I've been trying to write 'the next post' for the last 5 years - it's often something I think about that I've just left these posts in the ether with no conclusion. It wasn't a conscious decision not to continue, but I started interviewing then got hired at an early stage start up (Tailscale), and everything turned into a blur. When I went back to the draft I had going, it felt overwhelming to try condense the pace at which my skills and career was evolving and I'd close it pretty quickly. Surprisingly to me, it's been more than just how I write code thats evolved - I've discovered a lot about how I operate within a tech company and that I'm also extremely user focused.
I'm not sure how my blog was found and posted here (but thank you for reading!), but last night I did open that draft and started working on it again. A complete coincidence, but it was the first time it felt like I'm in the right space to continue working on it and distilling the past 4.5 years of employment, the initial job search, etc. As someone mentioned, I left my previous role recently, but I'm starting the next adventure on Monday. Now seems like a good time to finish that post!
Charlotte
But yeah, I'm pretty down on tech these days (and even telecom). Bullshit happens everywhere and drains virtually all the fun out of everything. There are loads of incumbents, pole owners and municipalities that don't even do the bare minimum required by responding to permits in a timely manner. It's depressing that it is refreshing to me when people do the bare minimum -- replying to emails on the next business day (making it possible to get to the real work of installing cables for a customer). Most days for me now are hounding people to do what they should have done weeks / months / years ago, or writing legal documents to try to address harm they're causing. <sigh>
If we were civil engineers it would be shocking for the public to learn that we are sometimes ordered build the bridges terribly on purpose, for something like the purpose that it influences people toward using toll roads -- when in the world of software engineering not only has this kind of anti-user (anti-human) behaviour become commonplace but actually it's increasingly the only novel work we do between gluing other people's code together.
There's nothing wrong with wooden houses! They're a cost-effective method of building, and with proper care, such houses will last over a hundred years. Masonry buildings, of course, also need care to avoid falling apart, though probably less so than wooden buildings.
I don't know where it is that you're from, but I'd wager that large parts of the US sees harsher climate conditions. Between hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and wildfires, American houses have to deal with a lot. Properly-constructed wooden houses handle what they need to.
Sure, you could say that all else equal, a masonry structure is more durable than a wooden one. But as they say, anyone can build a bridge that stands, but only an engineer can build a bridge that barely stands. Cost is always an object in the real world.