Al Hoang

I know a number of hacker-types in the blogosphere have already blogged on Paul Graham’s latest article ( here, here, here).

As usual, Paul Graham writes really lucidly on the hacker culture and how to attract them to a business. One of the things I found interesting was how it is pretty close to impossible to find out how good a hacker is until you work with him. On quite a few levels I agree with this statement however in some other ways there must be some methods of evaluating them or at least bringing up the probabilities of detection besides working with them for a long time (one could argue that would prove a person’s worth in ANY field not JUST hacking [the coding sense]).

The best analogy I could think of is the athlete, a master musician, or a master craftsman. A master in his craft when showing his or her craft makes it look easy because a lot of practice, dedication, and raw talent has gone into making those moments that you see executed in a beautiful fashion. When, I’m searching to learn something new I always keep a sharp eye for these type of people as a teacher or someone to work with. These people that make it look easy usually have spent so much time working on their craft it flows as naturally as water in a river. However, this is not something that is easy to spot. Some things are much easier to see (such as professional sports or music) than other things (mathematics, engineering, fluency in a foreign languages). How do you spot it?

Paul Graham’s suggestion of just working with them for awhile is probably the most definitive way to find out. However, barring that since that methodology is extremely time consuming and not possible in many many circumstances the next best thing is to develop an observant eye for picking out quality and skill. It’s not hopeless as Paul Graham seems to suggest but it isn’t a cakewalk either. How do I know it’s not as hopeless as Paul Graham makes it seem? How many people can appreciate great music but can’t play anything themselves?

Read Great Hackers

I just read this
which purports to answer 10 truths on trade. While the statements have
some kernel of truth (doesn’t everything these days?) it looks like
such utter bunk. I can imagine some right-wing advocate writing this
in trying to quell the ‘public’ regarding the ‘truth’ on offshoring, imports
and jobs.

Let me tell you this whole article, especially the bit on offshoring
and IT from this article smells like a pile of crap. I bet you if we
reversed the situation around and offshored any job that was CxO or
had the title Director in it this article would have a HUGELY different tone.
Perhaps, something like “Oh My Gawd! The Sky is Falling!” As long as we’re
at it how about outsource all journalist type jobs to 3rd world countries.
I bet you the hydra that is the modern press would be screaming out at the
top of their lungs for some sort of protectionist measures. Anyways,
I should stop venting. It’s not fixing the U.S. economy at all.

Read it yourself

Hahaha, in the tradition of Engrish (Poor Japanese attempts at using English)
there’s also “Konglish” which is the Korean version of the same. I shouldn’t
make fun of people’s aattempts to learn a foreign language but in some
ways it is amusing. Perhaps I enjoy too much schadenfreude.

Thanks dda!

Check it out
yourself. (Requires Windows Media Player to play properly).

Personally, I’ve seen worse on TV back in the U.S.