Programming insights to Storytelling, it's all here.
I was driving down Sepulveda Blvd near LAX when I stopped at a red light. It was one of those lights that just wouldn't turn green. There were very few cars, and I thought about going through the red light, but, I wasn't in a hurry.
As a non programmer, when you read the stories of all the famous nerds, the first thing you do is go on amazon and shop for programming books. Most titles are confusing, you only wish to know which book Zuckerburg was reading so you can create your own bookface as quick as possible. After much confusion, you call your programmer friend and ask for a book recommendation. Of course his response is to not get a book, all the stuff is on the Internet already.
In the past 5 years, I have not received a single negative performance review. For every company I worked for, the manager had to be reminded by a third party or me that my review is due. We would go in a small meeting room and he would say good things about me then say something like "I will talk to bob about giving you a raise". The interesting part is if I was to ask them what I was working on they would have no idea.
I tried using Coffeescript, looks like it was not made for me. So it is a language with a not so simple syntax that is supposed to compile back to JavaScript. The selling point is, if you come from a OOP background, it makes working with JavaScript easier. The catch is you need to know JavaScript first.
Search is an important feature on a website. When my few readers want to look for a particular passage on my blog, they use the search box. It used to be powered by Google Search, but I have since then changed it to my own home-brewed version not because I can do better but because it was an interesting challenge.
I had the chance to implement more than my fair share of AB tests. I used Google Web Optimizer, Visual Web Optimizer, Optimizely, an internal AB test suite, and even wrote my own at some point. I do not claim to be an expert in anyway because there are a too many ways to interpret the results. I cannot tell you the right way to track conversion but I sure can tell you when the metrics are completely irrelevant.
Working as a programmer, I've had the chance to interview quite a few people. The best candidates where never the ones that knew the answers. As the interviewee, my direct and short answers did not help me get the job either. My experience tells me that in order to get a job, you have to do a little more then know what a Singleton is.
There are lots of interesting papers about artificial intelligence. A simple google search will give you tons of material to read. Artificial intelligence is more advanced than ever and is used in so many fields. But if you ask the average consumer, you will hear that we are just not there yet and one of the examples sited will be Siri.
Five years I have worked in places where I was given weird puzzles in the interviews. I've been asked to implement linked list, red black trees, Fibonacci and various sorting algorithm. Five years I've been confidently waiting for the day I will use these fancy terms in my code. But today, all hope is gone. Looks like they tricked me into thinking I will have the chance to implement bubble sort.
This post started as a rant. In March 2014, I was completely fed up with my job, I couldn't take it anymore. I spent one night in bed thinking about my experience, the stress, the anger and it was suddenly 3 am. I pulled out my phone and wrote my 2 weeks notice. I didn't send it, I just kept it for when I will be ready. The next morning I started writing this post and the first version was pretty much about how much I hated my job. But truly, I do not hate my job.
