annasaru

J2EE is up there.. We have a generation of corporate Java programmers who love boilerplate code and obfuscation.

High-School teachers inflicting Java on teens - cringe-worthy. Many public schools only offered Java if you elected programming/CS (in High School). Only recently has Python made inroads.

Hi Alan,

I am sometimes involved with mentoring younger people with STEM projects (arduino etc). Its all the buzz. But I heard one of my younger relatives lament about the tendency of young people to gravitate towards a quantitative field of study / training - is there too much hype?. "Learning to Code" is a general movement that is helping many youth to improve their career prospects. Do you think it's being effective in improving education on a meaningful scale.

What kind of educational initiatives would you like entrepreneurs (of all shades) come up with. Do these need to be intrinsically different in different parts of the world?

Finally, as a person who gets scared away from bureaucracy ("the school district") - what would you advise. School districts don't always make the best technology investments on precious dollars.

I think a lot of the abuse happens in Java, and java-derived languages. There is a culture,and the more lines of code you have , and the more classes you have , the better. The language environment and frameworks only re-inforce that stuff. Scala is (I guess ) functional - particularly when contrasted to Java.

In his example, I suspect he is conflating that one-liner chained function call with functional programming? Sort of like how coders like to use ternary one-liners especially when they first learnt them (and end up with unreadable code). But his first snippet is obviously simpler, compared to the OOP-cruft of the second and third snippets.

As more Java programmers migrate to coding in Python, they are bringing that toxic culture in to Python too - where boilerplate and sugar were relatively less.

Its like everyone is doing rocket science, which is despicable, given we are mostly coding CRUDs.

Any language is susceptible to abuse, its also a human trait to de-simplify something to gain a fake intellectual satisfaction.

If you want to be intellectual there is a good chance you will be lonely here , too - though it depends. Indians are notorious for resting on their laurels - in this case, merely landing in USA qualifies as one. I am willing to bet your fires will be much tamer once you make it to these shores - but I wish you good luck , because at least you have that fire. When I meet Indians here (and I am one too) its seriously underwhelming - what they consider cool/revolutionary/intellectual. In a sense, the gamers of the system escaped overseas, and for the good of India, the best is left behind (sounds crazy for some reason).

The fact that intellectual activity seems to be relatively lacking in India is sad to read, and confirms my subjective opinion.

I can understand your sense of intellectual loneliness. Indians worship Saraswati (the goddess of learning), but will do anything not to learn and be intellectually curious. Behold the Hindu nation. The current wave of 'culture' sweeping through India will definitely not improve any of this.

My beagle pays close attention to crows around my home. If a fox is making his rounds, the crows start yelling, and my beagle starts looking out for the fox. (And me too)

Google and Apple don't sell Amazon devices on their stores, so I guess Amazon wants to take away that advantage from its competitors.

An educated professional's capacity to endure pain, and inability to recognize implicit humiliation (i.e. your family is way less important than this job) as measured in this article, are about 6 years.

For six years he put up with this abuse of power over him. He could have walked out after six months but he chose not to. How can Amazon be faulted for the employee's indecision.

He's financially benefited by those 6 years of being an absent father. The financial gains are very concrete and measurable, and comforting. The same can't be said of the intangible - like playing with your infant child, and caring for them - can't put a value on them but that's a huge loss.

US Immigration is heavy handed, some of my aged relatives have entered with valid multiple entry visitor visas, and still have been questioned for 3-4 hours by rude agents.

This couple made some stupid errors though, mainly they were clueless about how rigid the system is.

9-11 obviously changed the US system for ever. Now there is talk of amnesty for people who never filed a single form (sneaked across the border), while those who followed the rules to a T, or at least applied for some visa get treated like this. As a legal immigrant, I am honestly conflicted about amnesty for illegals.

I am 5.8, 135 lbs. I'm convinced I can be lose another 10lbs if I cut down slightly, and keep running twice a week. Down to my college or high-school weight if I drop another 10 lbs.

It would reduce my cardiovascular risk, improve my running (easier on knees).

Am not a Muslim, but this month of Ramzan (or Ramadan) does inspire me to try some light fasting.

Nothing severe, no extremes for me. Happy with incremental, over a period of time, changes.

As an aging developer who's on the wrong side of 41 yrs (or say 42, or 43 ..) , I am surprised by your impatience (to put it mildly).

Don't develop an ambition just because others have it. You have decades left in you. You seem to be unhappy now.

Glass half-full, or half-empty ? Upto you.

You are a top-10 CS - that pretty much means you know a lot. Shouldn't be overly reading those technical articles. You are denying, or discounting knowledge that you have in you. Have patience with yourself. Back yourself.

