J2EE is up there.. We have a generation of corporate Java programmers who love boilerplate code and obfuscation.
High-School teachers inflicting Java on teens - cringe-worthy. Many public schools only offered Java if you elected programming/CS (in High School). Only recently has Python made inroads.
I am sometimes involved with mentoring younger people with STEM projects (arduino etc). Its all the buzz. But I heard one of my younger relatives lament about the tendency of young people to gravitate towards a quantitative field of study / training - is there too much hype?. "Learning to Code" is a general movement that is helping many youth to improve their career prospects. Do you think it's being effective in improving education on a meaningful scale.
What kind of educational initiatives would you like entrepreneurs (of all shades) come up with. Do these need to be intrinsically different in different parts of the world?
Finally, as a person who gets scared away from bureaucracy ("the school district") - what would you advise. School districts don't always make the best technology investments on precious dollars.
It's a big problem along many dimensions. A good start is to try to get a handle on what you think should be required. One hint is to forget about vocational goals and focus on "adults as real citizens in a large diverse society"
I think a lot of the abuse happens in Java, and java-derived languages. There is a culture,and the more lines of code you have , and the more classes you have , the better. The language environment and frameworks only re-inforce that stuff. Scala is (I guess ) functional - particularly when contrasted to Java.
In his example, I suspect he is conflating that one-liner chained function call with functional programming? Sort of like how coders like to use ternary one-liners especially when they first learnt them (and end up with unreadable code). But his first snippet is obviously simpler, compared to the OOP-cruft of the second and third snippets.
As more Java programmers migrate to coding in Python, they are bringing that toxic culture in to Python too - where boilerplate and sugar were relatively less.
Its like everyone is doing rocket science, which is despicable, given we are mostly coding CRUDs.
Any language is susceptible to abuse, its also a human trait to de-simplify something to gain a fake intellectual satisfaction.
If you want to be intellectual there is a good chance you will be lonely here , too - though it depends. Indians are notorious for resting on their laurels - in this case, merely landing in USA qualifies as one. I am willing to bet your fires will be much tamer once you make it to these shores - but I wish you good luck , because at least you have that fire. When I meet Indians here (and I am one too) its seriously underwhelming - what they consider cool/revolutionary/intellectual. In a sense, the gamers of the system escaped overseas, and for the good of India, the best is left behind (sounds crazy for some reason).
The fact that intellectual activity seems to be relatively lacking in India is sad to read, and confirms my subjective opinion.
I can understand your sense of intellectual loneliness. Indians worship Saraswati (the goddess of learning), but will do anything not to learn and be intellectually curious. Behold the Hindu nation. The current wave of 'culture' sweeping through India will definitely not improve any of this.
Most Indians are like that, I've seen that here in Europe too. I attend tech meetups and paper study groups regularly and only friend with people I admire. Race doesn't matter to me. And yes, usually they are not Indian anyway.
My beagle pays close attention to crows around my home. If a fox is making his rounds, the crows start yelling, and my beagle starts looking out for the fox. (And me too)
An educated professional's capacity to endure pain, and inability to recognize implicit humiliation (i.e. your family is way less important than this job) as measured in this article, are about 6 years.
For six years he put up with this abuse of power over him. He could have walked out after six months but he chose not to. How can Amazon be faulted for the employee's indecision.
He's financially benefited by those 6 years of being an absent father. The financial gains are very concrete and measurable, and comforting. The same can't be said of the intangible - like playing with your infant child, and caring for them - can't put a value on them but that's a huge loss.
US Immigration is heavy handed, some of my aged relatives have entered with valid multiple entry visitor visas, and still have been questioned for 3-4 hours by rude agents.
This couple made some stupid errors though, mainly they were clueless about how rigid the system is.
9-11 obviously changed the US system for ever. Now there is talk of amnesty for people who never filed a single form (sneaked across the border), while those who followed the rules to a T, or at least applied for some visa get treated like this. As a legal immigrant, I am honestly conflicted about amnesty for illegals.
I am 5.8, 135 lbs. I'm convinced I can be lose another 10lbs if I cut down slightly, and keep running twice a week. Down to my college or high-school weight if I drop another 10 lbs.
It would reduce my cardiovascular risk, improve my running (easier on knees).
Am not a Muslim, but this month of Ramzan (or Ramadan) does inspire me to try some light fasting.
Nothing severe, no extremes for me. Happy with incremental, over a period of time, changes.
I'm wondering why you feel the need to lose 10 more lbs? It feels like an arbitrary number. Besides 135 lbs for someone who is 5.8 is a very healthy weight. You are exercising regularly which is great, so you are probably not likely to reduce cardiovascular risk much more, if that can even be quantified realistically at this point. Running is hard on your knees, period. If you want to go easier on your knees maybe take up biking or swimming.
As an aging developer who's on the wrong side of 41 yrs (or say 42, or 43 ..) , I am surprised by your impatience (to put it mildly).
Don't develop an ambition just because others have it. You have decades left in you. You seem to be unhappy now.
Glass half-full, or half-empty ? Upto you.
You are a top-10 CS - that pretty much means you know a lot. Shouldn't be overly reading those technical articles. You are denying, or discounting knowledge that you have in you. Have patience with yourself. Back yourself.
Whether you are ambitious or not - you will get there. As long as you don't become a veggie, or an addict. Your skills and talent will take you places without overloading your anxious psyche with fake ambition. Things will happen if you stay away from the wrong places and the wrong times. Takes time - no, I am not saying you need to wait till 41 (or 42 ..). Decades sooner.
High-School teachers inflicting Java on teens - cringe-worthy. Many public schools only offered Java if you elected programming/CS (in High School). Only recently has Python made inroads.