3 ms·

I think the best developers are often the ones that simply have a detailed understanding of their domain's fundamentals. These are the people that could spend

by moxie 13y ago

I think the best developers are often the ones that simply have a detailed understanding of their domain's fundamentals. These are the people that could spend an hour answering a simple question like "What happens when you type 'ls' in a terminal?" in absolute excruciating detail. In my experience, this is exactly the type of thing that PhDs generally don't know, and are often no longer curious enough to learn. Whenever I am a hiring manager, I am pretty openly biased against hiring PhDs. They definitely start at a disadvantage compared to a highschool dropout in a hiring interview with me.

hyperbovine 13y ago
> Whenever I am a hiring manager, I am pretty openly biased against hiring PhDs. They definitely start at a disadvantage compared to a highschool dropout in a hiring interview with me. I sincerely hope whatever fool placed you in charge of hiring learns of this fact, and soon.
- derefr 13y ago
  > [Moxie Marlinspike] was the chief technology officer and co-founder of Whisper Systems, which was acquired by Twitter for an undisclosed amount in late 2011. Someone who knows what they're doing, presumably.
pbsd 13y ago
I don't think you can* paint PhDs with such a broad brush. It largely depends on their field of expertise. A (say) complexity theory PhD is indeed unlikely to be out of touch with reality, but a systems-oriented one is likely to have a pretty decent knowledge of practical aspects of programming. Being a PhD student myself, I am of course biased on this. But it's frustrating to be generalized as an out-of-touch ivory tower type when that is simply not the case. * Of course you can. But should you?
- moxie 13y ago
  I'm sure there are plenty of PhDs that are good developers, but in my experience that is in spite of rather than as a result of their degree. After having interviewed thousands of candidates over 15 years, if I see a tilde in your URL on your resume, I'm immediately a little bit less interested.
jongraehl 13y ago
This does sound like hyperbole, but Moxie said they start at a disadvantage, and is talking about highschool dropouts eligible for an interview, not highschool dropouts in general.

by moxie 13y ago

hyperbovine 13y ago

> Whenever I am a hiring manager, I am pretty openly biased against hiring PhDs. They definitely start at a disadvantage compared to a highschool dropout in a hiring interview with me. I sincerely hope whatever fool placed you in charge of hiring learns of this fact, and soon.

derefr 13y ago
> [Moxie Marlinspike] was the chief technology officer and co-founder of Whisper Systems, which was acquired by Twitter for an undisclosed amount in late 2011. Someone who knows what they're doing, presumably.

pbsd 13y ago

I don't think you can* paint PhDs with such a broad brush. It largely depends on their field of expertise. A (say) complexity theory PhD is indeed unlikely to be out of touch with reality, but a systems-oriented one is likely to have a pretty decent knowledge of practical aspects of programming. Being a PhD student myself, I am of course biased on this. But it's frustrating to be generalized as an out-of-touch ivory tower type when that is simply not the case. * Of course you can. But should you?

moxie 13y ago
I'm sure there are plenty of PhDs that are good developers, but in my experience that is in spite of rather than as a result of their degree. After having interviewed thousands of candidates over 15 years, if I see a tilde in your URL on your resume, I'm immediately a little bit less interested.

jongraehl 13y ago

This does sound like hyperbole, but Moxie said they start at a disadvantage, and is talking about highschool dropouts eligible for an interview, not highschool dropouts in general.