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Reframing coding and design challenges as an investment doesn’t mean that these challenges are not a sunk cost.

• xwdv 5y ago
  You missed his point. It's still worth doing those things as the process of doing them can result in other epiphanies that can lead you to greater opportunities down the line.
  • hizxy 5y ago
    I didn’t miss the point. It’s disingenuous to claim something isn’t a sunk cost by simply hoping it’s not.
    • lhorie 5y ago
      TFA isn't saying it isn't a sunk cost, it's saying it's an investment in addition to being a sunk cost
  • goostavos 5y ago
    Eh... his point is largely making lemonade out of a situation of lemons. It's a healthy mindset for sure, but it's still forcing yourself to look on the bright side of a crummy situation. Interviews test your ability to quickly solve silly problems under stress. This is a muscle you can get better at with training. And, yep, there's a non-zero chance that it make cause an epiphany or insight into something else. However, there's a much higher chance that it does not. Years into my career, my interest in grinding those type of problems just for the purpose of performing during an interview is effectively zero. The thing that I love about CS is how broad it is. There's a great big world of things to dive very deeply into which aren't graph traversal algorithms or solving word problems. Being forced to halt your own personal research, hobbies, or interests because of our current broken interview system is lame even when spun as "I'll think of it as probably useful".
  • alexashka 5y ago
    Right, let me go to the moon because it'll make me a better golf player. Makes sense.