Thoughts on Snowden

The debate surrounding Edward Snowden is one that I firmly believe involves a lot of gray matter and little binary answers of morality or heroism. I feel that it is ignorant and short-sided to completely damn Snowden as a traitor or hold him up as a national hero. The actions that Snowden took in 2013 are definitely questionable to some extent, but I can say without a doubt that in my personal experience, the conversation surrounding government surveillance and privacy has made its way to the forefront in the years since his leak. Regardless of one’s opinion on such matters, I think there is certain inherent value in this outcome.

In June of 2013, Snowden released a plethora of documents demonstrating the NSA’s ability to monitor people domestically and internationally to three journalists – Glen Greenspan, Ewan MacAskill, Laura Poitras. The documents included information about various surveillance programs such as PRISM and the UK-based program Tempora. Essentially, the documents showed the US government’s seemingly limitless ability to gather digital information. In addition, some of the information he leaked explained how the US gathers information on foreign threats. This fact is one of the reasons why some people feel that Snowden should be considered a traitor. Another major reason why some believe Snowden is a traitor is that he released his information to the media, rather than through legal channels. Snowden claims that he wanted journalists to present what he had found in a way that takes his personality out of the equation, but there is no doubt that much of this story has centered around Snowden the man. Additionally, Snowden likely feared that nothing would get accomplished if he had released his findings to the government, which would have been the legal means to do so. I feel that if we completely remove legality from the equation, what Snowden did was moral. He saw a wrong doing and brought it to the attention of the public. Yes, some hypothetical arguments can be made about the damage his actions may have caused, but that does not change the fact that the public today is more aware of the government’s actions than before.

In my personal opinion, I feel that Snowden’s actions are a net positive going forward. In my experiences with everyday people, it seems undeniable that people are more aware of the abilities of government to conduct surveillance on its citizens. While there may be some that feel this is an excusable or justified power, there certainly are some that disagree. Without knowledge of the context and truth surrounding this debate, there is no way we can make democratic decisions about out government’s security powers. I do not feel the Unite States should submit to completely excusing Edward Snowden’s actions, but without his actions, it is likely that the government would have continued its unchecked surveillance without the public’s knowledge. To me that is a severe injustice. The American people have the right to make an informed decision about the surveillance powers they grant the government.

Response to Interview Guide

I think one of the most vital pieces of information in our guide is to avoid stressing. Furthermore, I think it is also one of the most difficult recommendations to follow. There is an incredibly competitive atmosphere at Notre Dame due to the high concentration of intelligent, talented, and qualified individuals. At times it can be next to impossible to stop comparing yourself to your peers that just landed a position at Google or McKinsey. The result of this challenge can lead to an unhealthy obsession with finding the perfect job at the age of 22. I feel there needs to be more reminders than most people have between 3 and 4 jobs by the time they’re 30 and working at companies that appear in headlines with the greatest frequency does not necessarily equate to a happy workplace. Have some faith that a large part of your twenties meant to be spent figuring out what you like and where you want to go. You don’t have to have it figured out by Christmas break of your senior year.

In terms of more specific interview advice, I think one of the best nuggets I’ve ever received was to ask really great questions. Instead of defaulting to the cookie-cutter questions, “What’s an average day like?” or “Tell me about you path at CompanyXYZ,” do some research on the company and try to dig deep for the companies strengths and weaknesses. For example, perhaps the given company open sources their software solutions – ask why they employee that unconventional approach and how it benefits them. Although it must be asked with some care, I always found that asking the question, “If you could change one thing about your company, what would it be?” made me appear confident yet serious about working at a company. It usually gave the interviewer some pause, and I would bet that it made my interview more memorable. Additionally, it doesn’t hurt that this part usually comes at the end of the interview!

As an advocate of academia and the values of traditional universities, I do not think it would be wise for Notre Dame to lose sight of what it means for student to be a student. Yes, in many ways we are pre-professionals, but there is inherent value in approaching problems with an academic mindset rather than a purely professional or business oriented approach. Judging by the CSE department’s hiring statistics, it appears that students finding jobs at exceptional rates. My view is don’t fix what is not broken. I am a firm believer in Notre Dame’s liberal arts educational philosophy, and it think ND would be doing a detriment to its graduates if it somehow became a factory for producing worker bees. Notre Dame graduates tend to be more well rounded than the national average and I feel that is partially due to the University’s deep roots as an academic institution.

 

The link to download the guide is in the post below.

