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Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

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Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#11

Post by mcv »

nojito wrote: post #8
elsurudo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I know he's a bit of an odd character and a showman, but do you actually think he's that "out of his depth" that he's desperately trying to crib other people's code? He's accomplished some pretty impressive things in a pretty short career – for now I would take him at face value re: asking for code as a clever recruiting strategy.

> He's accomplished some pretty impressive things in a pretty short career Such as?

Jailbroke iPhones and some other systems.

I've got to admit I have no idea how his experience is relevant to Twitter. But apparently he's working for free. (Well, cost of living in San Francisco, which is not nothing, but it's not gaining him financially.) I'm not surprised Elon is happy to hire someone of Hotz's fame and skill as an intern.

Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#12

Post by hatf0 »

mcv wrote: post #11
nojito wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's accomplished some pretty impressive things in a pretty short career Such as?

Jailbroke iPhones and some other systems. I've got to admit I have no idea how his experience is relevant to Twitter. But apparently he's working for free. (Well, cost of living in San Francisco, which is not nothing, but it's not gaining him financially.) I'm not surprised Elon is happy to hire someone of Hotz's fame and skill as an intern.

Not working for free - he's getting paid around the same as what old Twitter interns were paid (2k/week, ~8k/mo?) [1]

[1]: https://twitter.com/realGeorgeHotz/status/159527394029302988...

Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#13

Post by duckkg5 »

Geohot had this weird mystique that was pretty appealing when it looked like he was building really interesting things better than (or as good as) large corporations. He should have stayed put because now he looks very average. Makes me feel better about myself but I really did think this guy was special.

Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#14

Post by beernet »

neaden wrote: post #2

And he's immediately asking for people on Twitter to write the code for him: https://twitter.com/realGeorgeHotz/status/159527086740295680...

What's the matter here? Writing code is the easy part while this guy apparently has bigger fish to fry than staring at a debugger.

Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#15

Post by smcl »

newbieuser wrote: post #10

is this guy a troll? so he's playing a character? i know he's very smart and talented, but i can't tell if he's serious on twitter or a troll in his thoughts.

No idea. He claimed on HN to me years ago that he found the Arthur Whitney k interpreter code[0] to be easy to read, and said that I was revealing my own incompetence by saying I found it to be quite impenetrable. I see only one comment under his name so he's somehow got his comments bulk-deleted.

He's undoubtedly a good developer, he's just also quite ... headstrong shall we say :)

[0] - see http://kparc.com/b/a.c, worth noting that I was persuaded by another much more recently to give it a shot so my feelings towards this style have softened slightly.

Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#16

Post by mopsi »

duckkg5 wrote: post #13

Geohot had this weird mystique that was pretty appealing when it looked like he was building really interesting things better than (or as good as) large corporations. He should have stayed put because now he looks very average. Makes me feel better about myself but I really did think this guy was special.

Not only that, but the Twitter thread trying to paint programming for him for free as "fun" and an "opportunity" while actually not hiring seems unbelievably sleazy and cheap. I'm getting no-impostor-syndrome from it; the more I read, the less I doubt my skills and overall sanity.

Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#17

Post by elsurudo »

jsnell wrote: post #7
elsurudo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I know he's a bit of an odd character and a showman, but do you actually think he's that "out of his depth" that he's desperately trying to crib other people's code? He's accomplished some pretty impressive things in a pretty short career – for now I would take him at face value re: asking for code as a clever recruiting strategy.

It clearly isn't a recruiting strategy. He is not a decision maker in hiring, claims to know nothing about it, beyond being able to make referrals: https://twitter.com/realGeorgeHotz/status/159529448151060480...

He personally knows Elon and they've had dealings in the past. I bet if he recommends someone and that person is needed, that person will be hired.

Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#18

Post by elsurudo »

nojito wrote: post #8
elsurudo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I know he's a bit of an odd character and a showman, but do you actually think he's that "out of his depth" that he's desperately trying to crib other people's code? He's accomplished some pretty impressive things in a pretty short career – for now I would take him at face value re: asking for code as a clever recruiting strategy.

> He's accomplished some pretty impressive things in a pretty short career Such as?

You can read about it on his Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hotz

Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#19

Post by piva00 »

smcl wrote: post #15
newbieuser wrote: post #10

is this guy a troll? so he's playing a character? i know he's very smart and talented, but i can't tell if he's serious on twitter or a troll in his thoughts.

No idea. He claimed on HN to me years ago that he found the Arthur Whitney k interpreter code[0] to be easy to read, and said that I was revealing my own incompetence by saying I found it to be quite impenetrable. I see only one comment under his name so he's somehow got his comments bulk-deleted. He's undoubtedly a good developer, he's just also quite ... headstrong shall we say :) [0] - see http://kparc.com/b/a.c ,…

He's like many other amazing technical people: very good with their technical skills which they believe validate their own ego to be arrogant over the ones they consider to be lesser due to diminished prowess in the same set of skills.

It's an abhorrently sad state of living a life in my view. But they can make money and technical feats that not many others can furthering validating their inflated ego.

Re: Hacker George Hotz signs on for 12 weeks at Twitter

#20

Post by tibbydudeza »

Just like Elon.

I much prefer quiet genius of Carmack to loud self-promoting Hotz - he strikes me as a bit of BS artist but is also talented.

Carmack is working on cracking AGI, and he really thinks he might be able to make the leap that escaped others so far - but he will work on it and show something impressive like DOOM or admit it failed like Armadillo.

In the meantime, no twitch, tweets or YouTube going off on tangents.

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