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cusack

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twitter: @alexcusack work: @coinbase, and we're hiring.

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I'm also sure to fail googlable technical questions so I was wondering how others might approach this.

I would do the minimal amount of studying that's required to pass this hurdle, and then you'll probably be great at acing the rest of the interview.

Pretty much no matter how good you are, you're going to have to pass some classic interview problems, so it's worth the hoop jumping investment. Leetcode is a good place to start on algo problems

Also would recommend refining your pitch / resume to 2-3 large technical problems you've worked on and the outcomes of those. Something a hiring manager reads and thinks "okay they know what they're doing". "Jack of all trades" is sufficiently vague for them to be like "i have no idea what this person works on"

I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, by René Girard.

Girard was a professor at Stanford and writes about the idea of 'mimetic desire'. His overarching idea is humans are fundamentally creatures of mimesis, and whether we realize it or not all our desires are born out of mimic the desires of those around us. We don't think critically about what we actually want, we just sub-consciously mimic each other's desires - which ultimately leads to conflict.

[West World Spoiler coming]

Reading his book, and theory on mimetic desire, felt like when Bernard realizes he's a host in West World https://www.amazon.com/See-Satan-Fall-Like-Lightning/dp/1570...

A nuance I felt -- when you're an IC the 'I'm being productive' feedback loop is really quick and thus satisfying. You can come in the morning and have measurable problems you solved by the end of the day. As a manager, feedback cycle gets longer -- you're investing in trying to make your team more effective over the long-term. The things you work on on a given day might not be measurable as 'working' or 'productive' until several weeks or months later.

I found this feedback cycle image helpful to keep in mind when I'd get frustrated as a manager feeling i'm "not as productive as I used to be". Also helpful for prioritizing what gets worked on.

Twitter DM in response to an engineering manager that tweeted ≈'we're hiring!'. Talking to the eng manager directly, rather than going through a typical recruiting channel, made the whole process a lot smoother I think

Earnest | Engineering | San Francisco, CA | full-time | onsite | earnest.com

Earnest is building the bank of the future. I'm the tech lead for our Servicing team, but we're hiring across pretty much all teams. Servicing team's primary stack is Javascript/Node.js, but we have a growing Java team as well.

Checkout our careers page: https://www.earnest.com/careers/#/overview Or feel free to email me directly: alex [dot] cusack {at} earnest.com

"Earnest's Loan Servicing team is responsible for building software the moves hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition to the $1+ billion in loans actively serviced, we build tools to maximize Earnest's growth while providing the best possible client experience."

The price structure was slightly different then since he was all bought as one package, but still about the same cost overall. It is pricey, but a great ROI from both a base salary standpoint (you can pretty reasonably ask for a raise once you're back) and a deep gratification of being more skilled in your craft than you were 3months ago :)

Yeah i did it last November when the courses were structured to be done as a full-time program. They've restructured to make it compatible with having a full-time job simultaneously. I think they've still had students take all courses concurrently though, even with the new model. Worth sending @oz a note!

I did https://bradfieldcs.com after working as a IC for awhile and found it hugely valuable. I didn't have a CS undergrad and worked in Node, so skipped the majority the deeper fundamental studies around databases, networking, and computer architecture since I was abstracted from them in day-to-day work (or at least thought I was...:)).

I took a 10wk leave from work to go full-time through Bradfield and would recommend it to anyone that's spent time working as an engineer and is interested in leveling up generally or refining a specific skill set.

The stuff I learned there has ended up showing up almost daily for me at work and I've since been promoted to technical lead.

Another in SF, heading southwest for several blocks from the intersection of Harrison/22nd in the Mission

2901 22nd St San Francisco CA

I don't think the mined bitcoin is meant to be thought of as a revenue source at all. I think the intention of the 21Inc machine is to have a computer that is automatically connected to the blockchain and can transact with others programmatically.

I think the mined satoshis should be thought of a stream of digital ink -- ensuring your device always has enough ink to at least write into the ledger (blockchain).

If successful, and 21Inc units become an inherent part of IoT, I think we would see a lot of satoshi level transactions that aren't meant to be quantified in USDs; the transaction will just be meant to show proof of interaction between two machines. Ex. your vehicle passed X checkpoint at Y time - use a satoshi to write it into the ledger.

I'd push back on the dog in a cage analogy. I think it could be argued that we've narrowed our communication mediums for purpose of effectiveness and efficiency. Also affordable ubiquity. I would argue it's more like limiting a fish to water rather than a dog to a cage. Not to say it can't be improved in light of today's tools though.

Great talk overall, a lot of interesting insights!