Interesting Virtues Statement of a Programmer

Our CTO shared this one with me...

According to Perl folklore, the three great virtues of a programmer are Laziness, Impatience and Hubris, in that order. Larry Wall (thank you to Randal Schwartz for correcting my citing) explains:

LAZINESS: The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer.

IMPATIENCE: The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least that pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue of a programmer.

HUBRIS: Excessive pride, the sort of thing Zeus zaps you for. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about. Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer.

Hiring the Right Person

We are investing the cycles to hiring the "right" people because we believe that hiring the right person is as important as profit and loss. A mismatched employee at such an early stage of our company will cost us more in time and resources than the contribution that we can hope to gain from the hire. So what is a "right" person for our startup? Outside of the obvious skill requirements to do the job, we want to look for individuals who take pride in signing their name to their work, a person who has a thirst for learning, who view joining us as more than taking a job, but rather as an adventure and a mission to building a wonderful business.

Looking for One More Kick Ass Developer

So far we have assembled a very talented team, and are looking for one more great Java programmer to help us design and code key application and platform features for our public launch in early 2007. Having done this a few times now, we believe that our passion for building great software, and our relentless pursuit of excellence sets us apart from others. And judging by the caliber of our team, investors and supporters, we hope that (after learning a bit more about us) you will agree that we have a better chance than most to succeed. If you thrive in a start-up environment and enjoy spending your time designing and building great software from scratch, we’d love to hear from you.

Requirements
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. BS/MS in CS or equivalent.

. Strong Java skills and object oriented design experience, including working knowledge of core libraries and design patterns.

. Solid skills in JSP, Servlets, HTML/HTTP; Experience with web-based UI implementation.

. Experience with XML, AJAX, JavaScript and CSS a plus. Knowledge of
existing frameworks desired (e.g., Spring MVC).

. Experience in database design and SQL; knowledge of ORM and text retrieval engines a plus.

. Significant development experience in a Unix/Linux environment a plus.

Rewards and Culture
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Compensation includes salary and an attractive equity stake.

In addition to the possibility of becoming independently wealthy, we are offering a tremendous learning experience with regular exposure to other top notch programmers, entrepreneurs, investors and technology movers and shakers. Our company culture values teamwork, experience and smarts with a premium on the occasional break to do something social with our friends and family.

Interested candidates should send their resume to jobs@dotspotter.com . Please note “Java Engineer” in the subject line.

The Soul of a New Company

This will be a journal of our company's journey...I once heard entrepreneurship defined as the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled. I like this definition and I think it characterizes well the environment that an entrepreneur lives in day in and day out.

A little about us, we are an Internet startup building a new consumer service because we believe we can offer something better, fresher and more valuable than what the consumer has traditionally received in the past. My partners and I have backgrounds from Yahoo!, Inktomi, Google, eBay and Apple Computer. We anticipate (and hope) that our product will be adopted by millions of users worldwide, and we have a business model with a clear path to profitability.

The company is based in Berkeley, California in the city that is also home to some great foods including Acme Bakery, Picante, Cancun, Tacubaya, Chez Panisse, Cheeseboard Pizza, and Clif Bar.

If you'd like to be notified of our upcoming launch, feel free to shoot a not to info@dotspotter.com and we'll add you to the list.