I completely agree. One of those books which was in some passages extremely hard (or even painful) to read is "Thou shall prosper" from Daniel Lipman, a (right wing) Rabbi! It changed the way I look at business. Some arguments convinced me, others I still can't accept. But it showed me that axioms which seem counter-intuitive to me can build a very practical world view.
Another book which is rather on the extreme side is Eckart Tolle's "The Power of now!". Again, I sometimes couldn't stand his opinion. For example whenever he quotes Jesus and explains that most people get it wrong but in fact it would be like this or that.
But the book showed me that I was worrying and thinking way too much and that this is at best useless and sometimes even dangerous.
Often books don't even tell you something new. And I think even this is worthwhile as long as the author explains what you already know in a very different way.
Just yesterday I was thinking about this issue. I think the article takes the biscuit.In my opinion, this is the main reason for why people who start out early are that good.
I partly relearned this skill when I started out with Taekwondo. Desperately, I was trying to memorize the motion sequences. Whenever I asked a question concerning which angle my right leg should have, which direction I should turn to ... the master would always say: "Don't think or talk. Watch & do it!"
Surprisingly, you get a lot better in no time. Don't get me wrong I still suck but at least what I do now is worlds apart from my first humble attempts.
Now I think that I could become a decent programmer with a more child-like attitude (like the one I had when I discovered DOS & Win 3.11 at the age of 5 - no adult taught me anything, I couldn't even understand the English menus ;-))
But unfortunately we get older. Whilst it is never too late to learn something for the joy of it I'd like to have a halfway-decent paid job within the next 10 years. At the moment I am 23. I could quit university, devote myself to open source software & hack the hell out of the day. Hopefully, I'll someday know enough to have paid work. However, if I'd fail I wouldn't even have a degree & my perspectives would be quite bleak.
With that in mind programming is only a (way too little) hobby for me.
Cubase user here cough
Anyway I'd imagine that working for Ableton is fairly cool.
Although I am not qualified enough for such a position I am curious what requirements they have. I check your link and they ask for at least 2 years of experience.
Is that "all" ?
As a CS drop out I can't even provide bachelor's degree. The point I am trying to make is:
As far as I know here in Germany employees always ask for degrees. Am I way off?
Could I train myself the necessary skills and then work my way up and then some day I'd be qualified enough to work for a company like Ableton?
I'm the chap responsible for the Python developer hiring at Ableton.
To sum it up: I don't give a rats ass for any degrees. I don't even have one myself. We send applicants a programming test. I get these tests, and I assess them without even skimming the CV. Because it would otherwise just skew my observations.
If the test convinced me that you can code, you will have a job-interview, via phone or in person depending on if it's feasible to fly you in to Berlin or not.
This interview is pure technical, either.
If this convinced me that you are a good coder, I will arrange a third interview with the CTO, who has the final say on all employments. I won't spoil the enjoyment of that for you :)
Thank you for your fast reply which was quite revealing.
I've been into electronic music production & sounddesign for about 8 years now. But I never saw a way that this could somehow be helpful when it comes to finding a job.
Two terms of CS gave me some insight into programming but I mainly solved little mathematical problems rather than gaining insight into "real world software programming".
Now I am attending business school and try to figure out how to avoid a typical office job so that I can do something more rewarding, where I can be somewhat more myself, instead.
I should seriously get into programming in my spare time...
Sorry to everyone else for hijacking this thread. ;-)
€: just finished the video. Looks like an awesome working atmosphere indeed!
Hi, I have read the job descriptions and they sound really great. I have 2 questions:
1. I have left university 13 months ago and have worked for an online shopping company in Berlin ever since. I have done freelance development as a student, so is the 2 years experience an absolute must?
2. The hiring page is in English but would you like a German-style application (photo, lots and lots of certificates and grades) or the much shorter Anglicized version (3 pages max).
The 2 years are no strict requirement. If you apply for a job + I like your programming test, you are interviewed.
Regarding the CV: give us whatever you have. I personally won't read it, eventually somebody in HR might - but it's not used to filter applications.
The other day we even looked at a 20-year old highschool student, because he looked promising. Neither CV nor experience. We didn't take him for a bunch of reasons, but that's another story.
Hi! It's nice about the degree, I'm also a dropout. One question: is fluent german necessary, or can a newcomer speak english and learn on the way? I'm quite good at learning languages, but I suppose I won't speak fluently in the next few months :)
Ableton Live fanboy here -- You guys are doing a great job. I haven't looked into it lately but what's the status on scripting Live (with Python or whichever language) ? I would kill to have an API I could use to create tracks programmatically.
No. It makes no sense to us. Regardless of how good one is, the amount of time & effort until he or she is productive is a waste IMHO. And working with SCRUM makes it even harder, as there are no idling side-projects one can place a student on and then look at occasionally. All devlopers need to be real team members.
I don't agree when he says that knowledge is one of the most important things to combat fear. In my case learning just makes me feel better because I think I've done something towards the wrong direction. But often there is fear although you probably know very well what you're dealing with.
By the way, I found the "one fear gets replaced by a bigger fear" theory very interesting. It's a very logical explanation but I never consciously thought about it.
In this case, even though it isn't fun and sometimes very painful, I'd suggest a brute-force approach. Try as many ways as possible and discard all the drafts & don't feel bad about it.
Quite true. I think people should stop reading those "lifehacking" blogs. They just prevent you from doing things and thus keep you from gaining worthwhile insights on your own which are way more useful.(I can't stress this enough)
I have to confess that I, too, spend too much time on those websites. My conclusion is: I was a better "lifehacker" when I was 16 (quite some years ago).
The best lifehacks I have I develop myself. Perhaps not as good as someone else's lifehack, but since I developed it, it is most effective for me.
However, reading lifehacking blogs is useful in retrospect. If I identify a hack I've already developed, I now have a frame of reference from which I can learn something useful from their hack.
Another book which is rather on the extreme side is Eckart Tolle's "The Power of now!". Again, I sometimes couldn't stand his opinion. For example whenever he quotes Jesus and explains that most people get it wrong but in fact it would be like this or that.
But the book showed me that I was worrying and thinking way too much and that this is at best useless and sometimes even dangerous.
Often books don't even tell you something new. And I think even this is worthwhile as long as the author explains what you already know in a very different way.