jderiksen

Thanks for the share!

Fond memories of using SBCL in grad school

Semantic search.

I am on a small team that initially rolled our own semantic search system. We quickly ran into issues around scaling, maintenance, and performance. Since we want to focus on delivering features and not turning into a DevOps team, we switched to Pinecone and it has met our needs pretty well. We would like to see auto-scaling and I believe that this feature is in the works. Support has been very responsive and helpful when we do have questions and issues.

There are plenty of LLMs to choose from with regard to finding sources of embeddings. Some free, some for money.

I worked as a contractor for many years working 20 hours per week and using the rest of my time to work on my music career. I highly highly recommend that lifestyle if you can find a long-term contract and don't have a huge amount of expenses.

> There is nothing like watching someone struggle and then suddenly understanding the subject.

This is why I love mentoring new hires and interns.

I tried to switch to a different career twice:

1. Full-time musician. Too hard even if you are extremely talented and good at self-promotion. I am good at what I do but I am not a first-call instrumentalist or a charismatic frontperson.

2. Mental health field. I found that the starting pay was too low, didn't relish the idea of going to grad school again, and I found that the training process was too intense for me -- I require a lot of alone time and recharging time.

In both cases I wanted to switch because I had let myself burn out. A key to preventing burnout for me is finding a role where I don't have to sit in multiple meetings a day and where I can work less than 40 hours a week.

Excellent news!

Our team has been having to run older x86 Macs for a number of years just so that we can continue running certain images that are not available for arm64.

> Is this normal, possibly due to aging for some people?

Yes, possibly. When I worked 40 hours / week I had very little energy or interest in creative pursuits as I approached my 30s. This is part of the reason that I work 30 hours / week now.

> Or is it because all my curiosities have been solved...

This may very well be the case. I love music and pursue it with great energy but as I learn new styles, new instruments, try new ways to perform, etc. I find less and less satisfaction and magic. I still find enough in it that I continue to pour a lot of time and energy into it.

> ...or could it be a symptom of chronic depression as I pretty much don't have craving for anything anymore?

This could very well be the case. If you haven't talked to a good therapist I would recommend doing that.

It seems to me like you have a very clear idea of what you like and what you don't like. You also seem to be self-aware enough that you notice that your mental health is suffering.

When I come to similar realizations, I make a career transition. Speaking personally, in one role I found myself managing a team of contract software developers in a different time zone. I didn't enjoy the extra communication overhead, quality issues, and the feeling of not being able to establish an interpersonal relationship with them. When I learned that our senior management was going to hire a team of contractors again I left the position. Leaving this position resulted in a pay cut but the benefit for my mental health was huge.

> It did hit me that whatever I end up doing in the long run, communication is the only 100%-reusable skill that can pay off anywhere. And so much time is wasted due to sub-optimal communication.

Fully agree on both points!

In my particular situation it involved hours of group and face-to-face interactions. I am quite introverted so this proved to be exhausting and unsustainable. I imagine that it is possible to find programs that don't have this style of training but at the time I needed the money so returned to software engineering.

I tried to quit programming twice. Once to become a full-time musician (too hard even if you are very good, not enough money). Another time to work in mental health (the training was too intense). I figured out how to make it work for me long-term and the key was to focus on what my needs are both in a job and outside of a job.

It also has helped tremendously to put significant effort into learning how to communicate effectively (reading books, attending workshops, etc.), focusing significant energy into learning project management and people skills even if I don't want to be a manager, and to only take jobs with folks who I feel really respected and valued by. I also realize that I simply can't work a 40 hour week so now I work a 30 hour week even though it means that I am compensated less. I can use those two extra hours per day to exercise, practice music, meditate, take my time eating breakfast and reading, etc.

To turn this into questions that you can ask yourself:

1. What do you hate most about your job?

2. Are you able to articulate these difficulties and challenges to your supervisor and team and really be heard? If not, what can you do to improve your ability to state your needs?

3. Are you willing to leave a job that doesn't satisfy you and are you confident in your abilities to identify a job that you would like better?

4. Are you willing to sacrifice money for improved happiness?

5. Is there something else that you would rather be doing? How can you integrate that into your life to make your life feel balanced?

Finding time to practice is tough! I am fortunate that I work 30 hours per week and can make time to practice for at least 30 minutes to an hour on most days. When time is tight I do things like practice electric bass in the kitchen while I am waiting for water to boil / food to cool / etc.

When I worked 40 hours per week often I didn't have energy to practice most days.

Very much relate to this comment.

I burned out twice. Both times I took a break with the intention of starting a new career.

The first time I considered getting into music professionally only to find that my colleagues were not only substantially more educated and technically capable but also that they had to focus a lot of energy on teaching and traveling. I had enough savings that when I returned to contract work I could do it very much part-time and pursue music heavily with little profit motive.

The second time I burned out I tried to get into the mental health space only to find that the training was too intense and that the pay was not going to be great unless I went back to grad school, again, which I was not interested in. Again, I returned to working part-time.

Eventually I found a role where I could work 30 hours per week with full benefits and people who I like. Plenty of vacation time for touring and attending music intensives.

At least for me, the key to preventing burnout is not working full-time which gives me time to start and end my day putting energy into satisfying my interests and passions with no profit motive.