Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

erikmcclure.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 358 posts

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#161

Post by hobs »

tomc1985 wrote: post #106
hobs wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Factorio is very much like programming on a good team, automation, expansion, refactoring, tooling used to solve your problems. Satisfactory is cool, but at no point do you get the "ok so I built this entire factory and now I can just replicate it modularly" - no, just place every, single, block, by, hand. To me factorio is a rethinking of the RTS game, satisfactory is like a really nice minecraft mod.

Factorio didn't have blueprints either, early on. I suspect Satisfactory will add them as it is still in early access

I think its possible, and I might switch over my opinion if such a thing existed - it'd still be hard to optimize it to build worlds of "factorio level" complexity.

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#162

Post by yuliyp »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #109
tomc1985 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you can refactor... you can clear away everything and you get back 100% of materials

Demolishing your base and building a new one is not anything like refactoring.

It's exactly like refactoring. You can replace a component that does something with a different structure for accomplishing that. Of course, if the system was tangled, then you may need to refactor other components first (read: relocate them to give room). The structure of the base around something is going to place limits on the refactoring. If the base is so horrible that you decide to gut it entirely, it's just like a rewrite.

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#163

Post by tryonenow »

goddess33 wrote: post #156

As good-intentioned as this is... it's the type of behaviour that just adds more barriers for women trying to break into tech. When hobbies like these - video games made exclusively by white men [0], played (almost) exclusively by men - are used to assess a candidate's ability as a software engineer , who do you think benefits? [0] https://factorio.com/game/about

Isn't it racist and sexist to presume that women and POC won't play a game just because it's made by white men? How is that relevant? Is anyone else concerned over this kind of overt, casual, anti-white racism and misandry that has become socially acceptable as of late?

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#164

Post by pbhjpbhj »

wideareanetwork wrote: post #130
jontas wrote: post #125

I am a senior engineer and have been programming for close to two decades. I picked up Factorio a few months ago and felt overwhelmed. I couldn't finish the tutorial. I think my problem is spatial relations--it is something I've always struggled with (how to arrange furniture in a room, solve a jigsaw, etc). I don't think this is a detriment to my programming ability at all--spatial relations really never enters into…

Well according to the thesis put forward here you aren’t a developer they’d want to employ . As a job seeker you need to identify these companies fast so you can avoid wasting your time on them.

That's not really how interview processes work.

If factorio interviews fill all roles with competent personnel, reduces hiring of incompetent people, etc., then it could be "good enough". Sure, you miss a lot of people who would also be good [enough].

They're not saying people who can't play factorio can't develop; it's the opposite. The hypothesis is surely that the can't+can't group has a large overlap.

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#165

Post by lvice »

nicklecompte wrote: post #134
oauea wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying satisfactory is a nicer factorio is ignoring everything that makes factorio a good game.

I think Satisfactory is “nicer” in that it’s prettier and more user-friendly, has higher production values, etc. Not to speak for the parent comment but I took “nicer” to be a very deliberate choice instead of “better.” It is true that Factorio is currently a better game and I suspect that will be the case even when Satisfactory is complete. I don’t really think it’s intended to be a 3D Factorio (even if that’s the e…

Yes that's what I meant. I don't know factorio very well, "nicer" meant just that Satisfactory is more focused on being a pretty game with cool graphics and world exploration, and less "hardcore" on the automation stuff.

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#166

Post by Filligree »

tomc1985 wrote: post #106
hobs wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Factorio is very much like programming on a good team, automation, expansion, refactoring, tooling used to solve your problems. Satisfactory is cool, but at no point do you get the "ok so I built this entire factory and now I can just replicate it modularly" - no, just place every, single, block, by, hand. To me factorio is a rethinking of the RTS game, satisfactory is like a really nice minecraft mod.

Factorio didn't have blueprints either, early on. I suspect Satisfactory will add them as it is still in early access

They've said they won't have blueprints.

Now, granted, they might change their minds -- but it's hard to imagine how blueprints would work. Factorio is played on a 2D plane, with few obstacles in general and none that can't be removed; Satisfactory is played in a 3D world with immutable obstacles.

The game is tuned towards not needing blueprints. You don't need large quantities of anything, just a small amount of every item -- the complexity scales up, but the scale itself kinda doesn't. Yes, some players will attempt to turn the entire output of the map into turbo-motors, producing exactly the right amount of every ingredient, and will build their factory in the sky to avoid dealing with the terrain--

And yes, blueprints could be useful in this specific case. But that's not most players.

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#167

Post by LanceH »

benmller313 wrote: post #160
goddess33 wrote: post #156

As good-intentioned as this is... it's the type of behaviour that just adds more barriers for women trying to break into tech. When hobbies like these - video games made exclusively by white men [0], played (almost) exclusively by men - are used to assess a candidate's ability as a software engineer , who do you think benefits? [0] https://factorio.com/game/about

Why wouldn't a woman be able to be good at a game made by a white man?

It is especially dangerous territory saying women can't be good at Factorio since it has such analogs to programming. Saying women can't play it is very close to saying women can't program or think logically.

Saying they don't like it because it was written by women is: first, sexist; second, who the hell looks up who made the game before they've played it.

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#168

Post by andyxor »

why there is no standardized Leetcode-style tests like SAT or GRE that can be administered once and applied to all software job applications.

The current situation is like every company coming up with its own version of IQ test, the randomness factor is huge. if current employees of any company were to simply retake their own tests most will fail.

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#169

Post by pbhjpbhj »

jkingsbery wrote: post #115
markus_zhang wrote: post #108

For anyone interested in Factorio as well as the technical notes of optimization. I highly recommend another game: Daison Sphere Program. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1366540/Dyson_Sphere_Prog... The leading programmer uses some sophisticated ways of optimization, including: - DOP instead of OOP - Leveraging GPU for parellely calculating certain stuffs - Using a GTX 660 Ti for development Here is a technical po…

Dyson Sphere Program is so good. I haven't played Factorio yet, but I think it has all the same sorts of things that this article described. When I started playing DSP at first, I was just putting stuff anywhere. Then I realized that there are advantages in trying to make things modular in a way roughly analogous with code. At the same time though, it is very different than code, as the design is spacial, not as abst…

I've only played factorio demo (too expensive for me) but the parts seem almost identical. factorio doesn't have the different planets, and different solar systems, etc, AFAIK, but the basic by building blocks seem near identical to me.

The curved build surface causes lots of interesting aspects to arise.

Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone

#170

Post by fghfghfghfghfgh »

tryonenow wrote: post #163
goddess33 wrote: post #156

As good-intentioned as this is... it's the type of behaviour that just adds more barriers for women trying to break into tech. When hobbies like these - video games made exclusively by white men [0], played (almost) exclusively by men - are used to assess a candidate's ability as a software engineer , who do you think benefits? [0] https://factorio.com/game/about

Isn't it racist and sexist to presume that women and POC won't play a game just because it's made by white men? How is that relevant? Is anyone else concerned over this kind of overt, casual, anti-white racism and misandry that has become socially acceptable as of late?

Yes, for one I am concerned. Not so much for myself but for the future of my little boy
Post reply on HN