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Jeremy, First off thank you for Underscore, Backbone and CoffeeScript. Your work really has helped me and my development team. This question is a little off t

Jeremy, First off thank you for Underscore, Backbone and CoffeeScript. Your work really has helped me and my development team. This question is a little off topic but one I've been wanting to ask for a long time: Last year you took a year off from The New York Times to ride your motorcycle across the Western Hemisphere. Just recently you were hired back at the paper, doing what it appears to be the same thing in the graphics department. From a hiring perspective, did you have to reapply for your job, or did the Times just give you the necessary time off? If this was considered a "sabbatical," how did you justify traveling around the Americas as something that could benefit the paper? I don't mean to offend. I'm genuinely curious. A lot of people aren't fortunate enough to take a year off for traveling and then be rehired at their company, especially in the journalism industry with the revenue declines, job cuts and managers wanting to hire cheaper people. Thanks again for all you've contributed.

santoriv 9y ago
I can't answer for him. but it would seem to me that there is a pretty universal shortage of quality developers, much less superstar developers familiar with your existing codebase. Rehiring him would be a no-brainer.
- catacombs 9y ago
  That is a good point. The NYT is responsible for other awesome tools: d3.js, ai2html, etc. I'm sure if the company has a person who creates a tool that is used all over the world under its watch, they would allow that person to take as much time off as he or she needs. Still, I know people who are --- no pun intended -- the backbone of codebases at their company, and taking a year off and being rehired is out of the question. What's to stop the company from finding a replacement who can be up to speed with the code in a short amount of time?
  - kristiandupont 9y ago
    >What's to stop the company from finding a replacement who can be up to speed with the code in a short amount of time? The fact that it's very, very hard and the competition is fierce? Also, this is not a romantic relationship we're talking about. If you leave your place of work, no matter how irreplaceable you are the company is going to carry on as best they can. If a year later you are available again and they still need a person for this position that they know you would fit well, why would they not rehire you?
    - catacombs 9y ago
      The competition is fierce for whom? The company picking from a pool of developers, or the developers competing for the job? If the former, then the company is an advantageous position to pick someone from the pool. It's not like ZERO people will apply for the job. If you're talking about the latter, then it's irrelevant. I'm mainly focusing on the company.
      - santoriv 9y ago
        I think that something else to take into consideration is that hiring good people is a non-trivial problem. Folks can do well in a interview and seem amicable and then turn out to be incompetent and/or jerks later. So there is substantial risk in hiring. It seems like knowing for certain that someone is competent and works well with the rest of the team is worth A LOT.
      - sotojuan 9y ago
        > If the former, then the company is an advantageous position to pick someone from the pool. It's not like ZERO people will apply for the job The pool of people as talented as jashkenas, that are looking for a job, and want to work in the NY Times is tiny.
- rattray 9y ago
  jashkenas is a graphics editor, not a developer. Your point still stands though.
  - catacombs 9y ago
    Graphics editors are also developers if they are writing code to make graphics, i.e. every newspaper's graphics team that has made interactive projects.
  - markdog12 9y ago
    Created CoffeeScript, Backbone, Underscore, but not a developer? https://github.com/jashkenas https://github.com/jashkenas
jashkenas 9y ago
Happy to answer, although this is a bit of a funny forum for it: From a work perspective, it's pretty simple. I quit, and then was rehired to the same position a year later. But The Times' Graphics Desk was super nice about it. We had a handshake agreement that I'd come back when I got back, and they even lent me a laptop to maybe file some travel-ish bits and bobs from along the road. So in that sense, it was partially justified. In the end I didn't end up writing anything for them for a few reasons: I didn't want to turn the ride into work; I wasn't on my best NYT-standards behavior (booze, bribes, women) — well, one spectacular woman, and we're married now; and finally, I personally hew somewhat to the Janet Malcolm attitude: “Every journalist who is not too stupid or full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.” Especially with respect to travel writing. You can do it right, but you really have to take the time and be invested and involved. And I was riding to follow the seasons and wasn't. Ultimately, even though the industry as a whole is in decline, the NYT and other world-class news sources are still strong, and in some ways, getting stronger. In particular, the visual journalism The Times publishes every year keeps pushing the state of the art.
- jonny_eh 9y ago
  As important as your work on the above mentioned libraries were, your continued work at the NYTimes is even more important. So thanks!
- md224 9y ago
  > booze, bribes, women Kind of curious about the "bribes" part...
  - catacombs 9y ago
    Probably bribes for police, soldiers or any other government official he ran into during his travels.
  - jashkenas 9y ago
    Nothing too spectacular, I've got enough Spanish to talk through all of the border crossing paperwork comprehensively, which helps avoid problems with papers down the line. You have to get a temporary import/export permit and country-specific insurance every time you cross a border. I ended up crossing 33, so that's plenty of paperwork to potentially get fouled up on. And in some countries checkpoint cops love busting gringos for their paperwork, because if they're missing something mandatory, that's easy money. I screwed up the US/Mexico border first by not having done my research. Crossing from Presidio to Ojinaga, I made sure to get Mexican insurance, but didn't think to set Banamex bond for the temporary import permit — not required in the border zone, so the customs officials don't mention it. I didn't have it, and if any official in the length of Mexico had asked me for my paperwork (despite passing multiple checkpoints), that would have been full legal grounds to seize the bike. But I made it to the Guatemalan border trouble-free, and the customs exit officer nailed me for it there. "It's easier if you just pay me the fine." Around $50, I think. I got change from his wallet. The second not doing my research screwup was not bringing my original title document to the motorcycle with me, just some color photocopies. In most cases, copies are fine — after all, we don't drive around with our titles in our glove boxes. But leaving El Salvador, at the Honduras border, a cop in front of the immigration building decided to make an issue of it. "I'm sorry, but without the original title document, there's nothing that can be done." After about half an hour, with some help from a roadside border-crossing fixer (there are many on the El Salvador / Honduras border, because these situations are notorious there) and a little over $200, the bike and I were through. Of course, the first thing I did after arriving in Choluteca, Honduras, was to head over to the police station and file a false report, saying that I had left the original title in the top bag of the motorcycle and someone had stolen it, along with a few other miscellaneous documents. When getting yourself out of paperwork trouble, an officially stamped police report is as good as gold. From that point on, at any border where the photocopied title wasn't good enough (Peru, in particular, gave me a really hard time about it), I could show them the police report, show them that the VIN on the report matched the VIN on the photocopied title matched the VIN on the bike, and we were good to go. Like I said, not NYT-standards behavior.
sctb 9y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15276996 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15276996 and marked it off-topic.
- jashkenas 9y ago
  It most certainly is. Thanks, mods!

