lowiqengineer

Same at the top schools. I've never heard of someone at a top school be proud of going to Amazon - it's only something they do if they have no other options in my experience.

If your parents don't talk about it (as mine don't, presumably because they're ashamed?) I don't know if it's "nothing to be embarrassed about".

What did the top 1% do? What did your valedictorian(s) do?

I see. I don't want to come off as harsh, I work at Amazon myself and know a lot of these people but didn't grow up in the peer group.

I had my first quarter life crisis at 18, when I came to grips with the fact that I had accomplished nothing in my life so far, as evidenced by my lack of good college admissions - I graduated only 2nd in my class with just a 1500 SAT, which isn't good enough for top schools.

Unlike OP, however, it was less of an aimless drift and more of an aggressive, angry depression. Had another one at 20, when I realized that not getting into a FB internship would probably set me back permanently from my goals.

Now I'm 24, work at Amazon and widely considered a disappointment to people in OP's social circles. The pain has waned a bit, but the crisis is just constant now, like the roar of an engine on a long airplane flight in coach. Eventually the discomfort of the resting your head on the window and the anger you feel at the people with lie-flat seats paid for by Google and Facebook overpowers the rest.

> but I caught myself sleuthing on your github and LinkedIn and feeling that familiar sense of envy

He works at AWS? Is that considered particularly impressive to be envious over? Sure he went to Hopkins but that's not atypical in the Princeton area.

I'd imagine for most of his peers from high school he's considered a disappointment for working at "only" AWS, they're probably all ML Engineers at FB or Google or Two Sigma, etc.

Would you say the same if he was a member of ISIS but hadn’t committed any terrorist acts yet? It’s no different.

I agree, I think 1 billion Americans is a worthwhile goal.

Yikes the Amazon numbers are really low...

Those two examples are fundamentally different and it’s silly to conflate individual action with coercing the app stores to discontinue supporting the app.

I saw these during my onsite. I’m surprised they weren’t known externally...

Have you written about this in the past? This seems pretty absolute.

If this is a buffet option I don't mind possible obsolescence myself.

“Banning” ideas? The authoritarianism is getting less and less guarded.

Well, nonetheless, the amount of privilege you wield is astronomical compared to me, and it's clear that you believe you're superior to me in every way. Unfortunately, you're probably right because I can't pass a top-tier tech interview.

PHD graduate after a few years will easily make $450k. I’m sure OP does.

Unlike me, he has absurd wealth. I’m lucky if I hit $200k after 3 years tenure at Amazon.

Really not helping the condescending Googler stereotype there bud. Or perhaps its OK for you to be this way as a tech "elite" that makes $450k a year.

I’m really referring to the children of Googler parents.

I live in the northeast - even if I get promoted it’s unlikely I’ll break 200k. Down payment for a house around here is like 150k or more :/

I grew up with a dad working for 70-120k and a mom at home. I can’t even imagine how nice the lifestyles of Bay Area kids are.

> The insecurity gnawed at me and made me engage in many foolish behaviors during college, and also caused me to constantly compare myself with others. I was ultimately very unhappy. Through a series of experiences (i.e. therapy, honest introspection and self-reflection, conversations with trusted friends, being challenged on my mindset by others), I slowly came to understand how my mindset contributed to the same failures I was complaining about

I was the same way in college, but I also didn’t go to Berkeley, rather a school 80 or so spots below. I wish I could fix myself, but the therapy I’ve done hasn’t helped and my general lack of accomplishments in life contributes.

I've done nearly 300. I still can't crack Google or Facebook etc and I'm still extremely depressed that I"m just inherently unable to because my CS education wasn't good enough (because I wasn't good enough to get a better SAT score etc etc). I work at Amazon, so I know what the "elites" think of people like me.

I've gone and reread Skiena, etc but the end result ends up just my eyes glazing over proof notation and crying.

> Over here, there seems to be much more emphasis (and trust) on your resume, and the hiring process is more focused on fit. If you have the basics down, most can be thought - but it's pretty difficult to teach culture.

That's probably because OP makes triple to quadruple your total compensation at minimum as an L5 ML Engineer at Google.

https://www.levels.fyi/

Total: $356,119

Why does it matter what services China blocks? Are you saying we should take cues from the great firewall?

Indeed! Perhaps instead of deplatforming them like college social justice warriors would we should instead put forward our own, superior, conception of what free expression means?

Ignorance and pettiness describes this administration quite succinctly I think

It’s almost as though it’s the First nation conceived in Liberty shouldn’t take its cues from a despotic regime?

Perhaps, but no amount of preparation has been able to vault me to even close to the elite, mostly because I guess I don’t have the genes for it.

Unfortunately interviews are easy for him as an IIT and Stanford elite, so this advice is mostly just obvious.

Weird time to flex, right?

In what way? I grew up Asian and went to a state school, I got the message that I was incapable of accomplishing anything from an early age!