HN user
I cannot for the life of me figure out how people smart enough to work at a FAANG company would subject themselves to this kind of psychological dog and pony show.
$300k+ total comps are a big part of it
What are creativity and leadership classes?
Generally, I don't see a lot of these "snakes" out in the real world
You don't seem to understand why the term is "snake" in the first place. Of course you don't see them. They're hiding in the grass, and you're not going to notice them until you step on one. That doesn't mean the people around you aren't getting bit.
I went to Hong Kong earlier this year, and I was amused by how there were luxury watch shops seemingly everywhere. My first assumption was that they were for laundering money out of the mainland.
Technically there are no intrinsic human rights and it's up to us as a society to define them.
a senior developer, by definition, will hit the ground running with mostly anything you use. that's the senior part in senior developer.
a senior developer also gets to be picky in what stacks they want to work with. usually it's what they are familiar and comfortable with, or something similar to it
also if you believe that people need years of use to be good in any language/tools/framework you need to figure out how to attract better people.
even the best engineers have ramp-up time when starting a new job that involves a new code base. that ramp-up time is increased significantly when it's a language that they aren't familiar with. feel free to convince me otherwise, im all ears
sometimes, not building something or various parts of something is more valuable that building something that you don't need fast.
what about when it's not?
Yes. Because mainstream is what you should select for when choosing your tools.
Ease of hiring experienced developers should absolutely be a part of selection criteria, but of course it should not be the only one. What good is it going to do you when you picked Elixir/Scala/Rust over Python/Go/Ruby, you need to hire senior engineers who can hit the ground running ASAP, and you have limited resources/budget?
It's going to be harder to find them (especially if you're not in SF), it's a harder/longer initial learning curve if you hire senior engineers without prior experience, it's going to be harder to find non-seniors, you're going to have to pay more to get what you want...the list goes on.
As I said, smart people are everywhere (on the Internet), just reach out and they'll help you. Well, maybe it was easier in the 90s - or maybe not, I don't know - but I'm 100% sure that not all the smart people of the world are in colleges right now.
It's easier now than it ever was.
As you said, I am sure some people dont need this though, and somehow just have limitless time or already somehow know exactly what they should learn next, when, and in what order and never need to ask any experienced people any questions to clear up misunderstandings or have their knowledge checked. Lucky them.
Here's what you're missing -- you still get to rub shoulders with experienced people as you work alongside them in a professional context. If they have a CS background, you get to fill in any missing gaps, whether it's hard knowledge or simply learning what you still need to learn on your own, so long as you're willing to ask and they're willing to share.
You also have the alternative of learning from experienced people without needing to be employed. Online communities containing working professionals, open source, local meetups. The latter isn't an option for everyone based on location.
If your first job doesn't have an opportunity for mentorship because you're the only dev, or the other devs are overloaded, you can still reach out to countless people who will help you for free and with no expectation of anything in return.
Open source is extremely intimidating to get into as a beginner. I'll admit I was never able to do it, and even now I feel intimidated despite having spent 3 years working professionally.
But the fact is that the option is there for anyone who wants to access it. Any person can get things like code reviews and career guidance from very smart and very experienced people if they're willing to seek it out, without having to pay them anything. You have open access to the CS knowledge that is passed down in university programs, and to people with that knowledge for when you need help.
I don't know how much longer this will be the case, but I think the trade-off in value between getting a CS degree and getting into the industry as soon as possible (and picking good work environments) is only continuing to grow, especially since employers are caring less and less about a CS degree as a hiring criteria with each passing year.
The most brilliant and successful engineers I know don't have degrees, and they accumulated their vast CS knowledge on their own. They all dropped out of college within the first two years and started working at 19-20. Two of them now run their own software consulting businesses, one is a lead at Netflix, and one is a lead at Google. They're all a bit older than me, in their early 30s now. The younger ones -- one just started at FB with a 240k+ base (he's only 23), and the last one is at Dropbox.
The main factors I think people should take into account for whether or not a CS degree is worth it:
Do you believe that you absolutely need the degree to break in to a programming career, if you're someone who just wants a good job and doesn't know where to start (like I once was, and like many of my friends who are just starting off with learning are now)? Or are you interested in a specific programming field that has a hard CS/Math degree/knowledge requirement?
