My life is mostly about music and playing with structure. Programming falls into the second category. Right now, I'm having difficulty getting a job since it's much more fun to play the violin and program than to apply for jobs. If I were to get a programming job where I were to do mundane tasks in a programming language I disliked, I would probably do it for the money. For a while, at least.
On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 11:18 AM, Phillip Lord <phillip.l...@newcastle.ac.uk > wrote: > > 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. > > > -- -- 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.
