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Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

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Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#421

Post by sawyna »

linguae wrote: post #127
sawyna wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you and share the sentiment (for the most part). I don't understand what's with leetcode. Granted it's not the best for way to judge the capabilities of a programmer, but then what is? A design round can be gamed as much as an algorithmic round can be. At least with leetcode, people become aware of different ways of thinking. By different ways, I don't mean different algorithms. I mean, given a base set of cap…

It’s not Leetcode in of itself that I hate; in fact, I enjoy programming challenges such as Project Euler and Advent of Code, and I occasionally read my Knuth volumes for fun. It’s the interview process that sucks the fun out of it, where you have to compete against those who just seem to eat, sleep, and drink Leetcode. It reminds me of my high school days when I stressed out over grades and SAT scores. I understand…

Unfortunately that's true. I think he companies can ask interesting questions that are not in leetcode, but it's basically a game where the companies make up new questions and they get added to leetcode. I don't think any company wants to spend their employees fighting a battle that's not worth it.

Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#422

Post by jldugger »

urthor wrote: post #413
jldugger wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've met plenty of engineering leaders being paid double that who are not "good at their job." It's a hard job to do well; it requires you care about technical details but also deal almost exclusively with people. It's a rare person who naturally fits into the "extrovert engineer" role and corporations are shitty about training those who don't fit yet to practice the right behaviors. Plus, if engineering is "design w…

Where are these people located and how can I take their jobs. $400,000k for dev + fun at parties, sign me up

Don't even have to take their jobs. Here's one example[1] from the OP's former employer:

> The base pay range for this role is between $196,000 and $299,000, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location. ... employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

[1]: https://careers.apple.com/en-us/details/200442275/aiml-engin...

Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#423

Post by Ilnsk »

bookofjoe wrote: post #417
hugatest wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I checked out the blog and noticed the book "Quantations". > How does the theoretical world of quantum physics create our everyday life? "Quantations" explains this with wit and clarity, making the imaginary real. I also took a peek into the book. I'm sorry to sound negative, but this is just full of fluff that has nothing to do with actual quantum physics. It's all pseudo-philosophical fluff and that stuff is the re…

>I'm sorry to sound negative... You don't sound negative to me but, rather, accurate and factual. I am no physicist but rather a retired neurosurgical anesthesiologist (38 years until 2015). The only physics I know I learned in 1966-1967 Physics 1a/2a/3a at UCLA, which was the easier physics sequence for non-physics majors who planned to go on to medical school or graduate study in other scientific disciplines. I mad…

This is a fantastic response. Just wondering, if they exist, what would you say are the broad overlaps between anesthesiology and QM are? I know Stuart Hameroff, another anesthesiologist, did a bunch of speculative work on the Orch OR front, so I'd assume there must be some connection of ag least some quality that makes both fields attractive to the same kind of person.

Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#424

Post by nawgz »

tambourine_man wrote: post #366
nawgz wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me be crystal clear: most people fucking hate working. Bosses are the worst, the money is the sole reason to do it, and we’d all be happier working way less. The idea people are “addicted” to working under a capitalist society is absurd; we are forced like prisoners, not free to make the choice ourselves. Or maybe you consider being unhoused and underfed “freedom”. The “nerve” you’ve hit is that I hate people exc…

HN is a different bubble than the rest of capitalist society. I get the feeling that most people here enjoy their work and get really well paid for it, so the logic is completely flipped on its head. But if you're calling me names, then this discussion is really over.

Enjoying programming != enjoying programming as work. Incredibly stupid claim

Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#425

Post by Wensio »

kstenerud wrote: post #142

In 2 days time I'll mark my 27th year as a professional programmer (and just over 40 years since I started programming). I've worked in small companies, big companies, and mega-corporations. I've been a programmer, manager, team lead and CTO. And in doing so I discovered that I don't like managing people, I don't like meetings, and I don't like paperwork. I like long periods of focus. So I'm a software dev/architect…

Any advice for aspiriing programmers? I work full-time and go to school part-time so finding time / motiviation to practice and learn is incredibly difficult most days.

Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#426

Post by Brusco_RF »

varjag wrote: post #159
cheschire wrote: post #18

I once had a PM who told me coding was just a stepping stone to them in their career. I couldn’t understand, I thought they must not have been a “natural” like me. Fast forward a few years, after taking on more mentorship roles, then staff responsibilities, then slipping into project oversight roles… She was so right. Coding was a great stepping stone. Several years ago my father got promoted to some leadership role.…

Rule of thumb is the worse an engineer is the sooner they try to make a dash into management or other non-coding role. Doing the job you're not cut for is incredibly stressful and humiliating. It is important though to not compensate for the humiliation with smugness to those who are good at their job.

