I'm fascinated that you were able to interview and in a few cases get hired by companies with a massively high bar and sophisticated screening. Someone let you in the door because they saw something in you. They wanted to give you a shot, that they DO NOT give to just anyone.
This almost certainly has to be a significant problem with mental health or social skills. You're just not fitting in, so you're getting ejected over and over.
Assuming mental health is something you've accepted may be the problem, my advice is:
1) Go to therapy and invest in it. If you're prescribed meds, take the meds. If they give you goofy homework do the homework. Double down on it. (this helped me)
2) Accept that even though you have talent, these bigger companies just may not be the right fit for you. There are many small tech businesses, including development and security consulting shops and agencies (think 100 people or less) that pay well and are staffed with talented misfits. They tend to be very nurturing places that let you carve out your role and find your place. Smaller businesses have health plans etc too. Be humble and have an open mind.
My teenage nephew got a RAT malware, that someone used to record him watching porn. Then they used that to blackmail him, saying that they would report him to the FBI for watching porn as minor or something. I believe looking for crypto as a payout.
My brother (his dad) caught wind of it and had some fun messing with the attacker. But for a moment my nephew was in some serious deep shit that he would have sneaked around to buy and send crypto to get out of.
So that's a scenario that could have happened, and would explain why he wouldn't want to tell the truth.
Alternatively - Ledger got hacked and a list of customers for the Nano S was stolen. So someone could use that for a targeted phishing attack. Perhaps the above would be a similar strategy
I had this same issue for years, had seen doctors and a psychologist. Was tested and learned I had ADHD. Meds, coping strategies and general self-awareness helped in a big way.
But I also had this specific issue on certain days lingering even with ADHD treatment. My doctor suggested I had sleep apnea. Possibly related to sleep habits and possibly a very soft lumpy mattress. My wife and I got a new firm mattress and it really did the trick.
I know this will be an unpopular comment, but I've had a long-held theory that past lives / reincarnation is a real phenomenon with a biological mechanism that is as-yet unknown.
The theory being that trauma at time of death is somehow encrypted for the next generation and passed on shortly after death, particularly if a corpse enters the water or food supply.
The basis for this is a little embarrassing.. I had memories of being a bridge engineer, frequent dreams of falling off a very specific truss bridge in my head in childhood. To this day I'm terrified of certain types of truss bridges, which are coincidentally quite common upriver of where my parents lived when I was born, and where our water came from.
This theory would also explain why river burial is commonly associated with reincarnation. Committing the tissue of a deceased person into a community water supply would increase transfer of memory.
Fun fact - the "border zone" in which your 4th amendment rights are suspended and you are subject to search, is 100 miles wide and overlaps where the majority of Americans live and work
So, for a casual traveler who may have a phone with conversations peppered with unfavorable political views throughout - what is the best security hygiene in this situation?
Anyone have tips or tricks that average people can use, things that maybe don't involve having a separate phone etc?
Personally I don't think these resources go far enough, and some of the methods recommended have obvious exploits, or are too complicated for the less tech literate. Lot's of work to be done in this area for sure
The pendulum swings both ways, and right now it is swinging faster and harder than ever before in this country. When it swings back, in a tsunami of the unrelenting rage and profound hatred for the other side, there will be blood. That is the future.
You make a noble point, but it will not change anything at this stage. I am human. As are all of us. My well of empathy for Trump's people has gone completely bone dry. I am past the tipping point.
They elected an egotistical reality TV star, backed by a hostile foreign government, to the White House and he's taking a wrecking ball to every institution of federal government exactly as one would have expected him to. Any assertion that tears should be shed or some level of respect should be offered to Trump's people or duped Republicans, is absurd nonsense. The only feeling I have left for these people is rage and it grows with every passing day.
Trump's base right now are people who have never met an Iranian, and would probably be quite happy to see your coworkers sent to Guantanamo. Trump's policies will stand because his base stands by them, and because the GOP rank-and-file fear Trump, and his people in the midterm elections.
If you want to do something, use your political awakening to help change some minds. At both the top and bottom of the power chain, doesn't matter. Steer the conversation
What's more worrisome is how fervently anti-science the new administration is. Academics may eventually be persecuted in the US across the board - as they are already at the EPA, USDA etc - and regardless of citizenship.
I firmly believe anyone with a brain should begin making contingency plans to regroup somewhere like Australia or Japan, outside of the reaches of far-right populism. An Erdogan-style academic purge may be on the agenda and sooner than we think
Interestingly I had my moment of clarity when I realized my Circle of Control can be far larger than what I had believed it to be.
Most humans believe in your viewpoint, but the truth is power is gained from groups. We are all simply a node in a larger network. Accepting and embracing that is the key to growing the Circle of Control. Becoming part of the right network alters the Circle of Control of the individual.
I am surprised by the sheer volume of tech professionals who have been responding to this article today by unapologetically reinforcing it's primary position. The idea that the industry should have no accountability for it's actions seems to be the jarring consensus.
I want to believe that those of us who are opposed to the use of technology purely for greed and power still outnumber, but am starting to feel like maybe we are an island and a dying breed, giving way to a new callous generation of technologists who wish to wield the power of social technology for only individual ambitions over the democratic idealism of collaboration that it was founded on. This is a dark time indeed
The "foreign intrusion" angle is a red herring. In my opinion, the assumption that a foreign hack would be the most likely vector for vote manipulation, which is being played up in tech circles, is the best evidence that the vote was in fact manipulated.
A tech worker or contractor with "alt-right" leanings could easily manipulate the vote without being detected. And there are plenty of them...
Play up the "Russia couldn't do this, you're insane" line and everyone assumes we're looking for outside intrusion by a foreign power, when in fact it is far more likely an intrusion would come from inside.
Why does it have to be a foreign government hacking?
An election tech worker or contractor with an agenda, could easily achieve the same results without having to go to the great lengths of breaking into the network using malware etc.
Many of the social media manipulation techniques used to spread disinformation right now, are things I experimented with in the early days of social media that I proudly discussed in public forums widely and were reproduced by others...
I feel as though the tech industry is collectively to blame for the global power grab that is taking place right now. I've devoted a significant amount of my time to trying to correct this, but it is so far beyond the capabilities of any single person or group at this point.. like a wildfire burning out of control and all I can do is sit and stare as it consumes everything around me