Simple Focus

A blog where I attempt to explain topics simply, hence Simple Focus

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Job Application Journey

Applying for jobs has been an interesting journey for me. Advice varies between generations, career fields, and even simply experience. My girlfriend says I should write about my experience getting my first blog, so here are the struggles that I want to share with others.

disclaimer: Details are vague purposely to avoid doxing myself.

So at the early phase I signed up with Indeed. This is not an endorsement. I was applying to about 20 jobs a day, and let me tell you, it got tedious. I also ended up saturating the number of jobs listed for a while. To change it up I went with Zip Recruiter. Once again not an endorsement. The applications were easier, and provided some variety. The exception of course is the rare case of applying to the same job on both websites... Oops. The last way I was applying was directly to companies. Some had better job sites than others.

At first is was depressing to get the constant declines, but eventually with a few resume clean ups and changes, I landed a few virtual interviews. Some were better than others, with one strange one being pre-recorded. My only physical interview as strange. I showed up, ask to speak with who I was told to, then sat around 30 minutes in the waiting room. While waiting I did hear some shouting in the back, so I surprisingly decided to bail. Don't be afraid to walk out, especially if it feels weird or wrong.

Finally I started landing interviews, and received an offer. From here I stopped applying, and started doing some screening which was required before I could start my job.

Now we come to an interesting Friday. The Friday before I was due to start, I received an even better job offer from another company. As a courtesy I informed the first company of the offer, and asked if they would mind upping my salary. This bidding war did not last long as nothing good happens on a Friday. They didn't budge, and I moved onto a better position.

Don't be afraid to negotiate when you have offers, this means you're in the diver's seat. I was not expecting it, but somehow the journey to my first job was quite interesting. I hope others have as good of luck or even better luck than mine.

Until next time. I have been Simple and I hope you've enjoyed this post.

-Simple

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A Return

It's been a while, but I'm back.

My significant other said I should start my blog again, so here it is! College degrees have been obtained, and now it's time to apply for jobs.

I am still going to write blog posts in my essay style, however with less of a stressful cycle to myself. I enjoy researching topics and I'm going back to that with this blog. Hopefully soon my next post will come out soon.

Until then, I am simple, and I hope you enjoy the blog.

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An apology

Hello everyone,

I would like to apologize for the lack of writings recently. I also will be taking a break for an unknown amount of time. 

Last month’s topic was on the bias in the media, and what Yellow Journalism is. Yes I said was... I shared a draft with someone I thought was a friend and within hours they started harassing me on social media. Other people joined in and accused me of being racist. There was no mention of race in the essay, but apparently I was wrong to pick this topic. Since then, I’ve developed a writers block and fear of writing another essay. 

For now I encourage everyone to watch multiple media sources. They have become biased, and by doing your own research you can hopefully see the truth. Also do not use social media for your research. It is mainly people confirming their own opinion.

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A little something for this month’s read.

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The Struggles of Learning Online During College

Hello everyone,

For the month of April I honestly ran out of time developing a writing. Finals are approaching and I wanted to put something out. Instead of a poor essay I decided to write about the past months since going digital for classes. To prevent making this a long winded journal I am going to recap a few interesting moments or concerns.

Honestly I was not actively listening for when my campus would be closed. I figured someone would tell me... As it turns out, when the announcement came out I was told by a lot of texts all at once. After that there was some sense of relief. Then my immediate reaction was to get sushi from an on campus store. On the way back to my work I saw lines forming at the food court on the lower level. People were buying anything they could from food to drinks from the fridges. When I left for class I noticed only diet drinks left.

After moving online there was some growing pains. Some of my professors have not taught online before. Their plan was to assign an essay a week or some giant assignment, but then we as students had to remind them we have other classes... All but one course really listened to these complaints.

Surprisingly even without being on campus a lot of my extra-curricular meetings ran. It was nice to have some pattern or structure I could rely on. It also was a nice distraction from the giant projects.

Now that finals are arriving I have looked back on the semester and notice things that honestly fell to the bottom of the barrel. I don’t know when I will be allowed to return to campus and move out of my dorm room. It’s nice to save on storage costs, but honestly I do wonder how long my stuff is going to sit in the dorms.

