Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Short fat engineers are undervalued

nested.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 269 posts

Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued

#52

Post by [deleted] »

winter_blue wrote: post #33
vocram wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that’s true even more if they are bald and with a beard.

I knew a senior software engineer who was in his 60s, who was short, fat (pot bellied), completely bald (or shaven), and had a large white beard . He also used to ruffle the feathers of HR. Once, when a woman from the talent acquisition team tried to give him generic instructions about conducting interviews, he told her “Lady, I don’t need all this, I’ve been doing this since before you were born”. (She was born in t…

[deleted]

Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued

#56

Post by pcstl »

throwaway2245 wrote: post #32

People who have broad interests with no depth of knowledge have not identified (for themselves) where their value lies. I would imagine that this type of engineer needs to be carefully managed to stay on tasks that add business-value. As such, it's not unfair that they are seen as juniors. They are juniors.

People whose value lies in coordination often need to dabble in multiple fields. Think of a technical artist in a game company.

Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued

#57

Post by pcstl »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #17

Do "height on demand". Constant abstract and compress the knowledge so you can ramp up in any area as needed. Really, this is why programming languages are my "home base" of expertise. It's the study of formal ideas and their communication.

This is also the strategy I tend to take. Strong, broad fundamentals so I can quickly pick up specifics on the job.

Re: Short fat engineers are undervalued

#58

Post by renerthr »

pb7 wrote: post #35
the_only_law wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ngl for a minute before clicking I was slightly curious if this was some random study of the literal interpretation.

I believe there is ample research showing height and attractiveness (one could reasonably consider weight to be one determining factor in attractiveness) do play a factor in career success, compensation, and selection for leadership.

I think it goes more the other way around. Successful people prefer to look attractive, so they take the necessary steps to achieve that. Elon M would be an example, I guess.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7378972

Post reply on HN