I was thinking the same thing - today's Brilliant Jerk is tomorrow's visionary - just look at Steve Jobs as a good example. People also adapt and change over time, so that's important to take into account. I think the comments here all show that this brilliant jerk phenomenon is an oversimplification of something we've all experienced at work.
I agree 100% that textbooks have too many levels of abstraction added over time. There's a really interesting answer given on this exact same subject by Bill Gates at the Aspen Festival - check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqf3rvg742g
Thanks rbranson, this comment was very helpful. I also think that the logical fallacy of some of these arguments is that they´re absolutist - it´s better to follow your advice because it´s a very logical progression to start with a SQL database and then move into different things as you grow. Life is a progression and I think your quote about premature optimization is spot on - it IS the root of all evil because it´s absolutist and too rigid to fit the curve of everything that life (and tech, and work) throws at you!
Question: maybe just my simplistic take on these complaints - and I have the same ones - but can 90% of these all be broken down into two categories? (database-related), and (UI-related) issues? Windows desktop indexing, iPhone extra space taken up by "other" - can you simplify these things by saying that they´re database related? I´d love to hear someone´s opinion on that.
The keyword density and some of the keyword repetition for this article makes me suspicious. Not questioning the experience - I read it and it sounded great. Just analyzing the most common words and phrases used though - so you decide:
'Ruby' - 19 times (~2.4% density)
'madison' - 15 (1.87%)
'madison ruby' - 12 (1.50%)
'tech' - 13 (1.62%)
'conference' - 12 (1.5%)
No I didn't. I understand the post. I support anyone, anywhere who wants to learn programming and show an interest, especially young women who are under-represented in the industry. I just think that they're promoting Madison Ruby because the piece is highly structured to display a very specific keyword density, and that's typical for promotional work. So my vote is that they're not being honest about the origins of this article. Just an opinion though.
It's a story about Madison Ruby, which is a tech conference that requires travelling to Madison and involves talks about Ruby. I think this is the appropriate keyword density. Sometimes good content is just that, no SEO required. SEO is for people who can't write.
Thanks for the comment drharris. With all due respect, I think this is a paid promotional article, not something that should be promoted on the front page of HN. Consider this:
A) they published the article, then changed it to optize it for SEO. The original title being "How to Recruit Women into Tech: A Madison Ruby case study". B) Event insiders and HN users with very low ratings plugging Madison Ruby in the comments section, and specifically plugging organizers "Jim and Jen" stating that other events people should consider hiring them. C) The author's story is highly unusual - blogger with no previous interest in programming invited (for free) to a tech conference, and afterwards writes very long, SEO-optimized blog post about the event? Hey - I'm sure the event was great, and I'm a 110% supporter of any ways to get young people, and more women into the tech industry. But I think that paid promotional work has no place on HN, because it's disingenuous to present it as a true testimonial.
Hey cool! I didn't know I was so good at promotional work & SEO! I mean I knew I was writing good stuff (regardless of my lack of income) but now I know just how marketable my writing is! Thanks for giving me an anecdote to share when I apply for content strategy and SEO positions in the future! Your comments are just about resume worthy for me!
I am happy to promote via honest positive review an event that was literally life changing for both me and my partner. I does seem like I got a lot of freebees. I did. In that I was lucky. But I was also lucky to have the experience of MR as a place to confront some of my issues with tech. If you had actually focused at all on the content of my post you'd know that I identified elements of the conference that were problematic and difficult for me to access. I did this because I want to event to be better about these things in the future.
I understand where your skepticism comes from. I am skeptic too (you would also know this if you read more of my posts). But please don't assume that my articulated account of a positive experience is bought. It wasn't (at least not with anything more than valuable experiences and cheese).
My post was not an infomercial. I never want to use my personal blog for paid promotional work. I never titled the post anything other that "My Madison Ruby Story" (the other title was lifted from a 3rd party tweet) and NO edits have been made to the actual post since I published it yesterday at noon. The SEO-optimization was a coincidence. One I may now point to as an example of my acumen for content strategy. So thanks.
You're wrong. This is something that my wife and I have spent the last 2.5 years trying to build. An inclusive event where everyone feels welcome to participate.
The post was made here specifically because HN has a reputation for being exclusive and to show, as we have in our conference(s), that with a little work you can build a successful inclusive community.
I respect your opinion and your right to stick up for HN to prevent it from being gamed. There was no compensation made of any type to encourage Wendy to write this piece.
Well, then please accept my apologies and thank you for taking the time to explain. As I said originally, I think that it's wonderful that you're encouraging young people, and especially women who are under-represented, to get involved in the tech industry. That is truely a goal worthy of your 2.5 years of hard work.
Where are you finding the original title? The original title of this HN submission was that, but as far as I can tell, the original blog title was "My Madison Ruby Story", as it stands now. What are you seeing that makes it look like she later optimized for SEO? There's literally no evidence for what you are saying unless I'm missing something.
As far as it all being fake, that's absurd; she's created a new blog specifically about all the cheese they bought with her gift certificate, the first entry being about Madison Ruby. There are much better stories one could tell if they were indeed lying (maybe one about not skipping out on half the conference).
Nope, this article is the real deal. I was at this conference and the take on the community rings true to me. It was a no-holds-barred hug fest (and a fine conference, of course). Lest you accuse me of sockpuppet-ism, I've been on HN for 5 years.
I couldn't help thinking while reading this that my main concern with registration systems isn't the complicated Regex as much, but rather the really annoying registry bots that sign up phantom accounts. I'm not a huge Captcha fan, but without something (Recaptcha, ghosted fields, etc) you'll get SPAMMED with tons of fake accounts - and they have valid emails, AND the bots click on the links in the confirmation email automatically. It's really sad.
I don't think that in a few decades we'll see a "world filled with Gabriellas". Luckily (for the time being), our universities are really good at pumping out Rodrigos rather than Gabriellas. It's later when you enter the working world when the occasional Gabriella moves up through the company. So the real issue revolves around manager competence, or manager-team member relationships and how this social selection dynamic affects all of us.
Sounds to me like an engineer with that level of experience, who had navigated the patent process for his own prior patent, would know a thing or two about patents. I'm open to the possibility that there's a conflict of interest, but this bogus article says things like "I don't know if Apple uses this patent...or Samsung." That's fishing for hits by generating false controversy focused on some poor guy trying to serve as a juror.
I think this is a terrible article for demonizing some poor juror who had to put his life on hold for weeks to sit through this case. Don't blame the messenger (juror) for the broken patent system.
Like Kiva, it would be good to also list the "sponsor" (read: 501(c)(3) name) on the patient's profile/donation page. If that sponsor name also included a link to a basic sponsor profile page showing further sponsor information, that would be a step in the transparency direction for me. I'm hesitant to donate until I see which charity is sponsoring the person who needs treatment.
EDIT: I dug through the pages and found a link to a Google Spreadsheet doc with basic information regarding the sponsor for each patient. This is one area I would definitely improve into a sponsor link on each patient's donations page. But all-in-all, great stuff!!
Thanks! The Google Doc could definitely use some improvement, but for now it seems to do the job.
Did you get a chance to click on the Medical Partner link on the patient profiles? It opens a lightbox with some info on the partner.
But we'd love to have more robust pages with tons of awesome info (map, financials, photos, data, etc.) for each Medical Partner. We just need to raise the money to pay for the quality dev time we need!
It proves that re-posting is effective for content owners, although it's really annoying when reposts don't include anything new. This one seems to sneak through because it's really interesting. I just pre-ordered one.
