captain_trips

I usually think of it as someone hundreds of years ago playing with a tighly stretched string and noticing stuff:

- Half a string's length is the same thing, just higher

- The harmonic at half a string is the same thing, just higher

- The harmonics at 3:2 and 4:3 are really loud and distinct

- If you chop up the rest of the string at the same interval as the 3:2 and 4:3, some have strong harmonics that match tones on the string, some don't

Then I figure with the Octave, 5th, 4th, and M3 as the strongest harmonics that matches other lengths (or octaves thereof), they went from there...

Naw - places that hire like that are myopic are shitty and doomed, so you don't want to work there anyway. If you're a good coder and not a complete dick, you can build a nice career for yourself.

I dunno - part of leading an eng group is taking heat to do the right thing. I've been in the growth phase a few times now, been under tremendous pressure rapidly build a team. Taking the time to find the right people is absolutely key - better to hold off then get the wrong people in. Maybe it's because I've seen complete dipsh?t Stanford and MIT grads or maybe it's because I didn't go to a marquee school, but I put a big line in the sand on that one...

So there are lots of programming jobs out there at places that are not like the valley. Thing Initech from Office Space - business casual dress code, gantt charts, dreary cubes, long death march schedules you have no control over, people are resources first, salaries are intentionally below market rate...

I landed at one of these a few years ago and got out ASAP. They're out there, but not so much in the Bay Area because the talent war is so hot - any place like that wouldn't be able to hire or keep anyone.