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Considering that playing office politics is a key part of being "good on the job", I believe the sensationalized title. The top programming contest folk I knew
by fatjokes 12y ago
Considering that playing office politics is a key part of being "good on the job", I believe the sensationalized title. The top programming contest folk I knew were as socially awkward as they were brilliant.
Based on my (admitted small) social circle, this means they excel at algo trading firms. A lot of trading teams I know of are headed by former Putnam/ICPC/IOI/IMO/etc. top rankers. The politics there are simple: did you make money?
- _yosefk 12y agoA different angle - from someone averse to competitions and trading of most kinds: both have simple cost functions, unlike most of the rest of life. Yeah, it will tend to simplify politics which I think is a good thing. But in other areas a large part of one's effort goes into figuring out what to do - what the cost function actually is, into expanding the understanding of what it is. Incidentally, much of human intelligence and talent in many areas manifests in understanding what to do; it's what machine intelligence is worst at right now; and it's the thing without which machines often beat people (board games are a simple example.) So there are downsides to "simple politics" or rather simple cost functions; I for one don't care about such problems very much.