3 ms·

I'm not trying to be rude and I enjoyed your comment, but you say you don't have the skills to humblebrag or sell yourself but you're doing it pretty well here

roghummal 6y ago
You're not wrong and that your comment is dead is a great disappointment. That you created a throwaway to criticize something so obviously astroturf-y is understandable but, also, disappointing. HN is as much an echo chamber as any.
ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
I write fairly well. I’ve been writing for most of my life. Written presentation isn’t actually as valuable as you might think. It seems that people read a lot less, these days, than they used to. I’m told that YouTube videos and podcasts are more likely to garner attention, and I have a voice made for silent films, and a face made for radio. Also, even that writing skill has been greatly refined and improved over the last three years; since I left my last job. Funny. Deciding not to pursue employment seems to have helped me to improve some of the skills employers might actually notice (I consider them fairly “superficial,” but they are what tend to attract attention). I feel that the really valuable stuff, like an expert grasp of Apple development, running a geographically-distributed team for decades, and a long history of releasing high-quality, finished product, is not so obvious (or valued). I was talking, recently, with a former employee, who had gone through the interview process for a FAANG. He made it through the whole thing, and may get an offer, which he’ll likely decline (he took a job at a corporation that will probably treat him well, but won’t pay as much). What he described, sounded a lot more like a hazing, than a serious evaluation. I’m not about to put myself through that kind of crap for any amount of money. I have too much self-respect. I feel he made the right choice. He had basically made up his mind, fairly early in the process, and really went through the motions to learn and practice (he presents quite well). I feel that they missed out on a pretty damn good engineer, but maybe they weren’t really looking for what he offered. Being treated with respect by our employer is important. I always treated my employees with respect, and was able to keep the team together, under rather stressful conditions, for decades. Most of my team consisted of highly experienced and skilled engineers, with families and extracurricular lives. In the last couple of years there, we worked with an SV startup, and I got to see, up close and personal, what working in SV is like. I had been in a “silo” for a quarter-century. It was quite sobering. I feel that the industry has become incredibly vicious and downright mercenary, over the years. It’s always been a business, and competitive, but the zeitgeist is much nastier, these days, than it was, when I was younger. It’s kind of disappointing. Money has leached the fun from tech. I’m really sorry for the younger folks coming into the field. They won’t ever have that sense of wonder, adventure, and community that I enjoyed.

roghummal 6y ago

You're not wrong and that your comment is dead is a great disappointment. That you created a throwaway to criticize something so obviously astroturf-y is understandable but, also, disappointing. HN is as much an echo chamber as any.

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago

I write fairly well. I’ve been writing for most of my life. Written presentation isn’t actually as valuable as you might think. It seems that people read a lot less, these days, than they used to. I’m told that YouTube videos and podcasts are more likely to garner attention, and I have a voice made for silent films, and a face made for radio. Also, even that writing skill has been greatly refined and improved over the last three years; since I left my last job. Funny. Deciding not to pursue employment seems to have helped me to improve some of the skills employers might actually notice (I consider them fairly “superficial,” but they are what tend to attract attention). I feel that the really valuable stuff, like an expert grasp of Apple development, running a geographically-distributed team for decades, and a long history of releasing high-quality, finished product, is not so obvious (or valued). I was talking, recently, with a former employee, who had gone through the interview process for a FAANG. He made it through the whole thing, and may get an offer, which he’ll likely decline (he took a job at a corporation that will probably treat him well, but won’t pay as much). What he described, sounded a lot more like a hazing, than a serious evaluation. I’m not about to put myself through that kind of crap for any amount of money. I have too much self-respect. I feel he made the right choice. He had basically made up his mind, fairly early in the process, and really went through the motions to learn and practice (he presents quite well). I feel that they missed out on a pretty damn good engineer, but maybe they weren’t really looking for what he offered. Being treated with respect by our employer is important. I always treated my employees with respect, and was able to keep the team together, under rather stressful conditions, for decades. Most of my team consisted of highly experienced and skilled engineers, with families and extracurricular lives. In the last couple of years there, we worked with an SV startup, and I got to see, up close and personal, what working in SV is like. I had been in a “silo” for a quarter-century. It was quite sobering. I feel that the industry has become incredibly vicious and downright mercenary, over the years. It’s always been a business, and competitive, but the zeitgeist is much nastier, these days, than it was, when I was younger. It’s kind of disappointing. Money has leached the fun from tech. I’m really sorry for the younger folks coming into the field. They won’t ever have that sense of wonder, adventure, and community that I enjoyed.