As a product manager (yep, go ahead and rib me), I see the same thing. Companies are "looking" for rockstar talent, and they often find:
What makes a rockstar at one place doesn't mean that stardom transfers. Unfortunately it will take 18 months or so to figure out that they may be brilliant, but intolerable to work with
Rockstars are rare. You will probably overlook 10 or 20 very competent team players to find one, and you will likely be disappointed in the results of the one you do find
Rockstars in general are miserable people to be around. Many people commented on this, but it really is true
Rockstars are near impossible to manage. They believe they know more than anybody else in the room, and that they deserve to be god.(FWIW if you ever have to work with a graduate of MIT, you will experience this too, even if they are a wanker)
In short, even if they are brilliant, if they are an asshole (and many are) they will be miserable to work with, you will lose team members who will not put up with their shit, and in the end, your projects will not get completed. Oh, and they hate to document their code, because they don't think anybody else but themselves could maintain it, and they often whitewash error handling (their code is perfect and elegant afterall).
No, as one of their top tier fliers, I get treated like shit from them. Funny thing is, back in the late 1990's when I started flying, they were awesome. But post 911 and security theatre, I get the bone like the common fliers. Alas, they have some of the best routes to Asia, so I must use them.
As a million mile flier on United, I would like to add:
There was a time when loyalty was rewarded on United. But those days are long gone. Yes, I get permanent gold status, and free checked bags, but every other attribute, I am treated as much as shitty as the holiday cheap fare fliers, even when I pay full coach fares. Fuck UAL with a chainsaw.
And therein lies my problem. These tools, provided you input the right functions, will give you the right answer, no thinking involved. Granted, in their futures as engineers they will have access to all these tools, so that is good, but if you setup a problem wrong, and get an obviously wrong answer, you will go with it if you don't know how to get at least order of magnitude estimation ability. These people are pretty easy to spot. They will use every decimal place output by their calculator, and not know how to report appropriate significant digits.
I would accept the use of these tools in high school for mathematics, if and only if people who learned this way knew the concepts. However, I have personally had to tutor a few software engineers on trigonometry. In high school they just used their TI-8X and it gave them an answer. They couldn't even grasp that tan(x) was related to sin(x) and cos(x) (tan(x)=sin(x)/cos(x)), so they couldn't even do simple things like coordinate transformations. Perhaps the lecturer/teacher mentioned it, but it clearly didn't stick.
I got lambasted for being an old dude in this thread, and I can understand that sentiment, but there is a whole generation who can't understand the underpinnings of mathematics, and until some electronic device can teach that better than putting pencil to paper and manually plotting out the resultant functions (however ugly your art skills are), I am going to advocate removing the technology from the equation.
One exception. The gifted student that learns the skills, and finds the tools themselves to use. They should be encouraged to explore the tools that they can get access to. (I was like this in high school) But the run of the mill, average student? Might as well not have them learn algebra or trigonometry than let them use the formulaic texts tied to specific hardware and "recipes" to follow to get answers. Mathematics isn't about the answer as much as the path to the answers.
For high school? I am sorry, but that is a huge fail. Graphing calculators are a fail. Part of learning mathematics is actually doing the math. The answer isn't the important part, it is the process that you are learning to get there. For that Octave/Matlab/Mathematica/Maple are terrible. I didn't use a calculator in high school, and in college only for classes that required you to do true calculations (mostly chemistry). Otherwise it was pencil and paper (or for my programming classes the timeshare system du jour).
I know you will trot out tired arguments that learning the tools they will use in the future is important, blah blah, but I have taught a lot of whiz bang programmers who got through high school and college without learning geometry, trigonometry, or anything beyond simple algebra. They all used CAS and math systems in their studies, and never learned the underlying principles.
The fact that you pretty much must have one of the approved TI calculators, and the texts all have button by button recipes for solving problems is just insanity.
Uh, no. I have a very nice emulator of the trusty ol' HP-41C, that is remarkably authentic. Even my old programs I wrote to balance chemical equations work fine. I still have my HP41CV, but I usually reach for my iPhone with the program.
I don't know, I detest my job and I didn't decide on it at the age of 14 or 15. It is a truly shitty profession that gets shit on regularly from all parts of the organization, and blamed for all the ills, but I happen to be quite good at it. Doesn't mean I like it, and every time I try to escape, I fall back into it.
There is a good article on this in the latest edition of The Baffler (sorry, that article is not available online). It is a pretty edgy takedown of the higher education system, and the needed fall
From what I saw I would say that the typical interviewee was an individual contributor with 10+ years experience. Frankly, it boggled the mind. I remember how some of my colleagues were scratching theirr heads. "Why on earth would they let go of all those competent experienced people?" they wondered.
See, that is part of the mantra (in HR and management) that people always need to be reaching for the next rung on the ladder (IC->group leader->Supervisor->manager->director etc..) The impression is that someone who has been an individual contributor for 10 years is somehow defective. Even if they are super productive, and happy in their role (which describes me. I made the foray into management, and jumped back at first opportunity).
A manager once told me that he would fire me if I didn't want to be promoted to director. I thought he was fucking nuts, but he was dead serious. I left shortly thereafter.
The mess is deep and wide, and likely still has some duct tape applied to cover up the Y2K transition. Many/most of these systems are ancient, and creaking under their own mass.
I just downloaded and installed the latest version of the display drivers for my on-board Intel HD-3000 GPU on my laptop. Total size: 338MB, For fuck's sake, what the hell in a graphics driver needs to be so big?
Slashdot Mirror
Run PGP Full Disk Encryption and see if it performs well. That shit will screw it up good.
