back
user profile
jeffreyrogers
11,350karma·2,915submissions·March 8, 2014
about
Hedge Fund -> Defense Industry -> Big Tech
My career has mostly been at the intersection of hardware and software (including a couple of years designing FPGA gateware) and focused on designing and developing correct, performant systems, but I've been paid to do everything from PCB design to React frontends.
I also have an interest in improving clinical trials for novel therapeutics.
email: jeffreyrogers27@gmail.com
recent activity (2,915 total)
comment
I go to one of these elite schools and the primary benefit is in the connections you make. However, the worthwhile connections are generally only available to those who would have been successful rega…
comment
Or maybe the people who are primarily using their phone/tablet to access the internet don't actually need to program anything in the first place?
comment
I've noticed this too lately and it's a bit depressing.
comment
The problem is really its architecture rather than its implementation. The only way to fix the performance aspects of Atom (slugishness, RAM and CPU usage) is to start over and redesign it from a pers…
comment
But what about bonuses and other forms of compensation? I know of a number of companies where the executives and senior management make nominal amounts in salary but very large amounts in performance …
comment
Some people enjoy it and some people are willing to put up with it because the rewards for good performance are commensurate. A good book that describes this philosophy is Dream Big [1], which is ab…
comment
Good point, I tend to be more on Cowen's side with regard to this, but there is definitely room for debate about who is right.
comment
> We would be a different kind of society were we to match our perception of success and failure with the reality of that success or failure. We don't have to give up our sense of individualis…
comment
And "Pad" has a negative connotation in the rest of the world... Didn't stop Apple though.
comment
That's just good business. Google is a company that's run for profit and is ultimately answerable to its shareholders. Google's job isn't to perform a social good, it's to con…
comment
It's largely a rehash of Tyler Cowen and Michael Porter (whether Thiel has read them or not I don't know, but he covers very similar ground). Some interesting ideas, but it's not going …
comment
Probably worth clarifying: I don't think Thiel is arguing for monopolies. Instead he's arguing for lack of competition via differentiation (i.e. if you're the only one doing something, …
comment
I saw it more as a rehash of Michael Porter's idea that you should compete to be different rather than "better", instead of the approval of monopolies that many people have seen it as.
comment
The one problem I had with Thiel is that he seems to conflate what worked for him with what works in general. Cowen, as an outside observer, has a more objective point of view.
comment
Good point, I probably should have mentioned The Great Stagnation as well since the two books cover very similar topics. Average Is Over is newer though, so probably better reflects Cowen's c…
comment
I've mentioned this before on other threads, but it is worth repeating here. Thiel is basically making the same claims (but with less evidence and I think less rationality) that Tyler Cowen (an e…
comment
If you have a name like Stanford (or MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, etc.) behind you that's an enormous advantage and people will pay attention to you regardless of your merits. Thiel got his start in c…
comment
Right, but those aren't for day traders. Most of those strategies depend on holding for long periods of time.
comment
The interesting thing about eyesight is that the stereotype of the bookworm with glasses is actually true. Reading close-up does actually change the shape of your eyes, necessitating corrective lenses…
comment
No, I'm arguing that the market is efficient most of the time and that most people don't have the time and inclination to find underpriced securities. Also, most people underperform the mark…
comment
One language I've been playing with lately is Lua. It's really nice how you can get it to interoperate with C code very easily. For applications that have well defined "hot loops" …
comment
The Go team must feel (deservedly) proud. Since the Rosetta Code programs are typically written to be clear, this shows that without resorting to technical tricks and knowing the intricacies of the la…
comment
> People literally spend all their time doing this, if there was free money to be made someone would be making it:) I agree with everything you said above, including this. I want to add though, tha…
comment
How profitable are the large HFT firms? My understanding is that as more competitors entered the space profitability has gone down significantly. I remember hearing one HFT guy explain how in the earl…
comment
You can still put money in an index fund (e.g. anything from Vanguard) and get reasonable returns (better than most investors at least).
comment
Thiel is more or less reiterating the points that the economist Tyler Cowen has been making for several years. I just read Zero to One and found it good, but not great. Cowen's book, Average i…
comment
That's true, and I want to extend that by saying that at the highest levels life is more about relationships and who can do favors for you. Even Y Combinator is an example of this. I'm sure …
comment
They came from Apple and had money.
comment
So why are these companies in your portfolio in the first place?