Categories
Software development

My dream, software development jobs, and software industry

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I sort had a bad dream last night. I dreamed that my old colleague admonished me for not working hard enough. I think perhaps I had too much work-related stress recently.

On a related note, 我感觉AI对大众码工(yours truly included)和大部分软件公司和IT行业的冲击才刚刚开始。。。 大厂已经裁了几轮了。。。Personally I am at peace if I have to drive ride share or food delivery to feed or support my family – I felt I already enjoyed my 25+ years of 码工job，and now it’s probably good for me to do something different 😂

Btw, I could be a little biased (because I have been in the IT/software arena, and on LinkedIn since 2008), but it seems to me there are tsunami of people looking for work now #OpenToWork . The overall situation looks pretty bad. And we know in the USA, the current administration is pretty much hands off to the AI, gen AI etc.

PS: I came across Anil Dash’s article here – What do coders do after AI? I quote some below, as I tend to agree with his assessment. I think he said some of what I wanted to say, and said it much more elegantly.

……But the level at which the change is happening in this transition is one that gets closer to people’s sense of self-worth and identity, rather than to their perceptions of simply having to acquire knowledge or skills. It doesn’t help that the change is being catalyzed by some of the most venal and irresponsible leaders in the history of business, brazenly acting without any moral boundaries whatsoever.…..

……I’ve come to the personal conclusion that the only way forward is for more of the hackers with soul to seize this moment of flux and use these tools to build. The economics of creating code are changing, and it can’t just be the worst billionaires in the world who benefit. The latest count is 700,000 people laid off in the last few years in the tech industry. We’ll be at a million soon, at the rate things are accelerating. Each new layoff announcement is now in the thousands.……

……I’ve spent my whole career working with communities of coders, building tools for the people who build with code. I don’t imagine I’ll ever stop doing it. This is the hardest moment that I’ve ever seen this community go through, and it makes me heartsick to see so many people enduring such stress and anxiety about what’s to come. More than anything else, what I hope people can remember is that all of the great things that people love about technology weren’t created by the money guys, or the bosses who make HR decisions — they were created by the people who actually build things.…..

Also this post on LinkedIn by Laurie Voss, let me quote below as linkedIn post search could be buggy from my observation.

I have always been the kind of developer who only cared about outcomes. Give me the tool, the framework, the head start. I just want my website.

A totally different kind of developer exists who cares about the craft. Getting that function just right. Those devs are in pain right now.

LLM-powered engineering is the ultimate outcome-based method: in the extreme case you ship code you’ve never even read.

This is anathema to those who care about the craft and you can see their cultural convulsions across social media every day. “People aren’t caring AND THEY SHOULD WHAT IS WRONG!?”

I don’t know what’s going to happen to the craftspeople of code. I’m not here to predict their irrelevance, they could end up being the most important people to cultivate in a world where nobody reads code. But I know they’re in pain right now, and my sympathy is with them.

It is a very, very weird time to be a software developer and anybody who tells you they know where this is going is deluded. We have shaken the kaleidoscope as hard as we can and the pattern it will land in is a total unknown.

Categories
uber-and-side-hustle

I delivered for Uber Eat today

Reading Time: 4 minutes

(02-17-2026) During my lunch hour. I thought about doing it last week. And this noon I did it. My 1st order is to pick up food at Chick Fil A in U City (by Costco), and deliver it to wustl. The second order is in Clayton area, Jimmy Johns sandwich to an office building (a block a way or so). My total earning is about $13. The wustl girl gave me $1 tip.

(02-19-2026) I did two Uber driving trips in the evening as I didn’t get much Uber Eats order. First trip is from WUSTL Knight center to the Budget Avis car rental place near airport. The second trip is short one, near the apartment off Cypress road (again near airport) – a lady wanted to buy something from the plaza not too far from her apartment. I did notice a large group of teenagers (likely high schoolers) gathering outside the apartment complex.

(03-07-2026) I did two more deliveries this morning: Chick fil a CC (Ladue), Starbuck New Ballas/Clayton (across street)

Also noticed a bit meaningful surge (+$10 or more) in the evening at about 7:30 pm, Saturday 03/07/2026. A friend was going to airport, and noticed the normal fair of about +$30 went up to +$70. In other words, Uber is still pocketing most of the cost increase from the surge.