Interview Guide

InterviewGuide

Boeing Whistleblowing

After reading all of the articles on Boeing’s situation and reflecting on the relevant facts, I cannot conclude that Boeing is ultimately in the wrong for firing their whistleblowing employees. I will say that there definitely appears, or at least appeared, to be a very negative culture and relationship between Boeing executives/managers and employees during their work to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. I am not necessarily saying that I think Boeing is a morally irresponsible company for allowing this to happen because it seems that SOx created a lot of new restrictions that companies were unsure of how to handle. Not that this could justify the claim that, “Some employees involved in the compliance process perceived a threatening culture. A late 2006 internal report said that employees felt they were being told that their jobs and salaries were ‘on the line,’ and they were being pressured to produce evidence for audits ‘ahead of events occurring normally,’” but it at least provides some explanation and context.

Ultimately, I do not feel the Boeing employees were necessarily ethical in leaking sensitive information to media outlets. I agree with the legal analysis outlined in David Kravets’ Wired article. It seems clear that the whistleblowers were not protected under the SOx Act, and the Whistler Blower Protection Act necessitates that a “gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to the public health or safety” must exist for protection. Unfortunately, I agree with the court on this matter because it does not seem that this criteria for justifying leaking information to the press was met. If the fired employees truly felt they could not have made changes regarding company compliance with SOx within Boeing, then they would have had full protection in going to government authorities with their information. In this scenario, I do not see why public media was the best outlet for correcting wrongs at Boeing. The only affect I can see on the scenario is damage to Boeing’s reputation in the public domain.

I do believe that there are scenarios when it is ethical and justified to resort to the public media for whistleblowing. In the case of Edward Snowden, he essentially knew that there was nowhere he could go in government to alert the public to the conduct being carried out by the government. If some of the bankers or financial analysts who knew what has happening with sub-prime mortgages before the financial collapse in 2008 had gone to public media outlets, I believe that would have been justified because it potentially could have averted great public harm. The difference between those scenarios and the one with Boeing was that people had no idea what the government was actually doing in terms of surveillance and the public was at risk of being harmed by the banks. However, with Boeing, the argument for their conduct presenting a public harm or grave mismanagement is rather weak. I especially think this is true since this controversy sprung out the company trying to comply with federal laws – it is not as if they were strained by trying to break the law.

Diversity in Tech Jobs

After looking at some of the diversity statistics in the tech industry, I think it would be very difficult to examine the current diversity profile of the industry and conclude that there is not a problem at hand. Whether or not this problem is intentional or perhaps presently ignored is a much more difficult question to answer, but in my opinion, there is undoubtedly room for improvement. One of the earliest lessons I learned as a software designer is that we write code for the end user, not ourselves, and therefore we must understand our users. This presents a major challenge when software engineers do not reflect their user bases. As Leslie Miley pointed out in his conversation with Karen Bates, 27 percent of Twitter users are black, but the number of black employees at Twitter didn’t even come close to a reflection of that user base. Further, stories like Erica Joy’s demonstrate what can happen to minority employees when they are in a setting that makes them feel uncomfortable or like an outsider. Joy’s story shows how a homogenous environment can stifle employee’s work effort and creativity. Apart from being an unfortunate scenario, this is just bad business.

I do feel that this issue needs to be addressed, but the method of addressing it is an incredibly difficult thing to do. I feel one of the first things that needs to be done is determining the root cause of the problem. The diversity profile of many majors that feed into tech jobs, like computer science or electrical engineering, are also plagued by cultures dominated by white males. This begs a question of what systematic steps lead mostly white males to these areas of study over black women or Latinos? I think we need to examine or schooling systems and attempt to discover if there is any overt or subtle pressure that pushes minorities away from tech fields of study. If there is a real pressure that subverts women and minorities away from STEM fields, then I think that has be the first place to begin work toward diversity.

The other way I feel we can address this problem is by seeking great women and minorities to take up leadership positions in the tech field. Role models are crucial to instituting change and empowering more junior employees to stay at a company. As a white male myself, I have seen plenty of great leaders that fit my demographic in the tech industry. As such, I see nothing but my own work ethic standing in the way of me one day filling a leadership role. However, I had been venturing into the fashion journalism business, a field perceived as feminine as tech is masculine, I might feel slightly different about my ability to climb the latter. I agree with Miley’s analysis that none of this progress is going to happen overnight, but it has to start somewhere. Unfortunately, this is a not a problem that always has a clear origin, but we must leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of progress.

Work Life Balance

I must confess that much of my view on this topic is largely shaped by my personal experience with my parents and their individual careers. I come from a family of four children, one of which is autistic, and parents that both have full-time careers. Needless to say, my parents had a lot on their hands as my siblings and I were growing up. Yes, I could tell from an early age that my family was a little different because my mom was internal medicine doctor and most of my peer’s mothers seemed to be stay at home moms or ones with part-time jobs. However, at the end of the day, I feel this empowered me rather hindered my development. I feel I learned a sense of independence earlier in life because I knew I couldn’t depend on my parents for everything. Maybe some would view this as maintaining a fulfilling career at the cost of less-than-ideal parenting, but I see it differently. I will not rush to say that men and women today can always “have it all,” but I will say that like most things in life, there is plenty of room for compromise and “having it all” certainly does not have a clear definition.