Honestly I’m burned out and need a few days off. After finals I plan to hibernate for a week. Maybe my next essay should be on the importance of sleep...

For now I hope everyone is safe and healthy. We are getting through this together.

-Simple

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The Fear of Long Words

There are many things to fear out there. Some fear clowns, Coulrophobia1. Some fear snakes, Arachnophobia2. An interesting fear I’ve heard of is the Fear of long words. What is it? Well let me tell you…

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, is the fear of long words. It may seem very ironic that the fear of long words is a very giant word itself, but let’s break it down into it’s roots.

First we have sesquipedalian. According to Merriam-Webster, it is defined as “having many syllables.” This is known as a long word.

Next we have monstrum. Monstrum is from Latin for monster.

Then we have hippopotamus. This is Latin for hippopotamus, which emphasizes the size of the fear.

Lastly we have phobia, which as we already know signifies the fear of something.

Hello everyone,

What you’ve just read is a draft which fell out of the release queue. It honestly is below standard for usual. I’m trying to keep to my goal of one essay a month, but it’s honestly a bit difficult with my workload.

I have something “interesting” brewing for April so hopefully I can get out of this rut.

-Simple

1 https://www.fearof.net/fear-of-clowns-phobia-coulrophobia/

2 https://www.fearof.net/fear-of-spiders-phobia-arachnophobia/

3 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

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Another suggestion from a friend go visit them at https://wtsfno.tumblr.com/.

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How the Invention of Time Changed Humankind

Time. The one currency we never have enough of.  An invention which changed life in more ways than we may think. Yes, an invention.

To understand how time has changed our lives, let’s take a journey through a day without the concept of time. For this scenario you want to conduct business with someone over lunch.

When we don’t have time, when do we go to lunch? Take a look at your stomach. Feeling hungry? Maybe it would be a good time to get lunch. You go down to the local diner, and order food. You might spend a long while, talking with other people there. Finally the other person shows up and you conduct business. After finishing your discussions you start to return home and realize, the sun is already starting to set.

Let’s try this again with time. Often lunch is around noon, so you agreed to meet at noon. Noon arrives and you are already sitting in the diner. You may still converse with others while waiting. By the time one o’clock rolls around you figure you have been jipped and decide to go back home, with the sun still in the sky. Maybe you could do more work, and possibly avoid the person you were planning to do business with as they are poor with time.

Notice the difference between when we used time, and when we didn’t? When we didn’t have time, less got done in a day. Visiting someone may end up being an all day affair. Everyone may eat at different times. Some may wake up or go to bed at different times too. When we actually had a system for time, more work can get done. We make appointments, and keep to schedules.

Imagine if you had to commute to work by bus. Without time the bus could show up whenever the driver decides to. With time, timetables can be created, and you will know when the bus will arrive, and when it should depart.

Time is an invention which changed humankind. Some people are always running out of time. Others have too much time on their hands. In practice, we are just on time to use one of the greatest inventions of humankind.

I do admit this month’s essay may have been a bit abstract. I embarrassingly had to deal with re-branding the blog due to a small typo. I also am trying to meet my deadlines so these essays can come near the beginning of the month instead of the end. So... until the time comes again, I am simple.

-Simple

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How to Create A Goal

January has come along again. A chance to start something new. Finally use that exercise machine that dresses better than you. Maybe start a new hobby. Whether it’s January, or June, for yourself, or a team, having a goal to accomplish is important.

“It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” -Benjamin E. Mays

Creating a goal may seem simple, but it’s important to be specific. You can say “I will start exercising.” Now this is an admirable goal, but there is no urgency behind it. With a weak goal like this, you may be tempted to say “I can start tomorrow,” mind you this may have been after days of saying the same thing. Instead make it a goal like “I will exercise every day for 1 hour.”

