The Jocks of Computer Code Do It for the Job Offers

hmm, interesting. so not only is 'smart and gets things done' what you need for a job, it's also what you need to win a programming contest, apparently. i'd've thought there'd be more of a discrepancy between the skillsets, since one is about tasks you complete in hours, while the other is about tasks you complete in days, weeks, months, or years — so you'd think other kinds of prioritization skills would come into play, even though the same 'smart and gets things done (and gets along with people)' skills apply to both. but the article makes it sound like, really, if there's a difference, there's very substantial skill transfer.

so that's super interesting. maybe i should do more programming contests, not in order to attract attention, but in order to train my prioritization and focus, with the hope that that kind of intense training will apply to programming more generally. i don't know where to start. icfp and ioi only happen once a year. icpc is only open to college students. maybe topcoder, codeforces, kaggle, spoj, hackerrank, codechef, hackerearth, or poj. advice welcome.

"All of the competitors—and this will come as a shock—are men, or at least on their way to becoming men. They’re not the healthiest-looking bunch, with an average weight that appears to be no more than 120 pounds. There's a disturbingly stereotypical assortment of ticks, both verbal and gesticular, as well as bowl haircuts, wan faces, and shabby clothes. Mark Zuckerberg would look like an Adonis in this room."

Glad to see the mainstream media is continuing its feminist critique of technology by holding tech workers to traditional norms of masculinity.

>by Ashlee Vance "All of the competitors—and this will come as a shock—are men, or at least on their way to becoming men. They’re not the healthiest-looking bunch, with an average weight that appears to be no more than 120 pounds. There's a disturbingly stereotypical assortment of ticks, both verbal and gesticular, as well as bowl haircuts, wan faces, and shabby clothes. Mark Zuckerberg would look like an Adonis in this room."

What class act.

Huh I wonder what the outcry would look like if it were written about a bunch of women not being 'healthy looking' and pointing out their characteristics.

> There’s growing evidence that hiring a top sport programmer is a coup for software companies.

So, hiring people who engage in doing something as a hobby and practice at it outside of (or in addition to) regular "schooling" do well? Whodathunk? We didn't even have programming classes in my day (well, not until 9th grade for me, and that was pretty advanced - many neighboring school districts didn't offer any at all). (edit: so... for many years the only people I knew who programmed were all hobbyists/extracurricular folks)

> “Every time I have hired someone who is good at these contests, they have crushed the job. They tend to be fast, accurate, and into getting things done.”

Wondering how well people like this fit in to team-oriented environments. I'm certainly not a programming-olympian like the subjects of the article - have never done competitive stuff (did "olympics of the mind" back in the day, but not quite the same thing). However, I think I'm a reasonable problem solver and software developer. I don't typically fit in well with teams. Do the benefits of these 'super-coders' outweigh any diminished team capabilities? Is that a tradeoff that can be made for a season, but needs to be rectified later?

>There’s growing evidence that hiring a top sport programmer is a coup for software companies

I really dislike it when people say "there's evidence of X" and then give no evidence or only a few anecdotes.

> There’s growing evidence that hiring a top sport programmer is a coup for software companies. Novakovski, the retired sport programmer, brought in Neal to work with him at Quora and then later hired Scott to work with him at Addepar. “Neal was like 18 when he started and, within three months on the job, he was in the top 10 percent of all our engineers,” Novakovski says. “Every time I have hired someone who is good at these contests, they have crushed the job. They tend to be fast, accurate, and into getting things done.”

I'm pretty skeptical. I'm sure they are great coders, but is their skill level at solving math-heavy problems like the ones in these contests really required to build something like Quora?

Oh look, they pair program.

> Parents the world over encourage their children to code because of the wondrous job prospects just about guaranteed by such skills.

Except the United States. Thanks Baby Boomers?