Facebook Rants --- Recruitment

I did a lot of recruitment on Facebook in recent weeks.

Recruitment on Facebook

When our team grows, of course, our receptionists and canteen staff will have PhD's and know Hadoop, Cassandra, MapReduce, R and lots of Big Data statistical packages.

But for the time being, others have been making good money with Excel!!! Yes, Excel!!! In Myanmar, in Singapore, and in New York (and in Wall Street )

From Hadoop to Excel, the space is a bit very wide. Our team hope to score some nice goals. Any one, who has learned Excel or Hadoop or WHATEVER for 2 or 3 days, are encourage to join us! For the time being, we accept candidates without PhD, so hurry.

More Recruitment on Facebook

Suppose I run an online magazine/journal/news. I can write 30-50 articles a day. But shall I have time? Time even to type those articles? Upload relevant pics etc?

Programming is as easy as typing.

So, if you can type and read English, you are qualified to be a programmer in my team. We will train you. We'll let you attend SG$ 600 worth ITE classes, Poly classes, and even degree courses abroad.

Earn our trust, prove yourself. Not months, just weeks. Take risk with us.

We are not asking you to sign a contract that will enslave you to us for MONTHS or years.

Still More Recruitment on Facebook

I'm recruiting programmers. But no experience is required.

Software/programming is so easy with us that we can teach/train any Myanmar High school or Singapore Secondary student.

This is a big opportunity.

My credentials : (1) I have been a student of AI for decades.

My better credentials : (1) I cannot climb trees. But I have trained 3 or 4 kids to climb trees about 20 years ago. (2) I cannot draw but I've trained a few kids to draw, and so on.

So, though we intend to do only web apps right now, if your kid is bent on Assembly or Haskell, we won't stand in his/her way, but will even facilitate his/her speed.

More Recruitment on Facebook

In every soldier's bag, there is a marshal baton, Napoleon?

Any one who joins will be helped to grow as fast as they can,as far as they can!!!

Recruitment on Facebook and Business-Systems Building

6-dollars-per-hour staff with 3 or 4 days of training. You can pay for them too. But to become McDonald, you need a system, equal to or better than McDonald system.

Do I have a system to play in big league of software with ordinary programmers?

By the way, who am I? A very lazy, very ordinary kid, now an old guy. But I search or build or dream up nice cool systems.

I'm recruiting.

Let everyone know. No experience required. No commitment required.

Only these requirements - you live in Singapore, you can read and type. You can work about 4 hours per week at home and 1 hour per week at our place.

Still More Recruitment on Facebook

In old days, Mr Sim Wong Hoo (Creative Technology) went to America to sell and to build a world-class company.

Recently, I read in the papers, an SMU student making cold calls to get intern at Silicon Valley companies, getting an internship at a 4-person company, and flying there on his own money. Gradually, he got a full-time job there.

May kids in Singapore and Myanmar be more ambitious! (They are smart and brave already.)

Recruitment on Facebook

I predict 100 Instagram's from Myanmar and Singapore each. And when you predict something, you must also know when/how it can go wrong.

Instagram came from another bigger app by Kevin Systrom, called Burbn, according to this month Fast Company magazine. Burbn is a clone of all popular app features at that time.

Singapore programmer Chang Sau Sheong, in "Cloning Internet Applications with Ruby" book, has done a Burbn like app already. There are many equally capable developers in Myanmar and Singapore.

But will they reduce their bigger clone app into a smaller, more useful app like Instagram? If they do, my predictions will be true. If not, well we will get 200 clone apps, including 2 of mine ;-(

Recruitment on Facebook

I admire the source code of Django, Tornado, NLTK, boto, etc. As many of world greatest coders in history advise, their logic/code is "dumb" and therefore good.

When I coded shopping cart, CRUD etc, my logic/code stayed "dumb" and good. But when I moved even a bit farther, e.g. FSM with Pygame, an exper system etc, my logic/code became "clever," complex and unstable.

I've thought about and studied this for years.

Our team is training to be a world leader in software -- both biz-wise and techno-wise. Anyone interested in becoming better programmers are welcome. We are humble to learn and generous to share.

Love and Thanks to all.

  

Invitation to Marketers and Promoters

November 23, 2012

We are developing an application for primary and secondary students all the world over.

It's a free app with premium services for paying users.

We want as many students themselves and their parents as possible to become aware of it and to try it out.

1. Can you help us locate where they are?
2. Can you spread our message among them: email, direct mail, flyer, social media groupings, Youtube, slide share, ezine publishing, mobile messages, PR, ANY OTHER WAY?
3.  Can you drive traffic to our app/site?
4.  Once they are at the site, can you help us encourage / cajole / entice / seduce them try out our service?

Beyond that point, we take over.

We take it upon ourselves to ensure

1. that our app is intuitive and easy to use,
2. that its benefits are obvious to the users,
3. that the fees are reasonable and affordable and easy to pay, and so on.

