How is this new? Non tech people have been running tech people for quite some time.
How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
61–70 of 80 posts
Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
#62When I was doing a cyber training exercise in the military, we had an Air Force general tell us that the best technical officers they had started out with non-technical degrees. They said that officers with undergrad degrees in things like IT, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, weren't very good at thinking outside of the box because everything they did was fairly low level and had a provably correct solutio…
Lately I have been realizing that this is true for me. I can get stuff done on time when there are existing guidelines/checklist. If not, I tend to struggle and take much more time to complete tasks. I do have a technical degree. But I think my underlying problem is because of how I was brought up. I had strict parents and family members and was always told what to do. Questioning things was not something I was taugh…
I think this is almost universally true. When the next step isn’t obvious because there are too many different strands of the project to integrate, progress grinds to a halt. Same underlying phenomenon of what novelists call “writer’s block.”
Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
#63Fabulous post but this caught my attention: "The learning curve was steep. Pushed me 2x beyond my existing abilities. Exhilarating." What is meant by “steep learning curve”? https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6209/what-is-mea... I don't mean to be rude, just that it is interesting.
A learning curve is a plot of work required for achieving some amount of learning. Those guys just didn't get that that was how it's being used.
"How hard is it to learn Haskell?" Not "How much time does it take to learn Haskell?"
For instance, people will say some things are easy to learn, hard to master (playing Go). Other things are hard to learn but once you have, you're close to mastering them (kinds of problems that have a trick - like integrating e^ax cos bx).
Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
#64When I was doing a cyber training exercise in the military, we had an Air Force general tell us that the best technical officers they had started out with non-technical degrees. They said that officers with undergrad degrees in things like IT, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, weren't very good at thinking outside of the box because everything they did was fairly low level and had a provably correct solutio…
I worked in a defence company that had a strong revolving-door relationship with the military: several of our staff were recruited from the military, often because they had good domain knowledge and if nothing else could help translate customer requirements into a language our engineers could understand. Their technical knowledge varied but I never noticed any great correlation between their military trade (let alone…
> [...] or persuading one of his squaddies not to marry the local prostitute.
Damn that guy is a good bro. I’ve had a few friends go into the military and come out with a wife that made me go “wtf?”.
Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a technical person, I find it interesting that so many technical people are that way. I start to get into a motivational rut if all I'm doing is working on a list of technical things to complete. Engineering disciplines are some of the few degrees that provide you the ability to both directly solve other people's problems and have close customer contact - that was a major reason why software engineering attracted…
I think it's a learned behavior, they were mainly talking about people fresh out of college who were evaluated based on "use the fastest algorithm for a mostly sorted set of data" type assignments. I worked with a lot of people with technical degrees who learned to think outside the box, but it seemed easier to teach technical knowledge to non-technical people than it was to teach technical people that they needed to…
Easier to teach the skill than the attitude.
Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
#66Its often the case that less technically minded people move into management.
So they can make technical decisions. This is one of the reasons I hate programming at companies. I didn't serve in Iraq so I could work my butt off to get a degree and then spend years working professionally while continuing to learn and do side projects to have someone who doesn't know anything tell me what to do.
Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
#67Curious how the author got better at communication. What are good resources or books for doing so?
Practice!
Written communication: blog, short stories, editing others' work
Oral: practice public speaking, either by volunteering in your own context whenever possible (most shy away - you stand out for volunteering to speak) or build confidence and skills outside, eg in Toastmasters.
Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
#68When I was doing a cyber training exercise in the military, we had an Air Force general tell us that the best technical officers they had started out with non-technical degrees. They said that officers with undergrad degrees in things like IT, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, weren't very good at thinking outside of the box because everything they did was fairly low level and had a provably correct solutio…
David Epstein's Range talks a lot about this issue. He mentions the idea of 'kind' and 'unkind' learning environments. He uses golf and Tiger Woods as a 'kind' learning environment. To be a great golf player, you pretty much just have to grind out the hours and work hard at it. The better players have simply just spent more time grinding away. Epstein then uses tennis and Federer as an 'unkind' learning environment. Federer did a lot of other sports and has many other interests than tennis, and other successful players are similar. Using tricks from a variety of sports and arenas is better. Epstein spends the rest of the book talking about other areas like music, testing, and business and compares generalists to specializers, demonstrating that generalists end up better off in unkind learning environments. The now infamous USAF academy testing screw-up is of particular interest here. As most of life is an unkind learning environment, generalists may be better off than specialists over the long haul. Hence, things like a liberal arts education being so powerful and the paradox of the 'well-rounded vs. spiky' person in long term success.
Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
#69Its often the case that less technically minded people move into management.
So they can make technical decisions. This is one of the reasons I hate programming at companies. I didn't serve in Iraq so I could work my butt off to get a degree and then spend years working professionally while continuing to learn and do side projects to have someone who doesn't know anything tell me what to do.
So they can empower their teams to make the best possible technical proposals that they then champion as the path forward.
And that's assuming there at only technical considerations and not broader ones involving discussions with many other stake holders.
Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup
#70When I was doing a cyber training exercise in the military, we had an Air Force general tell us that the best technical officers they had started out with non-technical degrees. They said that officers with undergrad degrees in things like IT, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, weren't very good at thinking outside of the box because everything they did was fairly low level and had a provably correct solutio…
Lately I have been realizing that this is true for me. I can get stuff done on time when there are existing guidelines/checklist. If not, I tend to struggle and take much more time to complete tasks. I do have a technical degree. But I think my underlying problem is because of how I was brought up. I had strict parents and family members and was always told what to do. Questioning things was not something I was taugh…
>Questioning things was not something I was taught and I grew up to always follow the "rules".
>And I think that has (kind of) led to my current state where without rules I struggle to make decisions.
I worry that the newer generations brought up in zero tolerance environments will come late to questioning authority, if ever. Life is far more nuanced and negotiable than school and zero tolerance leads people to believe and folks like yourself who aren't equipped to think creatively in these situations have been robbed of a valuable skill.