Engineer's + Writer's Blog - #2

I saw this meme, on a video talking about Elemental magic, in the context of world building.

I think this is a discussion between Plato, and his teacher, Socrates. Or maybe, it's Aristotle, and his teacher, Plato.

Either way, the meme reminded me of my mom, so I did some research into the meme.

This is the original meme, taken directly from imgflip.

So I made 3 memes on my 3 family members, who have all worked hard for my education, at one point or another.

Blue clock and Pink Clock

There were 2 days in my younger childhood, where my father was asked to teach me how time worked, and I had nightmares for sometime.

Obviously, logic.

My sister worked very hard to explain several components of computer science to me, several times.

My education would start at the result her genius would indicate, and end there, too.

My son is talented

I changed my brain for the past 2 years, and now I am beginning to understand the world where my sister lives, and my mother is talented in.

In the process, I have combined that field with everything else I learned for writing, and now I have a lot to offer the right employer, for the right price.

2 years of struggle onward, I have accepted an offer of 150,000$ / year, from my father, which is 66% more than what I got in 2023 (under 90,000$).

For several reasons, I was radically honest in the IT world, whether I was telling a recruiter that Elon needed a grounding force, or I was not playing their game of perceptions, or going against industry advice, or being more transparent about my leetcode scores.

Happy MAANG Interviewer: I see you know Lua, too!

(Psst - say the right thing, and we will give you money for no reason.

Please. Just say it.

Say it.

You look like a nice person.)


Cracking the Coding Interview, prep: Yes. In fact, I wrote 100 lines of code, so I can understand how OOP works in Lua.

Honesty, prep: I wouldn't say I know it. I bought a book for 35$, as I was interested that the language was weird. I included it on my resume, to show that I can learn quickly.

Professional Honesty, prep: I still need to look up several things, several times, just so I can write a simple program. Is that truly knowing something?

You might be better off hiring an ex-Nintendo Developer, or Blizzard developer. I heard that Lua is common as an embedded language, especially as a scripting language alongside c or c++.

Do you have any projects in c#?

I have professional working experience in c#.

Here are my top 3 reasons for insisting on being honest, with integrity, and with long term self-cultivation in mind:

1. High standards, exploitation, and naiveté. I believe I was targeted because of my unwillingness to conform to company culture, my race, and my talent, in 3 different companies, leading to action against me, and financial trouble.
2. A sense of misplaced nobility, ignorance, and bad timing with respect to the IT market post-2020.
3. To advance personal and ethical agendas, for the greater good. This is for someone important to me, but also for a future of innovation in America.

High Standards, Exploitation, and Naiveté

I assumed people knew what they were doing.

In reality, most are as clueless as me, though they present a different image.

Being fired twice, and laid off once, by such people has succeeded in hammering an image of me being unfit to be an engineer, in my mind.

I actually agree. There's a lot of truth to the memes I make, making fun of myself.

But the standards I've been using to self cultivate, have been the same standards used by incompetent people to get rid of me, while they earn a lot of money.

And those people are unprofessional, incompetent, and willing to bully their way into power.

At the very least, I know I am a hard worker, and can be better at the craft itself.

I also stand by my work at Wipro, and being removed from a contract while earning a 3/5 rating, was an emotional knock out.

I was annoyed - I knew for a fact that I was slower than my sister, had several weak areas, and was accepting of consequences stemming from past choices, like focusing on writing or not faking past my lack of interest in Microsoft.

The third time was different.

I played by the rules, for very little pay (under 90,000$ / year), did a great job, was on call for half a year, and provided my best self for several years in order to be a better engineer and value-add.

Yes, life sucks. At least I am a citizen, and not an immigrant - I am fully aware of the privileges I do have, as a male, or growing up with good English, and not Mandarin.

I wasn't asking for what I deserved; or for better luck.

I just wanted to continue being exploited, because my goal was to be a writer.

In December of 2023, I decided to become an engineer worthy of my mother's hard work, and continue to see how I can be a better engineer. At that time, I set my sights on Google or Netflix.

The results were fascinating:

1. Even high end earners don't necessarily know what they are doing, how their work affects the company, or are providing engineering value. I am talking about people who earn more than 200,000$ per year. This was news to me.
2. Most paid engineers remain silent when not knowing things, even though it's unprofessional to do so. They also actively misrepresent their work at the company, to gain a sense of good review.
3. Luck has become disproportionately important, and systems have been gamed and exploited just to continue giving money.
4. Many companies are not interested in value, or innovation; they are interested in people who keep their managers happy.
5. The focus on optics has gotten to the point where reality is being rewritten to advance a marketing agenda, instead of good STEM work and professional ethics pushing the frontiers of technology.

