You don't need to work on hard problems (2020)

Post by sublinear » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 8:56 AM UTC

johnnyanmac wrote: post #49

sublinear wrote: post #9

> In school, if you pick an easy problem instead of a hard one, you lose leverage because your extra problem-solving ability goes to waste. But in real life, you can redirect it to prioritizing which problems to solve, or working more quickly, or building a machine that solves the problems for you. I'm surprised that for once this kind of perspective is on HN. The world is absolutely full of low hanging fruit problem…

>Nobody wants naive solutions, overabstraction, or premature optimization. The end user can definitely tell the difference even if they don't know how to say it. Not necessarily. Sometimes the naive or not optimal works just fine, especially with such powerful hardware. They don't care if a web app is made in electron if it works and is snappy (most users aren't opening up their task manager to measure cpu load).

Post by lelanthran » Thu, Nov 09, 2023, 6:41 AM UTC

voxl wrote: post #21

atomicnature wrote: post #10

I've always thought that people underestimate the mental acuity needed to find simple truths within complex systems and to use them to achieve useful results. Especially in academia, many professors, who are wedded to particular models, go so far as to dismiss simplicity without sufficient consideration. It was not always this way. Among the older philosophers, you can observe a strong affinity for simplicity. Figure…

How do you not cringe at a comment that so matter-of-factly states that our modern researchers all have this assumed negative propensity that somehow the wisend researchers, thinkers, and leaders of the past did not have. You must be speaking of personal experience, because otherwise your comment is completely ridiculous. But if you are, you certainly have no personal experience with historical figures. So how can yo…

Post by JackMorgan » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 1:50 AM UTC

diracs_stache wrote: post #104

JackMorgan wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I train software engineers with the apprentice model, and it takes about 500 hours to train a person to be able to get hired as an entry level full stack engineer. Maybe not in today's market where even talented engineers are struggling. But over the last sixteen years I've trained sixteen engineers who all still work in the industry. I use TDD, a list of projects that gradually increase in difficulty, multiple langu…

What is the application for the training? I don't need payment or job placement but damn if my software engineering abilities don't need a boost (EE/physics background)