EoinB (u/EoinB) - Readit News

EoinB commented on The war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity the-sentinel-intelligence... · Posted by u/kruuuder

kitsune_ · a year ago

My theory, which is kind of informed by what I saw it play out in my company: The reason is a psychological one. Most leaders derive their power from in-person interactions. Remote and video calls severely impact that. Those leaders also love having an audience that needs to listen to them whenever they are in the room and the lack of that kind of feedback and adulation shellshocked a lot of them.

EoinB · a year ago

This is the conclusion I have come to as well. So much of what happens in society can be best explained (imo) by human psychology and our relationship with ego, desire, perceived success etc.

EoinB commented on 66% of Americans say they want extended European-style vacation policies at work cnbc.com/2023/08/25/66per... · Posted by u/pg_1234

EoinB · 2 years ago

I was born and educated in Scotland, worked in the UK for a decade or so, then moved to the US and worked for big tech for 15 years while living in the US and becoming a US citizen. I then chose to move back to Scotland, where I continue to work for the same US big tech company but get paid UK wages with UK employment benefits. So, I've lived significant portions of my life on both sides.

Here in the UK, I get 29 days paid vacation plus ten or so (not sure) public holidays. If I am sick on vacation, I can claim those days as sick days and regain the vacation time. Edit: plus, my contract is for 35 hours per week whereas in the US it was 40.

Regarding money, I am doing the same job that I was doing in the US (same team etc.) but took, what was at the time, a 25% reduction in gross salary. However, by the time you add in the higher taxes, my take home pay (from my salary - my stock awards are the same) is about 40% lower than it was in the US.

Now, I am nearing 50, my corporate career progression is plateauing/settled (by choice, btw) and I have a teenage daughter. A big reason for coming back to Scotland was so she could be educated here and experience European life and culture during her formative years. The other big reason was to have a better work-life balance. I have so much non-work time here, I can actually pursue non-work interests; whereas my US work colleagues seem to always be Slacking and "checking in" while they are on vacation; never seeming to have an identity beyond their job.

I have also lost 13kg (29lb) in weight.

For us techies, the US is the place to get rich, but, in my experience, there are significant lifestyle compromises that you must make in order to do so.

Edit: I was curious about the numbers, so I did a little arithmetic to work out the hourly wage I earned in the US and the hourly wage I earn here in the UK, taking into consideration the vacation days.

My UK gross per hour wage is between 11% and 15% lower than my US salary, depending on the (volatile) exchange rate. Of course, UK tax is much higher (my marginal rate is 49%). So, the difference in take-home pay is more than that.

EoinB commented on Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017) danwang.co/why-so-few-com... · Posted by u/andsoitis

freetime2 · 2 years ago

> Mathematics is an enormous and ancient subject. The maths that a CS student is exposed to is really a very small sliver of a few topics

I would say the same is true of most undergraduate math majors.

The Computer Science program was part of the College of Science and Mathematics at my university (not the School of Engineering). The stated goal of the program was to give students enough of a theoretical background in math and computer science to pursue an advanced degree in CS. Most students probably had other ideas, but that was the way the curriculum was structured. And there was enough overlap between Math and CS majors that most CS majors ended up with enough credits for a dual CS/math degree pretty much by accident.

To be clear I am under no illusion that meeting the minimum requirements for a math degree makes me a great mathematician. But neither were the majority of “pure” math majors in our classes. In fact, I would say the CS students tended to be stronger in math, as that was the more competitive major at my university.

EoinB · 2 years ago

Yes, when we design mathematics degree courses, there is, of course, only so much of the overall subject that can be covered.

However, the definition of a mathematics major is, I think we'd agree, "someone who has majored in mathematics". So, regardless of how much of the corpus we manage to cover, having a degree in mathematics means that you majored in mathematics (if I am understanding US terms correctly).

The original post was, I think, equivocating a degree in computer science with being a mathematics major. Which could be regarded as being incorrect, perhaps pedantically, merely by definition alone.

However, also, I am making a distinction (although I wasn't very clear, I admit) between theoretical computer science (the topic) and a computer science degree. It is generally accepted that theoretical computer science is a topic in applied mathematics, but it doesn't then follow that having a computer science degree means that you are a mathematics major.

Computer science degrees have theoretical computer science (the topic) as a component; the extent to which that component makes up the degree syllabus varies greatly from university to university and, perhaps, has also changed over time.

EoinB commented on Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017) danwang.co/why-so-few-com... · Posted by u/andsoitis

User23 · 2 years ago

I largely agree about the major in the USA. I disagree though that the study of what can be computed is anything other than a discipline of mathematics. Computing science itself never requires stepping outside discrete mathematics, which of course means the majority of math just isn’t necessary to do theoretical work or write correct programs. But then what mathematician today has mastered the entire field? It’s too big, you have to focus.

However, there’s considerably more to it than that. With a few rare exceptions, the overwhelming majority of CS programs in the USA are “telescope science” and not astronomy. One of the more telling, and to my mind obnoxious, evidences of this is how even in the academy the CS types literally appear to believe that “formal” means machine checkable while at the same time balking at learning basic first order predicate calculus to actually specify what is to be computer by a given program. Clearly they are studying the machine and not the mathematical sub-discipline.

I emphasize the USA, because having done many many FAANG technical interviews there is a discernible pattern of graduates from continental European CS programs being considerably more mathematically literate.

