Many of the very best engineers are effectively prohibited from having Github projects. The deeper down the stack you are, or the more hardcore the computer science you work on, the more likely this is to be true because your primary work area is deemed a trade secret.

This isn't a major issue if you are an app developer because a side project app is unlikely to convey valuable trade secrets. A database kernel engineer, on the other hand, can't have any side projects related to databases that demonstrate their skill level because such a demonstration would violate their non-disclosure restrictions.

>>Many of the very best engineers are effectively prohibited from having Github projects.

Many, sure. But the OP's comment was "Of the 10 or so water walkers I've worked with, 0 have github accounts."

Surely people understand how asinine it is to believe that a sample size of 10 of OP's "water walkers" is a representative sample?

This comes off a little aggressive to me. People should be able to provide opinions and anecdotes on HN without the constant "citation needed" for everything. We all know everything isn't fully backed by 4 studies that will be presented here and now. Just say you disagree and offer why. It will probably be an anecdote too.

On the other hand, if everyone used "anecdata" to support their arguments, we would never get anywhere.

If you want to make qualitative arguments, make qualitative arguments. What I absolutely can't stand is lame attempts to lend weight in such arguments using completely unverifiable and most likely non-representative numbers.

But the guy was just giving his opinion...

fwiw I know 6 'water walkers' and none of them have github accounts.

Not saying this is universally true. Just another anecdotal sample.

My guess is it's subfield/language dependent.