Halladie7's comments

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

As long as you're willing to accept the burdens of using FB as a panopticon. You get the blatant ads, the furtive ads, the manipulative filtering, the spam, the agit-prop. Ma Bell never barged in with a jingle when I used to call my grandmother. There is no cost/benefit analysis here. You can't cast this in a positive light relative to any previous means of social connection. It's absolute shit.

I've come to the conclusion that this round of social media is possibly the worst incarnation of technology in the past 30 years. Hopefully the next version is less shitty.

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects

There's definitely variation from company to company, but the gap isn't huge. Let's say the private research role got me $30k more than engineering. It would take at least 16 years to make up for the 5-6 I spend for a phd. Lots of variables though. I made the right choice for myself.

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects

Especially when you consider compound interest. :)

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects

My tuition was fully paid and I got a $1600/mo stipend for being a dedicated research assistant. So the opportunity cost wasn't worth it when I discovered I'd be earning the same on either career path.

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects

No. Because I'd have gone to private industry anyway. Starting research and engineering salaries are roughly equivalent. Their respective progressions are about the same too.

You'd only make more money if you founded a company and it was successful. You don't make fuck you money as employee #5000.

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects

Grad school dropout here. I never wanted to be a professor. I have no interest in teaching. I just wanted to research. My degree would have been in CS/ML/NLP.

When I realized that I would be out over half a million dollars in earnings over the time I was in grad school, I made the decision to leave. The fact that my advisor was a terrible researcher and a horrible person made it much easier.

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: I have no side code projects to show you

Bingo! Bootcamps are basically multiple month training sessions for interviews. Princeton Review for dev jobs.

Regardless, I actually think this paradigm works for entry level jobs at most companies. You don't have to know anything for your first year in most cases. You just have to be able to show up and follow instructions.

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: Uber Visa Card

At first glance it actually looks like a pretty good card in terms of rewards. If I didn't have 3 cards that provide basically the same rewards, I would get it. 4% on dining, 3% on travel and 2% on online purchases is very nice. The $100 credit for $500 spent in 3 months is also generous. No annual fee.

You can also use the points for Uber credits.

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: University of Chicago Graduate Students Vote to Unionize

This is very interesting. Having been a graduate student who threw off the reins to do basically the same work in industry at 6-7x the compensation with better benefits I support them.

Halladie7 | 8 years ago | on: New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

I want this too, as an employee hoping to work with other qualified employees. We just extended an offer to a guy who wasn't well qualified for the role merely because he was the only candidate who requested a salary in the range for the position. The skill set was actually pretty demanding, and the amount budgeted was likely below market. Desperation hire.