Post AY5edix6bY3kzyAMO8 by Elendol@hachyderm.io
(DIR) More posts by Elendol@hachyderm.io
(DIR) Post #AY5bvvCHWAKAKDFZbc by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-07-26T14:50:34Z
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Woke up to find one of my old blog entries spent the night on Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36843484 - it was this one, "It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate" https://simonwillison.net/2021/Jul/17/standing-out/A lot of people take offense to that one. Reading comments on it is a pretty fascinating anthropological exploration of different attitudes to work, interviewing, hiring practices and suchlike
(DIR) Post #AY5c7JloUoEtirIv0S by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-07-26T14:51:52Z
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When I wrote it I expected it to be 100% uncontroversial, because the point I was trying to make was that you DON'T need to spend all your free time blogging and coding - just stick up a blog post once or twice a year and it will still put you ahead of other candidates who don't do thatI think part of the problem is that I'm massively under-estimating the amount of work involved in writing one or two blog posts, for people who are not regular writers
(DIR) Post #AY5ctfr7gXqU7UqUVc by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-07-26T15:01:45Z
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Something I've noticed about Hacker News that's interesting is that there's a material difference in conversations depending on when an article happens to hit the homepageIf it lands on the homepage during the night in the USA the first 100+ comments will be mostly from people in Europe and Asia, which can often reflects different cultural values from stories discussed in USA daytime
(DIR) Post #AY5d79tVJYUF2yOCHo by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-07-26T15:02:30Z
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@eaton I always assume that 90% of the comments on HN (or any other internet discussion board) are arguing directly about the headline because they didn't click through to read the article
(DIR) Post #AY5dhVQiiqkYGQG2M4 by moon_baron@social.coop
2023-07-26T15:10:13Z
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@simon as a person who finds it hard to finish writing a blog post, I did not take issue with your post. Writing is blog posts regularly is a discipline. That's a muscle that you need to exercise. Creativity can help make ones posts engaging or offer unique topics, but I don't think it has anything to do with being able to write regularly.
(DIR) Post #AY5e9tFvjPscGckGsy by mrmay@hachyderm.io
2023-07-26T15:15:43Z
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@simon as a kid I saw a picture of a Jackson Pollock painting and said (like a whole lot of others) “I could do that”. My dad said “maybe, but he actually did”. So, I learned that just doing something put me ahead of a whole bunch of others. Then I saw a real Jackson Pollock and, like a whole bunch of others, ate my words.
(DIR) Post #AY5eP0gwMtEbfjaZZg by divclassbutton@hachyderm.io
2023-07-26T15:18:28Z
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@simon I've noticed the same on Reddit. Post in favour of unionization of Devs and you'll get a few upvotes during EU hours but when America wakes up the downvotes flood in.
(DIR) Post #AY5edix6bY3kzyAMO8 by Elendol@hachyderm.io
2023-07-26T15:19:26Z
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@simon reading some comments I see some people expect recruiters should contact them after reading their stuff instead of using these writings to support their CV when they apply for jobs, they still have to do the work, this is not magic.
(DIR) Post #AY5fCTwwNNOIbVf9ou by davesnider@social.davesnider.com
2023-07-26T15:25:56Z
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@simon I've found the same in times when I was hiring a lot of folks. You'd expect designers to be better at this than devs, but it was the same problem.98% of the good people I've hired in my career had their own website which linked to things they've worked on. It's the most simple litmus test I've had towards hiring folks over the years. As you mention, it requires very little work.Designers also have lots of ways to fake quality work through images. Websites are harder.
(DIR) Post #AY5gVzPhiZnrdyyyga by miki@dragonscave.space
2023-07-26T15:39:55Z
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@simon Am I wrong, or is this strategy somewhat popular in India? From what I’ve heard, many companies there treat you better if you have a public presence online and get a certain number of views / clicks. Because it’s a matter of incentives, many people apparently optimize their blogging for highest number of views with lowest effort spend, which causes a lot of questionable-quality content to be posted, particularly on Medium. It’s hearsay, but the ethnic origin of the author names on many Medium article would confirm this hypothesis.
(DIR) Post #AY5ggm4DgF7rR54lZw by sethmlarson@fosstodon.org
2023-07-26T15:40:37Z
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@simon One of the toughest problems I had when starting on my blogging journey was exactly what all of the "myths people believe about blogging" posts mention which is "you have to be original". I just couldn't shake it!There's a disconnect between agreeing with all the advice about blogging and then applying it to yourself. I honestly don't know what the solution is to that issue, it would be great to get more folks blogging in general.
(DIR) Post #AY5guZ5AkmujDd66Ge by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-07-26T15:42:30Z
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@jimw Yeah - my point was very much "make sure that the recruiters who care enough to go digging find something interesting"So much of this comes down to personal experience. Plenty of people have (to my surprise) never experienced a hiring manager who actually goes looking for evidence that their candidates are capable of doing the work prior to the interview - I'd assumed that was universal, it very clearly isn't
(DIR) Post #AY5h7QLMYWQbsdnmee by gilest@mastodon.me.uk
2023-07-26T15:48:30Z
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@simon I'm glad you wrote it - I often refer people to that post because I'm often encouraging "tiny acts of creativity" in corporate writing, and it helps me back up my point
(DIR) Post #AY5hrtSOe2tVUkFa6K by marcua@hachyderm.io
2023-07-26T15:57:14Z
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@simon To your second point, I think the mindset and goal of the post also matters. The one or two posts I write a year are larger announcements of side project launches, which take a while to write and get feedback from friends.You do a nice job of balancing larger announcements with smaller/version updates and TILs, which I really appreciate, and might inform your sense of the time to post.