EoinB · 2 years ago

I, unfortunately, wasn't very clear, in my original comment, that I am making a distinction between theoretical computer science (the topic); and being a computer science major.

Theoretical computer science is generally regarded as a topic in applied mathematics. However, it doesn't follow that, therefore, a computer science major is basically a mathematics major.

Theoretical computer science (the topic) is a component of a degree in computer science. How large of a component it is varies greatly from university to university and, perhaps, has changed over time.

EoinB commented on Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017) danwang.co/why-so-few-com... · Posted by u/andsoitis

a_wild_dandan · 2 years ago

I think you're essentially both correct/insightful here, just fall on opposite semantic choices. Yes, software engineering continues its creep into CS curricula. So is the rigorous sub-branch of mathematics called CS being unduly polluted? Or has the CS discipline itself changed meaning? I personally tend toward the latter, as language is a constantly shifting hodgepodge of subjective conventions. But that's just like, my opinion, man.

EoinB · 2 years ago

From my observations of being in the industry so long, I would tend to agree that the content of computer science degrees has changed since the 80s and 90s.

I should have made a clearer distinction between theoretical computer science and a computer science degree.

Theoretical computer science is a topic in applied mathematics but a computer science degree isn't, typically composed only of classes in theoretical computer science. The extent to which it is varies from course to course and from university to university. In much the same way as in a mathematics degree there are pure maths topics (number theory, analysis, graph theory etc.) and applied topics.

EoinB commented on Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017) danwang.co/why-so-few-com... · Posted by u/andsoitis

mullingitover · 2 years ago

People go into CS to get jobs in software engineering. This is misguided.

CS is really a mathematics major, if you become a good engineer in the process of getting a CS degree it's purely accidental on the part of the CS department. It's like getting an astrophysics degree in hopes of getting a job in the telescope industry.

Universities should really emphasize software engineering as a major rather than CS. CS is great, don't get me wrong, you'll come out of that program with a galaxy brain for problem solving. In addition, there's definitely overlap between the two areas. However, it's often totally irrelevant to the real work in the software engineering industry.

EoinB · 2 years ago

Some context for what I am about to say: I read mathematics at university (in US terms I am a "math major") and have worked as a software engineer for almost 30 years; being around for the rise of the Internet, mobile phones and cloud computing; most of which I have spent at US big tech companies. I am an also fellow of a mathematics academic institution here in the UK.

Without hesitation, computer science is certainly not a mathematics major.

Having some knowledge of some aspects of a subject, doesn't make you qualified in that subject. At least, not at the university level.

Mathematics is an enormous and ancient subject. The maths that a CS student is exposed to is really a very small sliver of a few topics; applied to certain uses. Many other subjects (almost all numerate ones) have a similar relationship to maths.

Consider economics: aspects of it also make use of (applied) mathematics, but no one could seriously make the claim that an economics major, even one who has extensive capabilities in numerical modelling, is basically a mathematics major.

Theoretical CS could be described as "a form of applied mathematics"; but Theoretical CS is only a component of a CS degree; and, from what I see with young graduates today, a decreasingly smaller part of it (I am not making a value judgement - just an empirical observation).

EoinB commented on Artists must be allowed to make bad work austinkleon.com/2023/05/0... · Posted by u/open-source-ux

pfannkuchen · 3 years ago

Visual art is overrated and misunderstood IMO. Artists of the past were basically human rendering engines, which was very important because we didn’t have any other kind of rendering engine and looking at artificial images can be pleasing.

Can you imagine what seeing a nice painting of a person was like when you had never seen any other kind of artificial image in your life besides handmade ones? It was probably mind blowing.

Photography has probably totally destroyed our relative reaction to visual art, like someone who eats way too much sugar trying a sweet apple.

But now we seem to be running on cultural fumes in this area. It’s as if people still bought hand cobbled shoes for millions of dollars and displayed them pretentiously.

EoinB · 3 years ago

Oh wow, what an uninformed opinion. Not surprising, sadly, given that so many in tech are so one-dimensional.

Perhaps a course in art history would help you understand that visual art has never been solely about image reproduction. Even cave paintings were allegorical. My goodness.

EoinB commented on Ask HN: Has anyone here turned around their life in their 40s? · Posted by u/Deutscher

EoinB · 3 years ago

I am 47 years old and have had two suicide attempts in my life, various interventions and other close calls and I just want to say to you that, even though things can seem hopeless, your life can get better; but you absolutely need to seek professional help.

I did and that and medication (I have Bipolar disorder) has probably saved my life.

EoinB commented on So you want to study mathematics susanrigetti.com/math... · Posted by u/musgravepeter

EoinB · 4 years ago

As a mathematics major, I find it encouraging to see non-mathematicians sing the praises of the subject. So I applaud that. But I think the author is overstating/slightly wrong about a few things, perhaps because her exposure to mathematics has been through the lens of physics.

Maybe a more humble rewording of some of her statements e.g., "Anyone that follows and completes this curriculum will walk away with the knowledge equivalent to an undergraduate degree in mathematics." would be helpful.

Her suggested curriculum doesn't include anything from Number Theory, which is a foundational part of an advanced mathematics education. It is also one of, if not the most, beautiful topics one can study in mathematics.

I find it odd to call out "Introduction to Proofs" as a topic in and of itself. Proofs aren't really a topic in the way analysis or number theory is. At advanced levels, devising theorems and theirs proofs is what mathematics is.