Here also, we are open to your contributions
e.g.

1. What features will increase our value to the users?
2. What benefits will they like to get?
3. What concerns would we address?
4. Reduce or increase price? and so on.

Are your team comfortable doing these activities?

PS. True, we will stop funding any product that fails to meet our milestone/target.

But, before we do that, we will try to morph it into a far better product. Even if we kill a product, we stay in the same line of business and still go after the same types of customers.

So, please also think about long-term benefits that you can get from starting a long-term relationship with us. When Product AZ 1.0 of ours goes, AZ 2.1 will come, and when AZ line goes, there will be BQ, CW, DY lines and so on. And you should still be promoting them for us to our mutual prosperity.

How to Recruit, How to Interview

1. Different people have different needs. To recruit people, you need to touch the right chords and appeal to the right emotional needs. Your "time-span" must match or accommodate that of the target audience. Some job candidates are thinking day to day or month to month and you paint a word picture of your company future 5 years down the road, it is you who are suffering from a severe case of empathy defficiency. Be warned the budding entrepreneurs.

2. I also want to demonstrate that it takes very little effort to write a good post.

Elliott Jaques' Stratified Systems Theory (SST) and 5 Strata of Work

(1) http://www.redlineadvisors.com/resources/04-05TOCandROTheoryOverview.pdf

Here are the time-spans Jaques associates with each stratum:

• STRATA I 1 day – 3 months
• STRATA II 3 months – 1 year
• STRATA III 1 – 2 years
• STRATA IV 2 – 3 years
• STRATA V 3 – 5 years
• STRATA VI 5 – 10 years
• STRATA VII 10 – 20 years

and

The four types of mental (information) processing are:

1. Declarative processing: Argument by making simple, unconnected points.
2. Cumulative processing: Argument by making a number of connected points.
3. Serial processing: Argument based on an “if-then” structure, “if A then B and hence C.” Cause and effect.
4. Parallel processing: Several serial arguments are linked together. Understanding of interdependence, System Thinking.

(2) http://canadiancentre.com/canbross.htm

Jaques has identified various levels of cognitive ability ranging from the very concrete ("Hand me that broom") to the very abstract, in which a person is capable of imagining several chains of possible consequences and relating one possible outcome to the others. His research shows, he says, a strong correlation between cognitive ability and time horizons.

The smarter we are at processing information, in other words, the farther we are able to project ourselves into the future. That's the fundamental difference between Archie Bunker and Henry Kissinger-not just intelligence or acquired knowledge, but a measurable, qualitative difference in the way each solves problems, and in the time horizons of the roles in which each feels most comfortable. A Churchill, whose abilities Jaques would characterize as level 8 or 9, would probably feel bored running a company such as General Motors Corp. And what usually happens when a CEO's cognitive abilities fail to match the level of hierarchy he occupies is that he shrinks that company down to his own level.

and, a reliable method to measure cognitive levels of a job applicant :

It involves asking the person to discuss some controversial question-such as, say, whether or not to legalize recreational drugs. Some people flatly declare that legalizing marijuana would be wrong. Others might draw historical parallels with Prohibition. Others, the fast-track people, will set up two or three parallel lines of reasoning and are capable of grasping how a multiplicity of possible outcomes might interact with each other.

(3) http://managementblog.org/human-capability/mental-processing/

Just the 4 levels of Mental Processing, done above.

An Online Programming Community and their Members

Here is a verbatim invitation to the  Singapore Python User Group on Facebook.

I admire the source code of Django, Tornado, NLTK, boto, etc. As many of the world greatest coders in history advise, their logic/code is "dumb" and therefore good.

When I coded shopping carts, CRUD websites etc, my logic/code stayed "dumb" and good. But when I moved even a bit farther, e.g. FSM with Pygame, an expert system etc, my logic/code became "clever," complex and unstable.

I've thought about and studied this for years.

Our team is training to be a world leader in software -- both biz-wise and techno-wise. Anyone interested in becoming better programmers are welcome.

We are humble to learn and generous to share.

Love and Thanks to all.

I'll let you see and hear how they respond in a few days' time.

New Software Product Development --- My Proofs - Part 1 of 100

A Hot Web Application

I happened to read a recent Life Hacker book and browsing its pages, found the following app.

Don't Break the Chain

The site describes the app as follows:

This is based upon a motivation technique purportedly used by Jerry Seinfeld. Read about it here. The Short Version:

1. Pick a goal.
2. Mark off the days on which you work toward that goal.
3. Use your chain of marked off days as a motivator.

You can read more about its inspiration at Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret and at Don’t Break the Chain - Jerry Seinfeld's Method for Creative Success

There are apps for different platforms too:  IPhone App ,  IPhone and iPad apps .

My Intent

The fact is I've watched all the 9 seasons of Jerry Seinfeld for a couple of times. So has my son.