I think that like any worthy pursuit in life, you probably will not be at the top of your game 100% of the time. Achieving anything in life – a successful, fulfilling career, a healthy, happy family life, good fitness – takes time, setbacks, and small victories. Inevitably, these situations will occur in the pursuit of a successful work life balance. For example, surely Anne-Marie Slaughter felt that her lack of presence when her teenager wasn’t performing well in school and behaving poorly was a setback in her family life. However, is there really such a clear indication that her child would have been saved or completely different if she had spent her days at home or in a position that was much less rewarding to her? Perhaps this event helped her realize that there needed to be more compromise in the direction of her family, but that does not necessarily entail the abandonment of her career goals. My point is that the right work-life balance takes time and experience to achieve, and most likely, it looks different from family to family.

I think one of the first things companies can do is address an issue pointed out by both Slaughter and Anand Iyer – parental leave. It doesn’t look a legal requirement of this issue will come any time soon, but companies can lead change by offering parental leave or remote work options. I also feel that Iyer’s reference to jobs that allow parents to leave early and then resume work remotely at night is a great step toward supporting parents. I don’t think companies are obliged to offer these sorts of things, but I do think it is the ethical thing to do. Everyone is entitled to a happy, healthy life and companies should support this mission. As Iyer mentions, there is also research that shows workers are more effective when they maintain a happy balance such as this.
The idea of a work life balance is very important to me. At least for the time being, I am addressing this issue by choosing to work for a company that was very upfront about encouraging this balance for employees. The company I will be working for next year explained that they feel time at work should be as effective and productive as possible so that 50+ hour work weeks are out of the norm. I also feel as technology and on-demand service increase more leisure time will open up as things like grocery shopping, dry cleaning, and commuting become automated.

Reflection on a Manifesto/Portrait

Upon reflection of my group’s Manifesto, I feel that I bear a strong resemblance to the described character. Surely, this is largely due to the fact that I myself wrote the Manifesto, but I do feel it also reflects a strong undercurrent in the Computer Science and Engineering student body. We felt that one of the most common characteristics to students in CSE was professionalism and strong workplace potential. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this trait, but one might expect a more prominent technical, geeky streak in such a department.

 

I certainly would not call our Manifesto a war cry. However, there undoubtedly was an air of humor or even satire in our artifact. I would not say there was an ulterior motive behind this, but we felt this feeling of good humor is common to our class and reflective of the people in it. At the end of the day, I think it’s incredibly important to be able to laugh at yourself. In a lot of ways, I think that’s what this Manifesto was about.

 

Overall, I do identify fairly strongly with our portrait. Sure there are some differences – I generally don’t wear a ton of Notre Dame gear and I did understand the “tabs or spaces” question (I’m definitely spaces by the way). But on the other hand, I did once attend a regional Hackton almost purely for resume purposes. Does a large population of our class fit the bill for this portrait? It’s obviously hard to say, but I believe finding someone who completely strays from this portrait would be a difficult task.

 

Perhaps our artifacts are inspired from a general stereotype of our major, but like most stereotypes, I think that’s because it stems from some form of a kernel truth. No it is not a blanket truth, but there are aspects that describe our CSE community. Stereotypes are everywhere. I don’t mean to suggest they are a good thing, but there’s no doubt they shape the way we see the world around us. The challenge is to have the self will to be able to consciously decide one’s own opinion of stereotypes. This is a challenge that will never disappear from adult life. In regards to the effects of artifacts, I don’t think they are either helpful or harmful. They are merely a lighthearted reflection on some of the features of an ND CSE major. Please don’t take them as cannon. Remember, we all need to laugh at ourselves every once in a while.

Reference to our artifacts:

 

https://pat73hat.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/manifesto-and-a-portrait-of-c-s-irish/

My Experience with the Hiring Process

I am very pleased to say that at this point in time, I am through the interview process and have accepted a full time job offer. I can personally comment to on two phases of interviewing – for an intern position during my junior year and for a full time position during the fall of my senior year. Both were certainly stressful and at times discouraging, but ultimately it worked out and I can happily say I was very pleased with my position this past summer and I cannot wait to start my job in August.

Since my interviews from this fall are most fresh in my mind, I’ll mostly focus on those experiences. My conversations with companies began literally during the first week of classes and concluded when I accepted my job offer in very early November. My interview experiences widely varied, as I was interested in positions with a more traditional software engineering description as well as ones that were closer to a technical consulting role. Ultimately, I ended up picking one that probably falls somewhere in the middle. As is commonplace for most of these types of positions, my interviews usually consisted of some form of a programming exercise for the SE positions and some form of a case interview for consulting positions. It is also worth mentioning that I normally had some form of a “behavioral” interview were I was asked about my background and my soft skills like dealing with a bad team member.

