Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47061599

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

The first mistake was management not wanting to pay for Neo4J, so we were working in production with the free edition (no backups, only one database, lots of limitations).

The second error was that none of us had production level experience with Neo4J apart from what you just said, tinkering in toy projects at home or very low stakes services, so in the end, the schema that was created was a bit of a mess, you would look at it and say "well, it makes sense..." but in reality we were treating Neo4J as a twisted NoSQL/SQL interpretation.

The third mistake was treating Neo4J as a database meant to handle realtime requests from thousands of users doing filtering and depending on huge responses from external systems (VERY OLD systems, we're talking IBM AS400 old) while in an environment where each response depended on at least 2 or 3 microservices. We had one cypher query to handle almost all use cases, you can imagine what a behemoth that was.

In the end as I said, compound error between lack of experience, not analyzing correctly our needs and a "just go with it attitude" that to this day I'm pretty sure it cost quite a bit to the company. Eventually the backend team managed to move to MySQL (by that time I had moved to Ops) and the difference was abysmal.

Nurture this, it will become a great tool in the belt for a lot of people

We need to reduce the entry barrier (it's meant for companies so it needs explicit registration) so anyone can use it as a proper SaaS but so far we already have a couple clients :D

Maybe it's my own personal working culture, but when I get into a company I'm not thinking about levels, growth, stock options... I go there with a salary, a position and a willingness to help in whatever I can, once I'm not needed anymore (it's usually a combination of managerial direction changes, new hires, new objectives) that's my cue to help somewhere else where I may be needed or wanted. Am I that weird? I honestly don't understand this culture of quarter finance agent, half developer, quarter manager aspirant :/

While I was working on the tablet interface (in Godot Engine) I put Claude to work on what after two minutes became a full product on its own with a new file format as well. Tell me what you think! (so far the response is meh...)

https://habitatview.app

Second, I've been quite frustrated about the salary calculators in Spain, not only for when I was working for others, but also for when I had to calculate the salaries for my employees (and also when I worked and lived abroad, it should be a must for every country!!!). In the end I decided to use (and abuse) the newest tool in the shed (LLMs) and use it to crunch all the massive data about work agreements and parameters to calculate the salaries in Spain.

Some issue I've found is the hundreds and hundreds of agreements that are in spain, our government allows regional and local governments to create their own agreements on top of (if there are) the state ones, whcih makes things a mess and creates employees that never know what they should be getting paid.

This calculator offers a detailed breakdown not only for the employee, comparison with the agreement or closes agreement available, current market rates but also calculates and shows you the cost for the companies, which is another pain point of the available calculators.

I open sourced the project and deployed it in GitHub directly as GPLv3 donationware. I've already registered a domain but I've hit a snag with the .es TLD.

I honestly hope people will find this useful. We shouldn't be illiterate about our salaries.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177014

Points: 3

# Comments: 4

Fortunately I still only have a couple clients so no one was the wiser.

UPDATE: It ended up in a simple scare, nothing was affected and I'm not in any list that I know of, in case you're wondering

Of course each one of us is a different universe, but let me tell you what helped me (I repeat, this is a personal experience, I'm not a doctor):

* First, do not get anxious about it, otherwise you will feed it and it will amplify.

* Second, force yourself to 5-10 minute work, and I mean force yourself, pick a task, any task, push your brain until you are able to do 5 minutes of work, if you are able it's a good sign

* Third, question your physical health, are you ok? Do you have enough vitamins, etc? A blood check doesn't do any harm. I've found iron deficiency is a big part of not being able to work.

* Fourth, question your mental health, your brain is the most idiotic organ ever, it doesn't know when it's ok or not, do you feel anxiety, stress, impostor syndrome, is there something missing in your life that was previously there? Repeat this until you get clear answers.

* Fifth, process those answers, really process them, they will give you clarity that will lift the mist.

* Sixth, check with a psycologist, my recommendation is that it's specialized in cognitive behavioural therapy.

All of this being said, after points 1-5 I was still struggling, on and off (mostly off) for a while until I did point 6 and this helped me move forward slowly with a lot of "homework". I can't tell you exactly what my issue is because I have many and they're quite intertwined, let's just say that I was brought back from the brink (at the time I did number 6 I started already with anxiety and panic attacks)