Observation so far: most Uber Eats deliveries are not worth it (time vs income). For me this is mostly to get outside of house, because I work from home for about 6 years now.

(03-08-2026) Today I drove this route when I drove for Uber. I had to admit I was scared during some portion of the trip – and I documented some of my feelings here in YT Shorts. Now I recall almost 30 years ago, when I was fairly new to the USA, and new to St. Louis, a few times I drove by some of the similar places in St. Louis (accidentally), and I was scared. And now I think it’s best for me to stay out of those areas, for that matter, stay out of Uber driving too.

(03–09-2026) Between 6 pm and 6:30 pm: delivered an Uber Eats order from Sides of Soul to Kirkwood apartment. Tip $11.98 + $2 delivery fee.

(03-10-1016) Did 4 Uber trips in the pm. One: from Panera Old Olive to house off Lackland near Costco Business Center; Two: from the International Paper manufacturing plant to McDonald off St. Charles Rock Road; Three, this one takes a bit time to drive, in hind sight I should not accept, from U city near Overland to the U city Chicken Fil A (not a lucrative trip, also the pickup location is not the best spot either.)

Uber offered total $7.50 incentive for the trips above. No tips today.

One thing I like to understand more is how Uber was trying both AI (offers trip to drivers), and promotions (loyalty, rewards and offers*, and driver reference) to get drivers to drive for the trip.

*Today is the first time I received offers money from Uber. It’s $4 for 2 trips, and another $3.50 for another trip (the last one). In my old Mastercard job, as I was working in the loyalty and rewards area, this is called “qualification” (meaning the cardholders need to perform certain action to qualify for the award). Promotion is different in the sense, it’s proportional to the card spend.

One main difference between Uber and Uber Eats: tip is upfront for Uber Eats and could be meaningful. Uber not that much: many factors came into play for tips; in general should not expect much tips.

Ultimately: safety first. After safety, when looking at a trip whether it’s profitable or not, I should look at the earning per minute or per hour. Do a quick math and see if it’s 50 cents per minute, or $30 per hour. At the end of the day though, I should pay more attention to the stock market because that’s potentially more lucrative. Thinking Uber should be a hobby or a way to get out, and feel the real world. So maybe just once or twice a week. There is another factor: the acceptance rate, I probably need to balance the empty miles driven vs acceptance rate.

(03-12-2026) I just signed up the “plus card” and “Shop and Deliver orders”. I think I am going to try that instead of accepting passengers for Uber (in addition to safety, sometimes I don’t like the body smell or perfume from my passengers, sometimes it took long time to dissipate – similar for the cannabis or marijuana).

In the evening, after getting home from “teaching my old daughter pratice on highway aka 141”, I did two Uber passenger trips, first one is from Maplewood to Chesterfield (Twin Peaks to Red Lobster, it appears two ladies or mom/daughter duo are working at two places sequentially?), and the second trip is at Chesterfield itself (from Bunge office off 64 to the Hyatt Place at Chesterfield Mall, traveller to the Bunge North America HQ office). No tips for the two trips.

After that I bought some groceries from the Chesterfield Schnucks and went home.

(03-14-2026) This morning I did 3 Uber Eats deliveries. The first two are normal ones, the 3rd one had a major hiccup. Two issues: it’s for Starbucks and I forgot about the morning rush at Starbucks when I accepted the order. I had to wait for probably 30 to 40 minutes for the order being prepared. Then as I reviewed the order I found out I cannot mark the order as picked up in the Uber driver app – it says delayed. I still delivered the order and tried to contact the customer service agents. And they didn’t solve my issue, and the two agents said complete opposite things. I think I will stop driving for Uber for now. My main complaints are their app didn’t work for me, and their agents are not consistent. It’s more and more like a #ratRace

(04-20-2026) Came across this article. He says he accepted the ride that was supposed to take 30 minutes roundtrip. Then he got ensnared in rush hour traffic. “It’s 5:01pm so there’s a lot of traffic in Charlotte. And I’m driving to the passenger. I hit traffic, it takes me instead of 18 minutes, it takes me 35 minutes to pick up the passenger,” he says. (I know this one btw)

Categories
Software development Stocks

Why average investors should pick S&P 500 over picking own stocks

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I have been in the US stock market since 2003. And I observe majority of average investors don’t like volatility. They chase the hot stocks, and they catch the falling knife, and then they sell during panic. And occasionally they watch Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show on CNBC “watching TV and making money”. In other words, they usually buy high and sell low – using the late Charlie Munger’s words a little blunt, please note, “if (many) people are not stupid, how can we make money”.

