Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India • Hacker News Board

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#141

Post by qchris » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

dheera wrote: post #18

searchableguy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the obsession with certificates interesting. One of my past school used to hand them out like candies. It costs like a dollar for 10 and made everyone happy. Same with trophies and medals. After some questioning and feedback from a lot of people indirectly, I concluded that it's one of the best investment any school can make. It results in lot of good PR, recognition, talks, feel good, etc. It's useful to targ…

That's interesting because I've always found someone being "certified" for e.g. Microsoft something is a huge turnoff for hiring.

I largely agreee, with the exception of CAD design certificates for Solidworks, etc. I don't even have one, but everyone I've met who has are actually functionally better at CAD than those without, so I acknowledge it.

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#142

Post by skybrian » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 7:05 PM UTC

gge wrote: post #84

hardwaregeek wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's weird is how many students work their asses off, get amazing grades, go to top schools...and end up at a big tech company working with people who went to state school and community college. Of course going to a top school makes the application process easier, but only insofar that you clear the resume screen and get some confirmation/credential bias in your favor. Don't get me wrong, it's great that tech compa…

If thats what they choose to work on, they probably weren't the best minds ;)

How could anyone know? Google is vast and has many kinds of jobs, and so there simply isn't enough information to say.

There is cutting-edge research and also pretty boring business app development. Also, some jobs are pretty specialized and not the sort of thing you can get as a generic software engineer.

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#143

Post by devdas » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 8:54 PM UTC

HeadsUpHigh wrote: post #131

rramadass wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>nevertheless, I think it is a fairly conventional and unimaginative path to take in life, compared to, say becoming an artist or doing a startup. This is exactly privilege speaking. Starving Artists/Musicians/Humanities/Literature major are practically a meme and have become a cautionary tale on what to avoid until you have established yourself financially. Whether it is fair or not, life does not reward them in tod…

>This is exactly privilege speaking. I'm not disagreeing with you here, but how is that even relevant in this discussion? This was about the path students from a high-level school took.

Yes, and those students come from a life of lesser privilege.

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#144

Post by TrackerFF » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:43 PM UTC

dnchu wrote: post #133

TrackerFF wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one thing I enjoy about Scandinavia - we have a very collaborative culture, where the community is above the individual. The concept of "gaming the system" is extremely frowned upon, and everyone should strive to be the morally best person they can be. But if you're financially or materialistically motivated, there are some drawbacks with this, though. - Higher taxes - More compressed wages (an Engineer with a…

Is that kind of culture sustainable?

Why wouldn't it be?

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#145

Post by nexus2045 » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 10:16 PM UTC

ghoomketu wrote: post #86

gautamcgoel wrote: post #20

I am Indian-American, and while I cannot comment much about the culture of Indians in India, I can comment a bit about the culture of Indian-Americans, especially second-gen Indian Americans like myself. Many of my Indian-American classmates exhibit the behaviors described in this article. For example, in my high school (a magnet program for gifted students), there were several Indian-American students, many of whom…

I'm also an Indian from one of the "top" engineering colleges and what you say is very much true for what I have seen first hand during the 4 year degree course. Unfortunately the reason here is definitely cultural. I was lucky that my parents didn't force me to become an engineer or doctor (though it was by choice) but for majority of my friends since 9th std, it was about getting into IIT and their whole life and t…

This is reality... so why is this being downvoted? Too much clashes with the morals of the privileged audience here who mostly grew up in an environment where no cutting corners was needed?

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#146

Post by mav3rick » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 11:08 PM UTC

cinntaile wrote: post #125

rramadass wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must have been looking at the wrong places then (Youtube is not a good indicator). Here is "National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL)" which publishes a lot of high quality courses from various top-ranking universities in India - https://nptel.ac.in/

You misunderstood what I meant. I did not say that there are no high quality tech topic videos coming from India, I am sure there are as I have watched a few myself. What I said was that there is a lot of low quality content and I was wondering if the reasons for that were related to what the parent mentioned.

No it's not. "Youtube" is still perceived as "time wastage" by most conventional parents. In fact creators are kind of rebelling against the norm.

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#147

Post by mav3rick » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 11:10 PM UTC

gautamcgoel wrote: post #20

I am Indian-American, and while I cannot comment much about the culture of Indians in India, I can comment a bit about the culture of Indian-Americans, especially second-gen Indian Americans like myself. Many of my Indian-American classmates exhibit the behaviors described in this article. For example, in my high school (a magnet program for gifted students), there were several Indian-American students, many of whom…

You just stereotyped a country + immigrants to the tune of billions. I'm sick of minorities being judged as a group and "Americans" being treated as individuals.

Do you really think 90% of Americans doing CS are not doing because of an easy FAANG job ? That they had some deep passion for CS since long ?

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#148

Post by mav3rick » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 11:18 PM UTC

gautamcgoel wrote: post #30

aviraldg wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you so quick to blame "backwards attitudes" when this behaviour is simply to meant to compensate for discrimination against Asians in college admissions? ( https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-many-sins-... ) Asians with far better scores are deemed to be less worthy due to "uninteresting personalities" than others far less qualified. I don't think it's difficult to understand why the children of…

I think it's backwards to believe that the measure of your life is how prestigious a college you went to, or how much money you make, especially if these goals lead you to cheat and lie to advance.

You had a shitty circle of friends and are now projecting. I know many Indian-Americans who are hard working, creative and NEVER cheated. One doesn't need "Americanized" parents to be a decent person.

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#149

Post by mav3rick » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 11:22 PM UTC

gautamcgoel wrote: post #97

ghoomketu wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also an Indian from one of the "top" engineering colleges and what you say is very much true for what I have seen first hand during the 4 year degree course. Unfortunately the reason here is definitely cultural. I was lucky that my parents didn't force me to become an engineer or doctor (though it was by choice) but for majority of my friends since 9th std, it was about getting into IIT and their whole life and t…

Yes, this culture is exactly what I was talking about.

None of me or my friends cheated. You have a shitty circle of friends.

Re: Why most Hacktoberfest PRs are from India

#150

Post by mav3rick » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 11:25 PM UTC

monksy wrote: post #39

gautamdivgi wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> religious values that don't honor ethics Reference for this? I was raised a Hindu still am. I don't and have never condoned cheating. The religion doesn't condone cheating. I smell good ole bigotry in the comment.

I'm not hindu, nor would I claim I am. What I've read a long time ago was that there is a god in the religion that promotes that behaviour (it's not about the action of deceiving, it's if the person that was deceived is gullible enough) I'm going to have to see if I can find it again, or if this is a misunderstanding. EDIT: I can't find the original statement about the religious values. I've removed it as that I can'…

Hindu gods have both flaws and virtues. Doesn't mean the followers emulate everything they read. Wtf.