Thanks a funny piece, although I'd debate his self-deserving description of "best minds". People who cannot distinguish between important and well-paid are not the best minds.
Phil Armando Blancas <abm221...@gmail.com> writes: > Zack, you've probably come across this profile on Jeff Hammerbacher, but > just in case. > > "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people > click ads," he says. "That sucks." > > http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/55578-this-tech-bubble-is-different > > On Monday, May 13, 2013 2:03:10 PM UTC-7, Zack Maril wrote: >> >> One of the reasons I program is because I'm furious. >> >> By most accepted metrics, I went to one of the best technical public high >> schools in the country. I was average there and I was taking graph theory >> and multivariable calculus as a senior my last semester. The smart kids >> though? They were doing real analysis, topology, and winning international >> competitions for mathematics and science. I'm just finishing up college now >> and I'm watching the geniuses from my high school go from MIT and Stanford >> to high frequency trading firms or work for places like palantir and >> facebook. They're using their gifts to remove liquidity from the >> markets[0], to help fight wars based on lies[1], and to maximize the amount >> of money they can sell my privacy for[2]. Most of them use programming to >> indirectly decrease the quality of my life. I'd love it if I could invest >> money without fear of the markets going crazy because of a tweet[3], if I >> could support the government without worrying about them killing innocent >> citizens[4], and if I could connect with my friends and family without >> worrying about my privacy being sold to the highest bidder. My former >> classmates are and will be using computers to indirectly prevent me from >> doing the above with any sort of peace of mind. It is infuriating. >> >> When I sit down to program, I now make a conscious effort to build tools >> that I can use in the future to fight against the trends above. I use >> Clojure because it's the language I've been able to get the most done in >> the shortest amount of time. If there were a language that let me do as >> much as fast, I'd drop Clojure like a rock and learn that. If I want to >> stem the negative effects the geniuses are having on my life, I'll need to >> use the best tools possible. That means constantly learning more powerful >> concepts and building better tools. I've been on a graph theory and network >> science kick lately because I noticed that google, palantir, and facebook >> got where they are by virtue of being really good at graph theory. The >> concepts are crazy powerful and provide immense power to the people who can >> successfully employ them. >> >> So, when I sit down to work on certain projects, the main motivating >> factor for me is that I'm furious that my classmates are worsening my life. >> There's a ton of work that I need to do before I can do anything about it >> though. I'm obviously on a futile crusade fueled by my youth and naiveté, >> but for the moment, that's why I program. >> -Zack >> >> [0] http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/4136.html >> [1] http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/the-great-degrader/ >> [2] https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms >> [3] >> http://seekingalpha.com/article/1362731-obama-is-dead-tweet-makes-for-flash-crash >> [4] >> http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-drones-policy-obama-koh-20130513,0,4160911.story >> >> On Monday, May 13, 2013 11:35:33 PM UTC+4, Erlis Vidal wrote: >>> >>> Let me share this tale with you guys, hope you like it as much as I do: >>> >>> It is said that Socrates met a worker who asked: what are you doing good >>> man? "Don't you see I'm cutting a stone to earn my salary and so I can >>> eat" the worker replied. He moved on and later found another worker >>> questioning the same way as the previous one, he replied "I'm building a >>> wall," continued Socrates finding their way to a third worker, also >>> questioning, the answer was "I'm building a beautiful palace " >>> >>> >>> On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 2:17 PM, Timothy Baldridge >>> <tbald...@gmail.com>wrote: >>> >>>> I doubt I'm unique in this area, but for me, programming is a drug. I >>>> have to code, or the ideas and thoughts build up in my mind. For me, >>>> actually writing down and implementing these is a stress relief. Just ask >>>> my parents when I was growing up, or my wife today. Keep me in a room >>>> without a computer for a week, and I'll start writing code on paper just >>>> to >>>> get the thoughts down. >>>> >>>> So I guess you could say I'm an addict. >>>> >>>> Timothy Baldridge >>>> >>>> >>>> On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 12:09 PM, Ulises <ulises....@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> > Code that matters is code that's used by other people. For me >>>>> personally >>>>> > the ability to share my code with others is the thing that makes >>>>> > programming worth doing in the first place. >>>>> >>>>> This is a rather important point. One of the most asked questions >>>>> (random made up fact) by newcomers to a language is "what can I code? >>>>> what open source programs can I help?". All with the aims of getting >>>>> better acquainted with the language itself and, hopefully, helping >>>>> others. I normally direct people to Advice to Aimless, Excited >>>>> Programmers (http://prog21.dadgum.com/80.html). For those who'd rather >>>>> read the rest of this email, the tl;dr version is: got scratch your >>>>> own itch, you might be building an itch-scratcher for others. >>>>> >>>>> The real question now becomes (at least for me): how do you know when >>>>> an itch is worth scratching? how do you know it's a shared itch? >>>>> >>>>> I've seen more experienced programmers immediately recognise what'd be >>>>> useful at large and what wouldn't (when I presented them with a couple >>>>> "itches" of my own.) Interestingly enough, my judgement didn't >>>>> necessarily coincide with theirs. >>>>> >>>>> Code to scratch your own itch? Sure, that's great. Code to scratch a >>>>> shared itch? Even better. But how do you know which is which? >>>>> >>>>> U >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> -- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups "Clojure" group. >>>>> To post to this group, send email to clo...@googlegroups.com >>>>> Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with >>>>> your first post. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>>> clojure+u...@googlegroups.com >>>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>>> http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en >>>>> --- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups "Clojure" group. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>>> an email to clojure+u...@googlegroups.com. >>>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> “One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that–lacking >>>> zero–they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C >>>> programs.” >>>> (Robert Firth) >>>> >>>> -- >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "Clojure" group. >>>> To post to this group, send email to clo...@googlegroups.com >>>> Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with >>>> your first post. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> clojure+u...@googlegroups.com >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en >>>> --- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "Clojure" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to clojure+u...@googlegroups.com. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> > > -- -- Phillip Lord, Phone: +44 (0) 191 222 7827 Lecturer in Bioinformatics, Email: phillip.l...@newcastle.ac.uk School of Computing Science, http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/phillip.lord Room 914 Claremont Tower, skype: russet_apples Newcastle University, twitter: phillord NE1 7RU -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
