21–30 of 39 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But, don't worry your changing the world By creating a new innovative way to deliver ads to consumers.
Like it or not, economy needs ads.
(Sure, word-of-mouth is a form of advertisement, but OP clearly refers to the ad industry, so I'm going with that meaning.)
It's good to have a high bar. But it's dumb to use someone's academic achievements alone to measure whether they meet the bar or not.
I'm sure they don't - the author just seems a little touchy because he doesn't have a degree. I understand - I have a CS degree with a good GPA, but the school isn't all that impressive. I know it's cost me jobs (because they've told me). However, it's a pipe dream to think that there will ever come a time when degrees are irrelevant - unless human civilization changes a _lot_, academic credentials are going to get more important for programming work, not less, just as they are for every other field. As long as programming pays well and is the sort of work you can do sitting down in an air conditioned office while drinking coffee, it's going to attract a lot of applicants, and screeners are going to have to screen them. Love it or hate it, the easiest things a screener can look at that yield the best signal-to-noise ratio are academic pedigree and reputation of past employers. Since false positives are riskier than false negatives, they're being logical and reasonable.
I've been coding circles around and teaching Stanford CS undergrad and graduate students for years.
Feels good since I'm self taught.
I tell them I'm a 'street coder'. They're valuable to me ( the CS students ) because they help me put words to CS concepts I have built in my own mind from experience.
Nothing frustrates me more than the scenario outlined in the article. The business folks can and will always say whatever they want that suits the business. That's their thing.
As the leader of the team and domain expert, you should be able to hire whom you deem most qualified. And they biz folks can make up whatever BS they want as long as you're delivering.
That said, I am self-employed in SF. So I don't particularly have to worry about managers. Except for convincing them to hire me, without the fancy degree. Fortunately I think it filters out a lot of the pretentious companies I would not be happy to work with.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like it or not, economy needs ads.
Economy has functioned by word-of-mouth for millennia. Ads as an industry are relatively new (maybe 300 years). (Sure, word-of-mouth is a form of advertisement, but OP clearly refers to the ad industry, so I'm going with that meaning.)
Our best devs are consistently people who don’t have CS degrees and have good creativity, patience, curiosity, and who have some code to show that isn’t buzzword-chasing nonsense.
Our best devs are consistently people who don’t have CS degrees and have good creativity, patience, curiosity, and who have some code to show that isn’t buzzword-chasing nonsense.
I always assumed A player meant worked 60-100 hrs per week, but they expected you(not directly) to write 40-50 on your times sheet. And only paid for 30. But, don't worry your changing the world.
Some of my best people work a 30 solid ( dense ) hour week. Those are heads down, no distraction hours. No Facebook, no podcasts, just technical design and code. I don't enforce it, they just do it on their own. As long as they deliver, I want them out of the office, into the gym, outside, whatever the fuck they want, so they don't burn out.
And I'm happy with it because they always stretch and deliver, on time. And their code is tight, thoughtful and consequently maintainable.
As for finding people who exhibit those qualities. I ask them to solve a problem and see how their mind works. If it's thorough, thinking about error handling, documentation, etc., then that's a winner. I then use their Github code to determine seniority and go from there.
Ironically those with the most hunger and passion to learn and excel did not go to top-tier schools. It doesn't take much to figure out why.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Economy has functioned by word-of-mouth for millennia. Ads as an industry are relatively new (maybe 300 years). (Sure, word-of-mouth is a form of advertisement, but OP clearly refers to the ad industry, so I'm going with that meaning.)
How much are you willing to pay for every advertising supported site you use?
http://timharford.com/2018/05/how-much-would-i-have-to-pay-y...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Beware of casting a float to a boolean. Yes, every group of humans has some degree of toxic competition and hierarchy, but some much more than others. It makes sense to look at the ones that have less, and ask what they are doing right and how to emulate it.
> Beware of casting a float to a boolean That is a great expression and I'm stealing it! Sometimes it feels like most of my life is spent trying to teach others to cast booleans to floats. :)
Our best devs are consistently people who don’t have CS degrees and have good creativity, patience, curiosity, and who have some code to show that isn’t buzzword-chasing nonsense.
Another engineer at my company and I realized that most absurdly good engineers we know have art backgrounds (or just consider themselves artistic / creative). Our theory is that artists are used to working with the limitations of their medium and enjoying the challenge.