If you want to work at a tech giant as an engineer the most important factor is probably if you have a strong relationship with someone with hiring authority, and the second most important factor is the ability to solve algorithmic problems. Side projects are probably not the best way to do either and shouldn't be the only thing you do to work at a tech giant. They do help, I've had recruiters from tech giants comment on my side projects as a sign of being passionate.
Side projects have been a huge benefit to working in the VR industry, because when I got started it was rare to find people with professional experience.
Also, failed side projects are way more helpful than failed algorithmic studying.
Here's what I think would be needed to largely chunk those weird squares into the garbage bin:
- Comfort: It has to be comfortable for a lot of people to use the device for an extended time. Lets say 4 hours. Current Gen VR gets uncomfortable around 20-30 minutes. That isn't too big a bridge to cross.
- Resolution: Current Gen VR isn't suitable for looking at a lot of text for a long time due to the PPD (Pixels per degree). I've tried the Plimax 4K, and it felt very close, to the degree that I think that the Plimax 8K Pro (Which uses native 8K resolution unlike the standard 9k) could very well be there.
- Text input: This could be tricky because its not something being demanded by games at all. A very easy to imagine solution would be tracked fingers + a tracked physical keyboard. Current finger tracking is juusssst about good enough for this, but not quite. I think this is only really critical for VR coding and text processing, social and general UI use is going to lean on voice as much as possible because it fits into the VR paradigm much better.
I used to be super excited about YC from a values standpoint for years.
I applied to work for a bunch of YC startups about 4 years ago. What I was generally told was that they never heard of my college or the companies I worked for so I was a no go.
That doesn't seem to be fostering diversity, or making the world a better place, or completely separate from the type of bullshit practiced by big companies.
(I still like to lurk here because its a good tech news filter, but when YC posts self horn tooting posts its kind of irritating)
Side projects have been a huge benefit to working in the VR industry, because when I got started it was rare to find people with professional experience.
Also, failed side projects are way more helpful than failed algorithmic studying.