1. I can get about 10 more apps from Seinfeld character.
2. I can get about 10 more apps from George Costanza character.
3. I can get about 10 more apps from Kramer character.
4. I can get about 5 more apps from Elaine Benes character.
5. I can get about 5 more apps from Newman character
6. and so on.

Maybe my son has some more apps different from mine.

1. And what about Charlie Chaplin?
2. And what about Buster Keaton ?
3. And what about Fatty Arbuckle?
4. And what about Jim Carrey?

And for that matter:

1. What about Clint Eastwood?
2. And what about Kung Fu series?
3. And what about Bond movies?
4. And what about Jackie Chan?
5. And what about ... ?
6. And what about ... ?
7. And what about ... ?

Such apps are small and therefore won't take too long to code.

If you have some time to spare, we want you to work with us.

Of course, we won't spend the rest of our life doing such small apps.

But before we do the next Google, the next Facebook, the next salesforce.com ... Insert any big and famous name here ... we want you to work with us.

User Experience and Product Development : Dreamer, Wisher Method --- Part 1

In a previous post, I have demonstrated how I am good at dreaming and my Walter Mitty- Dijkstra hybrid mode.

I think I am alright dreaming how a user would go through an imaginary application.

A few weeks back, I asked an online Singaporean programmers group to implement some features for an e-learning app. They responded saying my  feature cannot be "new." Then, I showed how "new" they could be, by asking this:

"OK. Find me something that looks like this.

It's free and online. 
I type main question, then choices, including if necessary, images too. 
 And the answer.
I can add as many question I like. 
I can print it out, and it comes out nicely. 
I can let my students practice there. 
There can be tip/hints for students. 
Answers are graded. 
I can edit them. 
I can download my question sets. They work offline too! 
I can go on, but this should be enough. 


This is 1 of 1000 things we can do for education/training etc. So I have 

no need to protect this. ...

Please don't mention SCORM, IMS, Moodle, Atutor, Coursera, hot potatoes, 

whatever.

If a nice thing is there, why would I code or ask others to code."

Yes, I have dreamed up dozens of apps. Each app can be divided up into dozen smaller apps.

Therefore, there is no need for me to protect, hide, hoard each micro/nano app.

I am willing share these dreams to willing hands and kindred spirits.

Invitation to Programmers

on November 21, 2010

We are going to develop an application for primary and secondary students all the world over. It's a free app with premium services for paying users.

We will do it in Python(Django or Google App Engine.) If your team have experience in the language(Python), please contact us. Platform/framework experience is not that really necessary since the learning curve there is not that steep. However, if you lack the relevant platform/framework experience, you must be prepared to learn fast.

We have the following features in mind, are your team comfortable implementing them?

1. Read uploaded excel/CSV files, and store data in database.
2. WYSIWYG editor with image uploads e.g tinymce, fckeditor
3. draw graphs and charts
4. send SMS to users' phones
5. accept user's payment thru Paypal's IPN
6. categorization and search by tags
7. site search
8. quiz(multiple choice)
9. tracking user's usage, achievement, and thus progress

And the typical features
1. signup, login, logout
2. role assignment and differentiation: guest, free registered user, paying premium user
3. email
4. file upload and download

Are your team comfortable implementing them?
1. How long will you take to do it?
2. How much would you like to charge us for the app?
3. Will you be also available for enhancement and maintainence?

Invitation to Web Marketers and Promoters

on November 21, 2010

We are developing an application for primary and secondary students all the world over. It's a free app with premium services for paying users.

We want as many students themselves and their parents as possible to become aware of it and to try it out.

1. Can you help us locate where they are?
2. Can you spread our message among them: email, direct mail, flyer, social media groupings, Youtube, slide share, ezine publishing, mobile messages, PR, ANY OTHER WAY?
3. Can you drive traffic to our app/site?
4. Once they are at the site, can you help us encourage /cajole/ entice/ seduce them try out our service?

Beyond that point, we take over. We take it upon ourselves to ensure that our app is intuitive and easy to use, that its benefits are obvious to the users, that the fees are reasonable and affordable and easy to pay, and so on. Here also, we are open to your contributions e.g. What features will increase our value to the users? What benefits will they like to get? What concerns would we address? Reduce or increase price? and so on.

Are your team comfortable doing these activities?
1. How long can you stay with us?
2. How much would you like to charge us for the service?


PS. True, we will stop funding any product that fails to meet our milestone/target. But, before we do that, we will try to morph it into a far better product. Even if we kill a product, we stay in the same line of business and still go after the same types of customers. So, please also think about long-term benefits that you can get from starting a long-term relationship with us. When Product AZ 1.0 of ours goes, AZ 2.1 will come, and when AZ line goes, there will be BQ, CW, DY lines and so on. And you should still be promoting them for us to our mutual prosperity.