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csorrell

136 karma · joined August 21, 2014

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csorrell··on Ask HN: Tell me about how you bombed a technical interview
I bomb most technical interviews if I'm being honest. I struggle quite a bit with the text book questioning part of the process, mostly with using the correct terminology. I think this is partly because I've been remote for the last 10 years and don't talk programming with other developers very often, but also I'm just the kind of guy that struggles grasping the words I'm looking for in conversation and ends up saying things in a round about way.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I prefer live coding exercises. Definitely more confident showing my competence than trying to explain it.

csorrell··on Ask HN: End of days – are subscription dark patterns simply becoming fraud?
Planet fitness is the absolute worst offender in my mind. I had a membership once at a location and did not close it before moving out of state. Fair to assume I could just cancel over the phone, but this is not something they would do. Apparently the contract says cancellations have to be in person at the branch you opened your membership at. Even after explaining I was multiple states away and could not do this they refused to close my account and continued to bill me. I asked my bank to deny all future payments to them, and this worked for a month or two before payments started getting pulled again. this went on for over a year until I eventually went back to visit friends and was able to close the membership in person. I can't imagine this is legal, but I guess it's probably worked out well enough for them to be worth it. I've heard the same story from a few people since this all happened.
csorrell··on Secretive Surveillance Company Is Selling Cops Cameras Hidden in Gravestones
No, I don't think LSD was involved. Just psychological abuse.
csorrell··on Bees are essential to the almond industry, and billions are dying in the process
Almonds as a crop aren't going to provide enough nutrients for bees, but yeah, it's an issue anywhere large monocultures exits.
csorrell··on Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
>Generally, the "10x devs" are the ones who got to do the initial greenfield work. They are the ones who understand the system, including all the undocumented domain knowledge that has been embedded into it over the years.

I think this is exactly right. Especially when working on large projects with complex business logic.

csorrell··on Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates
it's an Irish joke, that speaks the the Irish sense of humor. Irish people will jab at the Irish way all day long. It's really not offensive; certainly not as offensive as someone else coming along and deciding to be offended on others' behalf. lighten up.
csorrell··on Ask HN: Will you work remotely via blurred live video?
I wouldn't, no. if a teammate wanted to do a video chat or quick phone call with me they can ping me on slack and ask if it's a good time. this sort of feature adds an unspoken expectation to my home office... that I'm supposed to be immediately available whenever someone wants to turn on the video feed. I'm not interested in that.
csorrell··on Some people who take psychedelics continue hallucinating indefinitely
I have a similar experience with HPPD...the ability to "flex" the mind to either increase or decrease the degree to which I was experiencing the visual pattern distortions. it was mostly just a matter of directing attention into the experience vs. pulling out of it. anyway, fascinating thread on HN this morning.
csorrell··on Some people who take psychedelics continue hallucinating indefinitely
With HPPD, do you find that you're able to increase/decrease the levels of distortions by mentally moving into it/ pulling out of it? I developed fairly severe HPPD from a large dose of LSD as well. This was about 20 years ago. It eventually waned over the course of a few years and is no longer noticeable though.
csorrell··on Ask HN: How much do you make at a startup?
to be honest, I think this has more to do with the way a lot of companies interview. I was probably a much stronger interviewee immediately after graduating college than I am now after having worked in the field for half a decade. I'm a much more skilled developer now though. I don't read textbooks in my free time, so if I end up in an interview where they are asking me textbook questions I'm not going to do as well. I had an interview recently for a senior dev role and they were asking me things like, "what are the 4 pillars of OOP?", and I thought to myself, "Off the top of my head, IDK, but it sounds like something I probably learned in school."

edit: I guess you're more so comparing people with degrees vs. those without so my response would better fit under the parent comment. basically all I'm saying is yes, 10 years experience does mean something in this field, but if your interview style isn't picking up on that then your interview process is broken.

csorrell··on 38 People are looking at this post right now
another dark pattern these kinds of aggregator sites do is up the price on flights/hotels that you've recently viewed. so if you are looking at a flight, then continue to browse for a bit to see other options, when you come back to that flight the price will have increased, as though it were no longer available. if you clear your cookies or open in another browser though, you'll find the original lower price again.
csorrell··on Junior remote devs/designers/marketers/sales reps – tell me your experience
I started my career as a remote junior dev, but I wouldn't recommend it. it's very difficult to get brought up to speed as a skilled developer in a situation where contact with other devs is minimal.
csorrell··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2019)
I'm an experienced remote worker offering 6 years experience primarily using the Microsoft stack. I approach solutions with maintainability in mind; code should be simple to read and easy to change.

