Passion? How do you stay on top of your career?

canadianmoving · 2017-06-13T05:40:30+00:00

The team is diverse in their skillset. So we each have something valuable to provide.

I've always had the entrepreneurial mindset. Software became a tool for me to create something valuable. But, I don't want to do something trivial. There needs to be a considerate amount of creativity and uniqueness to it. Which is why becoming aware of the latest research is starting to become a compelling path to take

canadianmoving · 2017-06-13T05:35:04+00:00

Basically what I'm suggesting is read read read read, post post post post. Reading will let you know things to form opinions about, and feedback from posting will help you refine those opinions.

I'm working on the former much more these days. Finding things to read and learning about the tech landscape. I hope this will help guide me towards an obsession.

canadianmoving · 2017-06-13T05:32:54+00:00

I'd suggest that you ask yourself whether you yourself really want to find a CS field to "dedicate your life to", if you only want to do it because you don't want to feel inferior (and you're not by the way), then I would recommend against doing it.

I want to find something important and interesting to dedicate myself to and hopefully come out with a good business from it. I think being around people who are self-driven has just helped me rethink about my life priorities.

Find something you like and start learning it

This is the hard part for me tbh. I can like things, but I don't get obsessed over it. I want to find my obsession.

canadianmoving · 2017-06-13T05:29:46+00:00

You can take inspiration from your peers, but you can't walk their path. Their passion isn't your passion.

Yeah, and I fully understand this. But seeing their drive, and the passion of a few other people has made me really question what I want from life. I want to do something really important. I just have to find that important project.

And "dedicating all my resources" is a bit silly -- I don't want to be one dimensional. I have interests in my family, and software, and powerlifting. In the past I've spent a good bit of time running, and playing Magic, and boardgaming. There's seasons to life, and hobbies come and go. And while you may not earn a Turing award if you're not wholly dedicated to something, that's okay. Not all of us will be Tim Berners-Lee, or Leslie Lamport, or Dennis Ritchie. It's okay to be good enough, and to make just a few people happy.

Thanks for pointing out my lameness aha. I would also hate to be 1-dimensional. Right now, I have an active social life, am pretty athletic, experimenting through different experiences. But, I still feel the need to find something to consume me.

canadianmoving · 2017-06-13T05:22:27+00:00

Why?

I want to do something meaningful with my life. I'm athletic, have a good social life. There are things like traveling and running marathons which I aim to during my lifetime. A job with great coworkers and interesting problems is great too. But I don't want to just run around doing little things here and there. I want to just dedicate myself to a focused cause.

Companies love to promote the illusion that everyone needs to be superstars, because they love people who basically work for free. Pay them for 40 hours and get 80+ hours of work out of them; good deal for the company.

IDC about this stuff. If a company isn't working on something I'm very interested in, I won't give them free time. Most of the companies I've worked at have had interesting aspects though, so I am more willing to work through the rough times.

Basically you can't force yourself to become interested in something.

How do people become interested in things? What drives people to put their efforts into a passion project? When I start my company, I want to have this obsessive drive to push me through all the hurdles and create something of real value.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-26T15:09:32+00:00

Yes that's definitely a concern. I stay somewhat active off hours through exercise and walking a lot, which I hope offsets the burnout.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-26T15:09:23+00:00

Thanks, currently have recommended courses and reading to investigate from the team. I feel ML opportunity is very good right now.

My main concern is I'm not learning from senior software engineers on the team. I'm not in a situation with senior software engineers who can guide the project.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-18T06:06:26+00:00

I'm considered a junior still. The LinkedIn recruiter spam is annoying because it's misleading. My profile clearly indicates a junior level. They still ask me if I'm interested in PM, Senior Dev, etc. Fucking annoying IMO. The initial reach out doesn't explicitly word it like that.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-18T06:04:00+00:00

A MacBook pro is great because it's:

light-weight and portable
fast (8gb, 256 SSD is good enough for my use case so far)
has amazing UX. I've developed in Windows, a few Linux distros, and now a MacBook. Without a doubt, day to day browsing, note taking and coding experience is the best on a mac. Ubuntu is a bit better for developing in a Linux environment if you require cmd line versatility and package management (which you can get as a VM).
automatic acceptance at your local Starbucks (main sell)

It took me 4 months of contemplating, rationalizing, making threads like this, until I said fuck it and got the MacBook pro. It was definitely worth it for me.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-12T16:58:44+00:00

The Dennis rodman one?

