This all sounds like a solid start tbh, if you learn pandas and bio python i feel like you are basically there

It has its pros and cons — I work on lots of projects and help with parts of grant writing, but I’m not the one guiding the big research goal/question (I appreciate that the questions are interesting but don’t care that much about the question usually). Because I work on so many projects I usually only have <1 full day a week to work on each one, so progress can be slow and managing expectations can be challenging. I am paid more than a postdoc but less than I would in industry. It is expected that I will mentor undergraduate students and teach workshops. These things might make a big difference re: how much you enjoy the job. Folks in this type of position are sometimes called research software engineers: https://society-rse.org/

I’m a staff bioinformatics scientist at an academic institution, got my PhD a few years ago and wasn’t interested in a postdoc. I get to work on a huge range of research questions and lots of different technologies. It’s great!

Yes, I am using mlem. The only problem I had was an issue with setting up testflight — I had to copy and paste the code from the URL that mlem gives you

My understanding is that one implication of the API cost is that it will impact the cost of running bots/automation of moderation tasks. If this is true, I don’t think it matters much that they are allowing some third party apps if all the subs get overwhelmed with spam and bots.