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Smartie
More time posting than coding
Last Activity: 23 July 2026, 14:58
Joined: 24 July 2013
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  • Smartie
    replied to State of the Market
    Turned on my LinkedIn 'Open to work' yesterday (only for recruiters). Got a call from an agent today for a role with a decent rate and mostly work at home. First call in ages.
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  • Smartie
    replied to State of the Market
    That's just basic project management and not incompatible with Agile.
    Fixed deadline - reduce scope (deliver MVP), increase resource or reduce quality.
    In your case, resource was increased by working longer hours....
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  • Smartie
    replied to State of the Market
    That's not my experience in any of the places I've worked.
    It can and does work well, if the right people are in place. A (very) senior advocate for the methodology. A strong Product Owner to manage new and urgent requirements and question the priorities. A good Scrum Master to push back deiplomatically...
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  • Smartie
    replied to State of the Market
    This sort of hybrid methodology is very common especially in financial services.
    Senior stakeholders often want classic milestones and reporting.
    Pretty easy to do this by defining key features and priorities and staging deliveries with deadlines, then using agile within that framework....
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  • Smartie
    replied to State of the Market
    I've seen several ads recently where the requirement is for experience of both waterfall and agile....
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  • Buffet might be 40% in cash, but he's a huge fan of passive investing and historically cash makes poor returns. Also worth noting he had a really good start, which is documented here: https://monevator.com/how-did-warren-buffett-get-rich/

    Also worth checking out:
    60/40 portfolio issues...
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  • Smartie
    replied to De-boomed!
    Looks like the squabbling has migrated to this thread anyway - maybe it will stay on topic....
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  • If you're investing for the long term and still accumulating, the evidence is that your best returns come from being mostly in equities and staying invested. Almost everyone in cash will miss the week or two period where equities jump after a crash and several false starts for the next bull run....
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  • Smartie
    replied to De-boomed!
    A client I picked up freelance, but due to IR35 worries was eventually transferred to a consultancy perm contract working at the same client and at the same rates.

    With all the complaints about the state of the market, I was entirely happy to let it run its course....
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  • Smartie
    started a topic De-boomed!

    De-boomed!

    Today is the last day of my almost 6 year permanent contract!
    Couldn't give it up, but quite excited about it finishing and getting some time off to chill over summer.
    The 'state of the market' post is now closed though - how am I to ponder/bemoan any lack of results in applying for new...
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