It's bound to come up in almost every conversation about this topic online nowadays but skilled trades can be great. Especially if you plan to own your own service business. I'm talking Electricians, Plumbers, HVAC technicians, etc.
Competition is low. If you show up on time, present yourself well, and you don't show up to work under the influence, then you can be in the top 10% of the workforce easily.
I worked in the trades for about 6-7 years before switching to software engineering. I took a paycut for my first job in software. I was making $80k in a low cost of living area working in the trades. First year was $55k, on the job training was provided.
Downsides are:
- Weekend work is typical
- On-call is typical
- Hard labor, working in the elements. Freezing conditions and/or 100*F + days working on HVAC equipment is rough.
- Non-trade folk will commonly talk to you like you're not intelligent. Not a lot of prestige
Upsides:
- Learn valuable hands-on skills. Can be applied to your own home to save money
- Physical job = built-in exercise
- Low competition
- Easy to parlay into a business
>Competition is low. If you show up on time, present yourself well, and you don't show up to work under the influence, then you can be in the top 10% of the workforce easily.
I'm still infatuated with a mason who worked at our house one time. I doubt he ever really existed. Dreamy.
Let me walk you through this romantic 50 Shades of Cement...
He rang the bell and I opened the door. He didn't look like a mason: well dressed, clean shaven with impeccable combed hair and a case for tools. I showed him to his floor. He brought pencils and markers, rulers, a compass, etc. The guy reminded me of my course in industrial/technical drawing.
I lived a floor downstairs of the floor he had to build. He was punctual, consistent, and silent. I didn't hear a thing while he worked and yet I would go up at the end of the day and appreciate the progress he was making. I didn't find broken bricks or sloppy cement/sand/water traces. It was clean and precise, and the guy was a ninja.
I didn't have his contact information but I would have referred anyone and everyone to him, whether they had something to build or not. I must have told this story like a grandpa tells tales of his youth.
There are some truly amazing people in the trades.
Some of the absolute best problem solvers I ever met, I met in the trades. I'm talking masters of troubleshooting. Breaking things down into component parts, understanding how systems work together, and being able to pinpoint what exactly was causing the underlying issue. People who just had to know how everything worked. People with knowledge of Refrigeration, electrical troubleshooting, PCB repair, etc.
Working in the trades gave me strong troubleshooting skills.It also gave me an appreciation that a lot of folks in our industry seem to lack for our blue collar brethren. Blue collar != dumb/uneducated.
I think you should recalibrate to the average. Most new grads have a negative net worth. You are far ahead of the curve and it’s good you are thinking about wealth building, but it’s very dismissive to say 120k net worth is pitiful.
I'd wager with 1.5 years of experience + internships most Google/Facebook new grads have a net worth that's double or more, especially including vested RSU appreciation.
I was talking to a new grad engineer at Lyft who joined the same time I joined my company - his net worth is around $300k now not including unvested RSUs.
Call me naive but I really don't believe that most google/facebook new hires have 250k in net worth.
Let's say that they started at 200k per year(that seems really high). Their take-home would be 135,000 in California. That means after 1.5 years they would have taken home 202500. Even if they managed to graduate from college not only free from student loans but with a net worth of 50k, they would need to save all of their take home for the first year and a half.
Do I think that some people with 1.5 years of experience have a net worth of 300k? Sure. But I certainly don't think it is most.
It's 200k, plus bonuses, plus RSU appreciation, plus savings from having a lot of needs taken care of (transportation, food, laundry, etc). A lot of them also made a bunch during their internships and got bigger signing bonuses than I did (I only graduated with around ~$40k through a handful of internships and college jobs)
Is an entry-level engineer's base salary really 200k?
> plus savings from having a lot of needs taken care of (transportation, food, laundry, etc)
This isn't additional revenue earned, this is just lowering your expenses. Yes, these perks are nice but they don't really contribute to net worth.
Graduating from college(which would cost somewhere between 150,000-500,000 for four years with limited ability to earn income) with a positive net worth is amazing. It is awesome that you were able to do it. I doubt most people are able to do so.
Comparing yourself to others is a sure way of feeling upset , there’s always going to be people with more money than you.
Life isn’t just about money or work. I have less net worth than you and a lot more years under my belt, the country I am in doesn’t pay as much for software engineers and that’s ok.