This is obviously not a winning strategy. And yesterday’s market action is a perfect example. The direct reason for yesterday’s stock drop was due to the below report. I do understand the selling pressure on software stocks from the AI disruption has been there for a while now. Disclosure: I do own some software stocks, and the largest position is the good old MSFT. I joked that I was Bill Gates’ slave 20 years ago. Also – I am an average investor too and I put most of my money into S&P 500 index fund – I told my wife to do that too – if something happens to me.

The mentioned report is below. I suggest read at your leisure time.

But we need to keep in mind the software (SaaS) stocks have been trading at high valuations for at least 20 years. This may be a healthy adjustment of valuation – somewhat like an obese person losing some weight so that he/she can put less stress on his/her body.

Software benefits from larger trend such as the shift to cloud computing, pandemic (working from home), for the users there are usually higher cost of switching (think Oracle DB, or Electronic Medical Records vendor such as Epic, and Cerner now a part of Oracle), and so on. But nothing lasts forever, the recent AI revolution appears (or will likely) causing disruption to the industry. As I also worked in this industry (software and IT) for last 25+ years, and I can see that seismic shift coming. Nothing or no trends last forever.

Back to stocks, below is the S&P 500 compared to some of the popular stocks or assets.

Also the stocks hit 52 week low yesterday. Many are software or tech stocks. The saas apocalypse is real.

Btw, just bumped into my own writing on stocks etc. here, and noticed I wrote it almost 6 years ago. I can see both my kids grew significantly in last 6 years, and I am getting older – hopefully wiser too.

Last but not least, regarding the asset price, JPM’s Jamie Dimon said something yesterday – Jamie Dimon says ‘watch out’ as lofty asset prices add to economic risks: ‘My anxiety is high’ (CNBC).

Categories
kids math-and-edu Saint Louis

Summer Intern Opportunities

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Engineering Intern – Shape the Streets of Kirkwood! (college)

Teen: Shaw Institute for Field Training, SIFT

Missouri Botanical Garden has other internship opportunities as well.

Categories
Software development

Dev Stories

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I bumped into Angus Cheng accidentally the other day, on YT – I make $40K/month with this one website

And I had to admit, I love read his dev stories or technical deep dives. Here is one on X. And here is his profile on X.

I think I would share some of my dev stories from now on too – probably via YT (as I am not a big fan of X platform, mainly because I don’t like its owner 🙂

Categories
DIY

Minor scare after replacing thermostat battery

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After I changed the battery (2 AA batteries) it seems it got stuck in the “starting soon” and I did a google Emerson thermostat starting soon reset

It eventually restarted after I flip the power switch (downstairs) and reset the controllers (the thermostat) couple times.

References:

YT shorts 1: how to change battery for Emerson thermostat

YT shorts 2: how to reset Emerson thermostat

Categories
Business Investing Software development

A lot going on recently

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Moved this WordPress website (again)

SaaS and SaaS stocks apocalypse

Thinking somewhat more bullet proof idea in this space is Constellation Software Inc., which is a Canada based software conglomerate (TSE:CSU; OTCMKTS:CNSWF). And I looked at both Robinhood and Schwab, it appears the former doen’t have it, the latter one has to pay $6.95 to buy the Over the counter market stocks. I don’t think $7 fee should be a deal breaker if one is truly believer of the company and the stock, though. Also, refer to this YT video Broken Compounder or Rare Sale? Constellation Software Stock Explained by Drew Cohen. And his stock researches here.

From software to real estate, U.S. sectors under the grip of AI scare trade | Reuters – (this is a quote) AI-focused logistics firm Algorhythm Holdings (RIME.O), which previously sold karaoke machines, said its SemiCab unit boosted customers’ freight volumes by 300% to 400% “without a corresponding increase in operational headcount”.

The news triggered a rout in stocks such as Landstar System (LSTR.O), opens new tab and C.H. Robinson (CHRW.O), opens new tab. The Dow Jones Transportation Average (.DJT), opens new tab fell 4.4%.