“A good plan implemented today is better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow.” -George Patton

Now that you have a strong goal, we need to plan how to get it done. If we wanted to exercise for 1 hour a day, we need to designate an hour. Pick that hour and stick to it. Consistency makes it easier to keep up the pattern of doing your goal. There does entail a problem with planning. Some of us spend too much time planning. They plan to plan, and this leads to the goal never becoming done. Start your goal now, and you can always modify it if you are going slower than expected, or overachieving.

“Sometimes literary critics review the book they wanted you to write, not the book you wrote, and that's very irksome.” -Jim Harrison

Our last step in creating a goal is to review it. This step is usually done a month later, but can be done weekly or even daily if you want. At this point we should review if the goal is working. If not, what are we doing wrong? What can we change?

I do hope you enjoyed this month’s essay. It’s a new year and I want to work on improving my work. A goal I have for this blog is to release the essays a week earlier each month, until I release the first week of the month. Keeping with what I just preached I intend to perform this by June at the latest. After that I can work on my next goal. As always, feel free to leave a comment, suggest new topics, or simply like my post.

Until next time -Simple

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A friend suggested some “Bossa Nova” music. I still don’t know what it is, but I hope this song is a nice accompaniment to this month’s read.

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The Problem With Self Driving Cars

Self driving cars. Are they the future? Are they computer assisted death machines? Can they cook me lunch? Well, we can ask a million questions about self driving cars, but there are a few fundamental problems which I would like to discuss. Join me in a discussion on a few problems with self driving cars.

As my main focus is I admit I was a bit ambitious when I chose this topic. Self driving or Autonomous vehicles are constantly changing. There are also varied levels of self driving, from being fully controlled by a computer, to just assisting the driver with simpler maneuvers. Lastly, I attempted to do some research into the topic, but have failed to fully utilize the sources I found. If you would like to see the articles I found please check below my signature.  As always, please feel free to criticize, and discuss in the comments below. I simply hope you’ve had a nice year!technology, I am only going to glance over some details related to self driving cars. If you would like to know more about self driving cars you can look at the sources I have linked below, or feel free to ask me to do another essay on self driving cars.

For the purpose of our essay we will be defining self driving as the time when a car is driving without human interaction. This includes time when the person in the vehicle may not have the ability to control it.

First, as an appetizer, let’s cover jobs. There has been an argument that self driving cars take away jobs from taxi drivers. In all honesty, this is probably true. Waymo, a company related to Google in some way (that honestly is a topic for another essay), has been developing self driving taxis. Many taxi drivers have complained about the competition caused by this.

Moving away from cars, come with me on a brief excursion into self driving trucks. Honestly when I heard of self driving trucks, the first thing I think of is a car stuck in the grill of one. There actually can be a few benefits to having self driving trucks. In theory, once on the highway, the driver can do paperwork and other duties while the truck is driving itself. I do hope this extra work comes with some extra pay.

Now onto the main course! A big problem with self driving cars will be how they are programmed, and who is responsible for when things go wrong. 

Let’s put together a hypothetical scenario. Imagine you are driving a car down the street. Suddenly two children cross the road without looking. It is impossible to stop in time. You have three options. One, swerve into a wall, killing yourself, but saving the children. Two, speed up and turn the children into pancakes. Three, slow down and kill yourself and the children involved. 

What do you do? Difficult to decide? Let me give you an easier question… Who is responsible for any deaths in this accident? The answer: the driver of the car.

Now imagine you are no longer driving. Instead your car is driving for you, and you have no ability to intervene in this accident waiting to happen. What should the car do? Who is responsible for the death in this scenario? This is the biggest problem with self driving cars. If this happens the car will have to kill someone, the problem is how to program it, and who is responsible for the catastrophe to follow.

Assigning blame is difficult with self driving cars. In our original scenario the driver is at fault. Now we have to decide between the owner, the programmer of the car, and the company which manufactures the vehicle. A company will want to protect itself, so we could possibly create options for the car. Car A will crash and kill you in this scenario. Car B will pancake the children instead. Now the owner is a fault, but we have another problem. Will you buy a car that advertises it will kill it’s occupants? Also if you buy Car B, you immediately admit you intend to kill anyone in the way. There is no perfect scenario here.

