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I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

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Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#681

Post by leshow »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #670
leshow wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't think that whiteboarding aho-corasick from scratch is a good quality interview. I don't think algorithms and data structures are useless or impractical. IMO a basic understanding of the main data structures is important and useful in the day to day. Granted, some applications will involve more or less use of data structures/algorithms than others, but if you discount them completely you mark yourself ou…

Point taken, and I agree. > vector/array Those two, yes (and vectors really only apply -as such- in C++), but the rest? It depends (the best answer to every conundrum). I write consumer/developer software; not ML or Big Data Mining stuff. My work is generally in device control, user interface, SDKs, APIs, etc. That means, that, in over thirty years of writing software, I have encountered exactly 0.000000 binary trees…

> Those two, yes (and vectors really only apply -as such- in C++), but the rest? It depends (the best answer to every conundrum).

I think other systems langs make the distinction, Rust does also, this is what I've been doing at my day job lately.

> That means, that, in over thirty years of writing software, I have encountered exactly 0.000000 binary trees.

I've been doing it for a third of that time and I've encountered binary trees and all kinds of other data structures a bunch of times. I don't do any big data or ML stuff, I was writing React frontends for about half of that, the last few years it's been systems programming with Rust; I still encountered these types of structures writing JS though.

> BTW: Binary trees and linked lists can be an issue in parallel-type programming. We had some image processing algorithms we did that used similar structures, and we had to be very careful. We often had to back out optimizations.

When sharing any memory between threads or tasks you have to be careful, I'm not sure there's anything special about binary trees or linked lists. Consequently Rust makes this sort of thing very nice.

I'm not sure how to respond to the rest of the comment. Personally, I'll take an expressive type system over a comprehensive unit test suite.

I'm not discounting your personal experience but I find it hard to believe you aren't encountering these types of problems, unless you are but just not noticing it. Curious about what kind of 'optimized' (optimized for what?) code is 'the worst'?

edit: I just re-read this and realized the tone was a little aggressive, I don't mean to come across that way, my bad.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#682

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

leshow wrote: post #681
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point taken, and I agree. > vector/array Those two, yes (and vectors really only apply -as such- in C++), but the rest? It depends (the best answer to every conundrum). I write consumer/developer software; not ML or Big Data Mining stuff. My work is generally in device control, user interface, SDKs, APIs, etc. That means, that, in over thirty years of writing software, I have encountered exactly 0.000000 binary trees…

> Those two, yes (and vectors really only apply -as such- in C++), but the rest? It depends (the best answer to every conundrum). I think other systems langs make the distinction, Rust does also, this is what I've been doing at my day job lately. > That means, that, in over thirty years of writing software, I have encountered exactly 0.000000 binary trees. I've been doing it for a third of that time and I've encounte…

I also apologize if I came across aggressively.

I ran a C++ shop for 25 years. We wrote “pipeline” software for image processing. REAL heavyweight data processing/DSP stuff. Optimizations were crucial, and we often took advantage of things like GPUs, and threading.

There be dragonnes...

I learned that explicit threading is a scary place, full of surprises.

Nowadays, I write in Swift (which I love -I think that Rust is similar). Explicit threading is barely supported, which is just fine, by me.

I can get defensive, because I have been treated rather badly, simply because of my age. No one ever bothers to look at my portfolio. They just start with the condescending drivel, sometimes, even accusing me of “faking” ten years of commit history, hundreds of thousands of lines of code, dozens and dozens of repos, hundreds of pages of articles, documentation, prose, and training modules.

It was exactly this kind of behavior that convinced me to not even bother trying to get work.

I’m not arrogant. I’m actually a really decent person; warm, compassionate, and a great team member. My LinkedIn profile is jammed with testimonials. I worked on a team with some of the finest engineers and scientists in the world, and had their complete confidence and trust.

But that doesn’t mean a thing, if I can’t give a proper answer to a “Draw Spunky” test.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#683

Post by vivab0rg »

frankbyte wrote: post #459
sushshshsh wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sits in an account until the day that he gets suckered into marriage and home ownership

After that a messy divorce and funds are in lawyer and exwifey account and back to the commune

MGTOW for life!

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#684

Post by [deleted] »

dmje wrote: post #543

Here's what's astounding to me: scrolling through the responses here on HN shows an almost total focus on money and career. I read the piece and thought about life and personal ambition. That's kinda interesting. Anyway, fwiw: I'm 47, living by the sea in the most beautiful bit of the UK, and running a successful micro business which works with non profits. I've deliberately chosen a path over the last decade which i…

[deleted]

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#685

Post by kyuudou »

graeme wrote: post #677
kyuudou wrote: post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest kettlebells to build and maintain connective tissue and add a bit of bulk. Otherwise I've found the same - I don't need a gym but I go mainly for the social aspect and heavier weights. And nifty massage devices.

