Well, I half-expected to receive ass-kicking threats for doing an 8.000+ word writeup...

Let me move out of my place first and see what I can pull off. I've been pretty active in my search lately, so something will pop soon I'm sure.

This is the exact attitude I was skewering. Nothing about language X makes me or anyone better than someone else. Trust me, there are a decent amount of droolers using Clojure as well.

Eh... if I wanted to, I could abstract all the HTML away and generate it all from vapor. My biggest complaint is that I don't find the act of web-building exciting or satisfying, and adding another level of syntactic sugar isn't going to make me like it more; I'd probably like it less. I prefer to not use ORMs for the same basic reason.

You asked for it. I hope it was worth your time reading it.

Heh. I uh... don't want to know. I'm sure I have some epic stupidity from back then and I'd prefer to live with the illusion of grandeur that I haven't really built up yet.

dave, impressive writeup.

You know, even with yourself pointing out (a few times) the bad experiences you've had with school or learning in that setup, I think you may have a talent for being a teacher in academia. Either that, or I am getting everything wrong which wouldn't be the first time, either.

You love books. Good. Have you read Programming Pearls? I found that book simply amazing. It feels at times, especially during the first reading, embarrassingly simple but I kept running into small little tidbits - often just one or two sentences - that helped me warp my perspective in good ways. So much so that I still regularly go back to re-read it for the heck of it.
I'll warn you, though, it doesn't cover the historical parts of programming. I think that book still needs to be written. That might just be an interesting side-project for yourself.

I am fairly knowledgable about the history part you mention. Google Mitch Kapor. In my view, he is the father of the open source movement. Open Source came about primarily to counter the effort to patent various aspects of software (look and feel, algorithms, etc.).

Pretty awesome read. Wasn't aware that you wanted to keep CI around and "competitive". Do you keep track of how it's used etc. in any way?

Great read. I have similar views with regards to HTML. I hate creating websites and touching html code. Something about it, I just don't like.

What would be the point of creating something like that if it isn't better than other things out there? (Lizzie not withstanding...)

When I was actively working on it, I was getting north of 100 hits a month, mostly from India, Pakistan, Philippines, and areas like that. I could have done better if I was more actively working on it, but there was a few legit sites that had in-bound links so there was some traffic from those places.

Now its mostly bots.

I <3 /> html.

this much?

I've heard this quite a bit irl, so I guess you aren't wrong. I wouldn't mind being an intro-to-programming teacher, but that's not a realistic ideal. The opportunity to teach SQL girl what I know about programming (and figuring out the rest) would be about the only positive to working on the app and staying at the current job.

This description reminds me of a book called The Productive Programmer. Even though most of it is kind of obvious, there was quite a few small gems in it. The biggest hit for me was multiple clipboards, which I never heard of or pondered before reading about it. Their description and insistence on using it really helped me grok Emac's kill-ring. I use the kill-ring and registers all the time now, and when I am using other programs, I constantly think "Gee, I wish I had a multiple clipboard right now," but alas, I just fake it with a notepad.

There's nothing wrong with raw HTML itself*. I sort of like generating it. I just start to get irritated when I have to add other things to it.

*okay, there is a lot wrong with HTML, but it is preferable of XML, SOAP, and JSON and all other crap they want to replace it with.

JSON is the new XML, but anything is better than SOAP

SOAP is the debbil

Especially the way it uses those godforsaken XML namespaces

Back when I worked at Large Faceless Soul-Crushing Evil Corporation I had the pleasure of seeing the exact same kind of ridiculously obnoxious CDATA escaping bug in two different SOAP implementations. One built on Apache Axis in C++ and the other in jax-ws. Two completely different teams, technology stacks, and products. It was fantastic.

Anyway **** SOAP

Eh... So I moved out of the place as promised. Was an emergency and had no time to focus on anything else.

I've been pushing my resume around and seeing if anyone is biting. Been phone interviewing about once a week now, so that is a huge step up for me.

