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Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#221

Post by plinkplonk »

johnswamps wrote: post #216
plinkplonk wrote: post #183

Get admitted to a PhD in CS at Stanford next cycle. Bottleneck: At my age and with no formal education in CS and poor academic records, getting an admission is next to impossible by conventional wisdom. But the challenge is what makes it interesting :-). PS: If anyone has any data/anecdotes/advice on "impossible" PhD admissions, I'd be glad to hear it (either here or my email is in the profile).

The department usually matriculates a few students each year that aren't traditional applicants (great grades, research, recommendations, etc.). For example, there are a few students with little to no CS experience at all. The odds are definitely against you, but it's certainly possible. Good luck.

"The odds are definitely against you, but it's certainly possible. "

I've worked against the odds all my life (people were always telling me I couldn't do this or that) so this is very encouraging!

Thank You :-).

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#222

Post by johnfn »

codevandal wrote: post #218
johnfn wrote: post #188

The google codejam occurs about once a year ( http://code.google.com/codejam ). If you make it past the qualification round and the first round, and you place in the top 500 of the second round, then you get a codejam tshirt. (This year, I placed around 1300, which is good, but not good enough!) Getting that tshirt is my goal - a nice, tangible way to symbolize the massive amount of algorithmic things that I'm attemp…

Have you heard of TopCoder ( http://www.topcoder.com/tc ) ? They run several algorithm competitions like this every month.

Yeah. I've been practicing on topcoder and another, lesser known site, called codeforces.

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#223

Post by keefe »

plinkplonk wrote: post #215
keefe wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as far as I understand it, it's pretty much not going to happen without a solid reference from a professor willing to work with you. it would be easier if you had research experience in other fields and slaughtered the GRE general & subject... but yeah stanford is not exactly hurting for applicants

"it's pretty much not going to happen without a solid reference from a professor willing to work with you." Working on it (and on getting research exp) :-) "slaughtered the GRE general & subject" I have an almost perfect score on the GRE general (800/800 Verbal 790/800 Quant, 6/6 writing) . Taking the subject exams later this year. Not too worried about that either , but I heard these aren't of much value and researc…

nice scores, I think they do matter a bit more for you if you don't have a cs undergrad... if you get the professor to recommend you, you should have a chance so gluck!

I'd like to follow that path, but for now I'll be chasing $$$

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#224

Post by watmough »

djm wrote: post #144
elomar wrote: post #3

I want to leave mommy's house and start living as a "digital nomad", moving from country to country every few months as I want. I want to know the world a little better. The most obvious roadblock is making money along the way. My plan is to do it by launching a small web product, blogging about the travel, working as a local on countries where I'm allowed to, and doing some freelance programming work. I have at leas…

I spent nov/dec 09 in thailand trying to do the digital nomad thing. I was travelling while studying though, not working for money. Few things to consider: (1) Peace and quiet costs money. You may find it difficult to work if you stay anywhere that the backpacker crowd congregates. (2) The longer you stay somewhere the cheaper it gets. An example from my experience - I spent a month in chaing mai in northern thailand…

Just to answer on point 1), some of the Greek Islands, it's really pretty easy to get away from the touristy spots. My dad does this, and always seems to luck into finding quiet and peaceful places. Just have the will to get away from the commercialized areas that are easy to get locked into if you value shops and eateries that speak English.

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#225

Post by bbwharris »

abstractbill wrote: post #110

I'm trying to figure out: (1) how much time a newborn will actually demand from me and my wife, and (2) how we will fit in all the things we have decided must continue to happen (e.g. me still having a fulltime job, both of us getting regular exercise and a bit of downtime, etc).

You'll figure it out, don't worry about it too much. Sacrifices will happen, but you will adjust. There is no right or wrong way to do - regardless of the countless words of advice that you will hear from everyone. Congratulations, it's not easy, but is very rewarding.

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#226

Post by plinkplonk »

keefe wrote: post #223
plinkplonk wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"it's pretty much not going to happen without a solid reference from a professor willing to work with you." Working on it (and on getting research exp) :-) "slaughtered the GRE general & subject" I have an almost perfect score on the GRE general (800/800 Verbal 790/800 Quant, 6/6 writing) . Taking the subject exams later this year. Not too worried about that either , but I heard these aren't of much value and researc…

nice scores, I think they do matter a bit more for you if you don't have a cs undergrad... if you get the professor to recommend you, you should have a chance so gluck! I'd like to follow that path, but for now I'll be chasing $$$

"but for now I'll be chasing $$$"

Good Luck!

If I ever make millions I am going to establish a scholarship for "wildcard" admissions at the best schools. You can only use the scholarship to fund "imperfect" candidates!

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#230

Post by jherdman »

jackowayed wrote: post #204

I'm not sure that it's my most interesting, but I want to someday make robotic fireflies. I'm about to leave the East Coast to go to Stanford, and I don't want to live in a firefly-free world. I thought about trying to import them and have them breed, but apparently most species like humidity and standing water, which the Bay Area isn't too long on. I'm also not sure if they could find stuff to eat out West. So robot…

> I thought about trying to import them and have them breed, but apparently most species like humidity and standing water...

Thank you for not doing that. The last person to have an idea like this introduced those god damn Starlings to North America. Mice came here in the same fashion (i.e. human intervention).

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