4 ms·

> They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their emplo

by thefz 4y ago

> They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their employees are bookish, not innovative people. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon do not have the same issues with creating new products. I don't think this is necessarily true because the people designing products are not the same people creating/implementing them. Even the most innovative company of the planet has some programmers and sysadmins doing "bookish" jobs as you say. Don't fall in the trap of thinking a smart and well trained tech can't be creative; there's some code out there that is a work of art and can inspire awe in everyone. Don't think that if their work is not evident or easy to comprehend it is not creative.

fdgsdfogijq 4y ago
Commented this elsewhere: Theres a difference between creating beautiful creative code and creating an innovative product that people want to use. Its a different type of intelligence, and why you dont see Math professors starting ecommerce/product/clothing businesses. The classic dichotomy between steve jobs and wozniak. I have worked at a few big tech companies, I have regularly seen engineers drive huge innovation in how something is done. Product people cant always do that, they dont have enough understanding of large scale systems.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  You don't see math professors doing startups because they have tenure and are financially risk-averse. They also simply like being professors. There may be another factor - universities are dominated by anti-capitalist sentiment. Doing a business startup means exiting that belief system.
  - dagw 4y ago
    Admittedly I'm over a decade out of university so things might have changed, but when I was getting my masters in mathematics several of the math professors had various 'side hustles' doing cool and advanced stuff at startups and in industry or finance. universities are dominated by anti-capitalist sentiment I know this is trendy to say and I'm sure there are individual universities where it is true, but I see little evidence for it at large. If nothing else every hedge fund and investment bank in the world basically only hire university graduates, and they can hardly be accused of being anti-capitalist. Every economics course I ever took was based, almost axiomatically, on the premise that capitalism is awesome.
    - WalterBright 4y ago
      University graduates are not the same as professors. The econ class I took at Caltech was taught by an award-winning leftist anti-capitalist professor, and if you didn't regurgitate his ideology on the tests, you got a bad grade. Hedge funds only hire a particular subset of graduates. A lot of left-wingers set aside their ideology to get those high salaries. My father was a finance professor at two colleges. He was the only faculty member who believed in free markets. He was constantly challenged in this by students and faculty. One time the faculty even challenged him to an open debate - the faculty against him. He took them apart. Faculty and students came up to him later saying they had no idea there was even a case for the free market, and thanked him for opening their eyes. I wonder where you suppose Sanders' constituency comes from?
FrenchDevRemote 4y ago
>there's some code out there that is a work of art and can inspire awe in everyone. and the people who wrote it didn't spend thousands of hours memorizing the same stupid leetcode exercises to pass lame interviews for 6 figures job, they worked on real projects tell me the fast inverse square root from Carmack would have been praised in an interview...
- chowells 4y ago
  Perhaps if you spent more time with books, you'd know that John Carmack didn't invent the fast inverse square root algorithm associated with his name.
  - FrenchDevRemote 4y ago
    I found out about this after writing this comment, didn't bother to edit it(because what's the point?) Who cares if it's carmack or buddha? it's still brilliant code written by creative people, who can do stuff beyond memory copy/pasting code from other people
  - closewith 4y ago
    Would that improve the products the GP worked on?
  - thefz 4y ago
    Ironically Carmack is just one of those technical minded people who also has been hella creative... Fo 30 years
- RobRivera 4y ago
  bless his comment in code for a magic number in >Q3 engine< I think? // don't change this number, not sure why it works... not an exact quote but something like that
  - tomduncalf 4y ago
    Love that, I have also written a pretty much identical comment in the past lol
hipshaker 4y ago
Don’t fall in the trap of thinking creativity nescessarily applies accross borders. Being creative with coding is not the same as being creative with painting or inventing new products. Of course smart and well trained techs can be creative, it just may not apply as well to creating new products line other types of creative minds.
- thefz 4y ago
  I disagree. Creativity != art.

by thefz 4y ago

fdgsdfogijq 4y ago

Commented this elsewhere: Theres a difference between creating beautiful creative code and creating an innovative product that people want to use. Its a different type of intelligence, and why you dont see Math professors starting ecommerce/product/clothing businesses. The classic dichotomy between steve jobs and wozniak. I have worked at a few big tech companies, I have regularly seen engineers drive huge innovation in how something is done. Product people cant always do that, they dont have enough understanding of large scale systems.

WalterBright 4y ago
You don't see math professors doing startups because they have tenure and are financially risk-averse. They also simply like being professors. There may be another factor - universities are dominated by anti-capitalist sentiment. Doing a business startup means exiting that belief system.
- dagw 4y ago
  Admittedly I'm over a decade out of university so things might have changed, but when I was getting my masters in mathematics several of the math professors had various 'side hustles' doing cool and advanced stuff at startups and in industry or finance. universities are dominated by anti-capitalist sentiment I know this is trendy to say and I'm sure there are individual universities where it is true, but I see little evidence for it at large. If nothing else every hedge fund and investment bank in the world basically only hire university graduates, and they can hardly be accused of being anti-capitalist. Every economics course I ever took was based, almost axiomatically, on the premise that capitalism is awesome.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    University graduates are not the same as professors. The econ class I took at Caltech was taught by an award-winning leftist anti-capitalist professor, and if you didn't regurgitate his ideology on the tests, you got a bad grade. Hedge funds only hire a particular subset of graduates. A lot of left-wingers set aside their ideology to get those high salaries. My father was a finance professor at two colleges. He was the only faculty member who believed in free markets. He was constantly challenged in this by students and faculty. One time the faculty even challenged him to an open debate - the faculty against him. He took them apart. Faculty and students came up to him later saying they had no idea there was even a case for the free market, and thanked him for opening their eyes. I wonder where you suppose Sanders' constituency comes from?

FrenchDevRemote 4y ago

>there's some code out there that is a work of art and can inspire awe in everyone. and the people who wrote it didn't spend thousands of hours memorizing the same stupid leetcode exercises to pass lame interviews for 6 figures job, they worked on real projects tell me the fast inverse square root from Carmack would have been praised in an interview...

chowells 4y ago
Perhaps if you spent more time with books, you'd know that John Carmack didn't invent the fast inverse square root algorithm associated with his name.
- FrenchDevRemote 4y ago
  I found out about this after writing this comment, didn't bother to edit it(because what's the point?) Who cares if it's carmack or buddha? it's still brilliant code written by creative people, who can do stuff beyond memory copy/pasting code from other people
- closewith 4y ago
  Would that improve the products the GP worked on?
- thefz 4y ago
  Ironically Carmack is just one of those technical minded people who also has been hella creative... Fo 30 years
RobRivera 4y ago
bless his comment in code for a magic number in >Q3 engine< I think? // don't change this number, not sure why it works... not an exact quote but something like that
- tomduncalf 4y ago
  Love that, I have also written a pretty much identical comment in the past lol

hipshaker 4y ago

Don’t fall in the trap of thinking creativity nescessarily applies accross borders. Being creative with coding is not the same as being creative with painting or inventing new products. Of course smart and well trained techs can be creative, it just may not apply as well to creating new products line other types of creative minds.

thefz 4y ago
I disagree. Creativity != art.