The really short answer seems to be: actix was a Rust web framework. It did some things internally that some people didn't like. The Internet echo chamber picked that up and amplified it to a volume the maintainer couldn't justify working through. The Internet echo chamber is now going to pick this up and amplify it to a volume that probably isn't justified either.
I think this is another story about the destructive power of the internet echo chamber, where the asymmetry of one person vs. a mob of people who are in reality probably not all that engaged with the problem but nevertheless have enough engagement to send a nastygram or two creates a distributed denial of decorum attack that no single human being should be expected to deal with "nicely". Our ancient instinctive tribal signals of whether or not you are approved by the tribe, tuned for tribes of 150 people or so, receive a message that 15,000% of the tribe thinks you are a bad person, and our natural human response to that is a lot of stress at best (our ancient instincts tell us that eviction from the tribe is a bad thing, even though in practical terms eviction from this particular tribe won't be much of a problem at all in the modern world).
(I phrase it this way because I think this is, well, not strictly speaking independent of the question of whether or not the maintainer was guilty or innocent of any particular thing, but because the story is the wild disproportionality of the response you can get on the Internet regardless.)
And absolutely correct in my view. I have been on the receiving end. I have friends who have been on the receiving end. It really is overwhelming to receive that 15,000% signal, nudged along by the dynamics of the rest of the tribe.
I really like that you found a way to cover this aspect.
Background: Actix-web is a small, fast web framework written in Rust.
Then just read the second last paragraph:
> This means, on some level, this situation is over: there will not be a fourth huge actix-web drama. But it’s really left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s unfortunate that a well-known project had soundness issues. It’s unfortunate that the maintainer wasn’t receptive to fixing them. At the same time, I’ve been there: being a maintainer is tough. It’s also unfortunate that there’s this style of response, and kind, and volume. It is true that the situation was dangerous. But did it have to be handled this way? You have to understand a lot of nuance here to even know the main points of the story. One version of this story that will certainly be told is “The Rust community says they’re nice but they will harass you if you use unsafe wrong.” Is that what we want? I, for one, do not. If you’re a part of Rust, you gotta ask yourself: are you happy with this outcome? How did your actions (or lack thereof) contribute to it? Could you have done something better?
Actix was not at all "shit". People just took some issues with a few usages of unsafe and how the author responded to issues/PRs. I've been using actix for about a year now, and was excited for the 0.2.0 updates.
That said, pulling the code entirely and deleting issues was a rather immature response.
As a rust user I just don't know what another good alternative is. Warp, maybe? I'm debating about just writing http stuff in Golang due to its robust standard library instead of picking among several fledgling 3rd party http libraries.
I'm not sure you can consider "It’s extra nasty this time. Some people go far, far, far over the line." to just be criticism.
What does it say that I wouldn't be surprised one iota if "far, far, far over the line" included death threats? Nobody should be expected to continue to contribute in a community with that kind of vitriol pointed their way.
EDIT: Even if all "far, far, far over the line" means is personal attacks and not death threats, that is still not simply criticism, and it's still far beyond what someone should be expected to endure in the name of "open source".
Datadog seems like a fantastic product but it is very expensive.
I work at a consulting company and we had a company needing some monitoring setup. Ended up going with Grafana and some AWS resources over Datadog.
The cost difference was huge. Datadog would have been around $20k/mo. The grafana and AWS solution was about a tenth of the cost.
What are you using Datadog in a custom dev shop for, and how do you justify the cost?
My impression was Datadog is for very large and very profitable companies.
Predicting markets is a constant battle of finding some alpha to gain an edge over your competitors. Where your competitors are anyone else that is trading in the markets.
Some find alpha with speed. (See Flash Boys by Michael Lewis for a look at the insane lengths companies go to gain fractions of a second advantages). Some find alpha with better algorithms.
You’re positing that because the big tech companies have so much data they should be better at predicting markets. The problem is that having the data is just one part of the problem.
Look at satellite imagery. Every hedge fund worth its salt has probably thought of and has used satellite imagery. Virtually all of them have the same access to it. They purchase it through third party providers. There are undoubtedly unused satellite imagery techniques out there that would allow you to gain alpha in the market.
So why don’t the hedge funds use these unused strategies? Because having the data is only one part of the problem. Analyzing, preparing, cleaning, and finding a useful way to use the data is the other part. Hypothesizing new ways to look at the data that would reveal some insights is a big part.
Data is helpful but it isn’t the end all for making money in the markets.
