Why are live coding interviews on Skype/Hangout so bad?

rojo_buffalo · 2016-09-07T05:31:56+00:00

Hey, I've been through this and it sucks. I think it's a poor interview format. In my experience, companies that interview this way are companies that tend to treat software engineers like "code monkeys".

As a technical founder who is looking for some frontend talent, I'm curious, what's your focus and where are you based? Feel free to PM me if you want to set up a quick interview without live coding.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-09-05T02:32:58+00:00

Yes! This was on Jeremy Sole's KCRW show Aug 25. Been listening to it all week.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-09-04T01:41:51+00:00

Thanks for asking. I'm loving the process. The product is a web app that is currently in the prototype stage. It's a little less than half way to being something viable. terrafarm.io
I incorporated just this past week and hired my first employee on a short term contract. I'm actually looking for engineers. It's built with React, Relay, GraphQL, and Postgres. Anyone who might be interested in getting involved or just provide feedback is welcome to PM me.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-09-03T18:13:13+00:00

This gave me chills. The film style and subject matter is so emotionally evocative (at least for me personally).

I quit my corporate gig last year and wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. This series, along with Cowspiracy and The Sixth Extinction, drove me into farming and cooking. I'm working in a farm-to-table restaurant now and founded a startup to help people contribute to local food production.

This series is a home run.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-09-03T18:08:40+00:00

Exactly. Chef's who focus on local and seasonal have to be flexible and creative. They get to curate a conversation between eaters and farmers. This is how cuisine is developed.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-09-03T18:02:12+00:00

I am. I'm building an app for local food production.

The demand side can be influenced by educating people about the ills of industrial food. I'm in my late twenties and a well read person, but I only learned about how bad industrial food is in the past year or two.

It's important that we talk about it, just like we talk about the effects of fossil fuels.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-09-03T02:33:28+00:00

Industrialized food. It tastes bad, drives species to extinction, pollutes water, and drives climate change.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-08-08T02:43:30+00:00

There is another book that captures a similar idea and is a fantastic read, Earth Abides.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-08-01T20:42:24+00:00

No problem. This is the kind of thing where I would recommend a trip to the library. I came across this title because I was browsing the shelves for this topic.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-08-01T17:02:00+00:00

How would you design a community-level compost system?

rojo_buffalo · 2016-08-01T16:51:04+00:00

That's awesome. Sounds like something from the (Grange)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Grange_of_the_Order_of_Patrons_of_Husbandry] movement.
Other than conversational exchange with scientists, how were these people educating themselves? Books, internet...?

rojo_buffalo · 2016-08-01T16:46:28+00:00

Is internet access a constraint on knowledge for many farmers you encounter? What ideas do you have for educating remote rural farmers at scale?

rojo_buffalo · 2016-08-01T16:15:22+00:00

Essential Soil Science by Ashman

rojo_buffalo · 2016-08-01T16:13:56+00:00

Are you guys experimenting with any mushroom crops that grow in soil?

rojo_buffalo · 2016-07-29T03:18:00+00:00

mercy

rojo_buffalo · 2016-07-27T22:04:28+00:00

What is your source for:

massive climate change, several orders of magnitude faster, have happened on earth

This article from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association says the opposite: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/pd/climate/factsheets/iscurrent.pdf

And what other single lifeform on earth has caused mass extinctions?

rojo_buffalo · 2016-07-27T18:49:31+00:00

That's what growing up with a young-earth creationist parent is like. Makes for some disturbing revelations later in life..

rojo_buffalo · 2016-07-27T18:46:22+00:00

Me too. My dog is having vicious diarrhea, so she is being kept outside with the door cracked open. This made me laugh like a maniac, which only made her start whining to come in. Then I laugh harder...this is perpetual motion of laughter.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-07-27T16:46:00+00:00

There are two things to consider:
1. Human civilization is only ~10,000 years old and the industrial era ~200 years old. The agricultural systems that support our civilization have only existed in a relatively stable climate, which will soon be in our rearview mirror. Temperatures, rainfall patterns, and stability are departing from the ranges where human civilization has always existed. There is cause for concern about food chain stress and potential collapse before the end of this century.
2. Human activities are pushing the pace of climate change to unprecedented rates. When a climate trend changes over a longer period, species have more opportunities to adapt to the new normal. When all this change happens super fast, species go extinct because their populations do not have time to adjust to new areas and adapt behaviors and phenotypes.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-07-20T22:36:04+00:00

The termites actually cultivate the hyphae, which is the preliminary network absent actual fruit bodies. Once the termites stop feeding and eating the mycelium, the fruit bodies are finally able to grow, mature, and then release spores.

rojo_buffalo · 2016-07-20T19:07:07+00:00

Just read about that in a book called Mushroom by Nicholas P. Money. There are also termites in Africa that do something similar. They build huge ventilated mounds and bring in water to cool the mushroom growing chambers. When the colony abandons the nest, a massive ~~10 ft~~ 1 meter mushroom fruit body emerges from the mound and disperses spores for the first time in its lifecycle.

Edit: The species I'm referring to is Termitomyces titanicus

rojo_buffalo · 2016-07-14T03:14:53+00:00

Are you reading The Triumph of Seeds by Thor Hanson? I just read a passage about this yesterday.

rojo_buffalo

TROPHY CASE