santoriv 9y ago

I can't answer for him. but it would seem to me that there is a pretty universal shortage of quality developers, much less superstar developers familiar with your existing codebase. Rehiring him would be a no-brainer.

catacombs 9y ago
That is a good point. The NYT is responsible for other awesome tools: d3.js, ai2html, etc. I'm sure if the company has a person who creates a tool that is used all over the world under its watch, they would allow that person to take as much time off as he or she needs. Still, I know people who are --- no pun intended -- the backbone of codebases at their company, and taking a year off and being rehired is out of the question. What's to stop the company from finding a replacement who can be up to speed with the code in a short amount of time?
- kristiandupont 9y ago
  >What's to stop the company from finding a replacement who can be up to speed with the code in a short amount of time? The fact that it's very, very hard and the competition is fierce? Also, this is not a romantic relationship we're talking about. If you leave your place of work, no matter how irreplaceable you are the company is going to carry on as best they can. If a year later you are available again and they still need a person for this position that they know you would fit well, why would they not rehire you?
  - catacombs 9y ago
    The competition is fierce for whom? The company picking from a pool of developers, or the developers competing for the job? If the former, then the company is an advantageous position to pick someone from the pool. It's not like ZERO people will apply for the job. If you're talking about the latter, then it's irrelevant. I'm mainly focusing on the company.
    - santoriv 9y ago
      I think that something else to take into consideration is that hiring good people is a non-trivial problem. Folks can do well in a interview and seem amicable and then turn out to be incompetent and/or jerks later. So there is substantial risk in hiring. It seems like knowing for certain that someone is competent and works well with the rest of the team is worth A LOT.
    - sotojuan 9y ago
      > If the former, then the company is an advantageous position to pick someone from the pool. It's not like ZERO people will apply for the job The pool of people as talented as jashkenas, that are looking for a job, and want to work in the NY Times is tiny.
rattray 9y ago
jashkenas is a graphics editor, not a developer. Your point still stands though.
- catacombs 9y ago
  Graphics editors are also developers if they are writing code to make graphics, i.e. every newspaper's graphics team that has made interactive projects.
- markdog12 9y ago
  Created CoffeeScript, Backbone, Underscore, but not a developer? https://github.com/jashkenas https://github.com/jashkenas

