#172 - From Punch Cards to Git: The Legendary Journey of Jeff Haemer

8 snips

Oct 6, 2024

Jeff Haemer, a seasoned software engineer with a remarkable five-decade career, shares his journey from punch cards to Twitter. He discusses the importance of networking for career growth and emphasizes a persistent mindset when facing failures. Jeff’s love for Unix shines through as he highlights its timeless qualities. He also reveals his passion for continuous learning, including a fascinating transition to Rust programming, and his cherished reading habits that inspire his professional development. His story is a powerful reminder to embrace both challenges and opportunities.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Unexpected Teaching Role

Jeff Haemer landed a computer science teaching job despite lacking formal qualifications.
His willingness to embrace challenges propelled his career forward.

ANECDOTE

Punch Cards

Jeff Haemer reminisced about the early days of programming using punch cards.
This highlights the dramatic technological advancements in software development.

ADVICE

Networking for Jobs

Network actively to discover job opportunities and expand your professional circle.
Physical, in-person networking is particularly valuable.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

"The sooner you make your first five thousand mistakes, the sooner you will be able to correct them." - The Natural Way to Draw - Kimon Nicoliades

Jeff Haemer’s career spans over five decades, and in this episode, he openly talks about his continuous passion for learning and solving interesting problems.

We talk about his experience teaching computer science with almost no prior knowledge, his love for Unix, how he landed a job at Twitter in his late sixties, and why he believes networking is key to landing jobs.

Jeff also generously shared his list of books he keeps going back to for inspiration and wisdom.

If you’ve ever felt stuck or uncertain in your tech career, Jeff’s journey will inspire you to take bold steps, embrace failure and adopt a persistent mindset to succeed at work and in life.

Reach out to Jeff or us if you like this conversation, thanks for listening.
- Jeffrey Haemer
- Pybites community

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction, welcome Jeff
03:33 Wins: learning Rust / Pybites Rust platform
08:10 Jeff’s journey: from punch cards to modern programming
16:20 Random luck vs being prepared (networking!)
20:04 What's great about Unix, what makes it timeless?
25:05 How to learn and making engaging presentations
29:21 Persistent mindset, embracing failure (it's inevitable!)
33:37 PDM ad segment
34:02 Jeff's favorite books
44:11 Practical SW dev vs book learning
46:35 Wrap up and CTA

---
Jeff's reading list:

* Current audiobooks
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter y La Piedra Filosofal
- Robert Galbraith's The Ink Black Heart

* Paper
- The Living Talmud
- Edward Frenkel Love and Math
- Tulsi Gabbard For Love of Country

* Daily Reads
- Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic
- The Holy Bible

* PDM books (useful advice + inspiration)
- Kimon Nicoliades, The Natural Way to Draw
- Eric Temple Bell, Men of Mathematics - There is no one, true path.
- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (I recommend All Minus One, which is just Mill's arguments on free speech, and only about 30 pages).
- Plutarch, Life of Caesar - Caesar was assassinated; when I read this, I was amazed that he lived long enough to get assassinated.
- Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn - “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” – Ernest Hemingway)
- Bob Drury & Tom Clavin, The Last Stand of Fox Company - Marines
- Jim Watson, The Double Helix
- Kernighan & Plauger, Software Tools (not "... in Pascal") - Perhaps the best practical book ev