4 ms·

Such a cool idea, and I enjoyed Microcorruption, but ended up getting stuck in the second or third level and couldn't even figure out the right questions to ask

by krstck 12y ago

Such a cool idea, and I enjoyed Microcorruption, but ended up getting stuck in the second or third level and couldn't even figure out the right questions to ask to get help. (I stepped into the irc channel at some point and asked some simple question, but got an answer that I couldn't even parse. So I realized I was out of my league and needed to learn more basics first.) My one concern is about something that was mentioned during the announcement a little while back. The post mentioned something like "employers will be able to see exactly what you did when you had to create a REST service" (or something like that). Maybe I'm just learning this concept, maybe I'm only playing around! Will I have to have one "play" account, and one "real" account? If I knew that I'd be judged by not only whether I complete a level, but every single thing I tried.... Yeah, no thanks.

autoreleasepool 12y ago
I'm with you. There's no way I'd play a game where my every move was fair game for employers to scrutinize. That's too much stress and it would suck the fun out of everything. The thought of a game like that irritates me to no end. This is one reason I pay for a private github. I hate that if I'm learning a new technology, have "too many" commits on something simple, or am generally messing around it looks "bad" to employers.
- yareally 12y ago
  I'd argue that if an employer cares about public repo commits to personal repositories, one is probably better off not working for them (at least from my perspective of an ideal employer). If an employer thinks all their developers are infallible and instantly experts in everything they're learning, that sounds like a pretty awful culture. I know I've made silly/trivial commits to my github and it has yet to hurt my employability. I'd much rather work for a company that knows its employees aren't perfect and development can be a trial/error process at times (these kind of places do exist and I live and work in the Mid Western US). I do agree somewhat about game scrutinization, since it's active process by an employer verses employers passively looking at your github profile.
  - burgreblast 12y ago
    >If they care about X, it's better if your don't work there. Not speaking about private repos per se, but whether it comes down to a close call between you and another candidate, or one person on the hiring team is looking to make a quick decision, it's just smarter to avoid meaningless points of contention. Sure, it's likely you'll never be hurt by this, but it would be sad to miss out on a great opportunity because of some flotsam... and you'll never know why.
  - deciplex 12y ago
    > I'd argue that if an employer cares about... I see this argument a lot and it does have some merit, but it ignores the fact there might be an idiot hiring manager standing between you and the job you want. Just because a company might hire a few bad apples doesn't mean they aren't worth working for, for pretty much the same reason a person can still be worth hiring, even if they make a lot of commits for something simple, etc.
    - yareally 12y ago
      Perhaps, but how many hiring managers are able to scrutinize commits in that great of detail? I'd figure anyone that could, would be in a more technical role and likely a developer/developer manager versus HR.
- tptacek 12y ago
  We agree. We don't think many people would play a game like that. What we're doing doesn't work that way. Employers can't "query" us to get scores for players. If you share something, it's because you want to.
  - krstck 12y ago
    Thanks for the reply. It's reassuring to hear that this will not work that way, and I'm glad to know that anything shared will be voluntary.
- mikro2nd 12y ago
  > have "too many" commits on something simple ... it looks "bad" to employers Really?? I have frequently, in the line of my consulting work, advised my clients (those self-same employers) to worry when they stop seeing a healthy flow of commits from a developer. (Not necessarily to github, rather to whatever VCS they're using.) One friend - like myself an experience dev. - wired ctrl-S in his IDE to his VCS commit command! Mistakes, meandering explorations and wandering up entirely wrong paths is all part of software development, and is precisely what your VCS is there to help you manage. The notion that some (potential) employer might consider using it to the hilt as a "bad" thing sounds profoundly worrying to me. Probably not someone I'd want to work for.
pjungwir 12y ago
I was worried about this too, but when I think about how many times I've shared my Github profile/projects and not had people look at it, I doubt it's a real concern. At most people will look at your score, not at the details. That doesn't mean it won't be in the back of my mind adding anxiety while I'm playing the game though.

by krstck 12y ago

autoreleasepool 12y ago

I'm with you. There's no way I'd play a game where my every move was fair game for employers to scrutinize. That's too much stress and it would suck the fun out of everything. The thought of a game like that irritates me to no end. This is one reason I pay for a private github. I hate that if I'm learning a new technology, have "too many" commits on something simple, or am generally messing around it looks "bad" to employers.

yareally 12y ago
I'd argue that if an employer cares about public repo commits to personal repositories, one is probably better off not working for them (at least from my perspective of an ideal employer). If an employer thinks all their developers are infallible and instantly experts in everything they're learning, that sounds like a pretty awful culture. I know I've made silly/trivial commits to my github and it has yet to hurt my employability. I'd much rather work for a company that knows its employees aren't perfect and development can be a trial/error process at times (these kind of places do exist and I live and work in the Mid Western US). I do agree somewhat about game scrutinization, since it's active process by an employer verses employers passively looking at your github profile.
- burgreblast 12y ago
  >If they care about X, it's better if your don't work there. Not speaking about private repos per se, but whether it comes down to a close call between you and another candidate, or one person on the hiring team is looking to make a quick decision, it's just smarter to avoid meaningless points of contention. Sure, it's likely you'll never be hurt by this, but it would be sad to miss out on a great opportunity because of some flotsam... and you'll never know why.
- deciplex 12y ago
  > I'd argue that if an employer cares about... I see this argument a lot and it does have some merit, but it ignores the fact there might be an idiot hiring manager standing between you and the job you want. Just because a company might hire a few bad apples doesn't mean they aren't worth working for, for pretty much the same reason a person can still be worth hiring, even if they make a lot of commits for something simple, etc.
  - yareally 12y ago
    Perhaps, but how many hiring managers are able to scrutinize commits in that great of detail? I'd figure anyone that could, would be in a more technical role and likely a developer/developer manager versus HR.
tptacek 12y ago
We agree. We don't think many people would play a game like that. What we're doing doesn't work that way. Employers can't "query" us to get scores for players. If you share something, it's because you want to.
- krstck 12y ago
  Thanks for the reply. It's reassuring to hear that this will not work that way, and I'm glad to know that anything shared will be voluntary.
mikro2nd 12y ago
> have "too many" commits on something simple ... it looks "bad" to employers Really?? I have frequently, in the line of my consulting work, advised my clients (those self-same employers) to worry when they stop seeing a healthy flow of commits from a developer. (Not necessarily to github, rather to whatever VCS they're using.) One friend - like myself an experience dev. - wired ctrl-S in his IDE to his VCS commit command! Mistakes, meandering explorations and wandering up entirely wrong paths is all part of software development, and is precisely what your VCS is there to help you manage. The notion that some (potential) employer might consider using it to the hilt as a "bad" thing sounds profoundly worrying to me. Probably not someone I'd want to work for.

pjungwir 12y ago

I was worried about this too, but when I think about how many times I've shared my Github profile/projects and not had people look at it, I doubt it's a real concern. At most people will look at your score, not at the details. That doesn't mean it won't be in the back of my mind adding anxiety while I'm playing the game though.