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Joined 6 months ago
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Cake day: November 17th, 2024

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  • Thinking back on being a beginner, my problem wasn’t that instructions were imprecise, but more that I didn’t interpret “to taste” as a real instruction. It means I should fucking taste my food as I go, when at the time I would just taste it at the end.

    So many bad meals can be avoided by sampling them over time and adjusting. I should know, having made too many.

    I would classify this as an example of cooking logic (my own phrase) that needs to be learned. A lot of good recipes will assume the cook understands fundamental concepts like this, but it’s not necessarily the recipe’s job to teach you. Same as how IKEA assembly instructions might seem cryptic at first, but really boil down to using 3-4 different techniques to screw wood panels together. I do think there’s a general lack of awareness that cooking has a separate logic, and this means a lot of people never teach it to others.


  • every single time I’ve gotten past the first round I am rejected for someone who was recommended internally/someone with job experience

    Sounds like unfortunate timing. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know how far along in the hiring process other people might be, so sometimes you’re interviewing for a job that’s right about to be filled by someone else. My only advice on that side would be to make sure to be responsive to recruiters and try and get your interviews scheduled quickly.

    Getting to first-round interviews is a good sign, especially with so much of the interview process being sloppified by AI tools. Your resume is catching eyes and someone thinks you’re worth talking to. Give yourself some credit then: you’ve set yourself up for success. The beginner career market is always going to have tough competition, so getting your resume on the desk of a real human is very important.

    My only other advice would be to focus on getting past those first interviews, and that might require you to examine your shortcomings on that stage. Are you failing the coding challenge? Find opportunities to practice and improve. Are you failing technical questions? There are github repos with common interview questions (eg “Tell me the difference between private and protected keywords in C++”). If you’re failing while talking about your technical/school experience, find some time to refine your thoughts and practice selling your strengths.

    The more times you get past introductory interviews, the more chances you have to be the first candidate who “checks all the boxes”. Sometimes that’s all it takes.





  • I always felt like murderous clones are a bit different from evil twins.

    From a sci-fi perspective, I’ve noticed that murderous clone stories tend to explore the following themes:

    • Whose life is more valid? Does an original have any more right to life than the clone? What aspects of life can never be split between two people with equal claim?
    • Would the murder ever matter, in the grand scheme of things? As far as society can tell, the world is exactly the same before you are cloned and after one of you kills the other.
    • Could the survivor ever be brought to justice? If the clone tried to kill you because they knew you would try to kill them, does that make it self defence or premeditated murder? Would any punishment would be a net loss for society, when compared before the clone appeared?
    • Could this “self destructive” impulse hide deeply inside even the nicest person? How much does a person love themselves? Can self-love even apply when the “self” is also external?