Author | Lightnews

Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · 4d

I thought that I changed and started hating movies. Then I rewatched a bunch of movies from ~1998-2008 (my prime movie-watching years) and realized that movies and I have just grown apart since then.

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Sep 23

Sucks to suck, get raptured next time

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Sep 7

In Google, you have bodies of litigated law instead of principles.

Principles are like "Be Googly" (i.e. "don't be a dick") and are widely ignored.

Laws are the tomes they have written about code quality and making services production ready, every word resulting from endless wars and bikeshedding.

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Sep 4

I see a lot of people complaining that ChatGPT ruined em dashes for them, but I have taken a different approach.

Office Space meme template with Amir and Michael Bolton. Top text says "WHY SHOULD I STOP USING EM DASHES?". Bottom text says "GPT'S THE ONE WHO SUCKS"

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Sep 3

Maybe it's just NYC, but if my wife and I did dinner and a movie it'd be north of $100 unless we grabbed falafel or something cheap. That's pretty steep especially for someone in their 20s, unless you land in tech or something like that.

Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Sep 3

I liked it a lot more when I started learning as much as I could on every round, instead of overly focusing on getting to the antechamber

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jul 12

They didn't used to have service fees. I just pulled up a random receipt from 2019 and I had $21.35 of items and it came out to $26.48 after tax and tip. Now you'd have a delivery fee and service fee, which varies by time of day, so it's just noticeably a lot more than it used to be

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jun 22

Everyone laughs at New Jersey but we have "Born to Run" at the ready

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jun 16

Tag yourself, I'm "Strange Stones"

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jun 13

* And remember: there’s more to life than tech. Fill your life with stories, not just side projects.

Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jun 13

* Learn how computers really work: OS, architecture, protocols.
* Understand where the industry is going. Right now? LLMs, agents, AI.
* Increase your luck surface area. Talk. Share. Meet. Post.
* Be curious. Be humble

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jun 13

I’ve been coding since I was 14. I’ve worked at places like Google, Etsy, and now Hinge. Here’s what I said, distilled from 25 years of experience:

* Learn to code early.
* Don’t just take classes. Build something. Even small projects count.
* Get internships (or the closest thing you can).

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jun 13

I got asked a simple question:

“What advice would you give a high schooler who wants to work in tech?”
I wasn’t planning to write anything this week. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

www.clientserver.dev/p/a-staff-en...

A staff engineer's advice to high schoolers who want to work in tech

Are you a high school student interested in working in tech? Here's my advice as someone who has worked at everything from FAANG to research labs, and has been in the industry since 2008.

www.clientserver.dev

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jun 10

99% of my naps are about 10 minutes. Every now and then I'll accidentally sleep an hour. My accidental nap record was around 4 hours.

Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jun 10

I paid $50 for some new NES games 30 years ago. They were trash compared to what you can play today. We're blessed that games didn't keep pace with inflation.

Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · Jun 3

Only thing that it's missing is matching Shin guards

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Reposted by Jacob Voytko

Chris Morrell @cmorrell.com · Jun 3

OK, this is a pretty solid take on LLMs.

Angie Jones @angiejones.tech · Jun 3

so good!
fly.io/blog/youre-a...

My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts

My smartest friends have bananas arguments about LLM coding.

fly.io

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · May 29

But I think the important takeaway is that even if you don’t have a lot of time, it’s possible to publish to a newsletter if you have a strategy. I’m not trying to convince you to run one… but if you just need a little push, I hope this post provides it.

Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · May 29

6 months ago, I got my first newsletter subscriber. Now I’m up above 260. This is a big deal for me, because after my daughter was born 2 years ago, I didn’t have any time for hobbies. Writing this newsletter was the first hobby that I was able to do for myself.

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · May 29

A few people have asked, “how do you have time to write a newsletter?” This post has my full playbook. What is my audience? How do I pick stories? Why is writing an outline so important? What do I do after a post is published? What would I do if I had more time?

www.clientserver.dev/p/you-have-t...

You have the time to run a technical newsletter

A dad's playbook for running a newsletter when you have very little free time.

www.clientserver.dev

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · May 28

On one hand, tools like Cursor are actual skills that require time and effort to learn. I've seen people drop out before they got good at it. But on the other hand, there are parts of my current codebase where I don't bother using it because it has no hope of doing anything right.

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · May 21

I'm personally excited to watch a tablet try to potty train a toddler.

Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · May 19

Hinge dating app: A live map of the world. Little hearts pop up when there's a match

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Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · May 15

These were widely mocked and mostly went away, except for some vestiges that remain like "hour-long meetings are booked for 50 minutes."

One team took advantage of the 50-minute meeting rule in an unexpected way. Read more to find out how!

Jacob Voytko @bitlog.com · May 15

My latest newsletter is trending on Hacker News!

It's a story from 2011 about how Larry Page tried enacting strict rules and conventions around meetings, in an attempt to get Google to stop slowing down.

www.clientserver.dev/p/malicious-...

Malicious compliance by booking an available meeting room

In 2011, Larry Page became CEO of Google and tried to fix meetings. But his new policies were no match for Google Calendar pedants.

www.clientserver.dev

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