On that note, from a software perspective, I've never been especially impressed by engineers who got seriously into stuff like ICPC or Google Code Jam. It's not that they're bad, it's just that it doesn't mean anything. Competition performance isn't a good predictor for practical performance.

Re: software recruiting, the best thing you can do is to take a look at what Google did back when they were cool, and then don't do any of those things.

Example:

Google insulates interviewers from the hiring committee, so that the candidate's personality doesn't affect the hiring decision. Don't do that. If nothing else, it's cruel to the other people who have to take Caltrain.

Although the link didn't come through after my copy paste, you may or may not have noticed that the Peter Norvig talk which Tao linked is literally "Winning at programming competitions is a negative factor for being good on the job".

I can't be particularly helpful on the topic of grad school as I decided to pursue a different plan of education for various reasons. I did consider, among other degree paths, several engineering disciplines.

I was fascinated to learn that for a number of years now, work has been proceeding in order to bring perfection to the crudely conceived idea of a transmission that would not only supply inverse reactive current for use in unilateral phase detractors, but would also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. Such an instrument is the turbo encabulator.

Now basically the only new principle involved is that instead of power being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it is produced by the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive diractance.

The original machine had a base plate of pre-famulated amulite surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spurving bearings were in a direct line with the panametric fan. The latter consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzlevanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented.

The main winding was of the normal lotus-o-delta type placed in panendermic semi-boloid slots of the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremie pipe to the differential girdle spring on the "up" end of the grammeters.

The turbo-encabulator has now reached a high level of development, and it’s being successfully used in the operation of novertrunnions. Moreover, whenever a forescent skor motion is required, it may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle arm, to reduce sinusoidal repleneration.

I am still sometimes drawn to pursue a technical degree and perhaps someday I will.

I didn't. Thanks for letting me know that I'm in good company.

I'm no Putnam fellow but I should do fairly well (20-30 points) after 2016 is scored. As others have said though competition math is unlike research math, comp math is just learning tons of stupid tricks and proof strategies for the specific types of problems that appear on those types of tests. Not all of it is entirely useless, but, it doesn't mean much.

As for "having it", well, I can do research, but I really doubt I'll ever end up in academia, so I don't expect that. I know the people doing postdocs here and I see who's getting jobs, and it doesn't look good.

So I received my first acceptance today, which includes 5 years of full TAship, meaning full tuition and fees covered plus a healthy stipend per year. Which means funding shouldn't be an issue.

Congrats!

Great!!

Congratulations!

Wow, good job. How many schools are you waiting to hear back from and are they all in your relatively immediate area?

I thought those Hack-a-thon and Code Jams were primarily for casual networking, free food and maybe getting laid. Like any other conference ...?

Hey, thanks guys! I'm still waiting on 11 replies (I applied to quite a few schools), but the acceptance was to one of the better programs, so now 4 of those replies are somewhat irrelevant. About half of the schools I applied to were on the west coast, but I also applied to a few in the midwest, south and northeast.

Is getting laid a joke? Because I'm skeptical that Hack-a-thons are a good place to find a hookup.

Like code jams, game jams, yeah.

Google Code Jam isn't a jam, it's a problem solving competition. They give like Project Euler style problems and give you a fixed time to solve them. All done online, intended for independent developers rather than teams. It's a protracted and socially isolated version of ICPC.



The odds are good, but the goods are odd.

Well.. uh.. I feel like I should continue not going to these things then.

You're a "smart person" and will soon be TAing calculus so I don't think you'll need to.

Edit: Please note that I am not encouraging this (though I've definitely seen it)

This thread has taken a turn for the worse.

Ugh Christ almighty, don't have sex with undergrads, for grades or otherwise.

...

sorry guys

stop virtue signalling guys

For the record, I didn't mean that you should use your position to gain sexual favors.

At any rate, you'd likely be violating an ethics rule if you dated your immediate student.

The people you are nice to will remember you, though.

Totally off-topic: I know you're being slightly funny here and I chuckled, but doe anybody else here also think this turn of phrase has become ever so slightly over-used? For sure it's a thing, but like calling someone out as falling prey to Dunning-Kruger, it is sort of an unrecoverable rhetorical blow (like being called a Nazi, before Godwin's law).

I mean, maybe Jon just really is a virtuous guy.

If we went back to Jesus' time, would people be accusing him of virtue signalling? And wasn't he?

P.S.: And yes, I am virtue signalling pretty hard right now to try to remove the creepiness stigma I just slapped on myself

I'm not just being "slightly funny," I'm being "extremely funny!"

goddammit, I knew I screwed that one up

going to the funny room and counting to 100 rn

but yes,



definitely.

Check your privilege

Abuse of authority, ethics, virtue, all similar concerns aside. When I'm within earshot of an 18 year old, "sleep with them" is at the absolute bottom of a long list of more urgent priorities, which begins with "leave" and "apply power drill to temple".

I officially r̶e̶c̶u̶s̶e̶ excuse myself from this topic

Edit: Horrible choice of words

I didn't read the thread. Did someone mention Cloud?

No? I mean, conferences = adults, rooms, alcohol and boredom.

Wasn't even going for a joke.

I was just about to vehemently disagree with you here, until I realized you didn't say 'boardroom'.

I guess I didn't know what they were like.