

What programming tasks should you be able to accomplish to be considered an "A" ranked Hacker? - mfruhling

I'd like to know where I rank against my peers.  How can you figure out if you're at the top, middle, or bottom of your field?
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pg
The real test is whether you can discover new questions.

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watmough
Ok, what the heck is going on in that Arc Challenge? I just can't make any
sense of the flow in it.

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pg
Take a look at the series of hello-worlds at the end of the Arc tutorial.
That's actually where the challenge problem came from. It was just the first
hello-world I wrote that did anything.

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dfranke
Can you do any of the following?

* Write a compiler of any kind (native code, bytecode, HLL-to-HLL, whatever).

* Write an ACID storage engine.

* Write a trivial OS, including the bootloader.

* Write any non-trivial component of a real OS kernel.

* Design a CPU or a microcontroller.

* Write a rendering loop for a 3D game.

* Design a secure cryptosystem out of existing cryptographic primitives.

I give you an A- if you can do one of these, and an A+ if you can do two or
more.

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flashgordon
Isnt this what you do in your undergrad CS courses? With pretty standard
algorithms?

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dfranke
See my response to ken.

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imsteve
It is like asking who is the greatest fighter among men who have never fought
anyone. Go build something new.

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mooneater
In the long run, the more important factor is whether you are gaining faster
than your peers.

The younger ones often lack perspective and breadth and depth, the older ones
often stop learning or dramatically slow down.

If you continually study timeless fundamentals, current technology, as well as
industry trends, then over time you will naturally lead tend to lead the pack.

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wallflower
A wiser adult once convinced me that the entire theory of capitalism is based
on overpaying you when you're young and underpaying you for the next 40
years...

When it comes to programming, I believe some of the most capable programmers
outsource the programming to the junior programmers who are still all about
the latest technology/acronym and haven't grokked the underlying fundamental
patterns/architectures/commonalities/integration. By the time programmers gain
enough experience to see that it's all the same, they might be starting to
look at starting their true legacy, a family (not code that lives on)

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pius
Can you write a compiler? Are you comfortable in freedom languages? Can you
grok functional programming?

Those are a few good questions.

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dazzawazza
Hmm, how long is a piece of string. It's a difficult question to answer. Why
not ask your peers? If you trust them and they trust you they will be honest
and you will learn. If you don't trust them leave.

For fun you can look at <http://projecteuler.net/>. Project Euler poses a
series of problems for you to solve using a language of your choice. Of course
you'll need to get your peers to do it as well but the different approaches to
each problem can be very revealing. You can learn a lot about your abilities
by reading the comments in the forums which are unlocked when you complete a
task.

As a side note remember that the power of most programmers is unlocked within
a team. Some 'lesser' programmers shine within a team and fail on their own.
The reverse is true also. I know many excellent programmers that are near
useless inside teams of non-programmers and a few that can't work with anyone.

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mechanical_fish
You're somewhere in the middle.

If that's not apparent to you, then perhaps you need to find some better
peers. :)

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nolanbrown23
It's not reasonable to ask to be ranked. The best programmers are those who
know there is an answer to every problem. The worst ones are the ones that
care about salary, lines of code, and other meaningless crap.

Just remember, the CS field is broad and not every has the same knowledge.

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bayareaguy
You need to be less subjective if you want a reasonable answer. Metrics are
out there for things like salary, number of users, lines of code written (for
open source stuff at least), number of appearances on David Letterman..

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mynameishere

      Greater Hacker: Richard Stallman.
      Lesser Hacker: Paul Graham.
    

Where do you fit in between those two?

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rtf
I find this very amusing. Something about it implying the bold statement that
no hacker is lesser than Paul Graham, and then audaciously posting it on Paul
Graham's site.

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mynameishere
[Shrugs] Read it however you please, but "Lesser" is a modifier with a
particular usage:

<http://www.classicsunveiled.com/mythnet/html/lessgods.html>