Damn. Wish I had mod points
About the same to me as American Airlines merging with US Airways.
I will agree with this. He was truly a great man, and an inspiration to a generation (and more) of geeks.
Bullcrap. They can be replaced. Look up http://macsales.com/ they sell several sizes for the airs and the pro retinas.
In short, even if they are brilliant, if they are an asshole (and many are) they will be miserable to work with, you will lose team members who will not put up with their shit, and in the end, your projects will not get completed. Oh, and they hate to document their code, because they don't think anybody else but themselves could maintain it, and they often whitewash error handling (their code is perfect and elegant afterall).
No, as one of their top tier fliers, I get treated like shit from them. Funny thing is, back in the late 1990's when I started flying, they were awesome. But post 911 and security theatre, I get the bone like the common fliers. Alas, they have some of the best routes to Asia, so I must use them.
As a million mile flier on United, I would like to add:
There was a time when loyalty was rewarded on United. But those days are long gone. Yes, I get permanent gold status, and free checked bags, but every other attribute, I am treated as much as shitty as the holiday cheap fare fliers, even when I pay full coach fares. Fuck UAL with a chainsaw.
And therein lies my problem. These tools, provided you input the right functions, will give you the right answer, no thinking involved. Granted, in their futures as engineers they will have access to all these tools, so that is good, but if you setup a problem wrong, and get an obviously wrong answer, you will go with it if you don't know how to get at least order of magnitude estimation ability. These people are pretty easy to spot. They will use every decimal place output by their calculator, and not know how to report appropriate significant digits.
I would accept the use of these tools in high school for mathematics, if and only if people who learned this way knew the concepts. However, I have personally had to tutor a few software engineers on trigonometry. In high school they just used their TI-8X and it gave them an answer. They couldn't even grasp that tan(x) was related to sin(x) and cos(x) (tan(x)=sin(x)/cos(x)), so they couldn't even do simple things like coordinate transformations. Perhaps the lecturer/teacher mentioned it, but it clearly didn't stick.
I got lambasted for being an old dude in this thread, and I can understand that sentiment, but there is a whole generation who can't understand the underpinnings of mathematics, and until some electronic device can teach that better than putting pencil to paper and manually plotting out the resultant functions (however ugly your art skills are), I am going to advocate removing the technology from the equation.
One exception. The gifted student that learns the skills, and finds the tools themselves to use. They should be encouraged to explore the tools that they can get access to. (I was like this in high school) But the run of the mill, average student? Might as well not have them learn algebra or trigonometry than let them use the formulaic texts tied to specific hardware and "recipes" to follow to get answers. Mathematics isn't about the answer as much as the path to the answers.
I will get off my soapbox now.
I still think evaluating the function manually, and plotting points is the best way to learn the underlying concepts.
For high school? I am sorry, but that is a huge fail. Graphing calculators are a fail. Part of learning mathematics is actually doing the math. The answer isn't the important part, it is the process that you are learning to get there. For that Octave/Matlab/Mathematica/Maple are terrible. I didn't use a calculator in high school, and in college only for classes that required you to do true calculations (mostly chemistry). Otherwise it was pencil and paper (or for my programming classes the timeshare system du jour).
I know you will trot out tired arguments that learning the tools they will use in the future is important, blah blah, but I have taught a lot of whiz bang programmers who got through high school and college without learning geometry, trigonometry, or anything beyond simple algebra. They all used CAS and math systems in their studies, and never learned the underlying principles.
The fact that you pretty much must have one of the approved TI calculators, and the texts all have button by button recipes for solving problems is just insanity.
Uh, no. I have a very nice emulator of the trusty ol' HP-41C, that is remarkably authentic. Even my old programs I wrote to balance chemical equations work fine. I still have my HP41CV, but I usually reach for my iPhone with the program.
I got about 4 of them today. Didn't click on any of the links though.
I don't know, I detest my job and I didn't decide on it at the age of 14 or 15. It is a truly shitty profession that gets shit on regularly from all parts of the organization, and blamed for all the ills, but I happen to be quite good at it. Doesn't mean I like it, and every time I try to escape, I fall back into it.
Increased to 20 grams?
There is a good article on this in the latest edition of The Baffler (sorry, that article is not available online). It is a pretty edgy takedown of the higher education system, and the needed fall
While I was reading your comment, I was hearing Bill Hicks in the background.
Meh. My coronary artery disease will likely be the cause of my demise
From what I saw I would say that the typical interviewee was an individual contributor with 10+ years experience. Frankly, it boggled the mind. I remember how some of my colleagues were scratching theirr heads. "Why on earth would they let go of all those competent experienced people?" they wondered.
See, that is part of the mantra (in HR and management) that people always need to be reaching for the next rung on the ladder (IC->group leader->Supervisor->manager->director etc..) The impression is that someone who has been an individual contributor for 10 years is somehow defective. Even if they are super productive, and happy in their role (which describes me. I made the foray into management, and jumped back at first opportunity).
A manager once told me that he would fire me if I didn't want to be promoted to director. I thought he was fucking nuts, but he was dead serious. I left shortly thereafter.
Shit, my moderator points expired yesterday. A-men
This.
The mess is deep and wide, and likely still has some duct tape applied to cover up the Y2K transition. Many/most of these systems are ancient, and creaking under their own mass.
I think the IAB went full retard with that one...
I just downloaded and installed the latest version of the display drivers for my on-board Intel HD-3000 GPU on my laptop. Total size: 338MB, For fuck's sake, what the hell in a graphics driver needs to be so big?
I have the original, and even brand new the battery life sucked
They pretty much exported their religious extremists and puritans to the US. And we are still saddled with their intolerance, and their prude-ness