
uncle retweeted
I've never felt this much behind as a programmer. The profession is being dramatically refactored as the bits contributed by the programmer are increasingly sparse and between. I have a sense that I could be 10X more powerful if I just properly string together what has become available over the last ~year and a failure to claim the boost feels decidedly like skill issue. There's a new programmable layer of abstraction to master (in addition to the usual layers below) involving agents, subagents, their prompts, contexts, memory, modes, permissions, tools, plugins, skills, hooks, MCP, LSP, slash commands, workflows, IDE integrations, and a need to build an all-encompassing mental model for strengths and pitfalls of fundamentally stochastic, fallible, unintelligible and changing entities suddenly intermingled with what used to be good old fashioned engineering. Clearly some powerful alien tool was handed around except it comes with no manual and everyone has to figure out how to hold it and operate it, while the resulting magnitude 9 earthquake is rocking the profession. Roll up your sleeves to not fall behind.
seriously taking notes
I knew a guy about a year ago - a roommate of a friend in Manhattan.
He’d apply to these executive level crypto jobs online even though he was 22 years old... he didn't even look much older...
he'd tailor his resume exactly to the job description, and totally fabricate his experience in the interview.
The man was a master bullshit artist. Truly elite. Never seen anything like it since.
Last I checked linkedin, he landed a Senior VP gig at VC backed L2 pulling in over $300K/year.
Didn't keep a low profile, always at conferances, always partying with execs of web3 companies.
Each new role gave him the experience he had just finished faking.
Just looked him up on LinkedIn.
He's now the CEO of a saudi backed company I’ve never heard of.
That guy couldn't even bridge assets from EVM to solana.
Many such cases.
uncle retweeted
Figure out what you want.
Ignore the opinions of others.
Do so much work it would be unreasonable that you fail.
Realize it never mattered to begin with.
Help others once you get there.
I read it twice
I can never be broke again, ever!
I’ve built systems that works for me even while I sleep
I mean, even if the market decides to crash today,
I’ll still keep on printing millions
I’ll still fly around the world with my girls
And it’s same with @SamuelXeus @billionaireson and many others I know
But let me be honest with you…
At this point, it’s beyond just having the “right mindset.”
Mindset is good, it’ll keep you in check
But a mindset without movement is just fantasy!
The truth is:
I didn’t get here because I was just manifesting money
I got here because I built income streams for myself.
I executed my dream!
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One funny thing I’ve come to understand is that:
A lot of people claim to have dreams but only source for short term wins
You just want money for immediate needs, and the second you get it, you stop thinking long-term.
That’s why some of you get madd funds from an airdrop one minute…
and the next minute you’re back to level zero.
It’s not because the money wasn’t enough.
It’s because you had no plan for that money before it came.
Get this right…
Having a dream means you already know:
➠ What you want to do
➠ Why you want to do it, and
➠ How you’re going to do it
even before the funds show up.
That’s how billionaires work.
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Here are Five(5) Billionaires Habit that made wealth for me and can for you too:
➠ Building systems that pay not hustles that drain:
@lustro_lagos is a system that pays me even while I sleep
It started with one big idea in my head
I knew how much funds I needed to start with
And immediately I figured out a way to get it, I started working on it!
Understand that the idea was there,
so when the resource came it was an easy ride.
➠ Billionaires use money to make more money:
Every addition to a billionaire’s asset is an addition to his/her income stream.
I have so many investments right now, but if I see another place to put in money I’ll still do it!
It’s never enough for a billionaire, never!
You get $10k today and you feel you’ve made it? You’re not yet serious
It can turn to zero if you don’t use it to get more.
➠ Risk Takers:
Billionaires are risk takers
They don’t dwell on what they have at hand, they look at what more they can get using what they already have
They take action, learn and improve
It’s a journey
But if you’re always so content with the one you’ve gotten you would not be open to taking risks that could give you much more
And you’ll be stuck at one point.
➠ They have laid down plans:
If you ask @SamuelXeus what he plans to achieve in the next 5 years, I’m very sure he’ll walk you through something that would leave you surprised.
Billionaire’s think and plan ahead!
You don’t sit and wait for money to come before you start making plans
You make plans before the money comes.
➠ They start within their reach and build it up:
Not everyone starts from the top
Remember I told ya’ll how I sold supplements(drugs) in a moving bus back in 2019
I didn’t start from the top, but I made good use of the little information and resources I could gather.
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You don’t need to be a billionaire yet to think and act like a billionaire
This could be your starting point
Make good use of every resource you have and watch how much you can do in six months.
I am @VanessaDefi
I’ve built numerous income streams for myself
And Defi was the starting point
Web3 can take you out of the trench and I’m here to guide you through.
I’ve written educational threads that can help you get started
So make good use of them.
Now is not the time to sit and wait
It’s time to think and plan, so that when you get a hold of your first $1k you’ll make good use of it.
RT this so your friends can see it.
I just applied for a “Senior Technical Thinking” Engineer role. The JD is as you may have guessed.
Show up at work and just… think.
This is one of the most reassuring things I've read on the Apple community forum.
I'm about to run an inference (node) on a Mini w/ a 99.9999% uptime for at least 5 weeks, and I don't want to spend to rent another instance
Thought I’d quietly air fry some plantain while everyone was asleep.
Now the whole house is awake and somehow we’re having another dinner. I’ve really missed coming home 😂
