j_baker

75 ms·

661.
by j_baker 14y ago
Sorry, what are you saying? Capitalism is an imperfect system, therefore we should stop trying to make it better? I mean, of course capitalism has systemic problems. And many of those are the result of an education system that rewards th
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by j_baker 14y ago
Wait, what are you saying? Employment should be predicated on the employer giving the employee an adequate monetary reward in exchange for an adequate monetary reward for the employee? And if either side isn't getting their adequate monet
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by j_baker 14y ago
Honestly, if you don't like reading articles that complain about interns who aren't paid, don't read them. What's not a worthwhile opportunity for you might be an opportunity for someone else. In all seriousness, unpaid internships benefit
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by j_baker 14y ago
I'd expect that Harvard has at least some scholarships/grants for underprivileged students. Unpaid internships offer no such niceties.
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by j_baker 14y ago
Ok, so you didn't exploit that worker. Congratulations. But what about the other kid who may or may not have been more qualified than the kid you hired, but couldn't afford to work for free?
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by j_baker 14y ago
You mean a sizable subset of workers have decided they're worth their time. I think it's worth bringing up Maslowe's hierarchy of needs. If you can't afford to eat or pay rent, the experience you're getting is among the least of your co
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by j_baker 14y ago
I think it's much simpler than that. I think it's just that businesses like having free labor. It's much cheaper than paying people, isn't it?
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by j_baker 14y ago
To be even more pedantic, python already runs on multiple cores. They poll the GIL until they can run. I believe some version of Python 3 fixes this behavior so they don't have to poll the GIL.
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by j_baker 14y ago
Let me reframe what you just said. Yes, your post does show that. But do you plan on showing that post to any potential employers? It's just as important for you to demonstrate that to potential employers as it was for you to demonstra
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by j_baker 14y ago
I don't know about the question being a trap. If you don't try to be too sly about it, you might even turn it into a plus for you. If it were me interviewing, my biggest concern would be that the OP is burned out, and thinks that working
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by j_baker 14y ago
These kinds of conflicts cause more problems than you might suspect. I respect the fact that different people and organizations code differently. But that respect has to go both ways. Otherwise, you find yourself in a situation where you
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by j_baker 14y ago
In my (admittedly limited) experience, management at Google listens very carefully if you say to them "I don't think I'll be happy doing that" or "I'm not happy doing what I'm doing." The thing is that you have to be the one to say that.
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by j_baker 14y ago
Yes, but do you think the average layman knows enough to say, convict Enron of accounting fraud? Clearly not. I mean, a significant number of accountants didn't know enough.
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by j_baker 14y ago
There's a world of difference between "imperfect" and "merely adequate". Not having all the details squared away makes your product imperfect. Not having all the important details squared away makes your product "merely adequate". The
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by j_baker 14y ago
I'm a bit curious what profits Oracle expects to take. Google isn't profiting off of Android (that I know of) except in the sense that it makes for more people who are willing to use their search engines. That's pretty difficult to quanti
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by j_baker 14y ago
Nor can they be expected to understand accounting principles in accounting fraud cases. Nor can they be expected to understand tax law in tax cases. Heck, you really can't rely on them to understand theft laws in cases of theft. In fact,
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by j_baker 14y ago
Much as I hate lawyers and class-action lawsuits, I'd be willing to bet EA gets taken to court over this if Apple doesn't punish them. I'm not a lawyer, but I'd imagine that one could argue in court that there's an implied warranty that yo
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by j_baker 14y ago
Of course, if that app developer is a major player like EA, I would imagine the definition of "abusive" suddenly becomes much more liberal.
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by j_baker 14y ago
You can't solve everything with numbers, and I say this as someone who believes very strongly in data-driven decision-making. Even given perfect data as far as what practices are more effective, you still have the problem of interpreting i
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by j_baker 14y ago
My suspicion is that the underlying motivation in both cases is a desire for "social proof". You might have evidence that the person you're interviewing is a good fit for the job, but why hasn't anyone else hired them to do it? As much as
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by j_baker 14y ago
If you haven't, I highly recommend reading Jonah Lehrer's book Imagine : http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Creativity-Works-Jonah-Lehrer/... It turns out that there are two sides to creativity: a more left-brained tendency to focus on some
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by j_baker 14y ago
I used to be the kind of person who couldn't work without headphones. Nowadays, I usually don't wear them unless there's a lot of noise I need to drown out or I just want to work undisturbed. People who do use headphones all the time don't
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by j_baker 14y ago
Really? I would argue that a bubble is a psychological bug that causes investors to ignore the numbers. They're usually right there in front of you, but the bubble effect short-circuits the rational thought process that tells you not to i
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by j_baker 14y ago
Did you have any facts or logic, or were you hoping that casting VCs as the next subprime mortgage brokers would remove the need to present them?
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by j_baker 14y ago
There's always more data you can have. I was merely saying that the author presented enough data to make a credible argument, not that he was correct. His approach, though undebatably imperfect, is much more valuable than the typical "C
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by j_baker 14y ago
It's nice to see someone approaching this question with actual data , and not gawking at a handful of acquisitions that are arbitrarily deemed "excessive".
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by j_baker 14y ago
I find it telling that the only data point given in this article is the purchase of instagram and a few other debatable acquisitions. The rest is conspiracy theories against VCs and speculation.
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by j_baker 14y ago
Either that or they'll feel threatened and change averse for the exact same reasons, and not pressure you at all. :-) I can't help thinking that a "rational" team wouldn't trust heuristics like these.
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by j_baker 14y ago
I'll buy that when I see it. Having good team members isn't a magical way to bypass human psychology. Good people have insecurities, want to work with people who won't threaten them, and dislike change just like everyone else. But it doe
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by j_baker 15y ago
I don't think that's necessarily true. I can think of a number of socially awkward, shy people I'd enjoy spending a Sunday with. I can also think of a (probably larger) group of gregarious, outgoing people persons who I'd rather not work

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