Date: September 27th, 2013 4:56 PM Author: startling stubborn business firm juggernaut
He seems to megapost over on Hacker News all the time now but seems like he was once a regular here. Did he post a lot of racist and sexist content or was he more of an aspie like doobs?
Is he serious or trolling about "inventing a card game"?
I'm 29 and I've had a run of pretty terrible luck in choosing jobs (I've had 6 since college). I learn fast and I'm easily in the top 1% of programmers my age, but I've learned the hard way that I'm not a great judge of character, so I've been through (in the past 2 years):
1. A startup that failed in a really ugly way.
2. A big-company job with no room for growth or transfer (left at 6 months).
3. A job offer rescinded post-#2 because ex-boss, pissed that I left, was a personal friend of hiring manager at target company (had no way of knowing that one).
4. Joined a shitty startup in desperation post-#3. Took a management role. Fired after refusing to commit perjury on employer's behalf (left at 3 months).
5. Regular old big-company layoff. Nothing bad about me or company, just business convenience + last-in/first-out (at 10 months).
I can't claim that the problem "isn't me" or that I'm "just unlucky", although that's part of it. #5 was bad luck; #1-4 was terrible judgement of character on my part. Yeah, I've made some awful choices about whom to work for... I've learned a lot, but in painful ways.
I'm starting to get dinged because of my "job hopping" history, and I'm starting to think it might be time for some "creative repair". I don't intend on lying or feigning skills I don't have-- I don't think I need to do that, but here some cover-up options I'm considering:
1. Dressing the short-term gigs up as consulting arrangements, since I'm starting to think project-based work is the way to take my future anyway.
2. Removing the 3-monther entirely and moving related accomplishments (I actually achieved a lot in that time) to other jobs.
3. Moving consulting work around dates-wise to cover up gaps. Again, no material change and no real dishonesty since the dates are irrelevant to the quality of work.
Again, nothing fraudulent or substantively dishonest, since there'll be no inflation of skill set. I'm just talking about fixing some of the cosmetic stuff as the situation may require. I don't consider it unethical since it wouldn't get me any job for which I wouldn't be qualified. Everyone needs to clean up a mess now and then, and it looks like that's where I am now.
Or am I overblowing the whole "job hopper" stigma? Is it better, even with a volatile job history, to tell the truth?
What is the maximum number of jobs that someone at my age can have? And what is the threshold for short-term jobs at which one should just exclude them?
Date: September 27th, 2013 5:07 PM Author: startling stubborn business firm juggernaut
so he's the big ideas type who thinks he's too good to do any actual work, yet not experienced enough to lead, so he gets pushed out of every job? lol @ his life.
why does he write so authoritatively though and also does he take a lot of speed or something?
Date: September 27th, 2013 5:16 PM Author: Saffron people who are hurt
He is a pathological liar.
Small town 'smart kid' who claims he didn't attend Harvard for undergrad because he "blew off the interview." Instead, "chose" to attend close substitute for Harvard, Carleton College in Buttfuck, Minnesota.
While attending prestigious Carelton, he got in trouble for cyber-stalking and harassing girls who rejected his advances, and became legendary for posting bizarre, self-absorbed emo rants on the student OBB. He was a friendless nut who blamed his peers for his social isolation.
Later on, he began a math doctorate at Wisconsin, but dropped out after a year or so. Went to work as a quant for a really minor fund in NYC, was either fired or quit not long afterward. I stopped paying attention after that.
He's borderline mentally ill and used to engage in marathon "flame" sessions on XO where he would transparently spam threads and discuss himself using multiple accounts. Then, after hours of minimal engagement from other posters and absolutely no accumulation of credulity, he would triumphantly reveal his "flame," and then shower himself with self-congratulatory one-way discussion about his own genius. The coup de grace of these little masterpieces would usually be something like his revelation that his moniker was actually an anagram of 'the best pensive flame' the entire time. You fools! This would have been hilarious if he wasn't completely sincere about the whole thing, every time.
He also sort of pioneered something that has become known as the 'pensive maneuver' to a few old-time XO posters. This involves humiliating yourself by accidentally revealing your alternate monikers by not switching accounts (thereby getting caught talking to yourself or about yourself), getting completely dominated on a factual issue, or otherwise blown out of the water on XO. Rather than taking your lumps, the pensive maneuver involves then spending copious amounts of time explaining, with OCD-like levels of repetition, that you actually pwned yourself on purpose in order to lead other, less intelligent posters into your 'rhetorical trap,' or to humanize your intimidating intellect, or any number of other strange and contrived lines of excuse peddling.
Apparently, he's still having extreme difficulty simply getting along with other people in a normal work environment. I won't out his name on here, but if you know it, googling provides some hilarious updates. And his blog is like a case study in budding mental illness and megalomania.
Date: September 27th, 2013 5:33 PM Author: Saffron people who are hurt
Small quant firm. Makes sense that he worked there, but not sure if it's 'hot shit' in the conventional sense. I am law drone and so I only know these places by reputation. I do know that math geeks work at these places doing what he did. He also worked at google but got fired, so I don't doubt he has some legit ability apart from self-promotion. Doesn't change who he is.
Date: September 27th, 2013 5:26 PM Author: startling stubborn business firm juggernaut
Is he manic or something then? A lot of what he writes makes me think he took a fuckton of speed or blew a half-dozen lines before sitting down at the computer. Guess it could be mania too.
Date: September 27th, 2013 5:34 PM Author: Saffron people who are hurt
Pretty likely that he has some form of hypergraphia, on top of his other OCD symptoms.
I didn't even get into the 10K word screeds that he used to pen about women, and specifically how American women are all broken whores not worthy of a man of his caliber. At one point he forced a meme about idealized "heroic women." This idealization was based on female characters from the Final Fantasy role playing games.
Date: September 29th, 2013 12:30 PM Author: startling stubborn business firm juggernaut
If this is really pensive you sound incredibly unhinged. How seriously would the aspies over at HN take you if they knew you megaposted on a racist chatboard like this?
Why are you still talking about your bad manager at Google like some scorned woman? Maybe you and Quin Woodward Pu should collab on a novel.
How good of a troll can u be when ur so easily goaded into writing a wall of text on Saturday night?