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AlexTWithBeard

2,020 karma · joined November 29, 2018

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AlexTWithBeard··on Was there a tech-hiring bubble? Job postings data suggest so
Is there enough homes within walking distance of the office for all the developers?
AlexTWithBeard··on Was there a tech-hiring bubble? Job postings data suggest so
They (well, we) are not underpaid.

Some time ago I used to work in a large organization on the very bottom of the food chain. I was making, say, $100k a year, which was quite decent money. Sitting there, doing same thing I could've grown to a "senior bottom of the food chain" of $150k. That was the limit. A soft one, but still the limit.

The organization was quite picky in selecting their workforce. Think FAANG. So in every team you have a bunch of quite smart opinionated folks, who somehow have to be steered in the same direction. With that I see it kinda reasonable for the team lead to make at least $200k a year. Give or take.

Now we move one step up. Someone has to pull all these "creme de la creme" cats together and herd them, so that at the very minimum teams don't work against each other. Ideally work together for some common goal. And I can understand team leads who is not willing to go to this snake pit for 30% salary increase. Why would they? 50% - may be. 70% - that sounds interesting and worth consideration.

Bottom line: according to my humble experience in "the organization", the salary roughly doubles each time you get up the ladder. And being on different steps of this ladder I can understand why.

AlexTWithBeard··on Where do stolen bikes go?
It becomes complicated if the new owner has legitimately bought the bike in a second hand store.
AlexTWithBeard··on We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
Yeah, the problem here is that leaving syringes on the floor, urinating in flower beds and talking shit is insufficient to arrest the person. But is sufficient to drive a lot of tenants away from the house.
AlexTWithBeard··on We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
Because as soon as it happens, I will be first in the line with the question: okay, what should I do to get a free house? Do I need to consume drugs? Would weed do, or it has to be some heavier stuff?
AlexTWithBeard··on An AI lawyer was set to argue in court – real lawyers shut it down
IANAL, but I'd think in this case this is prosecutor's job.

Also, the original post is about the traffic ticket. I'm pretty sure if the judge hears a reference to something he had never heard before, he'll be like "huh? wtf?"

AlexTWithBeard··on An AI lawyer was set to argue in court – real lawyers shut it down
I don't see the problem here.

> Defendant (as dictated by AI): The Supreme Court ruled in Johnson v. Smith in 1978...

> Judge: There was no case Johnson v. Smith in 1978. Case closed, here's your fine.

Next time please be more careful picking the lawyer.

AlexTWithBeard··on An AI lawyer was set to argue in court – real lawyers shut it down
Many legal things are evaluated lazily: the law may not specify exactly what the vehicle is, but if such need arises, there are tools, like precedents and analogy, to answer this question.

The way to think about it is like a logical evaluation shortcut:

  if not ADA_EXEMPT and IS_VEHICLE:
    DISALLOW_IN_PARK
Since wheelchairs are ADA exempt, a question of whether it's a vehicle will probably never be risen.

Using the IT analogy, it's less like C++, where each statement must pass compiler checks for the application to merely start, but more like a Python, where some illegal stuff may peacefully exist as long as it's never invoked.

EDIT: grammar

AlexTWithBeard··on Fentanyl vaccine tested in rats
Will it stop me getting high on food?

If so, it's a blessing.

AlexTWithBeard··on Fentanyl vaccine tested in rats
Dear pharma, please (please, please!) make something to fight food addiction?
AlexTWithBeard··on The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
Safety is our number one priority.

Not efficiency.

AlexTWithBeard··on Tech companies are quietly defunding diversity pledges
> The most diverse companies outperform their less diverse peers by 36% in profitability.

Did the report imply causation from correlation?

AlexTWithBeard··on Explaining the global chip shortage
May be yes. May be no. But it looks suspicious enough to appoint a special prosecutor and investigate the allegations.
AlexTWithBeard··on CEO Jack Altman’s email to Lattice employees
They will have lots of problems trying to hire the next CEO then.
AlexTWithBeard··on Conservative group targets migrant cell phone data, raising privacy concerns
Sometimes I feel like we're trying to stop the bulldozer by all this privacy regulations and rules. It can be slowed down, but cannot be stopped.

