251–260 of 358 posts
We used this a couple times at Sandstorm back in the day. At the end of the interview the candidate would play Factorio cooperatively with the team for a while. I think it is remarkably effective at identifying the kinds of skills and personality traits that a software engineer actually needs to have in day-to-day work. You can find out if someone is self-directed, how fast they work, whether they produce clean desig…
An amusing thought experiment but obviously it would have catastrophic consequences in real life... Pretty much anyone can get good at the game by watching Let’s Plays or reading guides.
Honest question: is that fundamentally any different than building skills by imitating StackOverflow solutions or studying principles and patterns to build knowledge? I would view those as respective software development analogues, though there's definitely room for disagreement, particularly for very deep problem and solution spaces.
We used this a couple times at Sandstorm back in the day. At the end of the interview the candidate would play Factorio cooperatively with the team for a while. I think it is remarkably effective at identifying the kinds of skills and personality traits that a software engineer actually needs to have in day-to-day work. You can find out if someone is self-directed, how fast they work, whether they produce clean desig…
Even more so for a person who can't play video games, e.g. blind people. Many of the other interview techniques, for all their faults, at least don't (inadvertently) discriminate against people with disabilities.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The major difference between Factorio and software is you can't refactor in Factorio. Your options are to spaghetti or start fresh. You can't really pick and choose good pieces of your layout because of physical restrictions and the game is a giant math equation, and you want inputs to match outputs at every step of the way - if you don't have the space to do this you don't have the space. It's like if in the softwar…
You can absolutely refactor in factorio...in fact you have to refactor as you get access to better technologies. Just like software, refactorability is largely dependent on how well you design your base at the beginning. If you leave plenty of room for expansion and compartmentalize different production areas, it makes it extremely easy to upgrade with minimal disruption to the factory. And also like software, if you…
These are all things a new player has no clue about. All you're really saying is an experienced player that has done enough researching and equation balancing (X miners feeds Y furnaces and a line of belt can support Z miners) ahead of time should be able to design a base that doesn't require too much demolishing. And presumably, not overdesign in unnecessary base components.
It assumes perfect knowledge.
The closest to refactoring in Factorio is the ability to use bots to tear down and build blueprints. But you get that ability long after it would first be useful - that would be around when you get plastics, which easily triples the size of your base.
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> hire quickly and fire quickly This kind of mentality is not conducive to a well-functioning nation with people who have dependents and need stability.
I would reverse it. The nation is not conducive to business if it can't provide healthcare and safety nets for those without work or in between jobs. In the US we are held hostage with healthcare based on our employers - if you're even lucky enough to have a stable job with benefits.
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Hire quickly and fire quickly with a generous severance. That’s the only method that I’ve seen works effectively. Netflix does more with 2000 engineers that companies with 10-20x that. This also lets you take chances on engineers that weren’t “perfect” but had a lot of positives to offer.
This approaches biases against those whose residency status is dependent on employment (e.g. H1Bs). There’s no silver bullet when it comes to hiring.
Let's focus on solving problems in america for american citizens first, then we can worry about everyone else.
We used this a couple times at Sandstorm back in the day. At the end of the interview the candidate would play Factorio cooperatively with the team for a while. I think it is remarkably effective at identifying the kinds of skills and personality traits that a software engineer actually needs to have in day-to-day work. You can find out if someone is self-directed, how fast they work, whether they produce clean desig…
My thoughts exactly while reading the article.
I am a senior engineer and have been programming for close to two decades. I picked up Factorio a few months ago and felt overwhelmed. I couldn't finish the tutorial. I think my problem is spatial relations--it is something I've always struggled with (how to arrange furniture in a room, solve a jigsaw, etc). I don't think this is a detriment to my programming ability at all--spatial relations really never enters into…
Also a senior engineer. I tried factorio demo out for maybe 30 minutes, but hated the fact that I actually have to walk the engineer around and do menial tasks like resource collection myself. Why can't I just do stuff with mouse cursor like in most other top-down strategy games? Maybe the game changes in later stages, but the demo seemed to be full of nonsense busywork that is prevalent in survival games.
Because thats not what the game is. If you want that, play something else.