I was amazed by how much money they lose with Uber Eats[1]. How much longer is that sustainable and will prices need to increase dramatically to even break even?
Depends on a lot of factors, I have made that on a single property (short term vacation rentals) but more typical is like what you say where it can take 10+ properties to clear $2k/month for long term rentals. Right now my best property is clearing two hundred (or so) a month, which isn't horrid but far from great. I only have long term rentals right now though, so that's ok.
IMO: Rental property is best looked at as a long game, not a short term income stream. It is a solid way to gain wealth, just won't happen overnight.
>I have made that on a single property (short term vacation rentals)
Not going to make assumptions about your specific case, but many people using AirBnB are breaking the law and/or are vastly under-insured to be renting out property short-term. One lawsuit or accident and any "profits" (and much more) will be wiped out.
Real-estate is an old, mature business. There's no magic in how to make money in it, nor are their outsized benefits.
Yea, I've been doing this long before AirBnB existed, and actually I've never registered one of my properties with them.
In my state we have to pay monthly sales tax on rentals less than 6 months along with a number of other basic rules too (including insurance). But none of them are hard to follow, AirBnB violates them constantly however.
Making good money on vacation rentals in beachfront towns is very doable. We used to be able to buy cheap properties and rent them for $1-2k/week for vacation rentals, and they'd stay busy most of the year, meaning after expenses it was pretty easy to clear $2k if you bought right. Now that is not so easy given the cost of real-estate even with capital being fairly cheap.
Somewhat of a tangent, but do you have any advice/resources on how to price in repairs and maintenance?
I am moving soonish, and trying to figure out what to do with my house. A back of the envelope calculation of Expected_Rent - Mortgage - Insurance - Property_management_fees gives an appealing number, but I am not too sure how to price in all of the long and short term repairs/maintenance and any other potential liabilities.
In general, property management fees run roughly 6-10% of rent and maintenance really depends on the age of the home. A newer home that is in good shape may not cost you more than a few hundred dollars per year in unexpected expenses, an older home plan around $1-2k/year to be safe. In my rentals I always price into the rent some core expenses, specifically lawn & exterior care as well as pest management. This lets me make sure the property stays looking proper and reduces the chances I need to do major upkeep work/expenses. Inside I always paint the house between long term rentals, which means the inside stays good, and I usually install wood/laminate floors before I start renting and keep decent appliances in them as well. This means I rarely have any larger expenses, after my first initial market expense.
Some things to look into are things like property taxes, a rental isn't your primary home and so depending on your state the property taxes may increase once you rent it out. HOA's sometimes have rules about notifications, fees and lease terms you have to take into account (I hate HOA's).
Best way to find out your specific details is to talk with a rental agent in your area and ask them to give you an estimate. They'll know the quality of the homes in the area and the approximate costs owners are paying annually. That'll give you a baseline, and I'd ask 2-3 to make sure you aren't getting an edge case.
FWIW: My higher end properties cost me less (% wise) in maintenance than the lower end homes, simply because it is a vastly different cliental and quality of home. If your house is a typical middle class home for your area that is almost always the sweet spot IMO. Higher end can be harder to rent out and lower can be tougher to manage and keep up with.
When I did this (rented out the suburban single-family house I used to live in), if something needed repairing, I'd just drop by after work and fix it myself since I only lived half an hour away. I set my rent based on the market rate.
It turned out that insurance on a rental property was less than on an owner-occupied one, which made no sense to me, but I wasn't going to argue with MetLife :-)
Basically, the floor of your monthly rent should be your existing costs: mortgage, insurance, property taxes, average annual repair costs, etc. In markets I was familiar with, this was always well under what rent would cost. Also, bear in mind that repairs and other expenses like property taxes and mortgage interest are now deductible since the rental is a business.
IIRC I had around $1,000/mo in cashflow from the rental before factoring in savings from the additional deductible items. I sold the property after three years since I didn't really want to be a landlord, but it was free money.
Don’t you have a good idea of the maintenance needs for that house? You lived there.
If you don’t understand the costs of living in it as your primary residence, you perhaps should consider that realestate Investing/management might Not be a good match for your skill set.
I have an idea what it costs me personally, but I am not sure how to price in the plain fact that renters will not care for your house as much as you do.
And you are right to ask this question. Your costs when you live in the house will not be the same as when someone else moves in. It is also why I suggest you talk to a local agent or 2 because they will know the trends in your area.
