jkin

I find this article misleading, Google certainly does not have problem retaining talents joining early stage startups. Those talents probably joined Google pre-IPO and funding their own startups now. The problem for the late Googlers is that they and their uncles all want to join the multi-billions dollar pre-IPO "company". And yes, their scale is big enough and affect millions, and the up side is, one day they can move on to be entrepreneurs.

I'm new to startup but I have been to some meetups and breakfasts. Few things I heard, 1. don't take VC money 2. raise VC money when you don't need it 3. if you really need the money by ... or else ..., then you should quit and get a real job

Google wave idea is good, but nobody really know what it is best for. For everything it does, there is something else that does it better and more focus. And I think part of the failure is mass adoption. They do not know what it is good for, but the launch only limits to a small amount of people. If they started day one for everyone to use it, someone some how might figure out what it is and how people should use it. By the time, I finally got an invite, after begging and begging, most people already moved on to something else.

Content is value, a lot of wall statuses are spontaneous, video links, cute articles, what is happening. That makes people come and stick around. The plan is useful, but not that sticky for people to see any changes.

How about another metrics that measure the number of billionaires where they originally dropped out from? That would be interesting.

People just need to know the techniques of pressure management. When I was raised, my parents taught me always to be humble. There are always people better, smarter than you. I got my PhD from UCLA and happened to know this guy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Tao He was a full professor at 24 and teaching people much older than him and he was the winner of fields medal. So, if u have too much pressure, think twice that somewhere, someone is more intelligent. And I am sure just like all other records, someday, someone will break it.

There are a lot of quant funds that were started by professors. They hire a lot of PhDs in Math and Physics. And yes, a PhD in Math can make a lot of money if you end up working at a trading firm.

Is there a site to rate them and get reviews? YC, funded institute, some super angel funds? Would be good to have something like yelp for angels, VCs.

This is an interesting path to get a good software job. I agree that when it comes to software jobs, a good resume with a lot of techno buzz words does not mean anything. An interview that gives coding puzzle can easily tell a person if he's capable or not. But a non-tech hiring manager will not be able to carry one out, a few references of open source projects, bug fixes definitely boost up your scores quite a bit. I've hired some good people and some bad before, at the end of day, your project success is not based on how many PhDs there are on the team, but how many coders that can deliver.

Being an engineer, constantly learning is a given. Technologies change everyday. That happens from hardware all the way to the top. Don't bet on just one technology and think your career will end with it. Java, Python, Ruby, and many others are things people talk about, but I guarantee you, there will be more new languages, new technologies and new platforms pop up every now and then.