jansho

That's why when I read literature on how to hook users more, I always get very cynical by the usual footnote on ethics. Please don't pretend, the principle of addiction itself is an extremely grey area and for more vulnerable audiences such as children, it's plain unethical.

Reading the thread, my impression is that no one thinks that tech is a Frankenstein. Most are calling for a more balanced use, especially for children. There is strong research showing how getting "sucked" into the internet can have detrimental effects on social skills and child development.

I'm honestly disappointed that many commenters here are making a lot of judgment about Pao's intentions. It's like no one read the piece properly. Here, let me help you (and get your walls down!)

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Claim 1: She's over-reading an already tough environment (which btw men also face) for sexism.

See the Ajit Nazre harassment section. Also note that Pao wasn't the only one targeted.

See the male-only ski trips/ club visits/ etc section. It's bullshit to say that it's not their fault that women are uncomfortable talking about porn stars. It's unprofessional anyway. And seriously, a top venture firm can't afford to accommodate for all members of their team?

"I was later told that they didn’t invite any women because women probably wouldn’t want to share a condo with men."

Still a big presumption to make; Pao may actually be OK with this.

I get the male buddy bonding thing, but arguably doesn't this make it harder for women to feel part of the team too?

See also the Flipboard section. Now this I'm very familiar with; make a suggestion, be promptly turned down, another guy makes the same suggestion later and wahey! Back slaps all around.

See also the section where she was excluded from meetings, discussions and 'scoops.'

See also the section where others (white, male) more junior than her received promotion and she didn't.

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Claim 2: Pao is out for attention.

Seriously I can't even -

OK, I'm not going to do a reference here. Think about it: Pao is well-educated and has a very good position at a top firm. She's also just started a family, and instability is the last thing anyone in that position wants. It will take a very serious claim to risk all that.

She was also very aware that the odds are overwhelmingly against her. See section when she asked other women who had sued powerful firms over discrimination. One even said "It’s a complete mismatch of resources. They don’t fight fair. Even if you win, it will destroy your reputation."

See section about how her firm launched an aggressive media campaign to discredit her, including "click farms" to spread negative rumours about her incompetency etc. How Vanity Fair (!) suggested that her marriage was a sham because her husband previously had gay relationships.

She did lose, but for what it's worth, she did end up getting attention - the right sort I would say (see the "Pao Effect".)

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Claim 3: Pao did it for the money."

See section when she was offered money to leave quietly.

Though "When I spoke to the COO, he asked how much I wanted in order to quietly leave. “I want no less than what Ajit gets,” I said — which I suspected was around $10 million. The COO gasped."

The same Ajit as above.

Oh yes she's releasing a new book, but seriously, is the profit really enough to make it her primary intention to sue for harassment?

And as mentioned above, even if she won, she would have lost her reputation. There's a reason everyone applauds whistle-blowers, and no one wants to hire them.

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Claim 4: Sexism is only an emergent behaviour of a toxic industry. To fix sexism, we have to instil professionalism.

This is true and a good intention, but forgive me this is also belittling the issue of sexism.

For sure, women aren't the only ones with negative experience. You could say the same for other minority groups such as black, LGBTQ etc, and yes even overworked white, male juniors.

But sexism is a major part of what makes the environment toxic. Women make 50% of the global population! And clearly many women in tech experience uncomfortable issues rooted in sexism. If you want to instil more professionalism, you will also need to cover sexism in the training.

See section where the firm admits that they don't even have a HR department until recently.

See also comments that claim women are using their gender as a card. So f---ing patronising.

See section where the firm has very low female presence in the board.

It's true that there is a shortage of females in tech, making recruitment harder. But this is why we need to go beyond professionalism training. To get more gender balance, we need to start at schools. So for those tired of the whole "women are victims" yada-yada (I admit that I also feel the same) for what it's worth, people are now paying attention and working harder to encourage girls into STEM subjects, and make the tech environment more inclusive.

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Running out of time, but I hope this is enough food for thought.

Nice. I wonder though, will the randomly placed watermarks distract the legit viewer, and affect their judgment of the images?

Example: When I go through Adobe stock photos, although I find the watermark initially annoying, I would quickly learn to "unsee" it in the next photos because I know how it looks like and where it is on the photo.

With varied watermarks, I'm not sure if the same mental technique can be applied. Shrugs, I may just be overthinking it.

And also the output png is sometimes unpredictable. I hate it when what's supposed to be flat-coloured in svg turns out to be this 'pixelated-swirl' in png. I also find minimising operations can reduce this effect.

