I usually think of it as someone hundreds of years ago playing with a tighly stretched string and noticing stuff:

- Half a string's length is the same thing, just higher

- The harmonic at half a string is the same thing, just higher

- The harmonics at 3:2 and 4:3 are really loud and distinct

- If you chop up the rest of the string at the same interval as the 3:2 and 4:3, some have strong harmonics that match tones on the string, some don't

Then I figure with the Octave, 5th, 4th, and M3 as the strongest harmonics that matches other lengths (or octaves thereof), they went from there...

Naw - places that hire like that are myopic are shitty and doomed, so you don't want to work there anyway. If you're a good coder and not a complete dick, you can build a nice career for yourself.

Yup, no doubt. There are lots of good areas for tech that aren't elitist like this, but compensation wise I don't think any can touch the top 3 (Seattle, NYC, SFO). That's just what I've heard ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, I don't claim to know much.

I dunno - part of leading an eng group is taking heat to do the right thing. I've been in the growth phase a few times now, been under tremendous pressure rapidly build a team. Taking the time to find the right people is absolutely key - better to hold off then get the wrong people in. Maybe it's because I've seen complete dipsh?t Stanford and MIT grads or maybe it's because I didn't go to a marquee school, but I put a big line in the sand on that one...

Taking the time to find the right people is absolutely the key, but the unwritten part of the rule, is not to do that at the cost of business. Better to hire engineers who are good enough, than to miss the holiday season.

The process of DS/Algos doesn't necessarily find wrong people. It's just the fastest way to find engineers who are good enough.

In some sense, they almost secretly WANT you to succeed, by "standardizing" the process.

So there are lots of programming jobs out there at places that are not like the valley. Thing Initech from Office Space - business casual dress code, gantt charts, dreary cubes, long death march schedules you have no control over, people are resources first, salaries are intentionally below market rate...

I landed at one of these a few years ago and got out ASAP. They're out there, but not so much in the Bay Area because the talent war is so hot - any place like that wouldn't be able to hire or keep anyone.

Most shops aren't like that.

I don't do "SV style programming" but we have no dress code, no death March schedules, no charts, no meetings, etc. Same thing as my last job in another city.

Though we also don't have ping pong, Foosball, stocked fridge, or many young people if that's what you are looking for. Oh, and not a lot of turnover either.