65 karma · joined July 7, 2015
Additionally, there are different levels of knowing a language. You can write perfectly workable programs in C without ever touching function pointers. So what's your level of mastery?
And then there are more difficult languages. Have you tried C++ or Scala? Ever explored the esoterical intricacies of Java's type system? Lisp? Objective-C? Kotlin? ADA?
Ok, that's languages. How about parallelism? Massive parallelism? Tight resource constraints such as limited memory? Error handling? Modern language and compiler design?
I'm not trying to say you need to know all these things to be a decent coder. My point is there are many harder problems out there and maybe if you're bored you might want to try working on some of them.
One more protip. At a higher level, moving up further does not mean being a better coder. It means talking to people (often on different teams), thinking and generating ideas (and applying for patents), sometimes taking risks to prove those ideas, figuring out how to improve process, and generally communicating. If you believe you're not good at any of these, you can actually study and practice them and get better at them. I did, and it's working out for me.
In either case, there are questions that have multiple difficulties of responses. The more experienced/capable they are, the more nuanced and complete their answers will be. For example, ask a Java person how GC actually works. Most people have very little idea, but the best talent knows a good bit more.
But there are other variables. I've known perfectly intelligent and productive coders who took months to build a really complex well architected system that didn't solve the business problem and hence were a bad hire.
It's worth mentioning that for 2017 leadership, the Google numbers are significantly different: 26% asian, 68% white (and 75% male). So the decision making is still quite white and male.
That said, I can afford the MBP; as a professional, one shouldn't cheap out on tools that help you get your job done efficiently.
"Engineering force pretty much has no negotiation power in this." Of course we do. We don't have to accept an offer unless it meets our terms.
"Engineering is a liability. Sales is an asset." This is ridiculous. In an early stage startup, most likely there is no product. Sales has nothing to sell if not for engineering's efforts.
"VC's won't allow it." If a startup can't hire, then VCs have exactly nothing.
This isn't to say that cash isn't a good thing. I personally agree that options need to be balanced with cash, especially when a startup is well funded, and options are fractions of a penny, but that decision is individual.
And if he used an existing infrastructure like AWS, I would hope AWS would kick him off of it.
<I'll see myself out.>
I work for a company whose stock is going up. This makes it a great company to hold stock in. Unless, some other company's stock is going up faster. Which there always will be, but I don't necessarily know which one. I could be making more money. The trick is knowing which, unfortunately reading tea leaves is difficult.
So I diversify. I leave some money in my company, I put some money in other investments. That way, if my own company goes down in flames, I am not totally lost, and if they continue going up, then I gain.
What you need to do is understand your company, its products, its history, likely future, and risk factors. Yes that is a lot of stuff to research, but it is the way to sleep better at night while feeling good about yourself and your investments.
One of its primary purposes is air-to-air. Don't take my word for it: https://www.f35.com/about/capabilities
This pitch tells me nearly nothing. It doesn't say what I would use it for, what benefits it offers, how it stands compared to other solutions on the market, or even any details about what platform(s) it supports. So basically unless I happen to currently have no solution and am actively looking for one, then I don't care. Which I would guess is about 99.999% of the people who received their email.