I can’t say there were necessarily a lot of surprises throughout my interviews, but that probably is due to the fact that I had already gone through the process the year before and my peers at Notre Dame tended to have a wealth of knowledge regarding what to expect. However, I can recall one interview that had similarities to the one described in Sam Pippen’s article. I was asked a number of in-depth question about Java and its constructs despite being very up front about not having extensive Java experience. Certainly, this was a frustrating experience. On the other hand, I had multiple programming interviews where the interviewer was incredibly helpful, and we ended up having some intriguing dialogue about how to approach software problems.

Overall, I found that one of the best preparation steps I took was researching the company before the interview. Not only would I sound more serious about the position, but it also put me in a position to ask really great questions. I could always feel the interviewer taking me more seriously when I asked the hard-hitting questions.

Looking back, I think I would describe much of my interview experience as fair and reasonable. I certainly had to perform some non-trivial technical tasks during my interviews, but I found that companies mostly cared more about my thought process and my ability to talk through a problem rather than writing flawless code in some restrictive time frame. It seemed that investigating my past projects and coding experience was the best way for me to demonstrate my skills. When I encountered companies that did want to probe me for extensive knowledge about some narrow coding task, I normally felt those would not be places I want to work for anyway. To me, that demonstrated a desire for a code monkey, rather than a problem solver with a diverse range of skills.

What is a hacker? Is it me?

To the outside world, I think most view ‘hackers’ as a quiet and frail fringe group sitting in a dark basement in front of a wall of screens, plotting their revenge on the ‘establishment.’ Simultaneously, hackers are modern day Johnny Rotten’s and anarchists who want to employ to the unconventional to show what the little guy can do. Sometimes this takes on a serious malicious undertone, but most of the time it’s dominated by an anti-establishment credo. To me, this might describe one small faction of hacker culture, but I am well aware that the definition of a ‘hacker’ is far less straightforward or simple.

I particularly agree with two sentiments found in Brett Scott’s piece. Scott argues that, “the hacker is ambiguous, specializing in deviance from established boundaries, including ideological battle lines. It’s a trickster spirit, subversive and hard to pin down.” He also subscribes to Steven Levy’s notion that, “Hackers believe that essential lessons can be learned about the systems – about the world – from taking things apart, seeing how they work, and using this knowledge to create new and even more interesting things.” These characterizations point out a few very crucial underpinnings of the hacker archetype.

Firstly, Scott acknowledges the vagueness and difficulty in describing the nature of a hacker. Hackers can take on many forms, but there are a few key components that tend to continually reappear. These traits include a tinker’s spirit and the desire to find interesting tricks within the bowels of a system. I feel this is consistent among hackers, but the motivation for why hackers conduct their bidding is far less homogenous. Some fit the anarchist spirit; some fit the hobbyist engineer brand, etc. It really is hard to pin down this aspect of the hacker.

To some degree I identify with this characterization. I always describe my interest in engineering and computer science in the simplest way that makes sense to me – I like knowing how things work. I thoroughly enjoy the process of discovering how a process unfolds from the ground up. However, I do not feel limited to just computers or engineering systems in this regard. I have also found business and political processes to be just as fascinating to dissect (things that are categorically un-hacker like). Additionally, I am not sure that I possess as strong of a tinker streak. I fundamentally care most about understanding the how one cog turns another or how one block of code influences the next. So one hand, I care about taking things apart, but the other I’m not so sure the trickster gene is so strong in my DNA.

Despite this, I must admit my romanticism with the ‘hacker’ image. I understand that I might not exactly fit the bill, but part of me does wish I could obtain this genius turned rebel status. I’ll even admit to purposely leaving my “Enter the Matrix”, green and black terminal on full screen in public places so that I might portray to the untrained passerby that I am not-so-discretely hacking into the NSA’s mainframe and uncovering national security secrets. In reality I’m really just tweaking my run-of-the-mill Python parsing script, but hey, poser-hackers can dream too right?

Is Computer Science an art, engineering, or science discipline?

Perhaps this is a cop-out, but I do not think it makes sense to silo computer science in one of these three disciplines. I think all three of these titles apply to computer science. At times, one may be more appropriate than the other, but there are aspects of art, science, and engineering in computer science. I also do not think computer science is unique in this way. The same could be said of mechanical engineering, ceramics, or neuroscience. I also think it is wrong to portray science, art, and engineering as so different from one another. They all involve a process of thinking and craftsmanship that involves hypothesizing, planning, implementing, testing, and evaluating. There is much overlap between all of these, and when we attempt to segregate them from one another we promote that idea that an artists can be engineers or scientists can’t be artists. The reality is this that the combination of these skills are what lead to great computer scientists.