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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
If you have ever worked in software-related industries, the chances are that the word “Rockstar” will elicit a visceral reaction. It’s a word used by a Certain Type Of Manager for an elite software developer who’s so 1337 they don’t play by the rules of ordinary mortals. In reality it’s use is invariably an indication of trouble ahead, either from clueless startups or troublesome rockstar developers making a toxic atmosphere for the mere members of the backing band. Hackaday has a team that brings together a huge breadth of experience, and we’ve been there.
Think I'll stick to being a roadie developer. You know, get my job done so other people can do theirs.
Source: https://hackaday.com/2018/07/28/become-the-rockstar-developer-youve-always-dreamed-of-being/
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @06:10PM (10 children)
I've known two double rockstar programers -- as well as software, they both excelled at electronic hardware design and construction. One was building analog electronics in primary school (soldering up discrete components in 3rd grade) and graduated from an Ivy in three years, taking graduate control theory courses in his third year because he'd already gone through all the undergrad EE requirements. The other started hacking on cars, but once he got to a different Ivy he built all kinds of digital stuff, including a Z-80 homebrew computer in the S-100 bus / Apple II hobbyist era. Both continued to design and build analog systems, in one case, all the electronics in a stereo, starting with phono preamp and reel-2-reel tape electronics, bi-amplification, and ending with home made electrostatic speakers.
They both programmed in assembler, later using C on various platforms (often VAX as well as multiple microprocessors in arcade games) and even some work with Lisp Machines. Given memory and speed limitations they both wrote amazing stuff for real time control and physics simulation, working on advanced R&D projects for the "skunk works" divisions of some Fortune 50 companies. This went on in the '80s and early '90s.
One was so intense that (imo) he gave himself an autoimmune disease and other complications, died age 40. The other was also a unique personality, but eventually burned out after dealing with a ~5 year family situation, still living, but no longer working.
Some people really do burn bright (and sometimes die young).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @07:44PM (8 children)
Ivy league school lol. At least we've established that being born upper class is a requirement for being a "rock star." Working class programmers with excellent skills need not apply.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @07:56PM (5 children)
Having connections is the most important thing, which is the true purpose of these Ivy league schools. If you don't have connections, there's a tiny chance you'll have some success if you have a piece of paper. But if you have skills and no paper? You're mostly doomed. Meritocracy is a comforting illusion.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:48PM (4 children)
Sour grapes. I do just fine with a GED and my skills/experience. Broaden your myopic window into the job market and you can as well. Unless you suck. I'd advise management if that's the case.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @02:22AM (3 children)
I said that you're "mostly doomed". It's impossible to deny that credentialism is common, or that the vast majority of employers are utterly clueless about the jobs for which they are hiring. If you don't have a degree, you will be discriminated against by many employers. Your options are to use any connections you have, find the increasingly rare employer that will look past your lack of a piece of paper, or to start your own business. Not much of a meritocracy when you're living in a society full of shallow, short-sighted retards.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 30 2018, @04:15AM (2 children)
It's not remotely rare except in corporate life but then you'd need to go out into the wide world and find this out for yourself instead of sticking within what falsely appears to be a safe little bubble to know it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @03:18PM (1 child)
Whatever. Many jobs that never used to require degrees now require them. That doesn't mean there are no employers that do not require degrees, but they are fewer in number. I own my own business anyway, so it's not currently an issue.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 30 2018, @03:25PM
Fewer != few. There are a hell of a lot of tech jobs outside large-to-giant corporations and almost none of them require anything but demonstrable competence.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @02:35AM
Sorry, should have mentioned that one was the son of a small town car dealer and put himself through his Ivy with a combo of two years of ROTC and then took time off to work and save up (no help from parents at all). The other had a retired father with an OK pension from a career in middle management at a large research lab (uni was cheaper back then).
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday July 30 2018, @08:53AM
My dad was by then a EE for the naval civil service, mom a clerk for the county health department
I didn't even think about applying to Harvard
I only got to go to Caltech
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @02:44PM
Yep I knew one at uni. Briliant. Aced everything. Awesome. Did the entire project in days by himself. After uni he got a job making specialist electronic equipment, got into WoW, got really fat. That's it. Nothing more.