It happens before entering the workforce too. I can't tell you how many of my classmates left the EE department for the business school riiiight around the time when circuit parameters went from being scalars to vectors

Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#427

Post by zorrotorro »

cableshaft wrote: post #297
zorrotorro wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to work with more people who LOVE software and find the development of machines and the code that runs on them as fascinating as I do. Unfortunately, its less and less these days. While I like software I'm beginning to see it as a rather bad career. While you make more money early in the career, you stop doing so rather fast and other jobs catch up quite quickly and surpass you. I guess there's always the ex…

Wow, that's depressing. So that seems to suggest that assuming I am smart (which I'd like to think I am), I should have already ditched software engineering and gone into a different field altogether. It's got some interesting points. I'd love to hear more about their assertion of how someone who is a fast learner benefits from a more stable field. It sort of makes sense as they wrote it but I'd like to read more abo…

It is depressing and I think I'm starting to see it around me. Many (bad and good) devs I know are ditching software development per se and moving into related areas (management, startups, compliance, etc) where experience and business know how matters more.

Because... while there is such a thing as software development experience, it's not that relevant for the majority of projects. Somebody sharp with less experience will more or less compete head-on.

Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#428

Post by bookofjoe »

Ilnsk wrote: post #423
bookofjoe wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm sorry to sound negative... You don't sound negative to me but, rather, accurate and factual. I am no physicist but rather a retired neurosurgical anesthesiologist (38 years until 2015). The only physics I know I learned in 1966-1967 Physics 1a/2a/3a at UCLA, which was the easier physics sequence for non-physics majors who planned to go on to medical school or graduate study in other scientific disciplines. I mad…

This is a fantastic response. Just wondering, if they exist, what would you say are the broad overlaps between anesthesiology and QM are? I know Stuart Hameroff, another anesthesiologist, did a bunch of speculative work on the Orch OR front, so I'd assume there must be some connection of ag least some quality that makes both fields attractive to the same kind of person.

I'm SO glad you commented because it prompted me to look into what Hameroff has been up to recent years.

He and I are contemporaries: he's a year older. I've followed his career since his early publications in the 1980s when he was an assistant professor at the University of Arizona Medical School Department of Anesthesiology and just beginning his exploration of microtubules that later became the focus of his and Roger Penrose's investigations.

Hameroff's inquiries began with what is still a mystery: how does general anesthesia work?:

https://anesth.medicine.arizona.edu/news/2019/anesthesia-and....

A zillion theories have come and gone and we still don't know.

I suspect that the answer is intimately linked to how consciousness happens, still the "hard problem" as David Chalmers so perfectly described it in 1995.

I don't know of any other anesthesiologist(s) interested in the confluence of QM and anesthesia.

Someone better get on this horse 'cause Hameroff is 75 and I'm 74 and who knows how much longer we'll keep banging on this drum.

Below, a guide to exploring the work of Hameroff and Penrose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Hameroff

https://hameroff.arizona.edu/research-overview/orch-or

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrated_objective_reducti...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24070914/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33232193/

Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#429

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #304
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #232

I've been working with Apple since 1986. I very much have enjoyed their ecosystem, and probably like them, for many of the same reasons that a lot of geeks hate them. It's worked out OK, for me. My first exposure to Apple personnel, were the MacHack conferences, of the late 1980s. Back then, Apple was still pretty "scruffy." Some of the T-shirts that showed up at MacHack are now silk-shirts at Apple. Over the years,…

>They were probably the only company that I would have relocated for, in my fifties. I'm always curious about people's willingness to uproot their lives, and move away from family and friends for a job. Especially at older ages where one has 'made it' and money is no longer the top priority. There's only one organization that's on that list for me, and that's JPL, especially if I got a chance to work on their sat / r…

My wife’s nephew interned there, for a year or so.

Smart kid –like, really smart. I think he got his Ph.D from CalTech, or maybe it was his undergrad. He’s a math professor at Penn State, these days.

Not sure what teams he worked with.

Re: Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple

#430

Post by tired_star_nrg »

jldugger wrote: post #422
urthor wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are these people located and how can I take their jobs. $400,000k for dev + fun at parties, sign me up

Don't even have to take their jobs. Here's one example[1] from the OP's former employer: > The base pay range for this role is between $196,000 and $299,000, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location. ... employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in the Employee Stock Purchase Pl…

Can’t see your link, it just asks me to sign into AppleConnect
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