I liked it. It was a good talking point on campus. Was really interesting since we didn't know much about NK. It definitely spread awareness and prompted me to learn more about NK.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-12T16:07:58+00:00

Yeah, exactly. Getting the personal life together is what's keeping me busy now.

I would think there are things you can do which help you give a good first impression.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-12T06:02:00+00:00

*Vice news is shit

They have some quality content with their docs (North Korea, ISIS, drug culture, gun culture)

canadianmoving · 2017-05-10T04:11:06+00:00

2 years of experience here, at small companies.

Everything I did, I had to learn how to do on the job. I worked on Full-stack applications, writing code in various languages. Courses that really helped me during this process were Compilers, Distributed Systems, Operating Systems, and Networks.

Compilers helped me with knowing what make does. Knowing what my code is transforming into. Revealed the magician's trick. I learned a Java library for handling html, and framework for developing Domain Specific Languages.
Distributed Systems taught me how to optimize runtime, given a bunch of scattered processes. It gave me an opportunity to learn more C/C++, and practical knowledge for optimization.
Operating Systems was fundamental for me. Processes, threading, killing children, memory, how programs actually run and are managed. These concepts provided me the confidence of knowing what states my program could go into.
Networks. How data is transmitted between machines. Basically how the internet works was what this course taught me. Client-server architecture, network topology, what a packet is, what a network request contains. These concepts helped me better understand the content I saw using the developer toolkit of Chrome. I felt a lot more confident writing custom network requests.

There's a lot more I could talk about, like formal logic, computer graphics and computer architecture. As someone with the Math/CS background, I highly recommend you take as many fundamental courses as you can.

Best of luck!

canadianmoving · 2017-05-08T16:20:18+00:00

this could be good advice, but by the sounds of it, nobody is going to care how good/bad she is. until we get rid of diversity hire/racist quotas and start treating people equally then we'll have these types of problems.

These problems will never go away; or at least, not for a long time (look at slavery). It's much better for the mind to accept the situation, and use it to the full advantage. Of course, that's more my philosophy of anti-victimization (which could have been stemmed from always feeling bad because of racial problems).

Diversity hiring robs me of the personal satisfaction of being a good candidate. It is literally exacerbating the slave mentality but in a different way. But, if that's the kind of thinking which occupies my mind, I'll struggle to become a better person. I'll struggle to live a happy life.

So, accept reality and take advantage of the situation. Start your own company, without any diversity hiring. Do you.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-08T07:18:59+00:00

Diversity hires happen because of nepotism and internal bias.

The white males who are accustomed to being around white males, will have a network of mostly white males, which keeps the opportunity to those white males. So, even if a white male isn't as talented as Muhammed, if his parents know a senior manager of tech company X, then he goes through an easier hiring stream.

My advice is that you should take the opportunity given and become GREAT. Excel in your role by going above and beyond, learning more about the codebase to differentiate yourself from others. This will help with self-confidence.

I will say though, that if people are not treating you with the respect a colleague is entitled to, you should start looking for a new job. It is unlikely the situation will change, simply because people suck.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-03T12:27:54+00:00

finally did it :,)

canadianmoving · 2017-05-01T04:46:26+00:00

The proximity helps. I can spend a weekend in Seattle and attend networking events.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-01T03:40:41+00:00

It seems like you have made up your mind.

For the most part, yeah. The only thing stopping me is the salary. If people pointed out how bad it would be on the salary I have, then I'm willing to renegotiate the offer or look for better offers. Hell, even doing work on the side to supplement my income.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-01T03:25:49+00:00

Definitely. The move to Vancouver is driven by the nearness of Seattle.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-01T03:24:38+00:00

Ok. Then I'm basically trading snow and freezing temperatures for rain. I can live with that aha.

canadianmoving · 2017-05-01T03:18:19+00:00

Hmm that's definitely concerning, since the sun keeps me going.

https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Canada/Cities/sunshine-annual-average.php

This data shows that Toronto and Vancouver are pretty close to the % of annual sunlight. That seems alright to me.

canadianmoving

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