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Comment by schmichael | Hacker News Reader

In the past 6 months I've switched from a mostly Python job to a mostly Go job, but I think I'll always consider myself part of the Python community. It's a positive and vibrant community.

Ian's participation in the Python community has been - and will continue to be - missed. I hope he brings the same wisdom and humility to the splintered Javascript community he brought to Python.

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Wisdom? maybe, I don't know. But humility? well, long ego trip posts about ones achievements and future achievements are not exactly artifacts for humility, in my papers. And the usual downtoning of one's achievements in this article is only making matters worse.

Oh by the way, this comment is not against the author, it's against humility-as-a-value. I think we've gone too far here. The creator of virtualenv and pip do not have to force himself showing humility, he should be proud. There's nothing wrong in being proud of one's achievements.

[grammar edited]

The person you replied to wasn't specifying that he valued Ian Bicking's humility in that specific blog post, but his general demeanour within the Python community.

Ok, possibly. But even then, I hope I am not the only one to have noticed a trend where many people in the tech community declare themselves "humbled" or display some humility in one form or another.

So, Ian Bicking aside, I think it is an interesting topic. Some notes:

- Like real generosity do not display itself, real humility hides itself. Or should.

- Humility (or some expressions of it) can be seen as a Middle-age Christian value. Jesus-Christ himself was all but humble, but in European Middle-Ages and after, there was a few movements trying to show unlimited submission to God's will, and humility was proposed as a core value.

- While I understand the pro-humility trend is a counterweight of the arrogance, which is quite annoying too, I think best would be to display none of them. In fact it means displaying less of the self, and more of interesting content. I think Peter Norvig's articles are good examples of writings letting the self in the back shade, which by ricochet raises curiosity and interest in the author's self. I think many other authors are also good examples.

I agree with you. However, in my personal experience, pride seems to be shot down somewhat in our wider programming community--if you're outwardly seen as "boasting", that's considered bad form, so I understand why others would default to "humility".

I think this post is really addressed at the Python community, and I would be surprised if anyone in that category that has interacted with Ian over the years would interpret any of this as an ego trip and fake downplaying of achievements.

I've switched from Python to Go for about a year and so far have no regrets. Still write some Python here and there, but nothing serious anymore. The whole debate about Python 2 and 3, performance issues, GIL, etc made me give up.

I have a lot of respect for his work, and I also appreciated the tone of the posting. Thank you, Ian, and may your attitude inspire others.

I'm especially fond of Ian's story-telling prowess. Not many can capture their own thoughts and experiences as succinctly nor as enjoyably.

If I may ask, how should I find Go jobs?

The same way you find any job? If they advertise they use Go, you know they are interested in Go programmers too. If they don't, still put it in the resume?

I'm terrible at job hunting and didn't know how to answer when people would ask me how to find Python jobs. There's only one method that has worked consistently for me:

- I met a founder from Lytics (my current mostly-Go job) at a Go meetup.

- I met a couple of the founders from Urban Airship (my previous mostly-Python job) at a Python meetup.

So I guess going to meetups is what works for me, but I don't think that's a general solution. Sorry I can't be more help.

going to meetups is what works for me, but I don't think that's a general solution

Personally I think it's a pretty good solution.

Keyword being "personally." :)

There are lots of people for whom it probably doesn't work. It takes a certain personality, and it really helps to be a white male. Minorities are often treated differently at meetups, so I don't want to presume that my experience in a privileged position applies universally.

Fair point - and yes, it's a pity that minorities are treated differently (although it does work both ways a bit, too[1]).

I suspect those difference also apply in formal interview situations - and maybe even more difficult to overcome there. Maybe meetups have better potential to overcome negative sterotypes because people actually get to know each other a little?

But white male here too, so what do I know.

[1] http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/...

Same way you find a job in any field you are interested in. Find some companies that are using it[1], find their job page, apply.

To pick out a few companies hiring, where I use their services so want them to succeed:

https://www.docker.io/jobs/

http://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/listings/

http://www.cloudflare.com/join-our-team

[1] https://code.google.com/p/go-wiki/wiki/GoUsers (Note that Google isn't on that list. Pretty sure they use it a bit, and are hiring..)

FWIW we are a Go shop (well, mostly) and are hiring. Check out cbinsights.com/jobs if you're interested.

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