Is the combination of tuition/fees and opportunity cost significant to you? If you are responsible for paying your own way and taking out loans, compare spending ~4 years in college and having -$40k and no work experience, vs. working for ~4 years, having $40k+ in the bank (possibly much more), accumulated possessions/assets, credit history, etc. This is not nearly as significant if your finances are being handled by someone else, and/or you don't have to worry about money at all because you have access to wealth anyways (mainly through trusts, planned inheritance, a partner, or your family).
Do you believe that you need to the environment, structure, and pace provided by college/university to actually learn CS, and that you're incapable of doing so on your own? I want to note that there's nothing wrong with feeling that way. It's just something to take into consideration. If you need to be completely immersed in it to actually retain the knowledge, then it's the right choice. If not, and you're someone who can learn everything on their own, then consider if being in a CS program would actually hamper your rate of learning, as you're forced to match the slower pace of others.
Tech has been a profession longer than you or I have been alive.
Soccer is a huge deal outside of the US.
Yet I don't feel guilty saying negative things about my life or being depressed on occasion.
I do, especially after traveling. Holy shit do we have it good here.
23%
I wish everyone felt like we do. Most people with comfortable (or better) lifestyles who have never endured suffering could never imagine themselves homeless. For the record, I've had as pampered a life as any, but I still empathize with homeless people, especially those who seem to be homeless because of schizophrenia.
I paid $1200 for a maxed-out 2015 13" MBP at the beginning of this year, and I would recommend that in place of a new MBP for most people. It was unopened/brand new, from a certified seller. The one I bought it from is out of stock, hopefully other certified sellers still have some.
I have a 2013 15" MBP (barebones spec), previously had a maxed-out 2016 15" MBP (with touchbar) for work, and currently have a maxed-out 2017 (also with touchbar) for work. I really dislike the new keyboard, and the USB-C ports are still a pain point. I never use the touchbar, in fact I wish I didn't have it at all.
Not to mention access to amphetamines if you're someone like me who burns out easily without them. Fortunately it's completely trivial to get them legally in the US.
The primary middleman ethnicity for restaurants where I live (Southern California) is Korean. There's lots of Korean-run places for the following non-Korean cuisines (in descending order for the quantity I've seen): Japanese (sushi & ramen), Americanized Chinese (distinct from Korean-Chinese cuisine, e.g. Jajangmyeon), Vietnamese, Mexican, Thai, Middle Eastern. There's some Korean fried chicken places, but I think that's kind of its own style, and is still advertised/branded as Korean. All of the aforementioned places don't make any mention of it being Korean-run. Though some of them will have things on the menu you wouldn't find at a non-Korean-run place, like kimchi.
Just the thought that through a few twists of fate I could have been born in some totalitarian nightmare state is enough to give me chills.
I'm curious about this line of thinking. Do you think your specific consciousness was being held in reserve somewhere, and it would have been placed into a mortal body regardless of when you were due to come into being? Plus if your grandfather had stayed in Cuba, who's to say your parents would have still met, started a relationship, and conceived a child?
The way I see it, I only exist because of the exact series of events leading up to that one moment where I was conceived. I exist because of a combination of a specific sperm and a specific egg. All sorts of factors contributed to all of us getting extremely lucky, even up to the final hours, minutes, and seconds before fertilization. We won, and we denied a countless number of other potential minds the privilege of existence.
There's no way to prove it of course, but I feel like a different sperm being responsible for fertilization would have meant I would have never existed at all. My parents would have had a different child with a different consciousness. Even if a specific consciousness is tied to the egg itself, that gives a window based on the menstrual cycle.
We won't. I'll see you all in Western Antarctica.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/future/images/3/39/%21.j...
I know someone currently doing a CS MS so she can get into tech. She is good at math, so all of those classes are free As for her. She has other people help with her programming homework assignments, sometimes even having them do the entire thing for her. I know because she told me this herself, and even asked me to do some for her. As long as she gets near 100% on homework, it's nearly impossible to get less than a B in any programming class. She has an adderall prescription so she can cram for tests, which have way more multiple-choice questions than should reasonably be expected.
