Live in Chicago. Once a quant, worked in many startups, machine learning and Haskell. Want to go back to quant path.

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 4:17 pm

I'll I can say is, be wary of recruiters. they talk out of their asses 90% of the time.

sasquatch · Post by **sasquatch** » Fri Oct 30, 2015 2:22 pm

Actually, it's 99% of the time. You may have had a 'fat finger' problem between the 9 and 0, Nonius!

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Fri Oct 30, 2015 5:50 pm

Smiley

rod · Post by **rod** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 9:23 pm

october,

I could de-anonymize you merely by reading the title of this thread. Big fan of your blog. Good luck!

svisstack · Post by **svisstack** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 10:17 pm

i would like to read it then, if you saying is good!

katastrofa · Post by **katastrofa** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 11:23 am

I agree, the blog is really good.

One comment: your view of the state of IT in finance is far too rosy ${L_SMILIES_SMILE}$

gentinex · Post by **gentinex** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:51 pm

I also was able to de-anonymize you, and am familiar with your blog. Many interesting insights, but also quite a few not-so-positive things.

Even had I not known about your reputation outside of NP, a previous reference to [url=/Show%20Post.aspx?PostIDKey=106518]4+ sigma abilities[/url] strongly suggests this isn't your first (or second!) incarnation here.

Which naturally highlights one of the not-so-positive things about you highlighted in a number of places outside of NP: sock puppetry.

gnarsed · Post by **gnarsed** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 8:59 am

this guy has left such a trail of red flags on the internet, he should consider himself lucky whenever he finds a job.

katastrofa · Post by **katastrofa** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 9:09 pm

It is a said reflection on the state of our society, that:

- you can lose a billion dollars for your employer and still be employable

- you can be convicted of a crime and still be employable

But lest it be known that you have *opinions*, that makes you un-employable.

october · Post by **october** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 1:42 am

@gentinex : I actually wasn't trying to sock puppet. I just have a bad habit of forgetting passwords. I'm probably more paranoid than I need to be and don't use the same password from year to year.

@gnarsed : I've been in this annoying position of having to take a lot of risks. Ever since I ended up on Google's union-risk list (at the time, I didn't care either way about programmer unions and it was a mistake) I've had to stay 3 steps ahead of the bad guys. So I take a lot of risks (not by choice) and not all pan out. (Ok, I've outed myself. Fuck it.) When people you've never met are trying to end your career, you end up doing a lot of things you wouldn't normally do. I'm now the veteran of a conflict where the majority of people are on the same side as me... but don't know it yet and don't want to admit it.

@katastrofa : Having been a hiring manager, I understand why people like me get screwed. If it were *the company* making hiring decisions, you'd expect high-expectancy, high-variance people to get a fair shake. On the other hand, a middle manager sees more downside than upside in hiring. That's not about me. It's true in general. Hiring a 7 or a 10 gets you the same result: a pat on the back, and possibly a bonus; hiring a 4 is somewhat embarrassing; and hiring a 1 means you get fired as well. The company does really well if you hire the 10, because the 10 is usually worth several times what the 7 is worth, but as a middle manager, you'd rather pick a reliable 7, than someone who might be a 10 but might be a 4, because all of the upside in the 7-10 difference accrues to the company and to that employee. It's a flaw in the position, not necessarily the people.

It's a terrible thing but I can't blame people for it. What I think I need to do is aim higher. I gotta find someone with the power to cut through cowardice and risk aversion. The middle manager who has to protect his own reputation (a skill that I wish I developed before Google put me on a union risk list) is never going to take a chance on someone like me, so I need to find a path to someone who's actually aligned with the whole-company perspective... without sounding like an entitled twat in pushing my way there.