I just re-read the Atavist piece the other day, as Le Roux made one of his first public appearances at a hearing. A truly awe-inspiring piece of journalism about a man who seems to have already lived multiple lives in his 46 years.
His message board and mailing list comments were especially fascinating to me, as I spent time lurking on those lists and others as a teen. Cannot recommend Mr. Ratliff's work enough.
Stories like these are the ones that inspire me the most. People using technology in a way that helps them in their everyday lives, or in a hobbyist fashion. I feel like many of the things I pick-up at work are out of career necessity: the latest framework, bits of an up and coming language that is going to be "the future", semi fluency in a stack so I can aid in a project,I enjoy it, but I don't enjoy it like in the same way I once did.
Probably my favorite programming memory was teaching myself Java as a teenager and building games for my friends and I to play. No responsibility, if they worked...great, if not oh well. It was exhilarating. I do not think programming will ever become a lingua franca, as stated in other places here. I think hobbyist programmers may pop up more and more,or people who know enough to build small tools for themselves (not to scale) and I don't think that's a bad thing.
Not sure about the overall ideas in this one. I am currently writing apps in Angular using Python on the backend. Just got a new contract. My career started years ago with only HTML and CSS.
Being experienced, I would agree with the thesis here, except for the fact that we hire several junior devs here at my new office with only HTML and CSS knowledge and then gradually teach them frameworks and tools they will need.
Other places I have worked have taken this approach too. Don't know Angular or ember? That's okay...if you are teachable and really want to learn. Those are the real skills you need.
I worked for UPS for a long time, and if I am understanding what you are saying then no, you must be a due-paying member of the IBT to benefit from contractually-negotiated benefits and pay. UPS corporate has a totally different set of benefits, pay, and expectations from their Teamster counterparts.
I have had Amazon folks in my neighborhood: leave packages on the sidewalk, throw packages over fences and ask me for a tip.
These are antecdotal, but if Amazon wants to catch up to a company like UPS, they have a ton of ground to make up. Delivering packages is really hard work, believe it or not, and underpaying someone to do it isn't going to bring about the results you're after, guaranteed.
So I read this and cannot help but wonder if we really are 5 years away from a massive sea change. People think truck drivers could be obsolete in 5 years time, the bullish ones anyway.
The tech is still developing. We may be in a bit of a hype bubble, but it is as real and clear as it has ever been. I think even as the tech advances rapidly, public acceptance will be way further out than 5, 10 or 15 years. I would venture to say self-driving cars and truck fleets being normalized is 30 years away and in no way because of the tech, but due to all the red tape and public debate that will encase the issue.
If you think all truck drivers are going to be displaced in 5 or even 10 years, you may be living in an HN bubble. Sure jobs will be automated away, but this is going to take more time than lots of people think. For instance, one article like this could delay acceptance for months or years, in my opinion.
I lived on one of the streets they mention in the article while attending college. The hardest thing one would see was malt liqour abuse or the occasional nodded off opiate user.
I was just in the area last week, and it is arresting how different things are. Boarded up houses, handwritten signs for suboxone treatment with phone numbers, addled users staring into space on many corners - things have changed.
Stories like this give me a bit of hope because people do recover, I know that. But what is the longterm solution here? The causes of the opioid epidemic are debated ad nauseum, but it seems much harder to put a finger on the pulse of a solution. It's wrecking lives at an increasing rate, that much is for sure.
I believe he is also on the Dart lang team at google. He has a pretty awesome blog and is super insightful when it comes to programming languages. His Github projects inspired me to research language design further.
This is spot on. I didn't care about my credit score for a long time...until I did. An autopay error from one bank account to another resulted in a late payment and a 50 point drop. Coincidentally, I also needed to rent an apartment and apply for a small car loan.
Both of these things were made much more difficult, even with just a 50 point ding. The score recovered quickly and I learned my lesson. It was somewhat eye opening for me. One thing I do wish: after tons of research and discussion with "experts" it seems pretty difficult for the average American to predict a rise in their credit score once it takes a hit.
Sure, paying bills on time and carrying low or no balances help, but at the same time, paying off a loan can either help or hurt you, being added as an authorized user to a partner's card can be beneficial or not even acknowledged. I wish the algorithm for determining this was a bit more transparent, i.e. What are the mechanisms at work behind that credit report? Not some vague "your score may have fallen because of..." Or "doing this might help your credit..." I feel like the lack of transparency makes people fear credit to a degree.
This is super interesting. I know there is much heated discussion here on HN about IBM in terms of the Watson project and some of the claims made vs. reality etc. I am pretty far removed from the trajectory of IBM's AI research, but can only figure a joint effort with MIT will bolster their reputation by association if nothing else.
Just finished reading about Facebook and Microsoft launching a joint AI effort not five minutes ago. To those enmeshed in or working in AI research: are these joint efforts a response to Tensorflow and Google?
So we have all of these chat apps. Choice is never a bad thing, but this has to be somewhat beyond saturation point, no? I don't know about anyone else, but I would rather have my work chat apps resemble social media chat apps less rather than more. Fewer Gif's, fewer emojis — they can be funny and endearing in the right context, but just feel forced and obtuse in a work setting. Also, this is coming from the makers of Confluence and Jira...I'll have to try it and see it in person before forming a true opinion, but not holding out too much hope.
For me: writing code is my job, writing code is my hobby, writing code is what drives and comforts me. I hear about a great new tool or language, I just have to try it out - usually on my own time.
Doing this has served me well in some cases, but there have been times I have woken up in the morning not caring if I ever use a piece of tech again. This has been a pattern throughout my life: to focus on something to the point where I may be a bit obsessed, start to get really good at it and then burnout hard and transition to a new focus.
Luckily with tech I have learned moderation to a point. I still almost hit that wall sometimes, but recognize pretty quickly when I am about to and take a short break from the tools or issue at hand.
Interesting, I know he has been at a few places since then, wonder if his output has picked up? Getting into Java was my first taste of programming and I loved it, thought really highly of Gosling and still do. I just had a friend tell me this morning "heh Java is so dying." I swear I hear this every few months, but I fail to see it going anywhere. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough?
To the point about his ego not being fed at Google: when he went there, I wondered what he would be working on and if being another name on a roster if insanely talented engineers and scientists(Norvig, Pike, on and on and on)would help him grow and create more great things, or prove a frustration in some way. What was he working on there, I haven't read many details, does anyone know?
I was going to ask about that, if these were in any way core contributors. I figured most of those serious enough to make helpful commits wouldn't take the bait.
They were in my Linkedin network, and a college friend coincidentally. I simply pinged them and asked them a few questions about the new job and interview process. I disclosed that I had also interviewed for it. They were a bit leery of their own skill level upfront, so even they were surprised when it was offered. An interesting situation.