I had a house in one city that the maintenance cost was outrageous compared to my other properties but it was in the middle of the pack (cost wise) for the city demographics and building codes. So it is hard to pinpoint even for an experienced real estate person without doing some analysis in your area specifically.
Here are a few of my common questions to an agent if I am looking at a new area:
1. Average time on market, from day of rental listing to lease signed.
2. Basic demographics and occupations of the people living in the neighborhood and surrounding area. Including average income.
3. Hardest to rent property details compared to the easiest to rent. e.g. 4 bedrooms might be super hard to rent in an area with predominately single people, but would be super easy in a family driven neighborhood. I'm looking for contradictions here, e.g. they say the area is predominately housing single people but the demand is for 4 bed/3bath houses. Either they are idiots, or it is group housing/party area which can bring up a different set of rental criteria. Or there is something super unique about this area and they should be able to articulate it to me or I don't accept that risk.
4. Average cost of maintenance for similar rentals. I usually ask, avg plumber cost, avg electrician if I don't have people in the area so this way I know what they are seeing.
5. Special lease terms that are needed or common for the area. And special county/city or HOA rules or costs I need to be aware of. Including parking fees etc.
6. Largest employers in the area by number of people.
Real estate is almost entirely about demographics, learning the target audience/area will let you understand the situation and risks better.
Honestly no different than startups IMO. If we build a product that there is no client for it doesn't matter how cool it is or how much money we raised or spent. If you build (or buy) a property that is wrong for the area, selling, renting or doing anything with it will become nearly impossible.
Correct, net after all expenses. My goal is always to have 100-200 free at a minimum but in the end the rental cashflow isn't to build monthly income (in my case), but instead to build equity in the property.
There was a period of time I did it for monthly cash flow, and when I did that I'd target different types of properties and target a different minimum free cash flow. But I switched my investment strategy to be one to maximize equity and property value, I've found this to be far more profitable in the medium to long term, but obviously doesn't provide the highest monthly income initially.
I know a couple people who have very desirable Florida condos (as well as other properties) and each condo alone is doing ~2k. Granted that's day-by-day, not a monthly rental.
How? In the freelance developer space you're either competing with people in developing countries who work for peanuts, or your potential clients have have the money to throw at high quality work which means you're competing with the top 1-5% of freelance developers.
There are plenty of companies that just want results. They don't want to deal with the hassle of online developers they don't and can't trust. Start as a consultant and get a great reputation and you'll have more work than you want. Also get advice on the best practices. It's easy to get locked into contracts that are just not worth doing.
You should take a look at Toptal, I use it for just this, working around 20 extra hours a week. Can't give out my rate there, but it's fair.
Easy to get gigs once your in, the clients I've worked with have been good. Very little mental overhead since they handle invoicing, getting customers etc.
By finding a niche and looking for work in that niche. I picked NLP in the financial space and have been able to find work within a couple weeks every time I look. If you search for freelancing threads here on HN you can find some great info on getting freelance work.
This sounds like something that requires a masters degree. How did you manage to prove that you were knowledgeable/skilled in NLP when you got your first job in that space?
Full time job is for a consulting company. Got brought on for some greenfield work that happened to be in the space. Got to learn on the job. Leveraged that experience to land freelancing clients.
The idea came from being in the trades in my previous career. Companies in the trades spend a ton of money on advertising but fail to capitalize on a lot of their incoming leads. We use humans to answer incoming text, fb messenger, and webchat questions for people like electricians, hvac techs, plumbers, etc.
Long term idea is that as we get more data on how these conversations typically occur, we can build some ML systems to lower the cost of answering the questions.
It's still MVP stage right now. Got a few customers and planning on ramping up marketing in January.
Competition is low. If you show up on time, present yourself well, and you don't show up to work under the influence, then you can be in the top 10% of the workforce easily.
I worked in the trades for about 6-7 years before switching to software engineering. I took a paycut for my first job in software. I was making $80k in a low cost of living area working in the trades. First year was $55k, on the job training was provided.
Downsides are: - Weekend work is typical - On-call is typical - Hard labor, working in the elements. Freezing conditions and/or 100*F + days working on HVAC equipment is rough. - Non-trade folk will commonly talk to you like you're not intelligent. Not a lot of prestige
Upsides: - Learn valuable hands-on skills. Can be applied to your own home to save money - Physical job = built-in exercise - Low competition - Easy to parlay into a business