Fractional CTO. Getting things done myself or via others. AI, GenAI, teamwork, CI/CD, as well as Web Development, mostly JavaScript, React, Node and .NET Core
Toronto, Canada
Joined July 2020
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I wrote a guide to cloud cost optimization. It's a good starting point if you want to optimize what you spend on the cloud, be it Azure, GCP, AWS, or another cloud provider.
redpill-solutions.medium.com…
#cloud #cost #optimization #Azure #gcp #AWS
Encountered a new job-related scam recently
linkedin.com/feed/update/urn…
Just thought how it's funny that this is still the best book on programming - or at least one of the best
Or they could have given a $60 000 CAD grant to 200 tech startups to create hundreds of high-paying IT jobs as Belgium is already doing.
Nick Taranov 🇨🇦 | Fractional CTO retweeted
A major blocker to free and open source multimedia is @isostandards.
ISO standards are behind an expensive paywall, making them impossible to access for volunteer developers in FFmpeg, or anyone wanting to learn about multimedia technology
I have reservations, but the tradoff is real
This is also related to the idea of pulling CI back home to developer machines. You don't need to run your tests in the cloud either at our scale! Modern dev machines have gotten crazy core counts and better-than-cloud single-core performance. world.hey.com/dhh/we-re-movi…
🔎 I went through ALL tech jobs by top 20 VCs startup companies
I will tell things nobody else will unless they are deep in the industry. Here are some💡:
Dev ecosystems:
1. You only need Python for backend. Jobs listing Python have higher salaries too. All the Go/Rust/Java shops offer passing the interview in Python. This covers about 95% of positions. No other language is even close.
2. For Front End, you need TypeScript. Pure JS jobs are fewer and pay less. For the framework, chose React.js. It will cover >50% of positions. Next choices would be Angular and Vue. Companies using less common stuff don't expect you to know it.
3. The cloud is AWS. It's a sad fact as I'm Azure/GCP/AWS 100/90/50. 80% of the startups using a cloud at all use AWS. Ones who don't use it have it too.
4. The database of choice is PostgreSQL. The win is not so convincing as compared to AWS, but it still dwarfs MySQL and everything else.
5. Docker/K8S is generally desired by not required, except for platform or DevOps-heavy jobs. Once again, sad for me as it's one of my strong points.
Industries:
1. AI with focus on GenAI. Many of these I suspect using "normal" AI (credit scoring, anomaly detect etc) still prefer to pretend it's GenAI and LLMs. I understand GetAI, so I'm pretty sure I've seen companies "selling the GenAI dream" where is 100% inapplicable. I was wondering how some of the startups go financing. Happens in every hype cycle, I suspect.
2. MLOps and Data Operations. Data is strong. Many seem to be developing the one data platform to rule them all! If you work in the area, applying to a startup job for +100 000 per years seems to be a no-brainer. You have to be good though.
3. Security is hot, especially for the Government. Good news for US Citizens, I suppose. As a Canadian, I'm available to work in USA via my LLC (preferred) or a service like Deel, but I cannot get the security clearance as only the Citizens can.
4. Crypto is NOT gone. The number of companies hiring is smaller, but the salaries, the salaries are among the highest.
6. Fintechs and other finance startups. Good for me, as I'm competent and can help here. The compensation is somewhere in the middle.
5. All the other sorts of startups helping with productivity, remote work platforms, B2B and B2B2C platforms etc.
I know enough to drop insights for a week, so ask me anything specific, and I will deliver!
#python #typescript #genai #aws
The problem with having 20+ contracts a year is that I don't even remember what gig it was, and it was on May. Please don't get surprised when I scratch my head while slowly answering what I was doing lately. I just do a lot of stuff, and it always involves loading a lot of context into my head. I literally need to sit and write down stuff to make a list with >50% of what I did this year.
Nick Taranov 🇨🇦 | Fractional CTO retweeted
TSMC has achieved early production yields at its first plant in Arizona that surpass similar factories in Taiwan, a significant breakthrough for a US expansion project initially dogged by delays and worker strife trib.al/c6XdKvH
A good tech lead will make your project 2x smaller, and you will win.
A bad tech lead will make your project 2x bigger, and you will lose. These figures are actually very conservative.
It turns out, a good one charging 4x for hour will end up being far more efficient for $1 spent, as the work will be done 4x faster and the product will be less complex and more technically sound. Wrong design decisions will live forever. Wrong processes, practices, and bad work control and organization will multiply time and money wasted by 10.
$35/h CTO is not at all necessarily cheaper than a $140/h CTO, and the wrong choice will cost you the business.
