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

Announcing Starfighter

kalzumeus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 418 posts

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#331

Post by dlss »

olivercreashe wrote: post #282
sfink wrote: post #237

Hey job seekers. I'm level 45 in starfighter with a power VI blaster in C++ and IX in Python. $100 to get you to level 30, x1.5 per level above that (though obviously I can't get you above 45, but I know a guy so I can subcontract up to 52.) You just have to set up a port forward from your machine and I'll take care of the rest. Contact info is in my profile. Don't get suckered into using a bot. They may be cheaper i…

I like this idea, but I also like the one proposed here http://ortask.com/a-better-way-to-hire-developers-and-tester... . I fear that starfighter will overlook goood candidates simply because they are not good at gaming, which makes the second approach by ortask more interesting and maybe balanced.

As long as starfighter isn't the only way technical recruiting happens, I think that's not really a problem. There will always be lots of ways to demonstrate talent :)

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#332

Post by jCanvas »

I am surprised that Patrick is moving onto yet a different project.

After leaving his job he works as a freelance online marketing expert. Then quits that despite implying making a lot of money. Instead wants to create online marketing courses to reach bigger audience, but takes forever to produce any content and is now abandoning that track. Creates AppointmentReminder with some good initial success but reading between the lines that is going to be sold/abandoned as well.

Now moving onto yet another project. Seems you have created several great opportunities for yourself but cannot stick and focus on any one thing?

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#333

Post by dlss »

MichaelGG wrote: post #303
tptacek wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually hope this happens, and that there's a community of code sharing that forms around it.

Wouldn't that just make cheating easier, then? I'm sure you have this sorted out somehow, it just seems like a rather large unaddressed question.

The complexity of the problem solver generally increases faster than the complexity of the problem generator.

For example, a general solver for "what is #{x} + #{y}?" is relatively easy. A general solver for "what is the derivative of #{random_equasion_with_diffuculty(3)}?" requires a full computer algebra system. Take one more step into advanced mathematics, and things get more dicy -- automated theorem provers, for example, require human guiding and hints.

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#335

Post by cpach »

tlrobinson wrote: post #315
TeMPOraL wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Tesla Motors comes to mind as a company for which "electrification of the world transportation" is the goal, and "profitable business" is only means to an end. I understand the fear though; most of the companies we interact with (and I'd wager, 90% of startups we see here) are what I call toilet-paper companies - they'd gladly switch from whatever it is they're doing to manufacturing toilet paper if that wou…

As a public company isn't it Tesla's obligation to try to run a (eventually) profitable business?

Sure. Did 'TeMPOraL say anything contrary to that?

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#336

Post by dlss »

tptacek wrote: post #255
agentultra wrote: post #238

Another attempt to apply data analysis to produce a concrete number that represents the merits and talents of a fellow human being. How utterly irrational. It's ideas like this that make me question why I bother being a programmer for anything more than leisure these days... except that I have no idea what else I could do to keep a roof over my family's head this late in my life. You call yourselves, "engineers," but…

If you could tell us how to apply data analysis to produce a concrete number that represents the merits and talents of a fellow human being, I would love to hear it; it would make my job a lot easier. I didn't know that was possible. Is this some kind of linear algebra-y machine learning sort of thing?

At an absolute minimum you should be collecting lots of statistics and using them to train a bayesian candidate filter to estimate hiring probability (the same architecture as a bayesian spam filter would work).

If you find yourself wanting something more advanced than that, random forests would be a good match here, as would clustering the candidates using DBNs or simply k-means and then using base rates.

Also, if you haven't looked at https://www.kaggle.com/competitions you really should -- they're similar to what you're doing, only for machine learning.

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#338

Post by Pyxl101 »

omegaham wrote: post #302
areyousure wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, why'd you stop? Isn't this a great way to filter out those 30--40% of people?

I like this response. I think that one of the best things about a take-home challenge is that during the interview, you can then say, "The way you implemented this function was interesting. Let's talk about why you did it that way." If he knows what he's doing (or made a weird solution), you get a great glimpse into his thought process. If he plagiarized, then he's garbage. English teachers do the same thing for dete…

It's a neat idea, but ultimately, worrying about cheating or whether someone has cheated feels like a distraction. It suggests a test that isn't repeatable. I'm only confident in my ability to detect obvious plagiarism. Subtle plagiarism can exist in varying forms, such as reading an analysis of the problem and solutions. Some people who plagiarize will pass a thorough Q&A about their code, because they fully understood the explanation of the solution, but are getting an unfair advantage over candidates who worked out a solution themselves from scratch.

Overall, I get more value from tests that are constructed so that I can learn positive things about the candidate - as many opportunities as possible for the candidate to distinguish themselves. If the only reason for a particular approach was to provide the opportunity for immoral candidates to weed themselves out by committing obvious plagiarism (negative data), then there's probably a better approach that tells me more about the candidate per unit time.

If I was going to continue, I would use a problem that is (1) more representative of the actual work being done by the team; less of a puzzle (2) custom designed for the team or company; not a preexisting or well known problem. (Even candidates who don't cheat can have an unfair advantage on well-known problems if they have coincidentally encountered it before! Another reason to use unique questions.)

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#339

Post by cmdkeen »

tptacek wrote: post #83
otakucode wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first thought when reading the blurb on your site was 'oh great... they're going to make a CTF where you have to participate in a team, and all other members of your 'team' are actually AI programmed to be as distracting and abrasive as possible and you will have to work on a 25 year old PL/SQL system designed by a prima donna so you can show your ability to work in hostile environments.' I am sure that's not what…

You will not have to participate in a team or work on my 25 year old PL/SQL system; I made the PL/SQL optional.

Sad. There should definitely be a challenge involving table functions all the way down - combined with a Call of Cthulhu esque sanity system...

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#340

Post by sytringy05 »

smikhanov wrote: post #326
woah wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that cheating on this would be unethical. Programming is about getting things done. As a hiring metric, nothing can beat open source. The open source portfolio really is kind of a golden standard. It is real work that you have done, that has (hopefully) advanced the commons, because you love programming and have something unique to add to the world. Some fake video game programming may indicate something…

What is Express?

express.js
Post reply on HN