Ask HN: What is your dream internship? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is your dream internship?

If you could do anything for 6 months for any company/organization/government agency what would you do? Picture it like a paid work vacation, where it would not impact current work income during the 6 months, but you could not choose to simply do nothing.

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I would get a list of unsolved problems, and full access to all the people who might know part of the answer in different fields, and solve as many of them as possible, by connecting things in ways nobody else saw.

I want a lab, someone who knows safety so I don't kill myself, and a budget.

As others have said, I'm not extremely qualified in anything, but I'm willing to learn, and already know a lot of odd things.

I can fix ANYTHING if given a sufficient time and budget.

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[Edit]

A list of specific projects I'd like to work on

build a machine to mine the moon or mars, and replicate itself, or build a bigger version

Evangelize Capability Based Security/Multilevel Secure Systems so we can get back to actually owning our own general purpose computers.

Document the shit out of the libraries for Free Pascal/Lazarus, there should be a working code example for each and every unit, object, function, procedure, property, etc.

Set up, document, and popularize a second separate non-overlapping supply chain for civilization. Document the process, to help make humanity more antifragile.

Build a machine shop from scratch, and figure out how to offer a parts kit with castings that anyone could purchase and build as well.

Put an optical lattice clock at the top and bottom of a mineshaft, and verify relativity below the surface of the earth (as near as I can tell, the experiment hasn't been done yet)

Help find innovative ways to use free energy technologies the government has been hiding for decades.

Develop technology to stop those little drones from harassing our ships at sea.

Build a magnetic core based computer capable of operating on the surface of Venus.

Help transition Bitcoin to proof of stake instead of proof of work.

I actually had my dream internship when finishing my Master's.

It was in a private research lab, I had all the hardware I wanted (laptops, desktops, servers, RPis, Arduinos, STM32s, etc..)

My manager was very knowledgeable but respected my individuality and what I can bring to the table. My tasks were specific enough that I never was lost, but vague enough so it didn't become boring. Ended up doing a bit of crypto, a bit of web, a bit of embedded systems and it was a blast.

Best of all, the project was not thrown out of the window when I finished; The following year a student reached-out to let me know they're continuing on what I had setup.

A great ego boost for a fresh grad.

Developing an interactive simulation for space life support systems that has to be both chemically precise and also fun to engage in... Or something along those lines.

Or Boston Dynamics.

Or using AI to generate stories / NPC dialogue for games.

Do I need to have qualification for the job? If not, F1 team mechanic.

This is fun. I was a Tony Kart and Ducati racing team mechanic for a few years and although really taxing on the body, it’s always fun and new. The challenges are tangible and so are the results.

When you start getting into high dollar and highly organized teams, it just feels nice. The shop I was in was kind of a mess. Like a crazy scientist kind of mess. The owner was the Doc Brown of 2 stroke engines and so I was the one keeping the sanity of the place. We worked closely with an Indycar team and when I walked into their shop it was amazing.

Everything is much simpler than expected. The specialized tools for the cars are not that complex, just tailored and simplified for the task. Everyone has everything they need, but only what they need. Sorted, organized, high quality and dependable setups. Lots of light, and cleaner than my fridge.

My shop was high quality but trying different things and tackling many mini projects so it was all over the place, but our engines were damn fast and we had some rule bending tricks to stand out. Both seem very fun.

Many of the pit mechanics at Indy races are there for free. So many people want to work there that why even offer money

Oh, motorcycle teams, didn't even occur to me to work on motorcycles despite ton of my friends race on local tracks.

I hung around in a pit while I was in college, just an extra hand helping my friend's dad who competes in drag races. That was a super interesting experience, but a lot of unsafe, messy (arguable illegal) shit going on. Being an Asian in an all "country boy" environment wasn't pleasant, but I enjoyed my team's company. I can't even imagine how freaking cool it would be to work on F1 teams.

I like this perspective. Unless it greatly enhances knowledge or job opportunities, then I'd rather have something that is just thrilling to me personally. I'd rather help out skydive instructors or open water shark dives than work at a place that does not grow or develop my career.

Not at the intern level, but when I was, I just wanted the biggest possible project that could be completed in 6 months. Like lots of new tech, new features, innovative stuff etc.

Since this is my 'dream internship', I would also want to travel lots. Like checkout all the offices across the US so I can pick where to live after I'm brought on full time.

Also lots of public recognition.

Used to be Google, which I'm sure would seem mundane to a lot of ppl here who work there. I've met some working on big scale things, like the guy who started street view, and it always seemed like a neat enough place where I could just work on tricky things and find my space to do it with whatever tools I'd need. Always seemed out of reach, but I'd still take it I guess, even though I really need the money.

Other than that, maybe Blizzard or some volunteer thing like as a zookeeper or trail maintainer. or just somewhere where I can contribute to something tangible. or a place that's in total chaos.

Edit: The MET centre in England would be cool

Street view? I don’t think I’ve ever seen an intern ship anything more complex than a new lint rule.

That’s not a criticism of interns btw, a few months in a new job just isn’t enough time to ship anything substantial even for a very senior engineer.

I meant to say that I've met cool people from Google, not interns. But on that basis, being one would be neat. I agree with your intuition about how much gets done in 6 months. Though the first prototype was basically a custom in the trunk of a car

Street view started at Stanford with Marc Levoy. Like a lot of things at Google, the hacking around was done by a person with a PhD and many years professional experience and deep domain knowledge...computational photography knowledge in the case of street view.

I may be misremembering who exactly I spoke to, but I don't see what value your comment adds at all; it just seems dismissive. Anyone who read my comment and thought "Ha, this idiot thinks he can intern at Google and build Street View", should maybe slow their roll. My point is that I've met some people who I thought were neat and worked at Google, and that's inspiring. If you disagree with the premise of that, then idk what to tell you.

If you're not interested in the actual history of street view, I understand because I'm not interested in the portrayal of Alphabet as Hogwarts,

Working there is a nice credential and a great networking opportunity, but it will likely take a PhD to have much chance of choosing your own adventure.

Even though street view was well more than a decade ago, Google was well past the plucky young startup phase and well into its purple Koolaid for nooglers idiom.

The new hire who got to work on street view was Levoy. The founding myth car trunk is said to be Brin's. And the connection was made via the hallways of Stanford not a state college job faire.

I've met interesting plumbers. Interesting people are interesting because of what they do, not where they work. Which is why I am interested in Marc Levoy. YMMV.

Well ya, obviously that's true, but that's not the point of my comment or the thread. I don't really want to intern anywhere, or for that matter have much more than a shred of aspiration left to work at any company, because I just don't find companies or what they do that interesting. But if I wasn't doing anything, I'd choose to work with evidently neat people, and those have most often been working at Google or on other stuff at Universities, or at the MET center, or at a company owned by Google. I'd maybe also intern as a plumber, or with a wilderness guide.

Writing comedy with and for Dave Chappelle.

Sandia Base. Perhaps I can be qualified to bring the experimenters coffee..

SpaceX

I'd do about anything on the International Space Station.

dominatrix

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