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I admit I was a bit ambitious when I chose this topic. Self driving or Autonomous vehicles are constantly changing. There are also varied levels of self driving, from being fully controlled by a computer, to just assisting the driver with simpler maneuvers. Lastly, I attempted to do some research into the topic, but have failed to fully utilize the sources I found. If you would like to see the articles I found please check below my signature.  As always, please feel free to criticize, and discuss in the comments below. I simply hope you’ve had a nice year!

Until next time -Simple

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website links:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/542626/why-self-driving-cars-must-be-programmed-to-kill/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverless-fatality.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/10/autonomous-vehicles-are-creating-jobs-heres-where.html

I am not authorized to distribute the following sources so you will have to find them on your own. The following sources are not publicly available online, or may require payment to access:

JafariNaimi, Nassim. "Our Bodies in the Trolley’s Path, or Why Self-Driving Cars Must *Not* Be Programmed to Kill." Science, Technology & Human Values, vol. 43, no. 2, Mar. 2018, pp. 302-323. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0162243917718942.

Brown, Alan S. "Google's autonomous car applies lessons learned from driverless races." Mechanical Engineering-CIME, Feb. 2011, p. 31. Academic OneFile

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The Difference Between Science and Technology

Science and Technology are two amazing fields which are very much related, but also confused for each other. Simply Put, they are not the same thing. Come along for a brief journey where we will discover the differences between science and technology.

First let’s start with defining science. According to Merriam-Webster, Science is defined as, “The state of knowing : knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding.” In simpler terms, science is knowing how and why something works. Let’s take something simple like fire. A fire requires three things to start, oxygen, heat, and fuel. When a fire burns it combusts or burns off the fuel. This is all science or knowledge of how something works.

Now let’s define technology. According to Merriam-Webster, Technology is defined as, “The practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area.” In simpler terms, technology is the usage of knowledge in a particular way. Do notice I did not mention applying science. Let’s bring back our example of fire. Many of us have seen videos of someone using two sticks to start a fire. This does not require science to create the fire. Think back to the early age of civilization. They learned how to create fire using sticks, and rocks. They did not understand topics like oxygen or combustion. Science did not exist at that time, but technology most certainly did.

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I apologize that this month’s topic was a little short, but classes have been keeping me busy. As always, feel free to leave a comment, suggest new topics, or simply like my post.

Until next time -Simple

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A little something to relax to with this month’s read.

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What is Computer Science?

When someone hears of Computer Science, most people either associate it with coding, or being able to fix a computer. In reality, Computer Science or CS is a lot more than that. It’s a way of thinking and analyzing a problem.

At the core or basic level, computer science teaches you how to analyze and process a problem. A computer scientist’s job is to break a seemingly impossible task into smaller doable parts. This is done using algorithms, or simple processes.

An algorithm is a simple step by step guide to solve a problem. A basic algorithm should not contain any code. It even should even be doable by a young child. There is some basic logic, like checking if something is true or false, or more than or less than a value. Each step of the algorithm must also be atomic.

An atomic action has two requirements. First, it runs to completion, there is no half state. One such example… let’s say I give you a check for $100. When you cash the check, money is transferred. I will have $100 less, and you will have $100 more. The important part is only one of us at a time has the $100. Should the task run to completion, you will have your $100. Should it fail I will still have my $100. There is no point where both of us have the $100, and there is no point where neither of us has the $100.

The second requirement for an atomic action is it only performs one step. Let’s take a math problem: 2+6/2. If you go, the answer is 5, then you did not perform an atomic action. Instead our first action will be to divide 6 by 2, which equals 3. Then we will add 3 to 2, which equals 5. Each of these were simple steps, which have only performed one action.

By using algorithms a computer scientist can develop software solutions to problems. This is when they actually get to coding.

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I honestly had no idea where I was going when I originally picked this topic, but I hope you enjoyed it. If you would like to go into more detail on algorithms, atomic actions, or computer science topics please feel free to suggest them on my blog or in the comments below. If I need to revisit this post, or simplify something please feel free to comment below as well.

Until next time -Simple