57 karma · joined February 26, 2009
High-School teachers inflicting Java on teens - cringe-worthy. Many public schools only offered Java if you elected programming/CS (in High School). Only recently has Python made inroads.
I am sometimes involved with mentoring younger people with STEM projects (arduino etc). Its all the buzz. But I heard one of my younger relatives lament about the tendency of young people to gravitate towards a quantitative field of study / training - is there too much hype?. "Learning to Code" is a general movement that is helping many youth to improve their career prospects. Do you think it's being effective in improving education on a meaningful scale.
What kind of educational initiatives would you like entrepreneurs (of all shades) come up with. Do these need to be intrinsically different in different parts of the world?
Finally, as a person who gets scared away from bureaucracy ("the school district") - what would you advise. School districts don't always make the best technology investments on precious dollars.
In his example, I suspect he is conflating that one-liner chained function call with functional programming? Sort of like how coders like to use ternary one-liners especially when they first learnt them (and end up with unreadable code). But his first snippet is obviously simpler, compared to the OOP-cruft of the second and third snippets.
As more Java programmers migrate to coding in Python, they are bringing that toxic culture in to Python too - where boilerplate and sugar were relatively less.
Its like everyone is doing rocket science, which is despicable, given we are mostly coding CRUDs.
Any language is susceptible to abuse, its also a human trait to de-simplify something to gain a fake intellectual satisfaction.
The fact that intellectual activity seems to be relatively lacking in India is sad to read, and confirms my subjective opinion.
I can understand your sense of intellectual loneliness. Indians worship Saraswati (the goddess of learning), but will do anything not to learn and be intellectually curious. Behold the Hindu nation. The current wave of 'culture' sweeping through India will definitely not improve any of this.
For six years he put up with this abuse of power over him. He could have walked out after six months but he chose not to. How can Amazon be faulted for the employee's indecision.
He's financially benefited by those 6 years of being an absent father. The financial gains are very concrete and measurable, and comforting. The same can't be said of the intangible - like playing with your infant child, and caring for them - can't put a value on them but that's a huge loss.
This couple made some stupid errors though, mainly they were clueless about how rigid the system is.
9-11 obviously changed the US system for ever. Now there is talk of amnesty for people who never filed a single form (sneaked across the border), while those who followed the rules to a T, or at least applied for some visa get treated like this. As a legal immigrant, I am honestly conflicted about amnesty for illegals.
It would reduce my cardiovascular risk, improve my running (easier on knees).
Am not a Muslim, but this month of Ramzan (or Ramadan) does inspire me to try some light fasting.
Nothing severe, no extremes for me. Happy with incremental, over a period of time, changes.
Don't develop an ambition just because others have it. You have decades left in you. You seem to be unhappy now.
Glass half-full, or half-empty ? Upto you.
You are a top-10 CS - that pretty much means you know a lot. Shouldn't be overly reading those technical articles. You are denying, or discounting knowledge that you have in you. Have patience with yourself. Back yourself.
Whether you are ambitious or not - you will get there. As long as you don't become a veggie, or an addict. Your skills and talent will take you places without overloading your anxious psyche with fake ambition. Things will happen if you stay away from the wrong places and the wrong times. Takes time - no, I am not saying you need to wait till 41 (or 42 ..). Decades sooner.
I do face this as well. Age does slow down a person. But age also helps us make haste slowly. I've seen younger engineers scattering their energy around, and then coming to realize that the common sense option was the best. And older programmers (like me) might be too set in our ways.
Can an old dog be taught new tricks? I'd say to test that, make sure you learn a new programming language every year. Show it with non-trivial projects on your github or other profile. Thats proof that you're still sharp.
Edit : Also adopt a new editor every year. That shows you can step out of your comfort zone. (I need to kick that emacs habit).
Being part of a group will accelerate your recovery , drain your negativity and heal. Talk is cheap so I will stop here.