I believe in not being salty when losing; if the rules ask for something, I don't complain. Never did, though I do question the wisdom of such practices, out of curiosity and for intellectual debate.

I have studied leetcode, to pass MAANG+ exams. I am much better and faster now, than just 2 years ago.

I will continue studying leetcode.

(Misplaced) Nobility and Ignorance

Second reason for my hard work was misplaced nobility; I thought given that I pursued writing, for a decade and a half, it made sense to not ask for help.

I have seen how people have worked hard, during or after college, to get high paying jobs. Some of these people are either immigrants, or had a very personal dream to get into MAANG.

Everyone worked hard, right, to come up in life? So, I worked hard. I am not the kind of person to cry foul, just because I am not winning.

I accept this way of thinking was simplistic, and therefore, inaccurate.

That, many people take favors from their parents, rely on their assets, are selectively honest about their weaknesses, and talk a lot just to show they care about their company's products, in lieu of being honest or professional.

Some of them will stay silent when injustice happens; some of them are frauds.

Just to be clear, I am not criticizing those who are doing what they can to get by (say, an immigrant earning 90,000$) ; or those who are rich (and innocently so), or those who just like the American dollar, and don't pretend to be the latest hotness.

I am criticizing those who passively participate in a game that works for them, and confuse that false perception with a positive assessment of oneself, if it results in vices towards others.

I am also criticizing those who actively participate in such a game, and gatekeep to protect their interests.

Of course, I am also criticizing frauds, too 👍 Those who actively lie, or cheat, to get ahead in a race.

I am not talking about those who fake it till they don't make it, or are victims of the same race, in some way (suffering so you can earn a lot doesn't count) : I am talking about lying, cheating, and office politics to your advantage.

I had severely underestimated how the IT world had become like the corporate lawyer world, and that now connections, money and perceptions matter more than science and professionalism.

So while I ended up self cultivating, I now accept the rules of the game, though I refuse to accept their legitimacy.

It took me a year to figure this out, especially in the IT climate of 2024, and by then I started my own company.

Partly, to now say I have 5 years of experience, without lying.

For the Greater Good

Third reason, is that I absolutely didn't want a Computer Science degree, and I do want a platform to talk about my mother's sacrifices.

My mother worked very hard to teach me Computer Science. I wasn't interested in Computer Science, nor a degree.

Yet, she saw something in me - she saw the physics, the literature, the creativity, the hard working nature, my scientific curiosity, natural philosophical attunement, mathematical prodigiousness and paid for a degree with free cooking and boarding....in computer science.

Hell, she even did my laundry, and sat with me everyday to talk about my classes. I did well in the electives - the philosophy kind, and the SDLC kind - but not the core Computer Science classes.

She herself is a talented engineer, who put aside a lot for her family, all of whom are successful engineers.

I am not calling myself successful - though again, depends on who you ask, and what you want to see.

My father was a VP, my sister is a senior engineer (MAANG+), and my mom herself is a senior engineer - in a small IT department, in a non-IT company.

I keep saying I am one of the best, and my mom is better.

There's no reason for anyone to believe me 😉

The point is my mother believed in my talents, financially, in spirit, and in my capacity for logic.

So, I continued to be honest, so that I can say today, that even though the offer is from my father, who is starting his own business:

1. I will be giving value to him, more than which I am being paid, just like I always have.
   1. Otherwise, I will resign.
   2. If you think I'm like one of the people I am criticizing, ask my father to fire me.
2. My mother is the better engineer, by far, and puts lot of MAANG engineers I know in her shadow.
   1. As far I am concerned, there is no Magnificent 7 without my mom in its cadre.
3. My mother believed in my capacity for data structures and algorithms, and I take this offer in her name.

I also intend to continue working at my own entertainment company, in the same industry as Netflix and Nintendo. It's called Hidden Hand.

It will be a focal point to publish my board games. It will also be a banner for publishing my video games.

To that end, I have hired my first contractor, and the money I make from working as a developer, will go towards savings and doing the right thing.

This is my last post on my opinions on the IT industry, what I went through because of it, and my perseverance through it.

Thanks for reading!

To all those who have been nice and kind to me - you know who you are - thank you.

My father hasn't sent a formal offer, yet.

In case you want to grab me while I'm available, these are my core competencies:

1. c#
2. Developer Operations
3. Documentation

I also think I excel, here:

1. Leadership (both the authority kind, and the coaching kind)
2. Cross-functional communication
3. Business mindedness
4. Thought leadership
5. Prototyping

I will stop interviewing by Friday, so I can honor any commitments my father has made to his clients.