Whether you are ambitious or not - you will get there. As long as you don't become a veggie, or an addict. Your skills and talent will take you places without overloading your anxious psyche with fake ambition. Things will happen if you stay away from the wrong places and the wrong times. Takes time - no, I am not saying you need to wait till 41 (or 42 ..). Decades sooner.

I think sales people wanted these more with customers. An opportunity to hang out with pretty girls, customers be damned. The tech community is pretty male dominated. So maybe they should instead get girl interns (professionally dressed of course) to participate in these conferences to encourage more STEM participation for girls.

Software startups would be the place to try - they tend to be less conventional and might look purely at your skill and energy. You could also intern at a company and make an impression. Or volunteer your skills at hackathons and get noticed. The further away you move from startups, I see them preferring a degree, thats the way the market works, unfortunately. On the other hand, not all high-schoolers come out with the required maturity and skill to handle real projects - so being in that minority in your case puts the burden of proof on you.

There is some truth in what you say. Variations both good and bad will exist.

What you say is absolutely fine. But sometimes being comfortable can mean that we have not adapted to changes. In your case (and mine), technology seems to have circled back to what our preferences are - emacs/vi as the editor, terminal/tmux as a conduit into the work area. And a screwdriver, or a pair of pliers never went out of use.

I don't think I want to eliminate emacs from my work. 'editing' is a term loaded with lots of meanings - especially when it comes to emacs one is talking of a lot of (mostly good) consequences. I would think adopting an editor, such as vim, or maybe atom (or something else in the future) - would imply stepping into a slightly different ecosystem and culture.

Thats yet another kind of discrimination - but I am sure (and hope) there are many who will treat you fairly.

Useful advice . thanks

Thats 1) A bit depressing - you seem to be conveying that there is no other possibility 2) Starting a new business is not everyone's cup of tea. Even for a young person. Its loaded with risks.

I do face this as well. Age does slow down a person. But age also helps us make haste slowly. I've seen younger engineers scattering their energy around, and then coming to realize that the common sense option was the best. And older programmers (like me) might be too set in our ways.

Can an old dog be taught new tricks? I'd say to test that, make sure you learn a new programming language every year. Show it with non-trivial projects on your github or other profile. Thats proof that you're still sharp.

Edit : Also adopt a new editor every year. That shows you can step out of your comfort zone. (I need to kick that emacs habit).

Very good info. During christmas break, I came off my exercise/activity routine, and the symptoms are back, after a longish gap.Will certainly try exercise. And avoid aspartame.

Have the same issue and diagnosis (BPPV). 2 yrs ago, I visited my dentist - a marathon 2 hr appointment with my head tilted back - ever since that appointment I've had occasional vertigo. Not sure if it was related - but I'd never had symptoms prior. Head tilting back (while shaving , or roller-coasters or a dental chair), or working near a window/edge thats on the third or fourth floor, can bring it back.

Esp. if you were running Windows, I would assume. I haven't seen that kind of propagation on non-MS platforms (just my observation).. I'd like to know if a browser on an Ubuntu box would be equally vulnerable - correct me if I am wrong.

You are 34. And a baby. Ok that may be going too far. But 30-40 is the perfect age.

Awesome. She's a role model for girls, which our field badly needs. The client list on her company's website is pretty long and substantial.

Common sense rules, jargon stuff like 'growth hacking' is just that - jargon.

The restriction on delivery also implies that a message will not be delivered twice.

It's very hard to deal with such an issue all by yourself. Hope you get therapy or coaching , something to ease your burden . It can definitively get better with time. Drinking is notoriously hard to shake off because it is sanctioned in so many situations for adults. I know this sounds crazy , but maybe join a group ( Art of Living, Hare Krishna, Sai) where you are forced to be constantly surrounded by people. These are safe ways of delivering a mental jolt while being surrounded by empathetic folks.I don't subscribe to them , but suggest use them as a tool and it's not hard to shake them once you are cured) . OR volunteer somewhere in a group that takes your mind off. Sorry I seem to be hawking Indian spirituality - but these groups that I mentioned readily accept anyone - and make them feel at home. Am sure other ethnic communities in the USA also offer similar.. All I am saying is a mental jolt, and gentle empathetic friends and family can cure , last but not least, a qualified therapist.

Being part of a group will accelerate your recovery , drain your negativity and heal. Talk is cheap so I will stop here.

I am forced to dual boot because my colleagues use Skype. Luckily, my laptop has a mSata slot , so a 128 Gb card dedicated to Linux. Never been an issue with dual booting my Thinkpad.

You donated more than me.. and I am employed , shame on me.

Donated a lunch (15)

I sleep with emacs regularly, yet I am seduced ...