There is increasing awareness that addiction and procrastination [1] are not indicative of laziness. Human beings are great at protecting their emotional core because it's essential to basic functioning. Addiction seems similar. Addicts seem to be attempting to escape something too (subjectively) difficult to face [2][3]. In my opinion it's often due to unresolved trauma.
When we don't have the emotional tools to resolve trauma from our past, we resort to coping mechanisms. While I'm not a therapist, I've had to deal with my fair share of trauma and have come to learn a lot about how trauma affects us and the way we deal (or fail to deal) with our day-to-day struggles.
Back in 2013 the company I was working for released a touchscreen kiosk. They rolled their own hardware and wanted a custom software solution. There was limited space on the device and it would not be internet-enabled. There would be no physical access to the device beyond the touchscreen, and the target audience was not known for being technically savvy.
I was tasked with delivering PHP code that would serve pages to the customer. For whatever reason I wasn't allowed to use CodeIgniter, which was what we used elsewhere in the company. I wound up creating a mini-framework to serve pages. It was extremely basic and limited, but in this situation it was what was needed.
It is the only time I've ever had to create a framework. I doubt I'll ever have to do so again. The beauty of frameworks is that they free you up to focus on your application and the logic to support it, rather than figuring out the best way to handle things like routing or database access.
Former speed dating entrepreneur here. In person, at least, women are much more open to the idea of speed dating than men. Much of our marketing revolved around how to appeal to and attract men to our events.
If you do anything over and over, you'll get sick of it. A well-balanced life is important. Start exploring other things in life that you find interesting; there is plenty to keep you occupied.
The parliamentarian is someone who is thoroughly familiar with all of the Senate's rules. They ensure that bills that are passed comply with the rules that the Senate operates under.
> And I continually hurt those around me — just by being myself-and it’s beyond heartbreaking.
If you're an asshole without money, you're going to be an asshole when you have money, too. Money doesn't change you; it reveals you.
This is an interesting read, but the author spends way too much time defending his POV. He expects the people around him to just intuitively know what his skills are, but that isn't realistic. People can't know what you consider yourself to be good at unless you tell them.
Not every job requires passion. I would venture to say that most jobs don't. Is it a desirable trait? Sure. Is it the only trait that matters? Most certainly not.
The idea that all programmers are super-passionate about the craft and never have any other interests can lead people to assume that if you don't have that single-minded focus that you aren't a real programmer. This is an industry where many people deal with imposter syndrome already; they really don't need any additional help with questioning whether or not they have what it takes to succeed.
It's a common human tendency to assume that others in your group are exactly like you. The programmers with passion for the craft assume that everyone else who is a developer must share that passion. This is pretty short-sighted and exclusionary. Not every developer codes in their spare time. Not every developer learns new programming languages for fun.
I agree with the author that you need some level of enjoyment from the process of programming in order to succeed in it as a career, but I doubt that's specific to programming, either.
There's growing evidence that political beliefs are linked to self-image more than factual evidence, which is why arguing over the facts of an issue often winds up causing both sides to double-down on what they already believe to be true and generally accomplishes nothing.
I'll check the comments if I'm interested in the topic, but aside from that I tend to avoid HN comments. The comments as a whole seem to be overly negative and contrarian...to the point where often there isn't a whole lot of value to be derived.
First, you are not in a good place mentally. Your self esteem is pretty low and that is the reason you feel like such an outcast at work. Since you're at a big 4 company, odds are good that you have an Employee Assistance Program available to you for free. They can get you set up with a therapist where you can start exploring these issues. The therapist is prohibited from sharing any of this with your employer. Unfortunately, most EAPs only cover a few sessions. In my opinion, though, the benefits of therapy are well worth the cost.
You have to get your emotional issues figured out before you can find the kind of fulfillment you're looking for. Even if you get another job, you will just wind up repeating this same scenario at the next place. I don't doubt that the work culture may be terrible, but the emotional issues you have going on are a core reason you're dealing with this stuff. Your boss is right, you are too nice. Part of being a healthy person is having healthy boundaries. You give and give and give, thinking that it's going to make people like you, but it has the opposite effect because it's just not normal. The end result is that you get excluded.
Second, software hiring is TERRIBLE. It's not just you. I just spent three months searching for a programming job. I got rejection after rejection (usually for doing poorly on those fucking logic puzzles) and it really made me start to doubt my level of expertise. I started making changes to what I was looking for. I changed the target seniority level. I started to lower my salary requirements. Then...boom. I landed a job with the right seniority level for my skills and a salary right at my original target. Now I'm working at the type of company I want, and I'm going to be moving forward in my career. I'm incredibly lucky (and thankful) this opportunity came along or the software hiring process would have convinced me that I simply didn't have the level of skill I thought I had.
Your ability to solve a puzzle is (usually) not indicative of your ability to solve real world business problems. The exception, I think, is at those big companies like you're applying to. So, you need to get better. Fortunately there are a ton of resources out there. If it's important to you to keep working at a huge tech company, then this is the only way to get in unless you have a personal connection. Read some books. Study like it's your job. Eventually stuff will start to make sense.
You have to believe in yourself in order to keep the job search going. That ties into your self esteem. Seek out some counseling, and start studying those brain teasers. You'll get to where you want to be.
"On top of that, a lack of collaboration with U.S. intelligence means that if Anonymous and GhostSec are running the same game as the Group — creating moles within online ISIS communities — the good guys in government could end up investigating the Anonymous moles instead of the actual terrorists."
Pardon my ignorance, but is it even an option for civilians to coordinate with a national intelligence agency?
I really appreciated his tone. I'm incredibly fascinated by ideas like quantum physics and basic building blocks of the universe, but am often left behind when I read articles about them due to a lack of understanding of the core mathematics. His tone makes this complicated subject understandable.