Thanks, may try that again. When I tried before I had some lower back issues. This may have been the same mobility issue that gave me trouble doing squats. What kind of connective tissues do they maintain?

For the back issue, start with lower weight or build up your "core" muscles better first before doing any other strength training. I am not a trainer, though!

Connective tissue = tendons, fascia, muscles themselves When working with machines like at many gyms, the movement is really isolated. Free weights are better since they kind of force your muscles into different directions. Kettlebells are a bit better in that regard and are more versatile and easier to use sporadically like in a home office environment.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#686

Post by vilvadot »

gstipi wrote: post #367

I love life. I'm 37. Being alive in itself is truly remarkable. I've made great friends. I've met people who ended up disappointing me greatly. I've married a smart, beautiful, ambitious woman twelve years ago. We've went through exhilarating ups and soulcrushing downs. I've worked for a startup, which almost went under several times. I've worked for a corporate thresher which sucked life right out of me. I've worked…

Beautiful

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#687

Post by vishnumohandas »

gstipi wrote: post #390
vishnumohandas wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the best thing I've read today. Thank you. :)

Thank you, I would love to read your perspective if you feel like sharing!

I documented my perspectives a while ago here: https://vishnu.tech/posts/surviving-depression/

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#688

Post by replugged »

BeetleB wrote: post #617
0xdde wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always amusing to me how stubborn and pedantic HN commenters are over basic things. I can't help but play the game this once. I don't doubt that plenty of people share your view and plenty will share mine. We're discussing a subjective interpretation after all. But to come in like you did and try to claim that our totally standard view of what a city is is "weird" is just so absurd. >If you get the right neighbo…

> I don't doubt that plenty of people share your view and plenty will share mine. Your statement is true. And it's also true when we switch the pronouns. What's your point? "Plenty" is not the same as "majority", which was your original claim. > Okay, so one of your idealized cases and it's still closer How is it one of my "idealized" cases? Putting words in my mouth isn't going to help this conversation. > to the "1…

Instead of the discussion being about, "Cities are different in these important respects", it's evolved into this you-said-I-said ️

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#689

Post by swyx »

gstipi wrote: post #367

I love life. I'm 37. Being alive in itself is truly remarkable. I've made great friends. I've met people who ended up disappointing me greatly. I've married a smart, beautiful, ambitious woman twelve years ago. We've went through exhilarating ups and soulcrushing downs. I've worked for a startup, which almost went under several times. I've worked for a corporate thresher which sucked life right out of me. I've worked…

> I've married a smart, beautiful, ambitious woman twelve years ago. We've went through exhilarating ups and soulcrushing downs.

this is the biggest part of my life that is missing. life is almost not worth living without it.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#690

Post by kirso »

cactus2093 wrote: post #405
bstar77 wrote: post #245

I was incredibly driven about 7 years ago... I was a founder of a startup and had really lofty aspirations. I told my wife that it was very possible that we would be millionaires by the time we hit 40. Fast forward to today and that did not happen. The startup is no more, but mainly due to burnout. We made money and did well, but not well enough. I never made my millions, but did have a substantial aqui-hire opportun…

I can definitely relate to this. My own journey is, in addition to a couple of stints as a founder that didn't work out, I've worked primarily for other startups as opposed to large companies. After 10 years what I have to show for it is about $35,000 from one moderate sized acquisition of a startup you've definitely heard of but was not especially lucrative for anyone except the founders, some options that I never e…

Yes, I feel like this over-ambition and risk has put me in a similar position. I still own around 300k worth of stock which is not liquid in one of the start-ups but it has been 8 years now. On the other hand I realize that with my background I would never be able to even get a job at FAANG in a first place so I really cherish the experience I got in one of the startups like opening the offices in different countries, travelling and getting clients (I am in tech sales). However looking back, I partially regret the decision to always strive for the outsized return as an employee you get 1 bet for 4 years of vesting, instead of many bets that VCs have. I recently landed a job in a more boring place and increased my income by around 120%, living the boring tortoise life with more politics, but I realised I stopped worrying about the future and really enjoy spending my free time on staying sane. In the end though, I always say that if I would have stayed in my own country and lived the super boring life, I would regret it in the end and so far it has been an exciting ride.
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