Location: Providence, RI

  Remote: yes

  Willing to relocate: no

  Technologies: C#, ASP.NET, MSSQL, nHibernate,javascript/jQuery, etc.
 
  Résumé/CV: available upon request

  Email: chris.s.sorrell@gmail.com
csorrell··on Ask HN: Ghosted After Job Offer
Is it just me, or has ghosting interviewees become more common recently? I've joked about it being the hiring style of millenials, might be there's actually something to that. I absolutely hate it though. If someone has invested their time into the interview process, putting hours into coding test, technical interviews, etc. have the decency to check in with them afterwards and provide closure to what was considered an open possibility.
csorrell··on Ask HN: I feel sad about my life and job, and do not know what to do
Your first job on a code base with any real complexity is going to be tough. It just takes time, but after a while, it will start to make more sense and you will get more comfortable with it. Hang in there. the experience you'll get by seeing this through will be invaluable to you. maybe it is a problem with your job and the project, but it's sounds more like it's just feeling like you're in over your head. as a junior back end dev, you are in over your head, that's how it goes. so long as your team understands this and is patient with you, it's a good situation for you in terms of your own career development.
csorrell··on Experts cracked laptop of crypto CEO who died with $137M, but the money was gone
A corrupt exchange is it's own tumbler.
csorrell··on Smoking Banana Peels Is the Greatest Drug Hoax of All Time
I always thought it was a meme too, and surely no one was dumb enough to believe or try it... then I volunteered at the med tent at a Rainbow Gathering in Wyoming. I can confirm at least one use of jenkum in the United States.
csorrell··on Stellar Smart Contracts
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. I think this is a very reasonable projection. The technology isn't just going to stagnate, it's going to continue to evolve until it finds a useful place in the world. Having insured financial intermediaries executing smart contracts isn't a far fetched idea to me.
csorrell··on Elon Musk Confronts a Fateful Tweet and an ‘Excruciating’ Year
This is what burnout looks like. At some point you just hit a wall.
csorrell··on Ask HN: Why do we (hackers) suck at design?
Because doing it right takes time and it's not where we want to get stuck spending all our time on?
csorrell··on A Practical Introduction to Blockchain with Python
Product tracking and supply chain management is a practical use case. Pairing RFID tags with block chain technology can be used as an anti-counterfeiting measure to guarantee a product's origin.
csorrell··on Tether says its cryptocurrency is worth $2B–but its audit failed
A number of exchanges have USDT pairings. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/#markets
csorrell··on PSA: Check your inbox for email from stellar.org, you may be sitting on $
Yep, I remember a thread on HN during that time where we were all signing up. Finding them now is a welcome surprise.
csorrell··on Fewer toys at once may help toddlers to focus better and play more creatively
That's the kid you catch 15 years later sneaking out at night to eat a gas station burrito.
csorrell··on Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana
When greed meets control, you get a black market.

I don't see illegal marijuana going away. There's always going to a black market for a product that's strictly regulated, so long as it's profitable and in high demand.

csorrell··on Update on Bitcoin Cash
Gemini's identification process is a bit ridiculous imo. After sending them a copy of my drivers license to prove my identity, they emailed me back asking for copy of my most recent pay stub. Ah, no. That's farther than I'm willing to go. A quick google search leads me to stories about Gemini calling employers after receiving paystubs...
csorrell··on Prozac Nation Is Now the United States of Xanax
Do you meditate a few hours a day?
csorrell··on Ask HN: Women in tech, how do you find non-toxic work environments?
It seems to me that in an attempt to avoid one type of toxic environment, you've gone to another extreme. What you're really screening for is an environment where everyone is similar to yourself.
csorrell··on Ask HN: How often do you write comments in your code?
I mostly comment where I think there might be confusion about the reasoning behind a particular piece of logic. I hate coming across code where I have to wonder if I've found a logic error, or am just misunderstanding the desired behavior.
csorrell··on Let employees work from home
Screen sharing is an important feature, but is video conferencing really necessary or even something most people want? I WFH, and my team has bi-weekly meetings, but we don't do video conferencing. I quite prefer phone calls to video personally.
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