"I work in a moderately-progressive workplace, and if I ever need to seek the input of a supervisor on a big issue/something that may come back to haunt me, I'll talk to them about it, and then send them an email saying what we decided. This makes it clear what the decisions was (and more importantly, how I interpret it) and provides documentation to both sides that the issue was discussed and a conclusion reached."
"When I know I am wrapping up a coding session, I'll often leave a few trivial things unfinished - so that when I sit back down again for the next session, I'll have an easy place to jump right back in, and it will force me to (consciously or otherwise) get back to somewhere near the mental state I was in when I half-finished the thing."
Are you really as important as you make out?
He seems to be a Canada-based programmer.
EDIT: However:
"I mentioned that I've got no in-industry peer networking contacts, but I have a few very good ones in politics. Specifically, I've got a possible job offer through one to be one of the two or three advance guys for a very senior national politician. It would be a year of traveling around the country with them, likely including an election, and would be incredibly exciting."
Note: It is scary how much we reveal ourselves through our Internet postings
If you're interested in the back story, shoot me an email at [email protected] and we'll chat.
As for who/what I am, wallflower is correct in that I used to be a Canada-based programmer. While I'm still based here in Canada, I now do something 100% different (having nothing to do with software development) that necessitates this kind of travel.
I'm curious - how did you leverage your technical engineering ability to land the job, or was it more business/social acumen? I get a sense that you are very strategic from your advice about college to karate background. Especially, the novel idea about using Github to prove you wrote a paper (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=757295)
In partial defense of developer123 (partial because developer123 was created just yesterday to comment), I had to read back 156 days (and approximately that many comments) to find any substantiating evidence in JimmyL's historical comment stream that confirmed his seemingly ostentatious claims.
Up until that solitary (1/150+) comment, I thought I was right that the claims were suspicious.
All his historical comments pointed to a smart, opinionated, passionate, ambitious engineer (who did not seem to have the jet-setting job he talked about).
For example (130 days ago): "As a developer, I consider myself a "professional", and my life is fine with 6bit color. My roommate is a screenwriting "professional" and they're fine with 6bit color."
So I commented as such and resumed digging at T minus 130 only when I saw JimmyL's reply.
Can't really use searchyc.com for this (what keywords?).
He has posted many comments.
If someone says something to me, online or irl I tend to believe what it is that they say.
Maybe I should be more suspicious but I think that if you think it is 'brave' to start throwing suspicion in public as an anonymous newly signed up user to a forum that we probably have a different definition of 'brave'.
But I also travel a lot for business, and when I do, travel is 100% critical. If I don't show up when I am scheduled to, there will often be several thousand people - not to mention three national news networks - waiting for me and my traveling party. Those people won't wait around, and will embarrass me and my people on a national stage.
Hence, for business travel, I use a travel management company for all my movements. I fly full-fare economy (so there are effectively no penalties to change my flights), and have a someone who gets paid a significant commission to monitor the status of my travel plans and adjust them on the fly based on weather and traffic conditions. Maybe 1.5 times per month I'll get a call/email from my travel guy some time between a day and a few hours before my departure telling me something has changed - either my routing or my departure time (incidentally, my travel guy is the only person outside my team who has access to our detailed daily calendar, so he can adjust for this).
I have no doubt that my travel manager would pay good money for this information, if it was statistically reliable. For people who travel for fun, I think you're right - a delay isn't a delay until the airline says it is. But for people who absolutely have to get where they're going - to the level that they'll charter a plane on an hours' notice if needed - this would be invaluable.