The trick is to make sure the raster image is as clean as possible. But yeah I agree, this is not its best feature.

Fantastic interview, I relate to many of the things the engineers mentioned. I was also disappointed by the heat and rage from both sides, IMO this whole gender thing is not a debate, it's more like a cat fight that everyone gets hurt and become more hardened about their views. It's anti-productive and exhausting.

I hope that the silver lining here is that more people, particularly those who subconsciously share Damore's views on women, understand better about the real challenges of girls and women in the tech field. Cos it's not enough for a small segment to drive positive change, everyone needs to be onboard too. Let's shift the debate to that level now.

This is great, thanks!

I was thinking about your post yesterday, thanks for it :) Sorry, I didn't clarify with what I meant by "visualising." When you think of an abstract entity, like a foreign word for example, you can sort of grasp what it means when you have it translated. But you can't do that with the imaginary number. You can only get a 'feel' of what it is when it's set in context, like the expressions you gave, and even then the application is still in a math world (geometric (?) space.)

In hindsight, I think that I approached it wrong, and it was far too simplistic anyway. I've been reading popular maths books lately and it's made me realise that there are more ways than just visualisation to understand something. Ironically (a happy one!) this is making me excited about maths for the first time in my life.

I think the concept is awesome and I hope that my comment won't be taken as cynical:

I get the dedication part but some people may have commitments that they can't avoid at all - childcare, for example. Having commitments shouldn't be confused with lacking dedication, IMO. For me, the biggest USP about a remote school, or any MOOC really, is the flexibility that it offers. Structured, yes, but 3-5 hours a day would be more manageable than 9-5 five days a week. That will probably add extra months to the course though - but that's OK, a Masters takes 1-2 years for comparison.

Of course Lambda instructors are world-class, but technically you can train yourself; there are very good guides signposting to free resources, and online communities for support. It might not be to the level of depth that the Lambda course offers, but is indepth knowledge really a key employability trait? (I'm not questioning the value of knowledge.) After all, many recruiters now emphasise on having a good portfolio over a certificate.

But hey this is more like a feedback than a criticism. I sincerely think that this concept is super and hope that the Academy succeeds :)

Ah I forgot about the full week schedule (my post was also about your first question). I'm also curious about how the programme is structured on a typical day.

For me personally, if there is a part time option (4 days a week even) this would be hugely attractive.

What's the application criteria like? I notice that the current students listed in the website all have some sort of technical/reputable background (one even had an MS in Computer Science already!) Does this mean that the computer science course is not for complete beginners?

I also noticed a mini web dev bootcamp, when will this be launched?

Thanks :)

Or to go even milder: "Effing heck!"

It's funny, I have school-level French and only think in it when I get really angry. Or if I need to vent it all out, I write in French (with a pocket dictionary no less!) Who knows, it could be because I don't use expletives very much, or all that casual-listening to French media is paying off, or French is naturally a great language for these sort of emotions.

Computer, mostly hardware (so heavy on electronics rather than programming)

Oh yes no doubt j is very useful - but that's what I meant by it being part of the Toolbox. To visualise it as an entity is something else though, and I know that you're not really supposed to do that, especially when it was 'invented' to be useful in the first place.

Perhaps with more experience and perseverance, I might have reached an understanding like yours. I do find myself regretting for giving up on engineering so soon, but hey, I can still take my time to understand what I couldn't before. Thanks for the links :)

I recommend Ian Stewart's Letters to a Young Mathematician. He addresses your question (Platonism vs formalism) pretty succinctly, in my opinion as a noob.

Accordingly "the working philosophy of most mathematicians is a mostly unexamined Platonist-Formalist hybrid ... Math is a product of human minds but not bendable to human will. Exploring it is like exploring a new tract of country ... but the mathematical countryside does not come into existence until you explore it."

I was trained as an engineer and the abstract part of maths used to bug me a lot. We were often told to just accept them as they are, that just like everything else they add to your Toolbox. My biggest bugbear is imaginary numbers, can't seem to get my head around what they are but I accept that this is due to my limited imagination. Well I read that they can't be imagined because it's a human construct - honestly I don't know what to say or think.

Bucket of negative apples, hmm. I feel slightly sheepish to say this but I immediately visualised it to be "a bucket that you intend to put n apples in, but didn't." Thank god I'm in a semi-technical field now :D

Edit: language.

