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Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

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Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#751

Post by smsm42 »

projektir wrote: post #665
bobthepanda wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a puzzle , though. A puzzle would be something barely related to computer science, like "How can I find which ball out of 9 is heavier weighing them twice on a two-sided scale?"

I think this is a bit pedant. It's fairly common for developers to call questions like these puzzles.

Basic algorithmic knowledge questions are not puzzles, and whoever is calling them that is wrong. Those questions still can be stressful, especially for people that don't do well in interview environment, but puzzle is something else. Puzzle is something that requires some non-trivial insight or trick to solve, usually one that the person has no experience with and it is not obvious even for a person with the knowledge of the basics. That's why they are puzzles - they are "puzzling", which the dictionary defines as "confusing" or "baffling".

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#752

Post by [deleted] »

MadBohr wrote: post #306
dgreensp wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a manager of some kind were to notice the Slack messages and ping someone specific to help, that would be a perfect example of the kind of management that is so sorely lacking at so many companies. Many employees are too burned, or proud, to even put out an SOS... so a cry for help is actually a gift to management. If only it were someone’s job to think for a few minutes each day about each employee and notice if…

Why not both? I cringed when I read OP's comment where he spammed "I'm completely blocked" in the chat without asking for specifics. What a complete lack of individual ownership. Even the best manager can't help somebody who is unwilling to help themselves. Source: am a manager.

[deleted]

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#753

Post by [deleted] »

wufufufu wrote: post #540
dep_b wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in a remote team once helping a company in Seattle (that perhaps had a bit of a jock culture problem). I could be stuck for days because following the README in a repo just wasn't enough to get the project to compile and run. Every standup I was telling "I'm completely blocked for the last two days because I cannot run the repo, so I cannot run any tests and at the moment I'm doing absolutely nothing.". To b…

What's a jock culture problem? Where everyone talks about sports and it's alienating?

[deleted]

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#754

Post by mlloyd »

Vinnl wrote: post #179
dep_b wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in a remote team once helping a company in Seattle (that perhaps had a bit of a jock culture problem). I could be stuck for days because following the README in a repo just wasn't enough to get the project to compile and run. Every standup I was telling "I'm completely blocked for the last two days because I cannot run the repo, so I cannot run any tests and at the moment I'm doing absolutely nothing.". To b…

On the one hand it is indeed disappointing that nobody would help you with this. On the other hand, there's a more pro-active role you could have played yourself in this as well. "When everybody is responsible, nobody is" - what often helps is specifically asking people, by name, to sit down with you for a bit and help you get through it. In fact, there are many social group situations in which asking specific people…

>In fact, there are many social group situations in which asking specific people is far more effective than asking questions "to the group".

CPR for example. It's one of the primary tenants. Assign individual responsibility to people to ensure this group paralysis doesn't happen.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#755

Post by derekp7 »

mratzloff wrote: post #648
derekp7 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can give some insight from my own experience. In my current position, there are a large number of "things" that I've had to figure out, either by reverse engineering, reading code, or intuition. So I get constantly bombarded with helping others get unstuck. Well, when it comes time for a project meeting, those on the meeting are far removed from the other groups that I constantly have to help out. And it sounds lik…

For your own sake, I'd spend less time working and more time figuring out the emotional driver behind why you work so much.

I've actually slowed down a bit in recent years, however the main driver is that the work is fun. During the day I do the necessary (but not necessarily fun) work. After hours, I work on stuff that is mentally challenging and needs concentration, but only if I find it fun to work on. I do this instead of watching TV for example. As long as I get in enough time for other activities (hiking / bicycling, woodworking, designing my own creations, time with family) then hopefully I have a balance. But I have always had a slightly unhealthy fixation on sitting in front of a computer screen and creating (whether I'm doing it for work, or personal projects).

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#756

Post by lawnchair_larry »

0xCMP wrote: post #467
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d call it a must not, because then you’d be the type of person who takes life advice from books such as “The 48 Laws of Power.” It’s not a good look for most people, and not a good way to think about the world, IMO.

I think you're right, but I'll add that it's a great book to read and understand in a sort of "better at protecting from hacks by hacking"-style of learning. Understand and learn about the darker way of thinking and how power works so that you can navigate around these issues. A lot of the book is simply explaining Psychology of people trying to gain power or in power what you need to do so you can manage politics. T…

That’s fair, but readers should not assume that others are operating on these rules. I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a woman who bought a copy of The Game, at the recommendation of another woman, to “find out how guys think”, and it was difficult to explain why this was misinformed and would make her worse off.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#757

Post by ascendantlogic »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #535
ascendantlogic wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the company's perspective it's always a game of getting maximum effort/value for minimum price. From the employee's perspective it's the exact opposite: maximum price for minimum effort/value. If they can dangle that carrot in front of you and get you to give 110% at your current pay scale for 1-2 more years then why the hell wouldn't they do it? And how many people grind away on that treadmill after having that…

"If they can dangle that carrot in front of you and get you to give 110% at your current pay scale for 1-2 more years then why the hell wouldn't they do it?" Cause that's a shitty thing to do. And, as shown, it leads to people leaving.

Yes, (most) people care that it's a shitty thing to do, but again companies like this do not. Their goal is to grind as much productivity out of you for as cheap as possible. It sounds fatalistic but it's just how it is. Romanticizing things just leads to heartbreak.

EDIT: Note I said "companies like this". There are clearly companies that are run at the top by compassionate, non-shitty people and those values filter down through the org. However, as companies get larger and especially once they are beholden to investors and ESPECIALLY when they are beholden to public investors that seems to die a gradual death.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#758

Post by dennis_jeeves »

dennis_jeeves wrote: post #565
smsm42 wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anybody does puzzles anymore. It's like 2000s thing. Are there still puzzle interview places left?

The last time I was interviewed by phone at Amazon, I was asked to write a binary tree to a file. Time given: 30 minutes. Does that count as a puzzle? Did lot's on exercises on binary trees before but was not prepared for that question.

I forgot to mention the key part of the task. The key was to constitute the tree back by reading it from the file. The writing part is trivial, the reconstitution part is not. Try it. While not impossible for a decent programmer half an hour is not sufficient who does not deal with binary trees ona daily basis.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#759

Post by winstonewert »

dahart wrote: post #391
winstonewert wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In QV, you buy votes with money. You can buy as money votes as you want, but you have the pay v*v for it, where v is the number of votes.

> In QV, you buy votes with money. FWIW, the paper describes it as a vote currency that can only be used for the vote, as opposed to cash you could spend on anything. The voice credits have to be distributed to voters. 'individuals pay for as many votes as they wish using a number of "voice credits" quadratic in the votes they buy.'

If you are referring to the same QV paper I read, it spends most of the paper arguing for money but then at the end suggest a virtual currency at the end for those who can't accept their argument for allowing buying votes with money.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#760

Post by marssaxman »

walshemj wrote: post #395
marssaxman wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have generally chosen to deal with this problem by refusing to acknowledge the existence of bonuses or promotions. It is harder for a warped incentive structure to warp your behavior if you refuse to be motivated by its prizes.

Nobel ideals but might get you targeted when a RIF comes around.

I'm not worried about that. If that's the way they are going to treat people, I probably don't actually want to work there.
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