- Steve's company got acquihired by Amazon, granting him a free ticket in without all the torment of the multi-stage interview pipeline.
- It's a well known fact that it's easier to jump from one FAANG to another, so while interviewing at Google he had significant advantage, plus the blog gaining popularity.
- All of this has caused a deep down imposter syndrome, which resulted in an attempt to "improve" an interview process from the inside - but the wings were clipped pretty quickly by the corporate politics. It turns out that lawyers are not planning to reinvent anything there and hence are somewhat more important than engineers.
- The post itself is an self-applause over essentially a failed effort. "I've tried"
Well, not exactly. He did say that the hiring process at Geoworks was incredibly rigorous, and that he passed that.
I know this author’s name but not his whole life story, but it reads like he got hired at Amazon before they acquired Geoworks and brought all of his former colleagues over.
And even if you're interpretation is correct, you sound pretty rude. You're really gonna mock someone for not liking the interview process and trying to make it better?
- "This attracts strong candidates to you, because even your rejections are worth something to them."
That's some solid gaslighting right there! You're right Steve, I would rather be rejected by your team than wasting my time by doing something positive with my career.
Yah this was the part that really threw me as well.
"People would be pleased to have a rejection from us. They'd be proud to carry it sounds with them. Lucky them!"
It's funny, I see an article from Yegge and thought "I like that writer, I haven't read any of his stuff in a while, I'll see what he has to say." Then got to the end and see the links to gas town and gas city and remembered it was the same Yegge that while having accurate foresight about orchestration of agents also was a bit off the deep end in gas town.
But the biggest thing I see in this article is it really sounds like "here is the new company I landed at, and rather than make a post about its product, I'm going instead make a post about how terrible the problem it solves really is, and a post on a proposed solution. And the cues what I'll pop up in a few weeks and just coincidentally post about this new company that just happens to solve this problem in the way I've convinced everyone is the right solution."
While I don't have any evidence of this that's the feeling I left with. And if so, then "thought leaders" are a lot more interesting when not "talking their book."
Counter: I failed a rigorous interview at Facebook years ago and the project lead of their mesh internet Aquila was one of my interviewers. I still was pleased to not have the job because I didn’t really want to be marked with being a Facebook employee.
I interviewed at Google last year and they said something similarly magnanimous: that they rejected people who wouldn't have been successful at Google and that the rejects actually thanked them for the wisdom. My eyes rolled all the way back in my head. I cancelled the rest of my loop and went to a different FAANG. When I sent the cancellation email I thanked the recruiter for sharing his wisdom.
This is correct. GP hid a lot of unfounded and speculative negativity behind "this is a signal I'm getting". Not only did Yegge interview at Amazon, he also interviewed at Google and was very successful at senior levels of engineering leadership for the better part of a decade in both roles.
As for imposter syndrome: Yegge graduated from high school at 14 and studied nuclear reactor engineering with the US Navy in addition to his roles at prominent Silicon Valley companies. He is not my pick for somebody with imposter syndrome.
I am a fan of his because I've been reading his blog since the Stevie's Drunken Blog Rants days, and he was quite active in the Emacs community for some time. I also worked at Amazon and so his experience there became particularly interesting to me during that time.
I read through it and that’s not the impression I got, it was a thought experiment and not much more.
However, a few companies do have a co-working day, where you work with various people on the team to solve a business problem. I wonder if he could have proposed that instead.
Version 2 of Microdot incorporates feedback received from users of earlier releases, and attempts to improve and correct some design decisions that have proven to be problematic.
For this reason most applications built for earlier versions will need to be updated to work correctly with Microdot 2. The Migration Guide describes the backwards incompatible changes that were made.
Although it has a core section that does run underground through tube-like tunnels, it isn't classified as a tube line :) So isn't part of the "London Underground"
> The US-UK base will remain on Diego Garcia – a key factor enabling the deal to go forward at a time of growing geopolitical rivalries in the region between Western countries, India, and China.
So nothing really changes lol. Just a couple of paperwork remarks
If Diego Garcia remains as UK-sovereign land, then since different laws (etc) apply it's likely ISO would keep the IO code for it.
If Mauritius keeps the islands they gain with a different status (tax, immigration and so on) compared to the rest of Mauritius, then a code might be needed for that — but Mauritius probably won't be keen on "IO".
If the whole lot becomes 'ordinary Mauritius' then the code is no longer needed and will be removed.
A crime against humanity begins to get fixed. Chagosians will finally be allowed to go back to their homes. Mauritius will get paid a rent for the lease of the Diego Garcia base from the US.
Also, Mauritius is a signatory of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and thus no nuclear weapons are allowed within its territory. TBD if there will be a special agreement allowing special sovereignty for the US/UK, which might allow the US to station nuclear weapons there (which it probably currently does).
So there's definitely change. The UK and US finally accepted their crime, which is extremely rare. Genuinely, are there other examples of them suffering consequences (even if their consequences are a return to the status quo, ish), for other of their violations of international law and/or crimes against humanity? None come to mind.
> Chagosians will finally be allowed to go back to their homes.
This is a reminder that these islands were uninhabited prior to European discovery.
It is true that they imported ... basically slaves ... from/via semi-nearby islands to work on it, but it's not like it was some ancestral island to them. When the work stopped, they were returned to the islands their ancestors came from (or at least via).
(This case is somewhat different than the also-originally-uninhabited Falkland Islands, where most people living there were always of European descent).
They still spent a few centuries there, similar to the Falkland islanders. Descent is irrelevant - a group of people has been living in a previously uninhabited place for a few centuries, it's their home.
And they weren't "returned", they were expelled from their homes and dumped somewhere else with no assistance.
> might allow the US to station nuclear weapons there (which it probably currently does)
It's a bit more than probable - being one of the very few places in the world where nuclear submarines can dock. It's also extremely unlikely to change; even if no specific verbiage is in the treaty, US/UK will likely continue to do as they please; Mauritius will simply look the other way in exchange for money and protection. Realpolitik is a thing.
Protection is not just about military matters - it's about relationships. Mauritius will likely want to push other stuff at the UN level, bid for money from international bodies, etc etc... US help in those matters will be valuable.
- Steve's company got acquihired by Amazon, granting him a free ticket in without all the torment of the multi-stage interview pipeline.
- It's a well known fact that it's easier to jump from one FAANG to another, so while interviewing at Google he had significant advantage, plus the blog gaining popularity.
- All of this has caused a deep down imposter syndrome, which resulted in an attempt to "improve" an interview process from the inside - but the wings were clipped pretty quickly by the corporate politics. It turns out that lawyers are not planning to reinvent anything there and hence are somewhat more important than engineers.
- The post itself is an self-applause over essentially a failed effort. "I've tried"
reply