Live data from Hacker News

Someone is pretending to be me

connortumbleson.com

171–180 of 395 posts

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#171
> I could not stand this anymore listening to someone legitimately claim they were me...So I turned on my camera, renamed myself back and asked the individual what the hell they were doing... However, before I did that. I wanted to childishly email the address of the person impersonating me.

WHY!? the undercover vicitm doesn't jump up and shout when the crime starts to go down, except to drive the plot in really bad tv series.

This could have been the beginning of a new Cliff Stoll Cuckoo's Egg thriller! I am dissapoint, but I guess "who has time for all that?" Interesting story nonetheless.

It brings to mind these immortal words (needs more line breaks but then it would be longer):

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

If: A Father's Advice to His Son ― Rudyard Kipling

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#172
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Letting them both in the same room at the same time was probably the safer thing. Maybe there’s an argument, or maybe one bounces, clearing it up. But having one person hide is riskier. It means a random person could eaves drop on my interview by just pretending to me and telling this story. I mean, super cool though. I imagine my adrenaline would be going as the interviewer. I’d probably chill out when I realized th…

Imagine inventing all of this just to listen to your interview. Incentive to do that would have to be pretty wild.

Stalkers gonna stalk. The “all of this” would just have to be getting the interview link/time (calendar or email access) and then showing up a bit early to tell the story.

It is very very unlikely and I don’t judge the interviewer for how they handled it.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hope Andrew [0] — the college junior with morals who blew the whistle on the attempt to get him to impersonate the author — gets an internship or job offer out of this; he apparently was having a hard time with that. Excellent point. I've been wondering about ways to test students on "trust/morals" and decided its one of the most valuable yet least well understood qualities. Employers generally rank skills, knowl…

I've simply asked candidates 'tell me about a time you had to make a moral judgement'. I'm kind of surprised that it's not a more common question, but of course that makes it work - truly immoral people would have a made-up anecdote if it came up regularly.

I would put it as "Tell me about a time when you had to take an ethical stand or make a choice based on ethics."

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have thought a lot of completely regular candidates would be a bit stumped by that (especially since many non-trivial moral judgements are personal life stuff that's really off limits for interviews) Although maybe that's the point: psychopathic candidates end up making up fairly unconvincing heroic stories whereas regular people look a bit confused and maybe mention something they didn't do because they couldn't…

I think it goes without saying that interview questions are asking about your work life,. altho it might help if the interviewer specifies that anyway, i.e. "Tell us about a time you had to make a moral judgment at work"

The point is more that "moral judgements" like the time you pointed out that the company might violate the AGPL might actually be good stories to tell an interviewer if you've lead a drama-free working life building CRUD apps for regular employers, but are pretty hard to recall when the first thing the words "moral judgement" bring to mind are the time you had to stop interacting with X because they did Y.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#175
post #138

In 1996, my employer got a contract to work with AT&T to build a website that provided regular event updates from the Atlanta Olympics. In 1996, this was a very big deal, such a newish concept that the project was written up in AdAge or some similar industry magazine. A few months later a prospective junior engineer came in for an interview. My manager asked him the typical "tell me about an interesting project you'v…

What a small world! Unless you are also making up that story (which I would get a huge laugh out of) I'm 99% positive I was in the room with you when this happened. :)

I wasn't in the room, but my manager was. Is that you, Preserved Killick?

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#176
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a small world! Unless you are also making up that story (which I would get a huge laugh out of) I'm 99% positive I was in the room with you when this happened. :)

Wait! Are you his manager or the imposter?!?!

There's a high possibility that he's the imposter of the imposter.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#178

Andrew here. Connor, thanks for releasing this on the orange site. This story is also more fun from my position. I've been applying to internships and interviewing every week. They're mostly rejections. They're the same questions over and over with minor variation (sorry to top comment for "impersonating" your comment style). My days are deteriorating from a colorful sphere down to two points. In fact, down to two po…

Email me at my HN username at protonmail dot com for a referral to Dropbox's internship. Love the integrity and drive to get to the bottom of a strange situation.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#179

I submitted my own blog here, but then my intentionally configured HN timeouts locked me out. I was wondering why my little Linode was dying. Yeah this was an incredibly odd and creepy experience that I continue to investigate here and there. I really appreciate the interviewer for letting me stay on and confront the imposter.

Username seems familiar. I have spent a lot time with your apktool, few years ago. For the first time, I saw your real name and photo. Thank you for this amazing tool.

That's exactly how I know Connor too. Wild to see him at the top of HN with this story.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#180
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a big telecom we had an employee that maybe closed 10 tickets in two years. He was the highest paid team member (as reported by our director) and worked remotely from an RV in Oklahoma. When he was finally discovered by our director, he was fired and his immediate manager was fired.

How much do you want to bet that he also had one or two other jobs that he treated the same way?

He was a long time employee with a legacy job title "wintel engineer." A transformational ex-IBM director was finally brave enough to PIP and fire him. I think he was mostly retired while putting in 8 hours of work a quarter.
Post reply on HN