She's currently on her second internship. They're both at employers that don't screen candidates on actual programming ability (they just looked at GPA, resume/application, and then a soft interview), and the current one has a reputation for being a very meh internship, though good resume padding. The last time I helped her, her code was fine for someone who had just started learning two years ago, but I don't think she is going to progress to the point that you'd expect someone with a Master's to be at simply because she isn't doing her own homework.
I don't have a CS BS or MS, but there have been a few times where I feel like I need to get one just in case the market tanks again and they become a significant hiring criteria. But at the same time, I have to wonder just how many people currently enrolled in MS CS programs throughout the nation are doing something similar, and devaluing the worth of the degree (on paper, to potential employers) to the point that some could even look at it negatively.
Sooo doing some exercise 2 hours before sleeping and not spending my last waking hours on my laptop did it. I got more than 7 hours of sleep for sure, and...also woke up feeling very tired. I know I have a huge sleep deficit built up, so that's fine. I'm hoping I can sleep as much tonight as well.
I don't exercise regularly, and I really should. My issue is I always feel too tired to exercise in the morning, and I feel like I have trouble falling asleep if I exercise in the evening. But I'm starting to think that exercising late isn't the problem now. I'll try what you recommend. It's really hard to abstain from screens, too. I'm definitely not doing that. I'll try doing nothing other than reading actual books ~2 hours before bed from now on.
How much do you take? I was regularly taking 3mg and 1.5mg regularly for most of the past 4 years. I recently tried 0.3mg (as recommended in another recent HN discussion about melatonin, I think it was a week or 2 ago), and I had terrible results.
On 1.5mg and 3mg, I would have very unsettling and memorable dreams, as well as wake up very tired, but I would get at least 7 hours of sleep on most nights. With 0.3mg, I woke after only 3 hours of sleep, feeling very energized but then getting very, very tired by early afternoon. I would fall asleep between 10 PM and midnight, wake up three hours later, then be unable to fall back asleep before it's time to go to work.
This meant I had to use stimulants to be functional, and I entered a cycle of not being able to sleep through the night, having to use stims in the morning, having to use melatonin at night to fall asleep, waking up after 3-4 hours, repeat. I finally broke it this past week by taking a sick day and sleeping through most of it, but I still couldn't hit 7 consecutive hours.
I can't even remember the last time I got the recommended minimum of 8 hours, regardless of what I do. I am trying ashwagandha and ZMA together for the first time tonight, having just taken both about an hour ago. I also took D3 this morning which will hopefully help too.
I think I'm done with melatonin for now, since I saw recommendations to abstain for a week or 2 to reset, and then trying again at the smaller dosage. But if this works, I probably won't use it again.
It should be illegal. I had a prescription when I was 20. The first three times I took it, I had no issues. Swallowed, immediately laid down in bed, then knocked out ten minutes later. The fourth time, I had to deal with something after I had taken it. I didn't fall asleep.
I remember going back to my desk, looking into my PC case (it had plastic windows on the side so you could see inside), and beginning to hallucinate. The cabling inside stretched out into a landscape and it felt like I was looking at the horizon on some alien Giger-esque planet. Then I blacked out and woke up to see I had added a bunch of high school friends on LinkedIn. Nothing bad happened thankfully, but I never took it again.
At least when you black out on alcohol, your motor abilities are severely impaired, to the point that you're just as likely to simply pass out before you make it outside. With ambien, your body isn't limited by anything, but you still have no control over your actions.
The safest alternative is edibles.
Project management, etc. It helps to spend a few years as a programmer before you move into this field. It doesn't matter if you are the worst coder on earth before you move. If you write on your CV, "I've been a programmer for the last 3 or 4 years, but I really want to get into project management", you may have to take measures to protect your physical safety as people rush to grab you (programmers, as a rule, do not want to do this job, but their experience is necessary).
As someone without a CS degree but 3+ years of software experience (and a non-STEM Bachelor's), how do I go about doing this? I feel like I would need to go somewhere that would train me on project management, and I don't see job positions like that. It seems like PMs are promoted from within or hired with prior experience. As crazy as it sounds, I think I would enjoy PM work.
Thank you!
I (and I imagine many people on HN) would be extremely interested in some sort of basic guide to your process.
What resources did you use to master SQL?
"New research indicates that avoiding meat is one of the biggest things an individual can do to reduce their personal environmental impact"
Not nearly as much impact as not having kids.