Valley Talent • Hacker News Board

Re: Valley Talent

#21

Post by kevan » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:40 AM UTC

RKoutnik wrote: post #10

mahyarm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, there is a lot of interesting things that you could reduce into 'crud' per say. Or crud with servers. For example, would bitcoin be a 'crud app'? Is mint a 'crud app'? Is pinterest a 'crud app'? Facebook or Instagram?

BTC: No, there's an astounding amount of cryptography there. You can build CRUD stuff on top of it. Mint: (assuming the financial tracker) No, ask anyone who's worked with bank software before - it ain't pretty. Pinterest/FB/Instagram: Possibly. At the start? Absolutely. What makes those companies valuable is their network effect - everyone you know is already there. Supporting users at that scale takes a lot more th…

For more info there's the Bitcoin whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Re: Valley Talent

#22

Post by greenleafjacob » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:48 AM UTC

Most software that has been or will be written is boring CRUD mixed with specific use case business rules, but that doesn't mean that talent is inapplicable to "technically simple" problems. Even the simplest application can devolve into a mess of complexity. True talent is managing that complexity. That skill has a place in any non-trivial enterprise that uses software, not just those that solve NP-hard problems.

Re: Valley Talent

#23

Post by rguzman » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 3:58 PM UTC

Thinking that the 'talent' necessary to make a successful startup or product is just 'coding talent' is as naive and ill-informed as thinking that the only talent needed to play in the NBA is being tall. Coding is just one of the important aspects of starting a company, there are many others.

Re: Valley Talent

#24

Post by markbnj » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 4:10 PM UTC

>> One common refrain from experienced engineers outside of Silicon Valley is that 'nothing SV cranks out requires any talent'.

This is a common refrain? I'm an experienced engineer about as far outside Silicon Valley as you can get in the U.S., and in more than twenty years I have never heard this sentiment expressed. Perhaps the author needs to make some new acquaintances.

Re: Valley Talent

#25

Post by walshemj » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 4:59 PM UTC

moeamaya wrote: post #14

I've seen an alternate anecdote developing, one in which talent is growing weary of delivery, social, and data startups. It appears to result from both a financially stable base (engineers having made money from prev mentioned startups) and a desire to have a larger impact. Additionally, something I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere, but the API availability is unfathomably vast now. I was checking out Google's develo…

When I have looked at Google API's they always seem to be half completed and badly documented.

Re: Valley Talent

#26

Post by dasil003 » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:52 PM UTC

Reads like someone who has immersed themselves in the SV bubble for a year or two and now thinks they know it all. Hint: talent is orthogonal to whatever trends are happening in SV (or elsewhere).

Re: Valley Talent

#27

Post by phamilton » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 6:42 PM UTC

I think this is in line with what someone once called "fetishizing complexity".

If I work on a project that is complex, I am a good engineer because I solve hard problems. If I work on a simple problem, I'm just another code monkey.

I think a good engineer can take a complex problem and frame it in a simple light. I think a less great engineer can take the same complex problem and come up with a complex solution. From many perspectives, the second engineer is the one innovating.

Note: I'm talking about complexity in a business sense. There are many problems that are mathematically difficult and don't fall under this umbrella.

Re: Valley Talent

#28

Post by viscanti » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 6:44 PM UTC

phamilton wrote: post #27

I think this is in line with what someone once called "fetishizing complexity". If I work on a project that is complex, I am a good engineer because I solve hard problems. If I work on a simple problem, I'm just another code monkey. I think a good engineer can take a complex problem and frame it in a simple light. I think a less great engineer can take the same complex problem and come up with a complex solution. Fro…

As an industry, we do a poor job of distinguishing the good engineer coming up with an elegant solution and the lesser engineer coming up with the complex solution to the same problem.