5 ms·

Thought I'll share this with you. A yc company hired me. I showed up at their mountain view office. The founder said "This is the former office of RethinkDB! I

by dxbydt 14y ago

Thought I'll share this with you. A yc company hired me. I showed up at their mountain view office. The founder said "This is the former office of RethinkDB! I hope we are as successful as them." I didn't know who/what RethinkDB was, so I said ok, sure. 3 days later he asked me to clear my desk and leave. He said "You are the sort of person who should work in RethinkDB". So I asked "What does that mean ?" He said "RethinkDB is trying to solve very deep algorithm problems. They want somebody with CS knowledge to do deep research. That is what you are good at. But here we are just trying to run a business. You are not a good fit for that!". So I left.

fragsworth 14y ago
I know lots of engineers who have trouble talking to people who don't share their knowledge. This problem is extremely pervasive - I'd say a good 25% or more have this problem to some extent. It's not a good thing when this happens - you need to be able to speak to laymen or you're gonna have a bad time. I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest you try to work on being a bit more practical. Don't complicate things for the sake of solving difficult problems. Don't try to shower people with your engineering knowledge when it's not necessary, and don't expect everyone to know everything you do. And don't be an asshole about it either.
- borplk 14y ago
  I adjust the level of details and technical stuff pretty well according to who I am speaking to. But sometimes someone with very limited knowledge of something asks me a detailed question about X. What they ask is too difficult and complex to be described in a simple way. Either I have to overly simplify it which may insult them and will do no good or I have to go on and step by step give them digestible chunks of explanation which will inevitably be a bit technical even though I try to minimise that. I think it's a two-way thing. The person should also consider their own level of knowledge before asking for an explanation of something and adjust their question based on that. I don't ask my doctor to tell me why my heart does this and that because I simply don't have the knowledge to be able to understand his answer. I ask, my heart is doing ok? cool!
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    I honestly I can't think of a single example where I was unable to determine the right level of explanation for someone. I think it's a unique skill that even non-engineers are often only superficially proficient at; though on that note, I do think that engineers aren't exposed enough to communication topics in University - most CS classes don't require group work, don't require verbal explanation of complex systems, etc. [1] Reading, writing, and any sort of public speaking (especially debate if there's an opportunity) are TREMENDOUS for teaching you how to get into other peoples' heads, figure out how they're perceiving what you're saying, and adjusting what you're saying. I will sit in most of my CS classes and be PAINED when the class spends 10 minutes on a question because there is a disconnect between the misassumptions the student is making and the instructor thinks something else is the culprit. These skills are also incredibly helpful in being charming and getting what you want without being manipulative. [1]: Which is why some, like mine, created programs to blend CS and business to start to solve that problem. Students have to interact with paying customers, have to be accountable for their own code releases, are responsible for ALL of the requirement soliciting and fulfillment, etc.
  - halfninety 14y ago
    Looks like I'm one of the people you are referring to. Like anyone with a healthy dose of curiosity, I'm interested in anything that is, well, interesting. I'm excited to meet people with expertise in various areas and ask them questions. I don't expect to understand their answers in full but in most cases I can still grab part of them. Based on my partial understanding in the first answer I can ask a better question the next time, and after several cycles I can probably learn something valuable (at least in the sense of satisfying my own curiosity). The point is, if you don't ask questions in areas you are not familiar with, you will never become familiar to these areas. Well, unless you learn everything from books and Wikipedia. I'm not sure how many people see me as an annoyance, but at least I'm consistent, in that if other people ask me questions in my expertise, I'm happy to try my best and explain. Oh, and if it's just impossible to reasonably answer my question in a way that makes any sense to me, I expect you to just say it, and I'm happy with this.
    - 14y ago
flogic 14y ago
Wow that's special. Sounds to me like they're tools. You can't really expect an employee to know they're way around the code base after only 3 days. Hell most places you find yourself sitting on your thumbs the first week due to everyone being too busy to spend much time orienting you.
- tsiki 14y ago
  My thoughts exactly. I sometimes read about these people getting fired from IT jobs after a couple days and keep wondering why their bosses even hired new people. Either the boss is too overconfident in their ability to gauge someone's skills based on a couple of days, or they never really needed new people.

by dxbydt 14y ago

fragsworth 14y ago

I know lots of engineers who have trouble talking to people who don't share their knowledge. This problem is extremely pervasive - I'd say a good 25% or more have this problem to some extent. It's not a good thing when this happens - you need to be able to speak to laymen or you're gonna have a bad time. I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest you try to work on being a bit more practical. Don't complicate things for the sake of solving difficult problems. Don't try to shower people with your engineering knowledge when it's not necessary, and don't expect everyone to know everything you do. And don't be an asshole about it either.

borplk 14y ago
I adjust the level of details and technical stuff pretty well according to who I am speaking to. But sometimes someone with very limited knowledge of something asks me a detailed question about X. What they ask is too difficult and complex to be described in a simple way. Either I have to overly simplify it which may insult them and will do no good or I have to go on and step by step give them digestible chunks of explanation which will inevitably be a bit technical even though I try to minimise that. I think it's a two-way thing. The person should also consider their own level of knowledge before asking for an explanation of something and adjust their question based on that. I don't ask my doctor to tell me why my heart does this and that because I simply don't have the knowledge to be able to understand his answer. I ask, my heart is doing ok? cool!
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  I honestly I can't think of a single example where I was unable to determine the right level of explanation for someone. I think it's a unique skill that even non-engineers are often only superficially proficient at; though on that note, I do think that engineers aren't exposed enough to communication topics in University - most CS classes don't require group work, don't require verbal explanation of complex systems, etc. [1] Reading, writing, and any sort of public speaking (especially debate if there's an opportunity) are TREMENDOUS for teaching you how to get into other peoples' heads, figure out how they're perceiving what you're saying, and adjusting what you're saying. I will sit in most of my CS classes and be PAINED when the class spends 10 minutes on a question because there is a disconnect between the misassumptions the student is making and the instructor thinks something else is the culprit. These skills are also incredibly helpful in being charming and getting what you want without being manipulative. [1]: Which is why some, like mine, created programs to blend CS and business to start to solve that problem. Students have to interact with paying customers, have to be accountable for their own code releases, are responsible for ALL of the requirement soliciting and fulfillment, etc.
- halfninety 14y ago
  Looks like I'm one of the people you are referring to. Like anyone with a healthy dose of curiosity, I'm interested in anything that is, well, interesting. I'm excited to meet people with expertise in various areas and ask them questions. I don't expect to understand their answers in full but in most cases I can still grab part of them. Based on my partial understanding in the first answer I can ask a better question the next time, and after several cycles I can probably learn something valuable (at least in the sense of satisfying my own curiosity). The point is, if you don't ask questions in areas you are not familiar with, you will never become familiar to these areas. Well, unless you learn everything from books and Wikipedia. I'm not sure how many people see me as an annoyance, but at least I'm consistent, in that if other people ask me questions in my expertise, I'm happy to try my best and explain. Oh, and if it's just impossible to reasonably answer my question in a way that makes any sense to me, I expect you to just say it, and I'm happy with this.
  - 14y ago

flogic 14y ago

Wow that's special. Sounds to me like they're tools. You can't really expect an employee to know they're way around the code base after only 3 days. Hell most places you find yourself sitting on your thumbs the first week due to everyone being too busy to spend much time orienting you.

tsiki 14y ago
My thoughts exactly. I sometimes read about these people getting fired from IT jobs after a couple days and keep wondering why their bosses even hired new people. Either the boss is too overconfident in their ability to gauge someone's skills based on a couple of days, or they never really needed new people.