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quantum_nerd

46 karma · joined March 10, 2016

Software Engineer.Technology + Public Policy email me at quantum.nerdiness@gmail.com
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quantum_nerd··on Ask HN: How do you document your knowhow, past projects and lessons?
Github Gist, Bear Note taking app(hashtags, hierarchical ordering, etc) and sometimes jrnl cli tool
quantum_nerd··on Python 101
https://learnpythonthehardway.org/
quantum_nerd··on WeWork acquires Meetup.com
popular here in Seattle as well.
quantum_nerd··on Ask HN: What music do you listen to when programming?(or do you not?)
LoFi Instrumental Hip-Hop on Spotify(there are a few playlists), always puts me in the flow zone.
quantum_nerd··on Go Patterns: A curated collection of idiomatic design patterns
more like a curated list of 404 pages amiright?
quantum_nerd··on Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

to my college best friend as a birthday gift.

quantum_nerd··on The world's cities with the most bookstores and libraries per capita
Seattle isn't on the list. So yea, not a serious list :P
quantum_nerd··on Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?
1. "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. Taught me how to be more productive and simplify thinking about productivity. One of the books I re-read every year.

2. "The Bible" - I am not too religious, but I am a spiritual person. I find the new testament to be a good blueprint on how to live a righteous life.

3. "The Pragmatic Programmer: from journeyman to master" - such a timeless classic. Just get it...

quantum_nerd··on Tech Giants Face Off Against 18F
wow! ok I am not even sure if there is a way to refute this without sounding angry...like, what part of anti-discrimination laws don't you like? the fact that marginalized groups can have equal access to gov contracts?education? healthcare? housing? please elaborate....
quantum_nerd··on Ask HN: Quality of Life
Getting a quality 7 hours of sleep every night, 7 days a week...oh and giving up alcohol(or at least drink only on weekends) which is easier said than done.
quantum_nerd··on SyntaxDB – Quickly look up syntax for programming languages
this is potentially an amazing idea, especially for those of us who work in polyglot systems. However, a search as simple as "queue in java" returns no result?
quantum_nerd··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2016)
Location: Seattle,WA Remote : OK

Willing to Relocate : Yes

Technologies : Ruby(Chef), Java, Python, Cloud, Systems Administration(UNIX/Linux and Windows), Git, DevOps.

Resume/CV: Currently employed. Will share by email due to privacy reasons.

E-mail : quantum.nerdiness@gmail.com

quantum_nerd··on Corporations Don't Want Employees
I think we have lost touch with the reason we invented technology in the first place: which was to increase human productivity, not to remove the human from the equation altogether.
quantum_nerd··on Corporations Don't Want Employees
Corporations exist mostly because of consumerism, though. Once those "humans" are not able to work and in turn, spend their money buying crap from corporations, then...?
quantum_nerd··on Facebook will show ads to non-Facebook users on other websites
Dear Facebook,

you can track me all over the net all you want. I am just not buying shit.

quantum_nerd··on Offer rescind after gpa drop
Well, tell you what and I hope this helps: my first internship required 3.0 gpa. Mine that semester was 2.98 (exactly like yours). Not only did I interview and get the internship, I have been with that company ever since 2013 and haven't had any performance review below "exceeded expectations" ever since I started.

Moral of the story is: the gpa will only be a big deal if you make it so. Your perception will be your reality and you will lose out on a fantastic opportunity to start your career on the right foot. Call your recruiter, make your case, have a great internship.

Side Note: I graduated with a 3.4. Had to work my butt off to raise it up and get the offer and I did.

quantum_nerd··on We Only Hire the Best
Sometimes I even ask myself: “you only hire the best…at what exactly?” there is difference between having a fancy degree/accolades and actually contributing meaningfully to your work. I have also seen(in my thin years of experience) that at most companies, there is a disconnect between HR and company’s talent needs. Only those who have figured out how to bridge that gap hire “the best”(subjectively).
quantum_nerd··on Offer rescind after gpa drop
Wouldn't just be easier to talk to your hiring manager/recruiter? usually if you are a really good candidate, they tend to overlook formalities like a 3.0 gpa. Those are not set in stone.