Would a complete openness be an alternative? Everybody knows everything about everyone? You wanna know what did I watch on pornhub yesterday? Be my guest, but I know that you were looking at this information. And you know that I know it. Perfect society, innit?

AlexTWithBeard··on The organ as a wind instrument
I once asked a church choir director: how many people in a typical choir do really believe in god. His answer was: zero. As for the priest - he said - it's more like a coin flip: some of them are still religious.
AlexTWithBeard··on A Wicked Problem – The Second Egress: Building a Code Change
I still fail to understand: is slapping an escape ladder on the side of the house THAT expensive?
AlexTWithBeard··on Tax System in the Faroe Islands
Well, the easy part of tax filing is easy: yes, it's a bit tedious in a sense that you have to copy some stuff from your W2 to 1040, but that's it.

Calculating part time rental property depreciation is complicated, but that's because it IS complicated.

AlexTWithBeard··on Southwest cancels 5,400 flights in less than 48 hours
> people forget about this and continue to fly Southwest

For me it means that most customers would happily accept such a disaster once in a lifetime in exchange for, say, 10% ticket price reduction.

AlexTWithBeard··on Women like working with people, men like working with things, all over the world
> "Every third woman who responded to the survey, sent out by Allbright to employees at the tech companies, reports that she has been discriminated against"

Which - putting my boring hat on - doesn't mean she was discriminated against.

AlexTWithBeard··on Women like working with people, men like working with things, all over the world
> I had never been made to feel like a freak for being a programmer until I moved to Sweden.

Are you saying that Sweden is a sexist society? Do you mind me asking where have you been before?

AlexTWithBeard··on Women like working with people, men like working with things, all over the world
On the other hand, all the C-suite works with people.
AlexTWithBeard··on Women like working with people, men like working with things, all over the world
> As a software engineer I am working a lot with my computer.

And with ChatGPT coming up we all will have soon to resort to a mixture of arguing, begging and threatening to make computers do what we want.

AlexTWithBeard··on Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?
The question is: on one hand, any sane adult should be able to make whatever decision they want regarding their own health and property (some text in small font goes here).

On the other hand no sane adult will refuse medical insurance: it's an outright suicidal behavior, unless you have a seven-digit sum in your account.

So...?

AlexTWithBeard··on What happened when the San Francisco Bay Area rejected growth
I'd rather not: BS ordinances suck, but in some sense it's my problem. I know how to solve it.

Syringe center inhabitants, on the other hand, is also a problem for my kids and my dog, who may be not mature enough to handle it properly.

AlexTWithBeard··on What happened when the San Francisco Bay Area rejected growth
You are right: nobody wants to go in the middle of desert and start building a new brave world there for nothing.

With some proper incentives though it's doable. Nice parks. Low taxes. Decebt transportation infrastructure. Cheap housing. Good schools.

Hey, Google, what can we do for you to move your Googleplex with 50k employees to out newly built Heaven on Earth, Oklahoma?

AlexTWithBeard··on What happened when the San Francisco Bay Area rejected growth
The irony is that most of YIMBY do not have a backyard.

Once they buy some property and start raising kids, the attitude changes to "yeah, the syringe distribution center is very important... but can we please build it somewhere else?"

AlexTWithBeard··on What happened when the San Francisco Bay Area rejected growth
NIMBY is exactly the word.

It's MY backyard. I've paid dearly for it. Please keep off.

If you want high density development - pick some unoccupied land and build there whatever you want. It will take some effort to attract tax-paying population there, but it's doable: see Canary Wharf, London as an example.

AlexTWithBeard··on What happened when the San Francisco Bay Area rejected growth
TL;DR: The growth of Bay Area has stalled, because we don't build enough housing for homeless.
AlexTWithBeard··on High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
Most of documentation I've seen is either not yet finalized or already outdated. Often both at the same time.
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