Battery Management Systems: Turn on and off 324 single cells in a 200 kWh array, measure their voltages and temperatures and ensure they're cells are not engaged above threshold temperatures (asymmetric for charging and discharging), or below threshold voltages.
Electric Vehicle Chargers: Communicate with car, communicate with charge point operator.
LoRa transceivers: Configure transceiver, send and receive encrypted messages over LoRa.
It was all Rust, and all very interesting.
But as other commenters have pointed out, there is a pay loft compared to other industries.
> I would at least try the meds for a couple of months.
Whether or not you have ADHD, amphetamines will improve your life if you measure quality by how much you get done.
So I think the real question is: Are you prevented from functioning according to your expectations without daily amphetamine use, or not? And do you even see that as a problem?
I've used various (legal) amphetamines and modafinil variants for years, and they always made me very productive and happy, because I like getting things done. They also make me very high-energy.
Disclaimers:
- Amphetamines are physically addictive
- Being productive is psychologically addictive
- Take time off, or the productivity effect will even out, just like too much coffee.
Saying he is the problem is just as non-constructive as saying I'm the problem.
People aren't problems, they're people.
Rather, I have a "me and my CTO" problem.
Judging by how my senior colleagues handle this by saying "it's just a job" and not get upset, I can see how their "me and my CTO" problems are much smaller and don't overheat on a daily basis. However, since my ambitions don't align with saying "it's just a job", I am still looking for other options. Quitting is on the list, so thank you for spelling it out.
I tell myself to be more stoic every week, but I can't.
If I just wanted a well-paying job with a good work-life balance, I'd be working in fintech.
I keep this mental image: I'm on a ladder, and my CTO is standing above me and won't move. If he could either move at my pace focusing on bigger problems than me, or get out of the way, I could make this work better for both my employer and myself.
If there was just a way to nudge him into place.
There is an Andrew Tate soundbite [1]:
> "There is a secret to the universe [...]: If you actually try your best, you can't lose. Not pretend to try your best, not try your best 90% of the time, not try your best with excuses. If you genuinely try your best all of the time, all day, every day, [...] it is impossible to fail in this life. [...] You cannot fail if you try your best."
Maybe when I have kids, I will feel like I won the lottery, and I won't be so competitive.
Until then, I don't know what will be my life's work.
But I know that cultivating a relentless attitude maximizes my impact.
> a lot of time it's political and really difficult
I can sense the political dimension in this.
Being a tiny startup made of awesome inventors, it's a lot less than most places I worked.
We need a CTO for CTO-y stuff. In many ways I'm happy this isn't my responsibility: Slides for board meetings, putting on a suit and shaking hands at conferences, hardware certification paperwork, and the really hard work: Be responsible for all software, hardware and material design.
The step I'm making (Senior to Lead) is much smaller than what my CTO is trying (middle management to CTO in a very technical industry), so he is expectably meeting more resistance than me. I can really understand and sympathise with his difficulties. But I cannot respect his coping strategies.
> advance my career [...] gain a new skill or improve existing ones
Battery Management Systems: Turn on and off 324 single cells in a 200 kWh array, measure their voltages and temperatures and ensure they're cells are not engaged above threshold temperatures (asymmetric for charging and discharging), or below threshold voltages.
Electric Vehicle Chargers: Communicate with car, communicate with charge point operator.
LoRa transceivers: Configure transceiver, send and receive encrypted messages over LoRa.
It was all Rust, and all very interesting.
But as other commenters have pointed out, there is a pay loft compared to other industries.