2911
On asking job candidates to code
At DigitalOcean, we are making some changes to the recruitment process of back-end developers. We simplified the job description and the interview process, and added a step that asks the candidate ...
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,748 posts.
2912
Diving into Other People's Code
This post will walk you through an exercise in diving into someone else's code. The goal will be to make an arbitrary change to the code of the Spyder Python IDE , a project I have never touched before in my life, and learn just enough about it to accomplish what I want without getting bogged down. You will learn how…
2913
A better offer letter
At Carta we spend a lot of time thinking about how to better educate employees on startup equity. Even new hires at Carta often don’t…
2914
John Carmack on Idea Generation
Last year at an internal talk at Facebook I was fortunate to see [John Carmack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carmack) speak about his idea generation system. At first I was disappointed because...
2915
2916
Ten years on LinkedIn
I just noticed on my LinkedIn account page that I’ve been a member of LinkedIn since February 28, 2006. This is almost exactly 10 years ago, and back when it was invite-only. I figured this is a nice time to reflect on the giant heap of trash it has become.
2917
CEO
In this post I’m going to try to give potential and actual CEO’s (and other C level execs to some extent) some actionable advice when it comes to how they conduct themselves in the hope that this will at some future date save some of you a great deal of misery and in some cases charges of misconduct or worse. My hope…
2918
2919
We Hire the Best, Just Like Everyone Else
One of the most common pieces of advice you’ll get as a startup is this: Only hire the best. The quality of the people that work at your company will be one of the biggest factors in your success – or failure. I’ve heard this advice over and over
2920
Leaving Mozilla
Robert O'Callahan. Christian. Kiwi. Software guy. All content human-authored unless otherwise noted.
2921
2922
Yelp Fired a Single Mother Today: Me
And I was pretty damn good at my job too.
2923
Nobody Cares (2011)
Ben Horowitz is a cofounder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The
2924
Hackathon Be Gone
Last weekend I attended the MHacks: Refactor hackathon on behalf of my company. I acted as a representative of my company as well as a mentor for the hackers...
2925
What My PhD Was Like
What it looks like to do a PhD: the view from my desk. Recently, I have been talking to many prospective Computer Science PhD students ...
2926
MentalHealthError: an exception occurred
The programming community has been opening up over the past few years about mental health issues, so, I want to take this opportunity to open up about my...
2927
Interfaces – The Most Important Software Engineering Concept
An interface can be thought of as a contract between the system and the environment. In a computer program, the 'system' is the function or module in question, and the 'environment' is the rest of the project. The interface formally describes what can pass between the system and the environment. An 'implementation'…
2928
2929
2930
How to get hired at a startup when you don't know anyone
A few years ago I saw an early stage startup that I knew I had to be a part of. The only problem was that it was 900 miles away and I had no connection to them. The startup was Formlabs . At the time they had 10 employees, and like most startups reduced risk by hiring people they knew. They were also situated…
2931
A Modern App Developer and an Old-Timer System Developer Walk into a Bar
Note: Thanks for all the great comments and feedback here and on Hacker News . Please keep them coming. I learned a ton and I am sure others will also.
2932
Friction Between Programming Professionals and Beginners
In this article I want to talk about negative aspects of the programming community, regarding beginner programmers. This is a touchy topic. I will try to explain both sides to the best of my ability, but I’m not endorsing either side. My only hope is that some readers will gain more empathy for the people they are…
2933
2934
2935
How to Survive an Acquisition
Last week Facebook announced that they will be shutting down Parse.
2936
Idea Debt
There is no book. There is only Idea Debt.
2937
Heisenberg Developers (2014)
TL:DR You can not observe a developer without altering their behavior. First a story. Several years ago I worked on a largish project...
2938
The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
There was a time in my life when I played quite a bit of basketball. I was leading engineering at a start-up in Scottsdale, AZ, my wife was…
2939
Making 20% Time Work
Following Google’s lead many companies have instituted “20% time” for their employees. This is one day per week in which employees can work on projects of their own choosing. The practice keeps developers motivated and sharp, produces tools to solve company problems, and in the best case creates open source which…
2940
Why I Strive to be a 0.1x Engineer
There has been more discussion recently on the concept of a “10x engineer”. 10x engineers are, (from Quora) “the top tier of engineers that are 10x more productive than the average” Productivity I have observed that some people are able to get 10 times more done than me. However, I’d argue that individual productivity…