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I wonder how much of this news has resulted in an entirely new cohort of software engineers applying for jobs with these companies? I'd bet the HR departments a

by fixxer 13y ago

I wonder how much of this news has resulted in an entirely new cohort of software engineers applying for jobs with these companies? I'd bet the HR departments at places like Booz are extra busy right now.

Homunculiheaded 13y ago
For me it's had an almost opposite effect. Many people here on HN will probably remember around 2 years ago Steve Yegge gave a talk essentially saying there was a moral imperative for programmers to learn statistics and get better at machine learning. The idea was that this was going to get us beyond cat picture sharing and towards curing cancer and other social goods. It was a cheesy talk in someways, but it did inspire and I learned a ton in that area. I think the new "moral imperative" (take that term with a grain of salt as I'm not a big believer in moral imperatives) in software is to become an expert in security for the benefit of the community. To understand and improve the tools available for people to protect them. Don't just know that Tor, TrueCrypt, etc exist but understand them to the point where you know how you would start implementing them yourself. Personally I always found the security community interesting, and working on hard problems but it never really interested me. Recently I've been reading as much as I can. I have a long way to go, but I feel that this is important. I can read papers on cutting edge research in Machine Learning pretty fluently now. When it comes to truly understanding the technology around encryption, anonymity and privacy, I want to get to that point as soon as I can.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- mindcrime 13y ago
  That's been closer to my experience as well. I feel like I have a moral obligation to use my ability to learn and hack on technology, to help people protect their privacy. I'm not necessarily going to be implementing anything new, but at the very least I feel like I should learn Tor, TrueCrypt, I2P, GPG, etc. at a very deep level, then offer to teach other people, and help with advocacy and promotion for this stuff.
- ahlatimer 13y ago
  For reference, here's the Steve Yegge talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKmQW_Nkfk8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKmQW_Nkfk8 I thoroughly enjoyed it.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  I suspect the effect it has had on you also effects many, perhaps even most, other programmers as well, but I would still wager that their HR departments are particularly busy right now. Even if only a minority of developers are receptive to working on such systems (and I don't think that, outside the West Coast/Bay Area/Startup/HN bubble, these people are actually a minority. I suspect that we are actually the ones that are outnumbered), that minority suddenly being made to think about these companies has probably given them a boost.
myndless 13y ago
I can only speak to my own experiences, but at least in my case the news has really turned me off to these companies. A year or so ago I turned down an offer from Palantir due largely to privacy and ethical concerns, and since that time every single instance of Palantir showing up in the news has made me think to myself "Man I'm glad I didn't take that offer." I suspect I am not alone in my desire to make the world a better place through hacking and technology. Then again I also suspect that there is some set of less scrupulous engineers out there following the dollars. In that case I would guess that the effect of this kind of publicity is polarizing, but not in a single direction.
- martinlandau 13y ago
  It was great to read your post, I helped a kid called Palmer Luckey 4 years ago with VR HMD ideas. He took my help and others and has now took funding from Joe Lonsdale, coufounder of Palantir, and I lay awake at nights at how has this happened? This cool open source kid that we all liked selling out to the darkside of people like lonsdale and In Q tel, why couldn't he be MORE like YOU? When he realized it was Palantir Types throwing the money at him, I wish he could have been a cool jedi like you and said no thanks, I don't want your money, you may have good objectives at heart Palantir, but there is just too much negativity about stuff like you guys do and I don't want any part of it. That you had ethical and moral character that I see lacking in Palmer Luckey makes me still have hope in mankind.
dfc 13y ago
It may have created a slight uptick in applications but not a lot. I can't imagine that there were many people interested in working in this field that were unaware of Palantir or BAH before the news coverage. BAH and Palantir are big names in the government IT space.

by fixxer 13y ago

Homunculiheaded 13y ago

For me it's had an almost opposite effect. Many people here on HN will probably remember around 2 years ago Steve Yegge gave a talk essentially saying there was a moral imperative for programmers to learn statistics and get better at machine learning. The idea was that this was going to get us beyond cat picture sharing and towards curing cancer and other social goods. It was a cheesy talk in someways, but it did inspire and I learned a ton in that area. I think the new "moral imperative" (take that term with a grain of salt as I'm not a big believer in moral imperatives) in software is to become an expert in security for the benefit of the community. To understand and improve the tools available for people to protect them. Don't just know that Tor, TrueCrypt, etc exist but understand them to the point where you know how you would start implementing them yourself. Personally I always found the security community interesting, and working on hard problems but it never really interested me. Recently I've been reading as much as I can. I have a long way to go, but I feel that this is important. I can read papers on cutting edge research in Machine Learning pretty fluently now. When it comes to truly understanding the technology around encryption, anonymity and privacy, I want to get to that point as soon as I can.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
mindcrime 13y ago
That's been closer to my experience as well. I feel like I have a moral obligation to use my ability to learn and hack on technology, to help people protect their privacy. I'm not necessarily going to be implementing anything new, but at the very least I feel like I should learn Tor, TrueCrypt, I2P, GPG, etc. at a very deep level, then offer to teach other people, and help with advocacy and promotion for this stuff.
ahlatimer 13y ago
For reference, here's the Steve Yegge talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKmQW_Nkfk8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKmQW_Nkfk8 I thoroughly enjoyed it.
jlgreco 13y ago
I suspect the effect it has had on you also effects many, perhaps even most, other programmers as well, but I would still wager that their HR departments are particularly busy right now. Even if only a minority of developers are receptive to working on such systems (and I don't think that, outside the West Coast/Bay Area/Startup/HN bubble, these people are actually a minority. I suspect that we are actually the ones that are outnumbered), that minority suddenly being made to think about these companies has probably given them a boost.

myndless 13y ago

I can only speak to my own experiences, but at least in my case the news has really turned me off to these companies. A year or so ago I turned down an offer from Palantir due largely to privacy and ethical concerns, and since that time every single instance of Palantir showing up in the news has made me think to myself "Man I'm glad I didn't take that offer." I suspect I am not alone in my desire to make the world a better place through hacking and technology. Then again I also suspect that there is some set of less scrupulous engineers out there following the dollars. In that case I would guess that the effect of this kind of publicity is polarizing, but not in a single direction.

martinlandau 13y ago
It was great to read your post, I helped a kid called Palmer Luckey 4 years ago with VR HMD ideas. He took my help and others and has now took funding from Joe Lonsdale, coufounder of Palantir, and I lay awake at nights at how has this happened? This cool open source kid that we all liked selling out to the darkside of people like lonsdale and In Q tel, why couldn't he be MORE like YOU? When he realized it was Palantir Types throwing the money at him, I wish he could have been a cool jedi like you and said no thanks, I don't want your money, you may have good objectives at heart Palantir, but there is just too much negativity about stuff like you guys do and I don't want any part of it. That you had ethical and moral character that I see lacking in Palmer Luckey makes me still have hope in mankind.

dfc 13y ago

It may have created a slight uptick in applications but not a lot. I can't imagine that there were many people interested in working in this field that were unaware of Palantir or BAH before the news coverage. BAH and Palantir are big names in the government IT space.