The button pusher I think is a bad example. There are not many button pushers, for one, and secondly when we talk about the current industrial revolution, it's about machines replacing humans who are doing jobs with some skills. And there are many such jobs, like operating machinery in factories, and consequently many livelihoods depending on them.

Arguably replacing these jobs with machines is also too fast for any kind of proper transition. You can say "Move elsewhere then!" but as some have already pointed out, this is not always so simple. And, say that the machine revolution does happen world over, where exactly can you find jobs that match your skillsets? Don't forget the many others who will also try the same.

Absolutely, education and a social security net will help with the transition. But in reality, these two are often not an option for many people, and I doubt that the government can supply them in the same speed as the change itself. I fear that we'll have massive social unrest in the near future.

It's a damn shame. "Slower to adapt" is a weak excuse, youth is definitely a large part of startup culture. But imagine all that wealth of experience and wisdom that you potentially miss!

Design is also about self-expression of the designer, and solving problems by way of manufacturing experiences. Sometimes the two conflict at the cost of the other though.

I adore UX brutalism.

It's a weird paradox that I enjoy design, but at the same time feel that MOST (caps necessary here) of them are actually faff and pretentious. I keep coming back to brutalist style, as the one I feel the least uncomfortable with, and I'm so glad it's now officially recognised.

(Or maybe give it two years before I start complaining again.)

Someone here mentioned that women are being pressured to join STEM, and that this is "evil." A bit strong but I agree that this may backfire on us. Who doesn't want a more open environment where everyone can feel comfortable in. But lately, I'm sensing the diversity discussion shifting from "we are the victims" (IMO while true, not very useful) to "we are better than you." That does no service to anyone at all; suddenly we see each other in gender camps and there's a battle line drawn in between. Hey I also don't want to be identified by my gender only thanks.

It's a difficult subject because the issue is actually real. I've experienced it myself, and wish that things are different. I fully support incentives to get more women into tech, but the way we're going about it now is perhaps too much in the face. Let's not forget that diversity means inclusion of all groups, so that the majority and the many minorities are considered for. It may seem messy but IMO the best we can do is to be compassionate to one another, which yes, may mean some (acceptable) give-and-take from everyone.

I'm glad that you mentioned hearing problems (ear infections specifically). They have been shown to affect child development in ways that aren't immediately intuitive, like hyperactivity and their ability to pick up phonics [1]. That obviously has an impact on their early learning, and consequently the rest of their lives.

[1] https://www.hslda.org/strugglinglearner/CraftDocs/EarInfect....

Hmm, I'm suddenly struck by a realisation that I check Instagram everyday for therapy purposes (mostly following art and whimsical stuff.) Sometimes the whole "world is going dystopian" thing is just overwhelming; I can imagine a lot of people loving some light-hearted reminders like your Kidisms :)

This is great! My smaller siblings say the wittiest things (often without realising) that brighten my day, I often wonder if there's a platform to 'record' them. I hope that your project will eventually turn into that!

Absolutely agree. My profession is more creative and most of my eurekas happen when I'm doing mundane house chores. Something about the mind wandering about I suppose. I don't think it's a coincidence either that some of our best ideas often come just before we fall asleep.

Not all Europeans. Personally I think the French left is generally more right than the British and American left.

The Swedish left is regarded by everyone else as utter madness. See how the media covered their refugee policy a few years ago.

Compared to Trump's rhetoric during the campaign, "basket of deplorables" is about as mild as it can get...

Outrage is addictive and social media only makes this easier: commenting is quick and there's always the urgency to jump on a bandwagon before it disappears.

"Outrage of the Day" is appropriate because what else can fill the mundanity of your life? The trouble is they accumulate and you inevitable form judgements, courtesy to the echo chambers (I'd like to see a new word echosystem!) This also makes it harder to introduce new ideas because the 'right' opinions and argument trees are already set.

I don't see social media as good/bad, but my observation of it is making me wonder if I'm turning into a reluctant Luddite.

Yeah about the headphones. I remember in one workplace when my manager expressed concern that I wasn't interacting and open enough solely because I had headphones on most of the time. What. It never occurred that I needed it to cut down the background noise, just so I can focus on my work? And I thought lunch time is reserved for casual conversations?

There's another thing about open plan offices: too much visibility. I can't even get away to a quiet area without someone chalking it as suspicious. And it's easy to assure everyone else that I'm a pro, I just need to open two laptops with lots of notes and wiring on the desk.

I still don't regret my decision to become a contractor.