4 ms·

He's an ex-mil, current-genious computer scientist. Working for google would restrict him to google work. Working as a contractor, with a military background a

He's an ex-mil, current-genious computer scientist. Working for google would restrict him to google work. Working as a contractor, with a military background and a well documented solid computer science background (not traditional of course but still rock solid), he can pretty much right his own tickets in any R&D field. I can't think of a better person to contract out too: worked intel, speaks Korean (Southern dialect I presume), and proably has held a clearance because of his MOS. He could work on anything that goes kaboom, vroom, flys, or pushes the boundries of human understanding (maybe even a combination of the three!). Hell, you could even just do "boring" old software development on contract and make sure the infrastructure behind the world doesn't fall apart (That's what contracting programmers do). If you can branch into embeded development you could work on medial, networking, sensor, mining, and aerospace gear. I understand the appeal of Google, but I'd probably say that if you're the type who likes to self study, who is so motivated that you will devote 8 months of your life to getting something right, who will pour over a book for days on end until you've soaked up every bit of knowladge, and you're someone who can take all of that and put it into solving problems then I don't think your talent will be adaquatly used at Google. Google isn't that special unless you're going to Google to say "I work at Google!" Working for yourself, on your own timeframe, doing what this person obviously enjoys (learning and applying that learnt knowladge), all while being paid exorbitant amounts of money to build or help build things that push the boundries of human knowladge and possibilites sounds more fufilling then fixing support ticket #449,823,335,465 for Module #32,388,556 in Chrome/Search/AdSense/Cloud software. But I don't know, that could just be me.

hex_3934252261 10y ago
I agree with you on this. As a cleared professional with military experience, he has more intellectually fulfilling options than being a SWE 2/3/4 at Google. He can also go and get a CS PhD (he's shown the work ethic and ability) and that's a pre-requisite for most of the good software jobs in any case. Google isn't that special unless you're going to Google to say "I work at Google!" Google also pays very well for low-level roles. It's easy to get misled by economic signals. ("I'm going to make $200k, so the job must be important.") Almost no one in academia or government or research is making what a Sr. SWE (which isn't that senior) makes. On the other hand, unless you land in a research division (which is next-to-impossible without a PhD) you are largely being paid for your own intellectual depreciation. My guess is that he'll want to have his own business by his 40s, and not necessary for money. He's going to move farther in that direction by staying with research than if he gets seduced by the GoogleBucks.
sn9 10y ago
Why are you calling him a "current-genius computer scientist" for studying the foundational subjects of an undergrad CS degree?
- gravypod 10y ago
  Because I've found most masters and PhDs don't have a rock solid understanding of ALL of the Computer Science undertones. Some are good at datastructures, some are good with algorithms, some are still studying concurancy, parallelism, and distributed systems, and the rest know cryptography (which I hold as not being a Computer Science discipline). Very very few people have a rock solid grasp of everything (that I consider) in the CS field. If he underwent this curriculum and actually learned all of what he said he did he's a genious. He'd run circles around most people in a university who claim to know the material but are 5, 10, 15 years out of study. One of my professors is running a class on C and writes everything like K&R (and doesn't use free after he allocates memory. He just allocates and forgets!). Another I have is teaching a programming language concepts class and he says "All of these crazy lazy evaluation nonsense languages are useless" in regards to the entire LISP liniage. Again, by doing all of these you're far ahead of the curve.
  - sn9 10y ago
    What are you talking about? This guy doesn't know all that. He might have it on his list, but he's still in the middle of learning the core subjects of a CS curriculum. And pretty much any programmer could take the time to study these topics in depth and achieve that level of competence with them. Most choose not to.
    - gravypod 10y ago
      > Most choose not to That's the point I'm making. He's ahead of the game just for trying.

hex_3934252261 10y ago

I agree with you on this. As a cleared professional with military experience, he has more intellectually fulfilling options than being a SWE 2/3/4 at Google. He can also go and get a CS PhD (he's shown the work ethic and ability) and that's a pre-requisite for most of the good software jobs in any case. Google isn't that special unless you're going to Google to say "I work at Google!" Google also pays very well for low-level roles. It's easy to get misled by economic signals. ("I'm going to make $200k, so the job must be important.") Almost no one in academia or government or research is making what a Sr. SWE (which isn't that senior) makes. On the other hand, unless you land in a research division (which is next-to-impossible without a PhD) you are largely being paid for your own intellectual depreciation. My guess is that he'll want to have his own business by his 40s, and not necessary for money. He's going to move farther in that direction by staying with research than if he gets seduced by the GoogleBucks.

sn9 10y ago

Why are you calling him a "current-genius computer scientist" for studying the foundational subjects of an undergrad CS degree?

gravypod 10y ago
Because I've found most masters and PhDs don't have a rock solid understanding of ALL of the Computer Science undertones. Some are good at datastructures, some are good with algorithms, some are still studying concurancy, parallelism, and distributed systems, and the rest know cryptography (which I hold as not being a Computer Science discipline). Very very few people have a rock solid grasp of everything (that I consider) in the CS field. If he underwent this curriculum and actually learned all of what he said he did he's a genious. He'd run circles around most people in a university who claim to know the material but are 5, 10, 15 years out of study. One of my professors is running a class on C and writes everything like K&R (and doesn't use free after he allocates memory. He just allocates and forgets!). Another I have is teaching a programming language concepts class and he says "All of these crazy lazy evaluation nonsense languages are useless" in regards to the entire LISP liniage. Again, by doing all of these you're far ahead of the curve.
- sn9 10y ago
  What are you talking about? This guy doesn't know all that. He might have it on his list, but he's still in the middle of learning the core subjects of a CS curriculum. And pretty much any programmer could take the time to study these topics in depth and achieve that level of competence with them. Most choose not to.
  - gravypod 10y ago
    > Most choose not to That's the point I'm making. He's ahead of the game just for trying.