Wow, this is such an eye opener. I have always considered myself an ok programmer, but always struggling with trying to be effective.
Your four points on effectiveness happen to me on a daily basis, but I tend to see them as annoyances, mind you, I rarely refuse to help and advice. This gives a whole new light and meaning to all those interruptions.
Developers can often be "force-multipliers" even if they don't see it themselves. Yes there's the 10x developer that can get 10x done than the average person.
But there's also the 10x dev that can help others be 10x more effective. Those types see a problem, and write an insanely useful tool.
This made me burst in laughter. I am indeed using Java and Elasticsearch, and no PyTorch, but Spark for an app I am working on. Way more complex than it should be.
Full metal-head in his 30s here, gotta admit I am a much different person and much happier now than when I was 22, sometimes I would like to go back in time and punch my younger self. The body is failing already, but the spirit is getting stronger.
I'm also happier at this stage of my life (turning 30 this year) than in the past, but I have to wonder how much is my personality and how much is circumstance. I'm married, we have our own place to live, I have a relatively successful career, I have friends, and I can pursue my hobbies more or less freely. Those things weren't all true for me at 22.
I used to be contacted by Amazon a lot around 4 years ago, to work with their data science team. At the time I was busy helping build up a startup (and a data science team), so always turned them down, I always put my people first. The startup turned out to be quite profitable, they are up and kicking nowadays, I am very proud of my time with them.
Nowadays I am looking for a new permanent position (have been freelancing for a couple of years). My wife happens to be a headhunter and knows how most HR and internal recruitment teams think and work. She tells me with Amazon in my CV many more doors would open. I don't regret turning them down, I know for sure had I accepted to work with them I would have never met my wife, who brings me more joy than any job would ever do... But I can't help to wonder...
As an old AI researcher, I was expecting some words on how everyone and their grandma try to solve every "AI" problem applying neural networks nowadays, and how other algorithms (e.g. nature based, genetic, hive minds) are not even given a glance anymore.
Instead I get some racial and sexist controversy... Disappointing...
Edit: We have a diversity crisis in AI indeed, but it is in everybody thinking and trying to solve things the same way. Give a chance to other algorithms, not just what the big guys shove down your throats.
Remote: Can be remote, can be on location, no preference
Willing to relocate: Yes, within Spain
Technologies: Mostly Python ecosystem. Comfortable with Azure, GCP or AWS. Mostly machine learning, data science and AI stuff
Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hdkmraf
Email: rafael.perez@eol.solutions