The OP is the type of person that, six months from now would be demanding special treatment because "he wrote Homebrew".
Writing a package manager (been done before, a lot of times) is far different from writing machine learning algorithms (new field, blazing the trail for the industry). One requires an engineer, one requires a scientist.
The OP flamed out because Google was looking for something he was not. Instead of taking it like a professional, he decided to retaliate.
The tone he took in his post is appalling, and I cannot believe HNers are defending him. "I'm special because I wrote something popular (and make absurd claims about 90% of people using it), so you better hire me or else" is what he just laid down.
That's not the type of person I'd want to hire or work with... and I'd wager most would agree.
Echoing what sseveran said, "You have done an awful lot of speculation here!"
Why do we call them "speculations"? Well, because those were your believes and most likely not the true depiction of who Max Howell is.
Have you worked or interacted with Max at all? I bet you not. If you did, you will see that he's not the egotistical and arrogant person that you depicted. [0]
To me, Max was just really frustrated and venting on the fact that Google passed on him because he failed in a whiteboard session of an algorithmic question, disregarding the fact that he has been proven to be a great developer who can ship code and a track record of teamwork and tremendous contribution to the open source community. And you know what, I am pretty sure Max can solve that whiteboard question with a little bit of preparation. It's unfortunate that Google interview process is designed to judge people on a simple algorithmic question. So, Google's loss on this one IMMO.
While I completely disagree with you on most of your judgements, I do agree with you on one point, that is, it's probably not going to be a fit (scientist vs. engineer). It's okay for companies to screen out experienced developers/engineers on academic knowledge, even though it's silly.
PS: I am not sure where the "90%" came from, but it's not "absurd" to believe considering Google's standard equipment issue has been predominantly Macs in recent years[1].
PPS: Max applied for an iOS developer role not a scientist role.
>Writing a package manager (been done before, a lot of times) is far different from writing machine learning algorithms (new field, blazing the trail for the industry). One requires an engineer, one requires a scientist.
I mean, a package manager is probably far more rooted in computer science than machine learning (which is basically just applied statistics: software engineering edition).
as someone who has worked on machine learning systems, this made me laugh out loud. not the fake thing you do when you mildly chuckle but don't actually make a sound. the thing where your coworkers look up and are annoyed. thanks!
The OP is the type of person that, six months from now would be demanding special treatment because "he wrote Homebrew".
Writing a package manager (been done before, a lot of times) is far different from writing machine learning algorithms (new field, blazing the trail for the industry). One requires an engineer, one requires a scientist.
The OP flamed out because Google was looking for something he was not. Instead of taking it like a professional, he decided to retaliate.
The tone he took in his post is appalling, and I cannot believe HNers are defending him. "I'm special because I wrote something popular (and make absurd claims about 90% of people using it), so you better hire me or else" is what he just laid down.
That's not the type of person I'd want to hire or work with... and I'd wager most would agree.