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I feel rather silly commenting as a voice of dissent here, against a man who cannot defend himself, but here goes. These are rather obvious metrics that a chil
by axaxs 11y ago
I feel rather silly commenting as a voice of dissent here, against a man who cannot defend himself, but here goes.
These are rather obvious metrics that a child could have drafted. Are you smart? Can do you do things? The problem is that these are subjective measures.
A smart person, who sets the world on fire and gets things done, perhaps like Aaron did or could have done, has a different perspective than say a 50-something product manager. They may see smart as seeing the future, where the programmer may see smart as knowing x86 assembly. And the fool may see smart as someone who talks in technical jumble.
There is no golden key to hiring folks. My experiences say that in a good company, the manager needing help should be in charge of hiring who he/she deems fit. Some may, perhaps rightly, cry nepotism and other factors may run amok. But putting that weight, and risks, on the manager is the point. If they hire an unqualified buddy, they are responsible and ultimately fail with them. I don't really see this as different than Aaron - someone who has their own metrics.
In short, trying to put out any 'guide to hiring people' is a short sighted goal, seeing as everyone has their own experiences and views. This is really no different.
- anon3_ 11y ago> I feel rather silly commenting as a voice of dissent here, against a man who cannot defend himself, but here goes. I agree. AS being dead makes it difficult to discuss issues related to him. I don't view AS as wise sage. I always found he was a bit of a self-promoter; a bit of a loose cannon. A person who was a hacker, but like some millennials, the validation from publicity got to his head. It's taboo. If you attack certain things on the merits - certain people will believe you're attacking all freedom of information - because they relate AS to some sort of representation of it. Burglarizing MIT isn't hack in the sense of hacker culture. MIT hacks were clever. Burglarizing for the attempt to swallow data isn't clever - it's a hammer.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- axaxs 11y agoI see you being downvoted. This doesn't seem right to me in that I agree with you completely, so implicate myself with this comment to show my support.
- jamra 11y agoYou really are speaking ill of the dead. Calling him a self-promoter and a loose cannon isn't appropriate. As far as the MIT incident... I don't really think he burglarized MIT. He tried to bring documents that were hidden behind a paywall to the general public. He didn't rob anyone seeing as how the documents were submitted without compensation by the people who created them. Whether or not it's hacker culture, it's a culture of social disruption aimed at the betterment of us all. There will always be shakers, people who raise their voices loud to stand for what they believe in. Unfortunately, they will all be followed by people like you and your parent poster who will attempt to defame their character and negate their contributions.
- hnnewguy 11y ago>I don't really think he burglarized MIT I think Mr. Swartz's actions at MIT are admirable, but I don't know how you can deny that what he did was burglary.
- jamra 11y agoBurglary is theft of valuables. What was stolen? Data was copied, not erased. The moral ownership of that data is by the many authors who were never reimbursed. JSTOR is a scam.
- morganvachon 11y agoBurglary isn't theft. Burglary is breaking into a place you don't have permission to enter, with the intent to commit a crime. If you then commit that crime (whether it's theft, vandalism, destruction of property, etc.) you are usually charged with that other crime alongside the burglary charge.
- jamra 11y agoOk so lets focus on the act of breaking in, though there was no financial loss. Lets ignore the fact that he could have obtained everything without "breaking in" if he did so at Stanford. It's clear to me that in Aaron's mind, he was not breaking in. A laptop in an unlocked cabinet is not really breaking in. It seems as though there is some kind of personal hatred towards Aaron that compels people to try and vilify him as if he was some sort of criminal.
- woah 11y agoBurglarizing MIT was the right thing to do. This is true, regardless of whether or not you find it inelegant.
- taurussai 11y agoTaking a different view here. The best ideas seem obvious in the future. I thought he was very clear articulate in how he does his hires (he would be the hiring manager here). While yes the manager needing help answers the "who" part of the hiring question, Aaron answers the "how".