(DIR) Post #AY5iZphpx5nYbSQNM0 by numist@xoxo.zone
2023-07-26T16:05:15Z
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@simon what really gets me (from the hiring side) is how many CVs link to a completely empty GitHub profile. It feels like a waste of my time but tbh it makes the hiring decision pretty easy.
(DIR) Post #AY5jAIrF2nlfRNDJQ0 by tomasveneny@universeodon.com
2023-07-26T16:11:58Z
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@simon I believe it's because of society.US society is build on being successful. So it sounds controversial for (most of) americans if you're saying that a candidate doesn't need to do extra work for getting job / success.However you're completely right in your view.
(DIR) Post #AY5jPnUnPnp4o36SLw by mattround@crispsandwi.ch
2023-07-26T16:14:35Z
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@simon One under-appreciated aspect is how it simply gives candidates & interviewers something insightful & interesting to talk about, you learn so much more vs plodding through a CV & struggling to get a sense of what kind of cog they were in various machines
(DIR) Post #AY5jvSwJNVDGJq4eH2 by numist@xoxo.zone
2023-07-26T16:20:26Z
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@simon from start to finish https://numi.st/post/2023/caches-make-predictions-about-the-future/ took me over four months. A lot of that interval was also spent writing related code, reading papers, and chasing children, but I can't imagine doing more than two posts like that a year right now.
(DIR) Post #AY5k6Y4YdN0pQMDR0S by Edent@mastodon.social
2023-07-26T16:20:49Z
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@simonI think a lot of commentors there don't understand that you're not saying it is necessary or sufficient.In a crowded market, you need *something* to help you stand out.
(DIR) Post #AY5n8J3fjABNIeKbIm by hynek@mastodon.social
2023-07-26T16:56:16Z
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@simon I mean would you believe https://hynek.me/articles/turbo-charge-tox/ took me three days of writing and editing? 🤷♂️ In the best cases I realize I had a wrong perception and have to rewrite in the middle.
(DIR) Post #AY5nURAAH6auo5v9u4 by jugmac00@fosstodon.org
2023-07-26T17:00:24Z
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@simon I completely agree. From 100 talented and experienced applicants, only one has contributed to #opensource.What keeps people from at least reporting issues, fixing outdated documentation and so on?I am not talking about significant contributions or even maintainership.Every little bit counts.
(DIR) Post #AY5rBrPuq2qUXygaEy by pjbrunet@noagendasocial.com
2023-07-26T17:22:48Z
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@simon I'm not sure technical content gets the best results. Often the person that needs your solution is not technical, and they're not on HN. Maybe you're the exception, but most employers are lazy and will spend 3 seconds reading your resume. Some eager recruiter runs a keyword scan, then you pass the fun and easy phone screen, and after that you end up getting grilled by some over-worked, know-it-all engineer that probably doesn't want to hire anyone. No employer ever mentioned my blog.
(DIR) Post #AY5rBttlc1ucF8fS2y by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-07-26T17:40:57Z
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@pjbrunet Yeah, my advice holds for the kinds of companies that have technical people interview technical candidates - if you're interviewing somewhere where the interviewers don't know what GitHub is it's not going to help you!
(DIR) Post #AY5sheonJcuwh433qK by colby@kosmos.social
2023-07-26T17:58:25Z
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@simon I responded to one of your comments in that thread using Hypothesis:> Good start at an ontology for different kinds of work? Samsung Austin Semiconductor, for example, does not fall within the class that Simon calls "ambitious technology companies", despite nominally being a "tech" company and ostensibly "ambitious".<https://hypothes.is/a/p-EUZCvdEe6L7Rs2NMJTyw>
(DIR) Post #AY5yjEfm5u9puPxuTY by pjbrunet@noagendasocial.com
2023-07-26T17:48:57Z
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@simon Do you check their StackExchange?
(DIR) Post #AY5yjFO5R9bS7qhIXo by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-07-26T19:05:59Z
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@pjbrunet only if it showed up in a very quick cursory search for their name, or if they had linked to it from their personal website
(DIR) Post #AY6Zm8QnSAWBiwCmJc by davebauerart@mastodon.social
2023-07-27T02:01:23Z
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@simon Really interesting. I've had a blog of some sort for over 20 years. Writing about what you're learning usually does help. Still I have gone years without writing, not sure how it happens!
(DIR) Post #AY7LdjQpJRm5fkHIDQ by techbits@sudo.cat
2023-07-27T10:57:21Z
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@simon coming from a hobbyist writer's point of view, rather than candidate, but I agree with the sentiment. It has taken a while to get to the point where I can be happy posting infrequently without adding unnecessary pressure/taking the fun out of it.