Talk to your recruiter!

quantum_nerd··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2016)
sounds like an awesome place to work!
quantum_nerd··on Hiring Is Broken – My interview experience in the tech industry
very true...
quantum_nerd··on Hiring Is Broken – My interview experience in the tech industry
While I do agree with the OP that the tech hiring process "might" be broken, I noticed a pattern in his interviews: it seems to me like a self-fulfilling prophecy. From the get go, he already considered the interviewers as enemies and went in with a mindset that they are out to get him. That wouldn't probably help calm those nervous nerves, neither would it show your prospective coworkers that you are someone they would enjoy working with(which is a fundamental part of the interview, I believe).

I have actually noticed that most tech companies(at least they ones I've had to deal with, namely Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft) are doing all they can to take the guess work out of interviews with training sessions, resources, etc...

All the OP needs is to change his attitude from cynical to optimistic and I promise, things will change for him.

Also, BFS (and DFS) are as basic as you can get with algorithms. Either of them is not longer than 10 lines of codes; just remember that BFS uses a Queue and DFS a Stack...

quantum_nerd··on Vim vs. IDE's
I moved from Atom to VS Code for Ruby programming. My machine isn't the fastest around and VS Code has improved my productivity significantly after switching from slow Atom. Before then, I used Eclipse for Java/C++. I definitely miss the real-time static analysis, ease of refactoring, and other cool features that come with an IDE.

Put me on the list of developers who haven't actually used/don't like VIM. I find the key bindings too time consuming to setup for my one-off bash scripts. For that, I use Nano. Works for me...

quantum_nerd··on The Science of Making Friends
This article was deeply personal for me. I have moved around a lot during my 20-something years of life due to a lot of factors including, but not limited to: genocide, civil war, family house foreclosed, crossing the Atlantic, taking a new job in a city 1500 miles away from my "home" state. In all those times, I have made a lot of friends some whom I am still in touch with today and others, I have drifted apart from. As I get older, it is just get too tiring to recreate new friendships. I am quiet and picky and not the kind of personal who has tons of acquaintances. I have gained new insights from this article;be right back as I text an old friend to ask how he is doing...
quantum_nerd··on Monod, our secure and offline-first Markdown editor, is open source
why oh why do we need another markdown editor?sigh I personally just use VS Code and it's been working fine.
quantum_nerd··on google.com/humans.txt
I've actually interviewed with them, before when I was in college. In all honesty, I used to be on the defensive side of things against technical interviews only because I got really nervous and my mind would go completely blank, especially this one time when a BigTechCo hiring manager asked me to sort a LinkedList without using additional space.

So after many rejections and rushed algorithms textbooks regurgitations, I decided to start somewhere my well-roundedness counted more than my algorithm implementation skills( a big awesome Fortune 20 company too) , and actually REALLY take my time to study the ins and outs of being a real World software engineer and ENJOY IT.

A year and a half later after graduation, I don't regret my decision at all. My problem-solving and implementation skills have improved tremendously, especially after I discovered Firecode.io, which takes a more pedagogical approach to interview prep than TopCoder or google CodeJam.

I live in Seattle and have a few acquaintances who are in tech at various companies(Google, FB, Amazon, MSFT..) . My interactions with Googlers have been very pleasant; they just seem to be very down to earth compared to other engineers I have encountered, in general. I am not in a rush, though. I am gainfully employed and like my job, so that also drive my job search to be largely serendipitous.

quantum_nerd··on google.com/humans.txt
Would love to help them out, if I can get an interview...
quantum_nerd··on Kite – Programming Copilot
All "my BigTech Co won't let me use this at work" and other privacy concerns aside, this is an amazing tool for budding programmers or experienced ones using an unfamiliar language. Can't wait to try it out!
quantum_nerd··on More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments
As someone who has been paying upwards of 20% or more of my monthly take home pay to student loans, I am surprised the figure of delinquent payers isn't higher. I count myself one of the lucky ones(CS degree, gainfully employed...) and I have college friends making close to minimum wage, with more students loans than I and struggling to make payments.

Who thought a $25,000/year(and rising) public university education was a good idea ?

quantum_nerd··on Abandoning Gitflow and GitHub in favour of Gerrit
nice reference to President Bush there at the end :) but I do agree, merging locally(when there are a ton of diffs/merge conflicts that I had to sift through) is still a cumbersome process.
quantum_nerd··on GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors
Seriously?? is this what tech hiring has turned into? pseudo-reverse psychology and mind tricks. I didn't even know the "green" GH contributions were that important.
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