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Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

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221–230 of 441 posts

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#221
I've been doing this gig for a long time, and have worked on my share of "interesting" problems, but even while working on interesting things, the work that I perform is the rote, mundane day-to-day tasks of moving data around, gluing libraries together, all to prepare some work unit for the "interesting" stuff.

Think of it this way - an architect designs a house, it's fun, creative, but the work of actually building a house comes down to sawing a lot of wood, and hammering in a lot of nails. Even if we come up with some really cool solution to some difficult problem, the work of implementing it will be like building that house. Computer development is closer to a craftsmanship position than anything else, as pretty much everything is a one-off.

"Interesting" is also subjective. Have you thought about what interests you? Do you have a hobby or activity which excites you? If you find a job that intersects with it somehow, you will have a much more interesting job, subjectively.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#222
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admit that - given my life situation - I'm biased towards jobs that at least have a chance of also letting me put bread on the table ;). That said, I'm also having hard time separating academic work that helps things from that which just adds to the noise - grant-chasing, paper-generating studies. Any advice on that?

Funny thing- I'm a bioinformatics making 70k and with a family. I'm ready to leave the space to make money. I'm at the point where I wouldn't mind something less altruistic -it's all the same uninteresting work. Crazy to read your stories of wanting to go the opposite direction.

Crazy indeed. Grass is always greener then? Your 70k in bioinformatics is something I'd drop my current job in a heartbeat for!

I'm very interesting in knowing what are your motivations to switch towards "something less altruistic". Could you share some more details? Maybe it really is that no matter what you do, no matter how meaningful, it'll always become a boring chore? Maybe I didn't have an meaningful job yet, so I'm not disillusioned?

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#223
You sound like you're very early in your career. It took me about 8 years before I found a job that I really, really found interesting.

Think about it this way: The real interesting jobs don't take chances on recent graduates. There's just too much on-the-job experience needed.

The best advice that I could give to my younger self would be to think a lot more critically about when to change jobs. The time that I left the boring CRUD job was a huge mistake. (I should have kept looking instead of taking the job that I took.)

The second best advice that I could give my younger self would be, when in a boring (but stable) job, is to avoid recruiters and try to network more with people doing interesting things. Recruiters are better when you aren't very picky about the kind of job (or employee) you want.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you me?

I'm you from the future. I built a time machine out of sheer desperation in hopes of putting your (mine) brain on this topic earlier, so that we can find a way out of this state.

Step 1. Tell more people about this. As more people realize the sheer banality of the system, we may find better, interesting solutions

Step 2. Push for creating more and more social infrastructure. So if people want to, they can choose to not be part of the box

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#225
At least Google/Facebook/Amazon/Microsoft seem to be hiring experts in all areas of Computer Science (compilers, machine learning, operating systems, networking ...), though the interesting jobs seem to be need a PhD or at least a Masters. If you have the degree, trying to get into a good group in any of these companies might be a solution to your disappointment. (you probably need to prep for jumping through some whiteboarding hoops, but still...).

At least in the USA (and probably Israel and China as well), there seem to be enough jobs that need solid academic credentials.

Alternatively. keep the CRUD expertise, move into the business side (which is fascinating if you have an interest in how the non technical world works).

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#226
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admit that - given my life situation - I'm biased towards jobs that at least have a chance of also letting me put bread on the table ;). That said, I'm also having hard time separating academic work that helps things from that which just adds to the noise - grant-chasing, paper-generating studies. Any advice on that?

Well there's some noise like in everything else in life, but I don't think there's any empty studies (okay there's even a few cases of lying which is sad beyond words but thankfully they are very few i think). Why does this noise bother you? Besides, keep in mind that the grant-chasing doesn't happen because of greed, it happens because people want to continue doing science and that's the only way to maintain an acti…

Fair point.

The noise bothers me for two reasons. One, because grant-chasing to keep the lights on means you end up having to prioritize busy work over important problems, which wastes lives of researchers and slows the scientific endeavour. Two, because high noise makes it more difficult to find interesting/important results of other people's research.

Maybe I'm just wishing for unachievable perfection in this space.

> I could shit on the state of academic publishing for days, but at the end of the day, there is an overall positive direction in this 'academic endeavor': the creation of knowledge.

That I agree with, and I definitely complain more about the private market than scientific research because of that :).

> I find this direction much lighter on my consciousness than "generate value for the shareholders"

True, I feel the same.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#227
Currently working on high speed JESD204B data converters and clocking; synchronizing clocks across 9 boards for (essentially) software defined radios for defense applications. The system has something like 15 Kintex Ultrascale parts and a Sitara processor as well.

Working with some very serious FPGA people in a high functioning group doing really hardcore DSP, high speed memory interfaces, networking, etc.

I was in your boat before. It made me want to drive off a cliff.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm you from the future. I built a time machine out of sheer desperation in hopes of putting your (mine) brain on this topic earlier, so that we can find a way out of this state.

Step 1. Tell more people about this. As more people realize the sheer banality of the system, we may find better, interesting solutions Step 2. Push for creating more and more social infrastructure. So if people want to, they can choose to not be part of the box

> Step 1. Tell more people about this. As more people realize the sheer banality of the system, we may find better, interesting solutions

I do that a lot on HN. I've been considering blogging on this topic, but I feel I suck at writing, and people may not want to listen to confused ramblings of a random programmer -.-

> Step 2. Push for creating more and more social infrastructure. So if people want to, they can choose to not be part of the box

I'm a noob at that. Need help.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#229

I'm working on a team that is miniaturizing a synthetic aperture radar system. The amplifiers, processing, and data storage used to take up most of the space of a small cargo plane. Then it got down to four half-racks. Now it is the size of a dishwasher. We hope to get it drone-sized. It is a never-ending series of interesting technical problems that span the entire STEM range, including RF, network, system, electric…

Do you have a web site for your company? Your current work sounds similar to the work I did in my graduate studies in Ocean Engineering. Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#230
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a name to the phenomenon that humans seem to become crushingly depressed once they start to grasp the big picture dynamics of the system they're encapsulated within. I think it's an effect that we're not quite prepared for as we reach closer and closer to science dotting all its i's. It's as if childhood primes us to think that life is all about figuring out what the heck is going on around us, and as…

This feeling is because in our current stage of development, we are very primitive spiritually. Some of us don't even believe we have a soul. That it is all meaningless. Science in its current form also looks at our material world and concludes the same. Nasa tells us we are just a speck of crap in a giant space as well, with no beginning or end. You guys talk about boxes. Well there are huge ones for the mind, caref…

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