Isn't that just another way of saying, 'Illustrates how much tech adoption is driven by marketing'?
418 karma · joined November 12, 2010
My iPhone apps could have certainly benefited from marketers and QA ('editors'), but neither were pre-reqs to getting my app on the store.
If old cameras took better pictures, then I implore professional photographers to use them.
This is where the focus needs to be. Big colleges get an enormous amount of applications. They do not have the man power to deeply analyze each candidate. So, they use metrics to filter candidates, such as required course work and a minimum GPA. The current high school curriculum is largely dictated by this, and I don't see that changing with your system because the incentives are the same, whether you call it 'passing an AP calculus test' or 'becoming a level 9 Math student'.
> For example, leveling up in Calculus would be about solving problems, putting calculus into practice, writing a project using learnt concepts.
This isn't that different from how schools work today. How was your grade decided in Calculus? By solving calculus problems. You don't necessarily put it into practice, or write a project, but teachers could certainly assign those things to you. Many science classes give you open ended science projects.
I agree with your intent, and I like you way of thinking, I just don't see it doing away with enforcement and standardization. Yet.
Also, if you want to encourage students to try stuff multiple times, you'd have to make sure 'not leveling up' doesn't equate to 'staying back a grade'. Students won't be encouraged to really learn what they need to, but just to get through things as quickly as possible, because Harvard only accepts people who are level 10 in math and science.
Facebook Connect accomplishes most of what you want here. At least, it could.
Probably because it's version 1.0
Just remember that you are a more desired candidate if you are actively employed, and that other available jobs might be just as bad or worse than your current one. Also, if you don't absolutely loathe your job, you can use job offers as leverage in your current role.
It just seems weird that he would compare schedules to make the point that he likes the kind of work he does better at Google. Lectures and office hours are a productive part of being a professor. He had some meetings about grants, but it was not much longer than his meetings at Google.
- In 'fat' mode, the video color is bad, and the person is frowning, sad.
- In 'skinny' mode, the video color is clear, the person is smiling, and their complexion is better.
This gives the illusion that there's a dramatic change in the person's weight, when often they've only lost 10 pounds (which is great, just not dramatic). In the same way, there doesn't seem too big a change in Matt's schedule, there's just a shift in attitude. It probably wasn't a requirement to "Groan at the amount of work I have to do before the onslaught of meetings in the afternoon", or to "spend next 45 minutes reading Engadget, Hacker News, and Facebook". In the end, he had about 3 hours to work at Harvard, and did about 4 hours of work at Google.
It's interesting to dig into what's actually changed between jobs, because you might not completely know what you want in a work environment.
> Apart from these specific instances, I’m genuinely sorry for all the hateful speech and contempt directed towards individuals and groups just because their line of thought didn’t align with mine.
And then he spends the rest of the article ridiculing Hacker News.
Obviously it's something any Cocoa developer would want to learn, but it didn't seem necessary in an article trying to prove how basic memory management in ObjC is.
“We broke away from the equations of biology, all of which are sublinear. Every other creature gets slower as it gets bigger. That’s why the elephant plods along. But in cities, the opposite happens. As cities get bigger, everything starts accelerating. There is no equivalent for this in nature.”
It's inaccurate to compare the growth of human society to the physical growth of creatures. Primates aren't the first species to benefit from society; What about ants, or bees, or even hyenas?
How is this a loss of control? Using technology to make our lives easier or more enjoyable doesn't force you to relinquish control of your actions. If anything, it gives you greater control because you have more options and flexibility. For instance, GPS enabled phones allow me to walk or drive wherever I please without much thought, because it's so easy to get directions back.
Before my brother bought an android device, he was afraid that always having access to work email would be a big burden. What he found was the complete opposite; instead of being tied down to a computer, he now had the flexibility to move around, without being anxious about missing an important message.
In many ways, technology gives us more control of our lives, not less.
> "You used to ask a smart person a question. Now, who do you ask? It starts with g-o, and it's not God," he quipped.
What if you don't have access to a smart person? What if this 'smart person' isn't smart? What if this smart person is manipulative? With the internet, the collective knowledge of millions of people are a mouse click away, and it's nearly impossible for any one person to control this information. How on Earth is this something to be afraid of?
He then decides to complain about Slingbox. He claims that because it has bugs, and because all software has bugs, all computers will fail. But all technology ever created by humans is faulty, so I'm not sure what's so significant about this. I'm betting Sling Box breaks less than a record player.
There's nothing insightful about this. He's just rambling about how the times are changing, without citing anything substantial.
Dealing with this sounds like a nightmare in C.
I have to say, though, that if the app was only $10 I probably would have bought it for personal use 9 months ago. As it stands, I'm still struggling with the price, even though I'll probably cave in and buy it after the trial ends on my new computer.
Well, why not add social features to a game stop? Why not add nerdy features to a bar? A barcade doesn't need to be the last stop. Why not take what we learned about online dating, and use it to improve offline dating?
Maybe people don't want 'a bar revolving around gaming', but it's a thought in the right direction. Barcades and shared hacker work spaces are an actual step in the right direction.
Do all social products rely so heavily on applying social pressure and guilt to keep users active, when they don't want to be?
The stability question will always be there, regardless of the existence of a bubble. With a startup, there's always a greater risk of losing your job. If it was about a 6 figure salary, I would just move to another big company, many of which are hiring right now.
A fast paced high risk environment is what I'm interested in, and what I think is best for my career and learning. This transition is a non-issue for me, and independent of market trends.
I don't think 'crawling back to a more stable corporate gig' is a reliable backup plan. However, if I did, why would I lament? I would probably be hired with a comparable salary to that if I stayed on and grew from promotions. More importantly, I will have gained more in the process.
The thing to remember is that you're not going to be applying as a tech lead, you'll be applying as an entry level engineer. As an entry level engineer, you are not going to be expected to have a bunch of skills (in the X years of experience with J2EE sense). Companies know that it will take time for you to learn the skills you need. My last manager estimated this time period to be about 3 months for someone fresh out of college, which is why he hated getting summer interns.
What will be expected of you is to:
- Have a good GPA
- Be generally technically competent
- Be generally socially competent
- Be excited for work
- Want to work hard
I've recently moved on from my first post-college job, and my new job may expect me to do android and rails development, even though I've no experience with either. They knew this during my interview, but I was able to prove that I can and want to learn. That was enough for them to feel confident in me.
TL;DR: There are many jobs that don't expect you to know everything before hand, especially when you've just graduated.
I keep myself going by setting personal deadlines: I don't browse the internet if I 'need' to finish something before, say, going to lunch.
EDIT: Also, before stopping work, I always try to have a good idea of what to do next. It's much easier to dive back into work because I know what to do, and my subconscious has had time to think about how to do it. This was inspired by Hemingway's 'hack':
"The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start."
You can more directly do 'well and good' by doing well FROM doing good. Recently, I listened to a radio program about startups that were trying to do just that. For instance, one non-tech startup was based on collecting and selling unused fruits from people's yards. Employees can feel good because they have directly improved their community, by utilizing food that normally goes to waste.