Doorstop

calvineet @ 2009-07-27T11:10:00

2009-07-27T15:18:17Z

List of Acceptable Abbreviations

ianal
afaik
afaict
ymmv
otoh
rtfm
faq
iirc
i.e.
e.g.
iow
fwiw
istr
btw
fyi

List of Unacceptable abbreviations

Questionable (Context-Dependent)

lol
stfu
gtfo
itym
ftfy
lmgtfy

"I love puppies"

2009-05-11T20:14:19Z

Me: (walking dogs)
MOH: (approaches from behind) "I love puppies, but could you not have them pee on my house?"
Link: (starts pooping)
Me: (opening poop bag) "Sure. He's already going now; I can't very well stop him."
MOH: "I understand that, but could you at least not have him pee on my house?"
Me: "He's not even peeing."
MOH: "Well you lead them right up to my house!"
Me: "Ma'am, it's a public sidewalk."
MOH: (storming off) "IT'S MY HOUSE!"

This sort of thing makes me hate New York. I know that's unfair. I started thinking about it, and whether it's a New Yorker thing, or a UWS thing, or an old white woman thing, or what. It's some combination of all of this, but I think the common thread here is really that it's more a New Yorker thing than anything else.

Like last week (again, when I was walking the dogs), I saw a mean note placed on the windshield of a parked car. It was something like "thanks for taking up 2 spaces, asshole! If you had pulled forward to the car in front of you, then I could have fit my car in the space behind yours!" But these weren't even marked spaces, it was just organic parallel parking on a regular city block. There was no way to know that the car with the note on it had parked poorly -- as far as the note-writer could possibly know, the car in front may have had 1.5 car-lengths of space and pulled their front bumper up close to the rear of the car in front of them, leaving half a car-length behind. This could have
happened hours after the car with the note had been parked there. But the note-writer's initial response was "I can't find a spot to park my car, and it's because of this guy!" Not, "Gee, NYC is crowded. I guess I should have taken public transit," but "You did this just to screw me!" (I was quite pleased with myself for removing said note and tossing it with the dog poop in the bin at the corner.)

It's the same with this Miserable Old Hag that attacked me this morning. We had in fact, been walking around the neighborhood for half an hour, and just happened to be walking in front of her building when she was leaving. She took this as a personal attack against her -- in her world, I had led my dogs straight for her house, with the specific intention of having them urinate on it. IANAP, so I don't want to use the word "schizophrenia" (oh look, I just did! Sort of like how you can start off a puppy-hating tirade with "I love puppies"), but retelling the story to myself, this hag clearly had a touch of paranoia and delusion.

I'm trying not to let the old hag get in my head. But I can say this: from now on, Link and Zelda will get a special bonus treat every time they pee on that building. Of course, they have never peed there, so it may take some special encouragement.

An Open Letter to Wil Gordon

2009-04-28T03:46:57Z

Hi Wil,

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that reddit has found your Open Letter website and the peanut gallery is chattering away. Take their comments with a large grain of salt and skepticism, but I would encourage you to read through and try to pick out some constructive bits of criticism from all the noise. I know reading personal criticisms and attacks can be difficult, and I also know that being unemployed can be emotionally taxing, even depressing. After graduating Cal EECS in 2000 I worked for a small startup for just under a year before it went out of business (like 90% of them did at that time), and I ended up being unemployed for a few months. It was hard. I got depressed. I started to feel like there was something wrong with me. I also went through a lot of frustration — I knew I was a good software engineer, and that anybody would be able to see that if they’d just give me a chance, but I couldn’t get my foot in the door. I’m good in interviews, but I had to get a callback first. I spent a lot of time sending resumes to job ads and just hearing nothing in return.

I have a couple of specific pieces of advice for you after reading your letter and your resume. I hope I can phrase my recommendations constructively. I’ll start with the easy one:

First, on your resume: put the most interesting/valuable things first. I don’t know what AMPL is (even though there’s a good chance I may have used it in IEOR 162 or something). Put it last or leave it off. Sort everything by relevance, not alphabetically.

Second, I’d take down the letter. You may want to replace it with a sort of cover letter that presents your own strengths, not your perceived weaknesses in the hiring decisions of the companies you’ve applied to. Try to put yourself in the mindset of a prospective employer, and think about what they would want to see. This perspective can be hard without having been on the other side of the interview table. Speaking from experience, for a college grad, I expect to see, first and foremost, an eagerness to learn.

I know you just kicked ass at one of the top Universities in the world, you have a great education, and you feel good about yourself. And you should — you should be proud of what you’ve accomplished, but it doesn’t end there. I was arguably a better Computer Scientist on graduation day than I am now. But since then, I’ve become a much better software engineer. This is in part due to continuing to learn new technical skills, but mostly it’s due to the experience of working with lots of different people on lots of different types of projects, and being able to learn how to effectively work in different roles on a team.

You also need to position yourself according to your strengths. Are you trying to apply as a software engineer, or as a consultant to analyze and optimize their business? If the latter, what are your relevant qualifications and experience? What’s your track record? Stick to your strengths. You should try to get hired by a company that’s looking for a good software engineer, by showing them that you are a good software engineer. Don’t try to convince a company that you understand their business better than they do and can show them how to do it better. Even if it’s true (which, to put it bluntly, is doubtful given your level of experience), it comes off sounding very arrogant.

I hope this is still constructive, and that you can gain something from it.

Good luck, and Go Bears!

Vineet