azanar

26 ms·

121.
by azanar 17y ago
What I hope: the comments on this article don't become yet another conference of blowhards and apologists. The frequency at which I've seen comments paraphrased as "So you hate your work; welcome to life, now shut up and get back to it," is
122.
by azanar 17y ago
This post actually presents two premises. The first, that programmer hacking on their own projects, I agree is a very positive indicator. If they don't, it may or may not be a negative indicator, depending on the circumstances. However, I'v
123.
by azanar 17y ago
Skills can be learned, it will take some time but if someone is a real team player he'll make the effort. I think this is completely wrong. See my reply to edw519 for my reasoning why, but the abstract is that I don't think potential is a
124.
by azanar 17y ago
I am in sharp agreement with swombat. You have taken candidate B and idealized him much more than I think is fair. You have made him into a fledging version of A, by assuming he can be taught to the roughly same level eventually, but withou
125.
by azanar 17y ago
I would pass on them both. As desperate as you may be, you need to not give into it. If you hire either of these people, I suspect you will end up with a few weeks of comfort before desperation sets in again, and now with an employee you do
126.
by azanar 17y ago
To the OP, or anyone else who may have insight on this: Was there something significant about the linked section of this article?
127.
by azanar 17y ago
I can only surmise, but I have thought about this same question every time I end up in an engineering department that turns "IT" underneath me -- it has happened a couple of times now. I have left both times, after making attempts to push t
128.
by azanar 17y ago
You needed to say these things before separating from your employer. In fact, you needed to say these things as they came up , rather than letting them pile on and form into a huge rant like this. I'm actually having a hard time followin
129.
by azanar 17y ago
There are all sorts of risks, and it isn't obvious when it is worthwhile to get insurance and when it isn't. One risk is never launching. Right. I'm not saying become paralyzed due to the risks. And I'm not saying do dumb things that miti
130.
by azanar 17y ago
So why didn't he get a motorized pump before the alarming need for it arose? Because, at the time, that money was better spent on other things that were necessary at the time. Might have been better spent. Might have . Say that it was
131.
by azanar 17y ago
If you do that, you'll run a very considerable risk of wonder why version 2.0 of your product is taking so damn long to ship. The answer: all of the things you punted, ignored, assumed, patched over, and otherwise haphazardly threw together
132.
by azanar 17y ago
So the bottom line again seems to be: it is not actually THAT important. Otherwise you would make the time. Another possibility is that it is important, possibly even more important than the other things they are working on, but isn't g
133.
by azanar 17y ago
Or what if the good work you did contributed quite positively to the business, but in a way that wasn't directly connected via the dots back to you. For instance, what if you write a kick-ass piece of software that doubles the sales team's
134.
by azanar 17y ago
If you're working for a small company where the CEO sifts through source control to see what's changing, producing good code will certainly suffice, but if you work in a large company with a multi-tiered management structure, keeping quiet
135.
by azanar 17y ago
Ugh. I severely dislike articles like this, because they lend legitimacy to a pay-by-politics form of reward and punishment. Each of the three reasons he lists can be traced back to manipulation of one's political image: you fail to take th
136.
by azanar 17y ago
Well, if you have investors outside of the founders. ;-) But, depending on the investor, I can't imagine they're quite like working for The Man, who conjures up really unhappy images of cube farms and dress codes. I guess I can't really gau
137.
by azanar 17y ago
"Fuck you money" is a bad name, then. But I think it's stuck because, for a lot of people, it is buying a Caribbean island money; it is their chance to say "fuck you" to everyone who still has to work for a living. Their ambition is to disp
138.
by azanar 17y ago
Alright, so Jason's post was a bit more vitriolic than it needed to be, but I don't see how this contributes meaningfully to the conversation except as a cheap-shot to attempt to discredit Jason. You seem to assume that being a hugely profi
139.
by azanar 17y ago
They didn't have to work for the proverbial Man before they got rich, really. I would surmise that one of the reasons they started Mint was to avoid having to work for what most people consider to be the Man (e.g., typical corporate jobs).
140.
by azanar 17y ago
Is this supposed to be tongue-almost-penetrating-cheek, or is this author for real? Let's assume the author is serious for a second; the company he/she is describing is just asking to get fed to the lions by a company that does not embrac
141.
by azanar 17y ago
I would much rather buy locally-grown, non-organic produce than organic produce grown in an industrial operation a thousand miles away. Why? Outside of the arguments of freshness, which could be dealt with by a more efficient distribution
142.
by azanar 17y ago
Check the definition of "organic." There is no requirement regarding food additives, save that the additives themselves must also be organic. Nothing is stopping the organic farmers from introducing these additives any more than it compelli
143.
by azanar 17y ago
Until now, I haven't said much about this, because arguments about organic farming seem to quickly part with reasonableness and come to rely on blanket assertions and condescension. It's getting old, and I would argue that we either need to
144.
by azanar 17y ago
Another great resource for tidbits like this is _Hacker's Delight_, by Henry S. Warren, Jr. It covers a number of other tricks outside of bit twiddling, as well. Worth checking out for anyone who finds this sort of stuff fascinating. Link:
145.
by azanar 17y ago
We need to also be very careful that we are fixing the right thing, and we are fixing it the right way. I have a completely off-in-the-weeds hypothesis that is based on some anecdotes of those around me. This hypothesis is as follows: the g
146.
by azanar 17y ago
I may seem thick-headed for saying this, but if I were building a system to solve a problem related to the management of customers, having something representing the customers themselves would seem integral to the solution. How would I re
147.
by azanar 17y ago
Buying apples for 1/10 the price isn't the part of the cycle that is most concerning. Nor is the part about firing 9/10 of the workforce -- although that assumes the company is operating at near 0% margins, and that the employment needs of
148.
by azanar 17y ago
But, why do they have more lifestyle disease? In Silicon Valley, I can go to my local farmers market, and I can afford to spend money on organic produce. When I didn't have a car, and lived on the edge of the ghetto in Chicago, it was real
149.
by azanar 17y ago
I think that the disconnect between science and business that he alludes to is not entirely accidental; it is a form of short-term, selfish risk mitigation. The benefits of the organizational system Dan Pink lays out include increased satis
150.
by azanar 17y ago
If you reran the candle experiment but gave the participants the problem statement 24 hours in advance, I would wager that the incentivized group would be more motivated to think through the problem the night before. Motivation is a vecto

More ›