Jefferies analysts, however, said the reaction was disconnected from fundamentals. “Proprietary freight data and physical networks remain durable moats,” they said.

The company seems problematic for me, to say the least, looking at its stock price here. And here is its linkedIn profile (Algorhythm Holdings Inc. and SemiCab).

Anxiety of AI among white collar workers and parents, high school and college kids

(Fortune) Brian Moynihan isn’t so worried about an AI jobs bloodbath, pointing to a 1960s theory that computers would end all management roles

Two sad incidents

I came across this news today: Man who fatally shot woman in Starbucks drive-thru robbed someone in different drive-thru days earlier, police say NY Post article.

And it reminds me of another incident I read about recently. ‘Was just like a war’: Rideshare driver gunned down in Ferguson was unintended target – As a former Uber driver, I felt incredible sad… I have been to Ferguson a few times in my short Uber driving tenure (10/2024 to 09/2025).

Categories
Site Info Software development Web

Moved the wordpress host again

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I moved the host of this WordPress website again. It’s on a smaller Droplet. There was some AI bot spike recently (since mid-Dec), and also the previous droplet has been there about 10 years ago. It’s time for a cleanup etc.

More details are forthcoming: as practical as possible, obviously.

Note this also marks my 20 years of blogging.

Categories
advice and tips car kids Life Life Tips

Teach my older kid to drive

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I wrote this one too fast – Some kids not that interested in learning to drive nowadays 🙂 This seems to be confirmed by this Yahoo article – Gen Z is slamming the brakes on getting a driver’s license.

话音未落，I started to teach my old kid to drive. We are already on the road, btw 🙂

We practiced on the parking lot 1st, but she got a bit bored of the parking lot, so last 2 days (I started writing this post in late Dec, FYI) I have taken her to quiet neighborhood, and she was practicing on the road. Note she is new on the road. And understandably sometimes she would get nervous if another car come by both in the front (opposing traffic), or behind. Today she almost panicked at a four way stop sign 🙂 But we survived.

12-31-2025 Today we got honked by people the 1st time, at the Hilltop neighborhood.

1-1-2025 We finally hit the real road, I mean the road with traffic lights (not just Stop sign). We drove at the Lackland near Westport, also from the Walgreens St. Ann (St. Charles rock road and Ashby) to home. Many years ago (confirmed by my wife) I taught her driving, at the industrial compound at Westport.

02-07-2026 We continued practicing on the real road, mostly on weekends.

02-10-2026 S8 drove from the St. Louis Premium Outlet Mall to home, via local obviously. She was fairly proud that she made smooth left turn from Chesterfield parkway to Olive. And re: Olive Road, she said she may miss it when she goes off to college. Other interesting facts she told me is an old story between her mom and her as her mom drove the similar route quite a few years ago – they were going to the mall as well.

Amother longer road (route) we drove recently: Olive west (from Warson), Clarkson, Manchester, and West Country Mall. She got honked when near the west county mall. There were quite a few cars because it was weekend.

Side note – Road Rage

Road rage (lu nu) is prevalent in the USA. Here in STL it’s not extremely bad, but from time to time you will see those impatient drivers or impatient people in general. Recently as I started teaching my older kid to drive, and also as I reflect on my own driving and so on, I felt I have a bit burden or worry when she eventually goes out and drives on her own.

In China people honk, here in STL people may not honk as much, but the road rage is definitely there. And in extreme or rare cases, it could turn out to be deadly (because of firearms aka the guns).

Nowadays I rarely honked at people, and I rarely honked back. I did some of that when I was younger and also when I am lacking sleep.

Categories
advice and tips Life Tips

Apple Watch Sleep tracking

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Started this a bit over a month ago. Better late than never. I had Apple Watch since Jan 2017, and Apple Watch released sleep tracker in 2020.

Some observations

If the watch was taken off during the night, say 2 to 3 hours, the sleep tracking got reset – which means you will likely get a bad sleep number (low score).

Also, I am not sure how accurate the Apple watch does in terms of sleep tracking – I assume it measures the heart beat (from the pulse in the elbow). I had similar questions re: the Apple watch swimming tracking too. It seems to me they are rounding up the number there.