jashkenas 9y ago

Happy to answer, although this is a bit of a funny forum for it: From a work perspective, it's pretty simple. I quit, and then was rehired to the same position a year later. But The Times' Graphics Desk was super nice about it. We had a handshake agreement that I'd come back when I got back, and they even lent me a laptop to maybe file some travel-ish bits and bobs from along the road. So in that sense, it was partially justified. In the end I didn't end up writing anything for them for a few reasons: I didn't want to turn the ride into work; I wasn't on my best NYT-standards behavior (booze, bribes, women) — well, one spectacular woman, and we're married now; and finally, I personally hew somewhat to the Janet Malcolm attitude: “Every journalist who is not too stupid or full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.” Especially with respect to travel writing. You can do it right, but you really have to take the time and be invested and involved. And I was riding to follow the seasons and wasn't. Ultimately, even though the industry as a whole is in decline, the NYT and other world-class news sources are still strong, and in some ways, getting stronger. In particular, the visual journalism The Times publishes every year keeps pushing the state of the art.

jonny_eh 9y ago
As important as your work on the above mentioned libraries were, your continued work at the NYTimes is even more important. So thanks!
md224 9y ago
> booze, bribes, women Kind of curious about the "bribes" part...
- catacombs 9y ago
  Probably bribes for police, soldiers or any other government official he ran into during his travels.
- jashkenas 9y ago
  Nothing too spectacular, I've got enough Spanish to talk through all of the border crossing paperwork comprehensively, which helps avoid problems with papers down the line. You have to get a temporary import/export permit and country-specific insurance every time you cross a border. I ended up crossing 33, so that's plenty of paperwork to potentially get fouled up on. And in some countries checkpoint cops love busting gringos for their paperwork, because if they're missing something mandatory, that's easy money. I screwed up the US/Mexico border first by not having done my research. Crossing from Presidio to Ojinaga, I made sure to get Mexican insurance, but didn't think to set Banamex bond for the temporary import permit — not required in the border zone, so the customs officials don't mention it. I didn't have it, and if any official in the length of Mexico had asked me for my paperwork (despite passing multiple checkpoints), that would have been full legal grounds to seize the bike. But I made it to the Guatemalan border trouble-free, and the customs exit officer nailed me for it there. "It's easier if you just pay me the fine." Around $50, I think. I got change from his wallet. The second not doing my research screwup was not bringing my original title document to the motorcycle with me, just some color photocopies. In most cases, copies are fine — after all, we don't drive around with our titles in our glove boxes. But leaving El Salvador, at the Honduras border, a cop in front of the immigration building decided to make an issue of it. "I'm sorry, but without the original title document, there's nothing that can be done." After about half an hour, with some help from a roadside border-crossing fixer (there are many on the El Salvador / Honduras border, because these situations are notorious there) and a little over $200, the bike and I were through. Of course, the first thing I did after arriving in Choluteca, Honduras, was to head over to the police station and file a false report, saying that I had left the original title in the top bag of the motorcycle and someone had stolen it, along with a few other miscellaneous documents. When getting yourself out of paperwork trouble, an officially stamped police report is as good as gold. From that point on, at any border where the photocopied title wasn't good enough (Peru, in particular, gave me a really hard time about it), I could show them the police report, show them that the VIN on the report matched the VIN on the photocopied title matched the VIN on the bike, and we were good to go. Like I said, not NYT-standards behavior.

sctb 9y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15276996 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15276996 and marked it off-topic.

jashkenas 9y ago
It most certainly is. Thanks, mods!