2 ms·

Well, what did you geek about then? Programming is all about algorithms and data structures, irrespective of application domain.

eli_gottlieb 12y ago
>Well, what did you geek about then? Parsers, grammars, computability and complexity, source-tree optimizations, intermediate representations, intuitionistic logic, type theory, PL design, microkernels, macrokernels, message-passing, locking and semaphores, scheduling algorithms, the x86 kernel-level instruction set, interactive theorem proving, functional programming, game-type vector graphics and raster graphics. Now working on gaining a better understanding of Bayesian statistics and probability theory, machine learning, probabilistic programming, computational cognitive science, and the foundations of logic. You know: actual domains in which one can solve real problems, rather than the kind of "algorithms and data structures" that are used for quiz-interviews.
- lafar6502 12y ago
  Impressive, but you probably see it as well as everyone else that every problem domain on your list is connected with particular set of well-known algorighms. There are no 'algorithms in the wild' - they always solve some problem.. So, i don't see any clear difference between geeking about a hashtable vs geeking about some compilation step. The key word here is 'geeking' vs 'not being interested at all how that stuff works'.
  - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
    >There are no 'algorithms in the wild' - they always solve some problem.. Interestingly, this isn't true. I have done worse than I can in interview cycles because I tend to go into them without having studied "Cracking the Coding Interview" or my old algorithms textbook, and thus do strictly worse at the algorithms-and-data-structures hey-let's-talk-about-asymptotic-performance-bounds quiz questions given in interviews.
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  I got some bad news for you eli: If you put all that stuff on your resume, you'll never find work as a mobile app developer. A rather common request of those who hire mobile development consultants is, "I want a game just like Angry Birds, only different". And that's it. I mean that's the only specification they can supply. Not the only spec they are willing to supply - the only spec they know HOW to supply.
  - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
    Strangely enough, I don't want to find work as a mobile app developer. Were you being ironic?
    - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
      Yeah actually. I know most of that stuff, but I really do want to be a mobile developer. All anybody wants to know is whether an applicant already has an app in the app store or google play. 27 years of experience, my degree, the non-mobile products that I've shipped, the stellar press reviews I've received, those don't count for anything.
      - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
        Wow, that sucks. Good luck breaking into a market full of idiots who can't recognize experience and expertise when they see it.
MichaelCrawford 12y ago
"Don't tell the user to click the OK button. Tell the user to click the OK button until it turns black." -- David Courtney Johnson. All too commonly, the work I'm actually paid to do is to make a button turn black when someone clicks on it. That might actually be interesting, were it not for the fact that the only way to make that button turn black, is to allocate ten megabytes of objects, then run a few hundred thousand lines of code, at which point a hardware GPU writes zeros all over a memory buffer.

eli_gottlieb 12y ago

>Well, what did you geek about then? Parsers, grammars, computability and complexity, source-tree optimizations, intermediate representations, intuitionistic logic, type theory, PL design, microkernels, macrokernels, message-passing, locking and semaphores, scheduling algorithms, the x86 kernel-level instruction set, interactive theorem proving, functional programming, game-type vector graphics and raster graphics. Now working on gaining a better understanding of Bayesian statistics and probability theory, machine learning, probabilistic programming, computational cognitive science, and the foundations of logic. You know: actual domains in which one can solve real problems, rather than the kind of "algorithms and data structures" that are used for quiz-interviews.

lafar6502 12y ago
Impressive, but you probably see it as well as everyone else that every problem domain on your list is connected with particular set of well-known algorighms. There are no 'algorithms in the wild' - they always solve some problem.. So, i don't see any clear difference between geeking about a hashtable vs geeking about some compilation step. The key word here is 'geeking' vs 'not being interested at all how that stuff works'.
- eli_gottlieb 12y ago
  >There are no 'algorithms in the wild' - they always solve some problem.. Interestingly, this isn't true. I have done worse than I can in interview cycles because I tend to go into them without having studied "Cracking the Coding Interview" or my old algorithms textbook, and thus do strictly worse at the algorithms-and-data-structures hey-let's-talk-about-asymptotic-performance-bounds quiz questions given in interviews.
MichaelCrawford 12y ago
I got some bad news for you eli: If you put all that stuff on your resume, you'll never find work as a mobile app developer. A rather common request of those who hire mobile development consultants is, "I want a game just like Angry Birds, only different". And that's it. I mean that's the only specification they can supply. Not the only spec they are willing to supply - the only spec they know HOW to supply.
- eli_gottlieb 12y ago
  Strangely enough, I don't want to find work as a mobile app developer. Were you being ironic?
  - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
    Yeah actually. I know most of that stuff, but I really do want to be a mobile developer. All anybody wants to know is whether an applicant already has an app in the app store or google play. 27 years of experience, my degree, the non-mobile products that I've shipped, the stellar press reviews I've received, those don't count for anything.
    - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
      Wow, that sucks. Good luck breaking into a market full of idiots who can't recognize experience and expertise when they see it.

MichaelCrawford 12y ago

"Don't tell the user to click the OK button. Tell the user to click the OK button until it turns black." -- David Courtney Johnson. All too commonly, the work I'm actually paid to do is to make a button turn black when someone clicks on it. That might actually be interesting, were it not for the fact that the only way to make that button turn black, is to allocate ten megabytes of objects, then run a few hundred thousand lines of code, at which point a hardware GPU writes zeros all over a memory buffer.