ilc

Pointy Haired Boss.

I now feel very old. Dilbert taught engineers how the world worked in a sarcastic over the top way. No wonder new engineers are confused :(

The centralization and also the monitoring are hard nopes for me.

If the monitoring was all local and not pushed up to k8s instantly, maybe. But this screams of a PHB's wet dream.

As someone who has maintained forks of large FOSS code bases. This also makes doing that harder. I wasn't interested in sharing my changes. But I wanted SCM to allow me to merge upstream's changes.

This feels like a step back to systems like Clearcase, and I.. Just don't want it.

Nothing is wrong with it, but it gives a STRONG hint on demographics I bet.

There is always a hint.

Let's say I am an Eagle Scout. I want to write about something I did as an Eagle.

Well, guess, what. I've told you a metric F-ton about myself.

Oh, but it is.

I once had a debugging interview on Linux. In my head. No terminals. Interviewer would propose a hint about the problem, but he was tipping the answers. I could see where he wanted to go every time.

So I applied a concept from Bridge: WHen you are given unintended information from your partner, you must take any logical action except for what is indicated.

So I'd spit out ALL things that came to mind, then finally the answer. (Like 4 or 5 thing PER STEP.)

And I wan CONSISTENT. The more he tipped, I just kept doing it.

At the end of the interview, I asked my questions, and asked if they played bridge. They said no. I explained the concept of Active Ethics, and that throughout the interview I was using active ethics.

;)

Got the job. That guy was one of my best friends in the joint.

At times... Simple questions involve complex answers. :)

You are missing the point. It is a PERFECT showcase of understanding.

The person implementing knew what they had to implement, and what they didn't. What looks like a demerit is actually a sign of mastery.

Maybe quite the opposite. Wall Street and Finance is can be very aggressive and learn it for yourself.

I learned math of finance from a professor I'm pretty sure was quanting on the Street at the time.

When I told him one of the constants in our little trading game was off by a factor of 10x, he said prove it. My final talk was: "How to make 2.3 million dollars in 30 days using options."

The real lesson wasn't about pricing options. It was about being ruthless when the time came.

It is at the point where for me when they ask for a take home, it is a self selecting: Thanks but no thanks.

I can spend time answering your take-home, or trying to get other interviews. From what I've seen on take homes: Other interviews are strongly EV+.

Before you go: But you never got a job off a take home, that's why. I did. It was one of the worst managed misfits I've had. I am sure others thrived there, for me it was a living hell, that didn't even pay that great.

So... Much like requiring a suit to interview and a few other things. It goes in my bin of "Your company has performed self selection."

Note: I will leetcode, at least there is a human there, we're talking, interacting, and I am learning about the company.. But most of all, that feel of: I put up and hour, you put up an hour. Let's talk. Is very real.

Sounds like for business, by business.

Big Tech + Countries: Those all sound like great reasons to centralize all access to AIs!

It makes something ring hollow then.

Why do the whole high and mightly we're using ASCII thing, then to throw me to WordPress. Certainly a bit of HTML with a few inline images fit the overall goal better.

That said, I wish them the best, and I hope that they dominate their market. :)

April 1 date on the article. Wordpress site.

I ain't saying it ain't true, but I await their next press release.

I don't see a fig leaf. All I see is dick.

Read IOCCC entries.

Now realize, those are people having FUN. What is your chance of catching nation state level maliciousness in a codebase? Pretty low.

Don't let age stop you, people make a big deal out of age discrimination.

There is some, but there are good dev roles out there for those of us closer to the AARP card than the college ID ;).

To be fair, you are talking about a rare event, that is educational and honestly damn cool.

The science teacher at the school probably wishes they could do it.

There are two good types of managers I've seen:

Director+: Who largely delegate off to Tech Leads, etc. They don't have the time to get in your hair, and are focused on what is truly important.

Non-Technical Managers WHO KNOW IT. They don't try to make technical calls. They are there to support the team and make sure it runs smoothly. They end up highly dependent on their leads. Not the end of the world, but they better pick well.

Any technical manager, eventually becomes #2. "Rusty Programming Skills" etc.

I've seen, one manager who could hold Tech Lead and Manager. Even then as good as he was. He would have done better with some leads and more delegation. But that is one first level manager in 25+ years.

In the end, engineers need support. We know how. We need to know the what, and why.

That merely means go long on them :)

I've done this a few times.

1. Immersion. I learn more German in Germany when I visit for a week than I do in months of study. Why? Because I can see it all context. I can guess what a Hauptbahnhof is context, and other words. You start to see the patterns. Work is much the same. Get in there and learn! There is a reason why the first thing every software developer should do is fix a pretty easy bug. It gets them to do so many essential things they will need to do day to day as part of their job.

2. There are no dumb questions. "What is Alpha?" "What are the Greeks?" etc. All VERY valid questions. If in Star Trek parlance if someone says to "Tech, tech the tech." ask some questions. :) (Tech was used by the writers as a stand in to allow them to write the script without looking everything up.)

3. You have time. Nobody expects you to know anything. Ramp up for an industry to basic levels is usually about 6 months.

4. Suffer. Try to learn the concepts. This won't always work, but it'll teach you tons of extra concepts you will need later. Time spent learning is rarely totally wasted. It just may be the knowledge you need to cross a gap later. Also it makes it obvious to the people around you, you are trying, thus you are more likely to get help.

5. Don't be afraid to be stupid. When I used to work with TLAs a wise boss once told me if he didn't know what some word/acronym meant. He'd just ask.

It was amazing how many times nobody in the room could expand it. Despite us all working with it ;)

I've picked up this habit from him. It hasn't hurt me... But it can be a great way to rattle people.

So there's two factors:

- What does it cost you to provide?

- What is it worth to your customers?

You need to understand both, before setting a price or even opening up the API.

This feels like systems engineering 101.

I've seen that and honestly, as long as they do the job well, I let it ride.

I've also seen doctors where their social skills honestly impaired them from getting through to people and thus getting the needed outcomes.

Also... Your "roadkill" doc may do well with me. Smooth talkers always seem to come up short for me.

Honestly, given that they are some of the poorest parts of our country. Yes.

I'm also pro-single payer healthcare, and want us just to get on with it.

I don't believe the value of people is just the money they earn.

A good doctor. That is a huge proviso alas. I wish it wasn't.

You will get no disagreement here.

I specifically pointed at older NPs for a reason.

Heck even old RNs will know what they are doing.

For us programmers it is a bit like why you don't let the new kid push straight to prod. But an older engineer may have a key to do it. ;) There is some wisdom that comes with the grey hair.

Personally, I'll take the 60 year old NP over the 30 year old doctor 95%+ of the time.

The NP has seen more and been around the block. The doctor still is a baby in medicine.

The free market does not solve all problems.

Sometimes it simply doesn't make economic sense to provide a service that people need.

Witness broadband availability and other things, and you'll see that the free market won't provide a service if it can't make money.

Maybe a bit more GPL use would help here. :)

When I was playing I called this the "School of Fish" phenomenon.

If there are weak players they can effectively end up colluding against a stronger player who is playing "More Optimally".

Understanding the table, is a key skill. There's still a human element in the ring game.

If everyone is great. Someone has to draw the short straw.

At MIT they said: You know the kid who sat at the front of the room. Now you are with ALL of the kids who sat in the front of the room. Guess what? There's still going to be a kid who sits at the front of the room.

I'd imagine Google or anyplace with a stiff engineering filter will have the same issues.

I'd love to get some clarity on this from Google on if they actually support not getting spied on or not?

It is only kinda 1/2 clear here.