

How hacking helped me become Obama's CTO - knowbody
https://medium.com/backchannel/how-hacking-helped-me-become-obama-s-cto-c4895cac372e

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joslin01
Ah, yes. I remember it all now. There I was, just following Obama around when
I heard tales of this hacker.

It was a overcast day and Obama sat alone with a group of his advisors. They
were to determine whether this young, one-time CTO who showed great promise
would be a good hire. As they perused the resume, one of the advisor's eyes
widened and hurried over to Obama. He whispered to him, "This kid was once and
still is a hacker. He's been hacking since he was 12 and damnit Prez, he even
claims to have hacked his resume and job application in an hour."

Obama looked off to the distance feigning contemplation, but really trying to
remember if hacker meant good, bad, or both. In his head he pondered,

"Pretty sure both, but how did something bad turn to something good? Or was it
the other way around. I saw that movie Hackers. 6/10\. And wait a minute, can
I go to jail for hiring a hacker?"

He smiled and looked around the room, "This kid was once a hacker. Can I go to
jail for hiring an ex-hacker?" The advisors all laughed and Obama continued
his serious thinking:

"Pretty sure hackers used to hack into things and so if this kid hacked our
job application site in an hour, he must be pretty good at protecting from
other hackers hmm... And moral move on his part telling us upfront or is it
bragging? Is this what everyone does these days? Piss on your house and tell
you you got a piss stain on your house? Maybe this is how the world works
today. This kid is young and fresh. He knows what the people want. And if he
knows how to hack, then who better to hack for than the president of the
united states"

Obama finally addressed the room and confidently proclaimed "Hire him. He
shall hack for the president of the United States!" The advisor who whispered
the news of him being a hacker smiled turned around, and gave the air a fist-
pump -- he did it. They all did it. Drinks and celebration would follow and
all rested easy that night.

That's the real story folks.

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rsfinn
Does it bother anyone else that there is no page element that displays this
person's name (if you didn't happen to know it already)? I mean, I guess he's
supposed to be a big shot and everything...

Oh, I see, if I scroll down far enough I see he's "Harper" and he's "pretty
awesome". Terrific.

Maybe I just don't get Medium. (And get off my damn lawn.)

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fixxer
I would much rather read blatant publicity stories about Modest than these
thinly veiled PR stories about the founder. Modest sounds like an interesting
product.

Remind me: did narwhal work?

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tempodox
That title may be misleading. It rather seems to be an ad for Samsung.

~~~
schandur
That's what I thought - and not just Samsung, but specifically a particular
model. "Cover .gif shot on a..."

~~~
Dewie3
For a second I thought someone had submitted this article with their phone and
by mistake left one of those "sent from my <Samsung?>" in as a trailing
message.

