neuroticfish

How would you go about breaking into this field with a BS or MS in compsci?

>I picked NLP in the financial space

This sounds like something that requires a masters degree. How did you manage to prove that you were knowledgeable/skilled in NLP when you got your first job in that space?

How? In the freelance developer space you're either competing with people in developing countries who work for peanuts, or your potential clients have have the money to throw at high quality work which means you're competing with the top 1-5% of freelance developers.

>Yet, somehow, a multiBILLION dollar company can just buy material from warlords or whatever tribe in remote parts of China, and ship MILLIONS OF POUNDS of it out of that region, but nobody can get a fucking receipt?

What normally happens in this process is that the selling country's government official who is tasked with verifying the integrity of the receipt is bribed with a month or more salary to sign the exchange off as legitimate, e.g. the Kimberley Process. There has got to be a solution to this problem but paper trails are notoriously unreliable in scenarios like this one.

>learn something new every day

Do you apply everything you learn regularly or something? I like learning new things (by watching nature docs or the like) but it feels like I am unable to recall what I learned a few weeks to a month down the road.

No. No. No. What is the point? Why can't we just video conference when it's necessary? How is 3 seconds enough time to "prepare" to be revealed? The advantage of remote work for me is that I'm not being micromanaged or distracted. FYI if I worked for an employer who introduced this sort of privacy invasion, I would quit immediately.

Computer science isn't a nascent field, and comparing the discoveries of individuals centuries ago to the collective academic pipeline of today is silly.

>I don't feel that some of the recent technologies - Docker, lambda, etc have contributed towards taking the CS, as a subject, or the Software, as an industry, forward.

I wouldn't except consumer software like Docker or Lambda to have any measurable impact on computer science. How much is the landscape of astronomy shaped by advancements in home telescopes?

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

I'm a little embarrassed to say it's the only book I've had the motivation to finish this year. It's a fantastic book though, and during the age of the "war on facts" it's quite relevant.

>Additionally, what are some ways to use a math / CS skill-set to impact my community in a positive way?

You could volunteer at a code camp for underprivileged kids, or maybe tutor math for free for people who cannot afford it.

The term? No.

Companies rushing to adopt technology or migrate to platforms without understanding the full scope of the consequences? Happens every day and is happening across the hall from me right now.

Pretty sure it was rhetorical and not soliciting you for feedback. Telling a person that their genuine, curious questions are stupid is a great way to continue propping up the perception that our community is full of pedantic jerks.

>Beyond advocating for data-exports, we should advocate that users have the right to delegate data-access through APIs to third-parties.

IMO we should first and foremost be advocating for the right to have our data destroyed.

Huh? I had 0 problems upgrading the RAM in my 2011 MBP. Have they made it inaccessible since then?

Regarding your list of things you haven't tried, you should certainly try 2 or 6 and 7 before bothering with the other potential solutions (if you're able). Your diet and your exercise habits are going to be play the biggest role in your physical and mental well-being. I would not bother with supplements. The general efficacy of supplements is debated and you should be getting all of the nutrients you need from your diet anyway. If you're not able to try diet and exercise changes due to depression symptoms you should consider 9 (and 5 at the doctor's discretion).

Sleep is important but you should only be sleeping for as long as your body needs it. Going to bed earlier can help you find the point at which you're waking up naturally and from there you can decide how much time you need to sleep.

Philosophy and self-reflection are really two very different things. Studying philosophy in my experience hasn't improved my mood. Reading and learning in general might, and you might find that reading about philosophy is a passion you didn't know you had, but you aren't going to pick up a philosophy book and just internalize a worldview that will cure your depression. Self-reflection on the other hand will also not cure your depression, but it may help you identify the deeper triggers in your SAD that you could potentially address. What if your depression is not triggered by the temperature? Your problem would likely not be solved by moving to a warmer country.

I don't have a specific suggestion, but maybe find a good book about Mars? Seems like a logical follow-up to reading The Martian.

I desperately want this. I've been looking for something open source like this since I bought my first Kindle.

>I'm not so sure it's okay for him to do it on Blizzard's show/event.

>She's was arguably right to critize the Pope but was she right to do it from Saturday Night Live's Live broadcast?

>I also believe I want US businesses to all stick up for freedom of expression and not sell out to China.

Well this is what happens when our culture is so insistent on upholding capitalism as a virtue. When our best platforms for speaking up are businesses, it's only fair for us to use them like we would any other service that we're paying for (whether directly or through our taxes that fund their allowances, or through our suffering of their practices). Why do people only come to the defense of corporations when the "invisible hand of the market" is punching up?

No. That information is already public, freely available, and has been widely distributed by mainstream media, social media, and blogs. People are already aware of the dearth of ethics in the tech industry and are either apathetic or are leaving the guilty platforms. I don't think better information or new revelations will change how we interact with unethical companies.

Personally I can't afford not to. I have student loan debt to pay and no other marketable skills.

I just keep trying to remind myself that things could be worse. As soon as I'm out of debt I'm going to save up some money and make a career change, even if I'll be 40 years old.

Anything but programming. What I would not give to go back and do something else.

How do you define "worth"? As far as compensation goes, working with the legacy systems that nobody else wants to touch is a great way to rake in money. There are plenty of Java shops that aren't reminiscent of Dilbert's office.

If you value working with cutting edge technology there are new and interesting Java platforms, but you would undoubtedly be better off learning something more modern.

>people make mistakes and a military test might be trying hard to deceive them

A couple people have mentioned this in this thread and my problem with it is that a military test designed to deceive that same military's personnel seems dangerous in a way that could cause people to lose their lives. Unless you mean that a different military is testing?

I used to see my former (non-technical) dev manager browsing HN occasionally.

Correct answer, but one corollary: If the only reason you have an office in an open office setting is because you make the rules, you're not a leader. You're a "boss".

I used to use Newsblur and the only feature I wish it had (which maybe it did and I just didn't know about it) is to see trending articles like Feedly does, just so I could get a feel for what was going to be a hot conversational topic. RSS really needs a renaissance though.

People partake in those behaviors that are harmful to the planet because they're convenient. Software and automation can provide solutions that shift the convenience to options that will reduce our carbon footprint.

Climate change should be anyone's first answer.

>Not Reddit. Reddit is gone, it used to be nice.

How is IRC still nice but Reddit "gone"? Most IRC channels are a ghost town full of idlers. There are plenty of niche communities on Reddit (not just 'extreme' ones) that have high quality content. IMO Reddit is perfectly fine if you know what you're looking for.