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Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

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Re: Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

#131

Post by [deleted] »

pm90 wrote: post #110
ehsankia wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly never understood all my peers constantly complaining about not being able to afford $2M house, as if that's what happiness is all about. You can still rent a very fancy apartment, max out your 401k, have a top car and live a great life, but just because they don't own a house they are always unhappy. I guess it's true that money != happiness. There's always more you could have.

It might be hard to understand if you've not grown up in America, but homeownership is considered a part of adult life, of demonstrating you're seriousness and a gateway to adult life. This is sort of changing recently, but only because many millennials are straddled with student debt and jobs that won't pay enough to afford the down payment. But every single American friend I have either has a home, or dreams of hom…

[deleted]

Re: Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

#132

Post by briandear »

taurath wrote: post #77
bradlys wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is this $5k/month house with AC within 40 minutes drive of SF and 20 minutes drive of work? (Menlo Park to Mountain View generally being work area) It basically limits you to San Mateo to Mountain View. I haven't seen anything for $5k/month with AC there. If you find it, let me know. I'm in the market - lol. I have seen one show up here and there but it's almost unequivocally in a terrible neighborhood and/or n…

Ah, so you want a single family home now. And it has to be in San Mateo->Mtv. And it must have /CENTRAL/ AC, one would assume. I'm not going to look for houses for you, except to note there are over 100 houses available right now under $5k in that region, all of which you could install central AC into for a couple grand if you wanted. If you MUST live in the San Mateo->Mtv corridor, with all those amenities, why woul…

You can’t install central ac for $2000 and certainly not in a rental.

Re: Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

#133

Post by warp_factor »

pm90 wrote: post #110
ehsankia wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly never understood all my peers constantly complaining about not being able to afford $2M house, as if that's what happiness is all about. You can still rent a very fancy apartment, max out your 401k, have a top car and live a great life, but just because they don't own a house they are always unhappy. I guess it's true that money != happiness. There's always more you could have.

It might be hard to understand if you've not grown up in America, but homeownership is considered a part of adult life, of demonstrating you're seriousness and a gateway to adult life. This is sort of changing recently, but only because many millennials are straddled with student debt and jobs that won't pay enough to afford the down payment. But every single American friend I have either has a home, or dreams of hom…

Yes, Home ownership is seen as the pinnacle of social status. This is stupid and people should rethink this preconceived notion.

In the bay area for example it doesn't make ANY sense to buy right now (Price to rent ratio, google it) but still people are flocking on every shitty apartment on sale. That's because they want to feel that little ego boost when they say they are "homeowners".

Re: Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

#134

Post by person_of_color »

a1pulley wrote: post #39
bradlys wrote: post #29

Facebook and Google are only setting the pay standard among other well paying public companies. The rest of the valley isn't keeping up. Startups in particular feel like slowly ramped up in pay but capped out. They're not offering enough stock to make up for it either. Usually only enough to make it such that your TC at startup would be equal to that of a big company IF the company IPO's/sells. (A big IF!) I don't se…

I've actually had the opposite experience with Google. I'm currently negotiating a job offer at Google; my initial offer was significantly lower than my four other ones. It's TBD whether they'll end up matching, but my recruiter has been trying to systematically deconstruct the argument for working at a local competitor to make the case that 0.67 * other offer = Google offer. I'm not sure if they'll end up matching -…

How long did you prepare for the interview?

Re: Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

#135

Post by briandear »

xenihn wrote: post #103
bradlys wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> https://www.padmapper.com/apartments/35506914/3-bedroom-2-ba... . Doesn't have AC. Looks like a pretty depressing home - tbh. HDR'd to hell but a brick yard and a BYO washer/dryer that's literally underneath the sun and skies isn't exactly where I'd like to put my expensive appliances. You can check Craigslist and you won't have much better results. Adding AC | Air Conditioning to your search criteria makes it narr…

I know people living in $2 million+ homes in SF without AC...

San Francisco is not Silicon Valley. There is a substantial temperature difference between Mountain View and San Francisco.

Re: Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

#137

Post by mavelikara »

person_of_color wrote: post #136
hnaccy wrote: post #73

These numbers make my head implode. Back to the leetcode grind.

Missing something. What is "leetcode grind"?

Practicing algorithmic questions from https://leetcode.com/ as preparation for job interviews. What watching porn and masturbating is to the rest of the world, leetcoding is to Bay Area youth.

Re: Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

#138

Post by avh02 »

warp_factor wrote: post #130

this whole leveling thing is very sad. It makes you realize you are simply a number: a small pawn that falls into a predefined category and that will do a predefined job without too much opportunities to go out of its way. I'm missing the craziness of studying at university where I felt everything was possible. I had sometimes similar feelings in startups. In big companies that created that level structure it's shock…

On the flipside, I went back to uni after a few years working - it felt like I was producing stuff that just gets marked and thrown in the trash - time invested felt like it didn't have much value other than producing a mark. It was demoralizing.

But that was an MSc, not PhD or something where your research is more likely to have output/outcome.

Re: Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

#139

Post by mathgladiator »

ehsankia wrote: post #107
hnaccy wrote: post #73

These numbers make my head implode. Back to the leetcode grind.

Pro-tip, work on personal projects, code something meaty. I learned far more from making websites and tools than I did with coding competitions.

This is very true, the need for cleverness of algorithms tends to be... sadly low compared to discipline needs to execute on a schedule. Build stuff, and then get used to the grind to finish and ship something.

Re: Interview with the creators of levels.fyi

#140

Post by mathgladiator »

warp_factor wrote: post #130

this whole leveling thing is very sad. It makes you realize you are simply a number: a small pawn that falls into a predefined category and that will do a predefined job without too much opportunities to go out of its way. I'm missing the craziness of studying at university where I felt everything was possible. I had sometimes similar feelings in startups. In big companies that created that level structure it's shock…

It gets worse if you level up because you realize that people are just numbers that need to be led and managed... It's also kind of amazing.

I recommend reading "Extreme Ownership" to get a sense of the importance of leadership because there are no bad teams, just bad leaders. We are the apex predators on the planet, and the key to our success is understanding the social element of it and how to take a group of people and have them achieve something amazing beyond themselves individually.

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