It has been all pre-screens so far, but I have a legit tech interview coming up next week, so I'm all nerves and reviewing my algorithms, data structures, Python decorators, and looking at concepts I haven't worked with before.

Oddly, I've been getting the best response on big data / scaling jobs, which is interesting considering those are two areas I have no knowledge about.

The more interesting part is that after I get them on the phone with me and start asking questions, the requirements for the job aren't nearly as astronomical as the description goes. I suspect this is an attempt to filter out the posers, but why the heck are they calling me?

I just want to experience a real tech interview and see what its like. I have no illusions that I'll nail my first attempt.

Congrats on quitting and getting the interviews and getting interviews that are actually tech interviews. I can't wait to experience my first real tech interview either. So much adrenaline and nerves like final tabling a big tourney. Also, make sure to link the hiring manager to this thread.

I haven't quit yet, though I could quit with no horrible financial problems.

Shortly after you wrote that, I did put in a one-month notice, but they didn't want that to happen. They did agree to let me hire someone so I can teach him how to do my job. Now I'm free-rolling. I could do one of many things, which is continue to work there and try out some interesting things (with little pay, obv), or I can quit without giving a full two week notice and not be a jerk.

I've also accepted the fact that I'm a terrible manager.

What are your thoughts on programming jobs being shipped overseas Dave?

Why can't you ask for a raise? Since you are free rolling you should know that you can ask for an absurd raise on the order of 1.5x - 2x.

But since you dislike your job I wouldn't even do that unless you use it as leverage for salary negotiations on your next job.

Interesting question and sort of a complicated answer. The gist is that I generally approve.

I believe that there are many benefits to using the world-wide economy (What Coke Contains came up on HN the other day). While there are problems with the world economy, I believe that the net gain is far greater than the localized and personal loss.

Who am I to tell a person in India that she is not able to work, make a living, provide for her family, and hopefully enjoy the freedoms that we here in America take for granted? Would her life be better if she uneducated, forced into a bad marriage, was put into a brothel to scrub floors?

Who am I to tell a person that his country does not deserve the fruits of the inventions that came from the Western world, while I selfishly use these inventions and put no effort into inventing something useful myself? What opportunities for him and his country am I killing if I am not willing to be open about the ideas of our world and preventing him from gaining the skills needed to add a little green to his country's yard?

What I do not approve of is implied or real slavery. If the goal of the American company is to pay Indians $3/hr, then they are promoting irresponsibility and selfishness, which I cannot get on board with. If the pay is fair to the countrymen, given that pay is less than the average Western developer and the quality is the same or nearly the same, then this is strictly a business decision that I do not question.

I believe that having an in-house developer often outweighs the financial gains from outsourcing, depending the situation. If you have a product that needs fast iteration and constant review, then having a person on-hand to talk to is going to pay off in the short-term, and compound in the long-term. If a company is just tossing up a WP site, and the needed interaction with the developer is the design, then it is probably a better financial decision to outsource. Just look for a good WP/Magento/Drupal webdev house in your area: their work is nothing better, and often much worse, than what we can find overseas.

I sell things online, and many of my sources are from Asia. Why? Well, the product is genuinely developed and manufactured over there. There are often no American equivalents. I would be a hypocrite if I said that I only want American-made products and ideas. So You Want to Boycott Israel? Here’s A List of Products and Services You Need to Start With....). The idea can extend to any country. Although the list will be different, the impact can be the same.

Even if you are strongly for keeping jobs in America, I think that you'd have to agree that you don't really want many of the jobs that are sent overseas. In this case, you end up with jobs that are interesting and crap jobs "over there," which unfortunately reinforces hierarchy and caste, but is upside for us, aside from the fact that it may be harder to get into the door.

This is too complicated and personal to write about here. Suffice to say that the ROI isn't high as the ceiling is too low and the conditions of entering pay-scale agreement don't align with my interests and goals.