Ask Vosem Anything

[Vosem]

I've made threads like this before, but I think the last one was several years ago. Also, with elections coming up soon, we have a lot more activity than usual, so hopefully we'll get more and better questions on this one.

Anyway. I'm a 25-year-old software engineer living in Ohio with a law degree and right-of-center political beliefs. I've been an Atlas user since 2009, or for well over half my life at this point. I speak fluent Russian, English, and Spanish, so feel free to ask questions in any of those languages.

[Aurelius]

Didn't realize you're a software engineer. Got any advice for a 24-year old looking for a software engineering job in this crazy time in the market? I came very close with a Big N company you probably use every day, but 60+ apps in and still nothing. Can DM with more details if you want.

Apologies if this is too self-serving.

[Ferguson97]

Voting history?

[Vosem]

Didn't realize you're a software engineer. Got any advice for a 24-year old looking for a software engineering job in this crazy time in the market? I came very close with a Big N company you probably use every day, but 50 apps in and still nothing. Can DM with more details if you want.

Apologies if this is too self-serving.

Sure; this isn't something I've posted a lot about because the story basically picks up in 2021, but I'm fine sharing it. My educational background is pretty weird and it sounds like you have a more standard one (comp sci undergrad?), so my advice might not be generally applicable.

In 2019 I received a full scholarship to attend law school at WUSTL, but I was extremely unhappy there; as a result of COVID my classes were basically entirely remote (and I lived with my family in northeast Ohio to save on rent), and my online OCIs happened at the peak of the COVID recession, so I didn't find a Biglaw position. (It turned out that the legal hiring economy recovered so strongly that had I hustled at this point I could've still gotten one, but I was very demotivated by then and in the second half of my law school career my grades collapsed anyway). Starting in early 2021 -- and largely taking the advice of rationalist-blogosphere people who insisted that learning to code is easy and practical -- I took a series of FCC classes on front-end development in my own time (HTML/CSS/JavaScript/React/Angular -- I already had some Python and R under my belt, but not very much at all) and built a personal portfolio website featuring links to multiple personal projects. I can send this to you in PMs if you'd like, but I'm not super comfortable posting it here, since it has my name and face on it. It's been unmaintained for a few months but still mostly looks the way it was supposed to, though some functionalities have broken.

Upon graduating from law school in 2022, and with my personal portfolio mostly completed, I decided to spend the summer looking for jobs as a software engineer. (As a backup, I also applied to Tax LLM programs and briefly accidentally 'accepted' an offer from Northwestern before 'dropping out' before orientation, so I like to joke that I both graduated from and dropped out of law school in the same summer). This worked out really fast, with less than a month between starting to search and getting hired at a startup in Cleveland (with quite nice compensation, actually; better than the median WashULaw graduate, although of course much worse than mean; also the work-life balance is much nicer); I pursued a strategy of just flooding LinkedIn and Indeed with applications (dozens every day for several weeks, but pretty low-effort ones; I only wrote cover letters if I really liked a particular job for whatever reason). I doubt this would've worked if I had not cast an extremely wide net, had an impressive personal portfolio site, and also had moderately prestigious educational institutions on my resume.

The process is probably quite different if you're looking for Big N companies, but this will get you hired doing React for a startup.

[Aurelius]

Didn't realize you're a software engineer. Got any advice for a 24-year old looking for a software engineering job in this crazy time in the market? I came very close with a Big N company you probably use every day, but 50 apps in and still nothing. Can DM with more details if you want.

Apologies if this is too self-serving.

Sure; this isn't something I've posted a lot about because the story basically picks up in 2021, but I'm fine sharing it. My educational background is pretty weird and it sounds like you have a more standard one (comp sci undergrad?), so my advice might not be generally applicable.

In 2019 I received a full scholarship to attend law school at WUSTL, but I was extremely unhappy there; as a result of COVID my classes were basically entirely remote (and I lived with my family in northeast Ohio to save on rent), and my online OCIs happened at the peak of the COVID recession, so I didn't find a Biglaw position. (It turned out that the legal hiring economy recovered so strongly that had I hustled at this point I could've still gotten one, but I was very demotivated by then and in the second half of my law school career my grades collapsed anyway). Starting in early 2021 -- and largely taking the advice of rationalist-blogosphere people who insisted that learning to code is easy and practical -- I took a series of FCC classes on front-end development in my own time (HTML/CSS/JavaScript/React/Angular -- I already had some Python and R under my belt, but not very much at all) and built a personal portfolio website featuring links to multiple personal projects. I can send this to you in PMs if you'd like, but I'm not super comfortable posting it here, since it has my name and face on it. It's been unmaintained for a few months but still mostly looks the way it was supposed to, though some functionalities have broken.

Upon graduating from law school in 2022, and with my personal portfolio mostly completed, I decided to spend the summer looking for jobs as a software engineer. (As a backup, I also applied to Tax LLM programs and briefly accidentally 'accepted' an offer from Northwestern before 'dropping out' before orientation, so I like to joke that I both graduated from and dropped out of law school in the same summer). This worked out really fast, with less than a month between starting to search and getting hired at a startup in Cleveland (with quite nice compensation, actually; better than the median WashULaw graduate, although of course much worse than mean; also the work-life balance is much nicer); I pursued a strategy of just flooding LinkedIn and Indeed with applications (dozens every day for several weeks, but pretty low-effort ones; I only wrote cover letters if I really liked a particular job for whatever reason). I doubt this would've worked if I had not cast an extremely wide net, had an impressive personal portfolio site, and also had moderately prestigious educational institutions on my resume.

The process is probably quite different if you're looking for Big N companies, but this will get you hired doing React for a startup.

Yeah, I'm a comp sci undergrad (class of 2020) who took a bit of a detour for the last two years. Not really interested in startups or React tbh, I have a very strong preference for backend and/or full stack and/or embedded systems work and a decent sized company that has good up-front compensation and not just mostly stock options. I don't necessarily plan on making this a permanent career (interested in studying history down the line, and I have some business ideas floating around), but right now I'm tired of not having money and I'll be doing it for at least a few years.

You definitely took a pretty different path than I did. I'm also trying to cast a very wide net, and I also have a very prestigious alma mater (well, it's very prestigious overall as a university, a lot of people in the comp sci world have never heard of it), but it helps a lot too that I have the degree and four internships under my belt (although three of them were at the same place and those three were IT rather than engineering - and I hate IT). Might DM you later with more details.

I'm not too panicked about the state of the economy in tech - still TONS of listings on all the job boards, and the MIC is just as desperate for people as always - but it's a bit nerve wracking I'm not gonna lie. My parents are freaking out much more than me, and I get it because I'm 24 and temporarily living at their house while I do the search. I did just pick up a 25-hours-weekly job at the local auto parts store to pay the bills in the meantime, but I really do not want that to become a long term thing. I'm being pretty bold about the search, and it even got to the point that I cold emailed Mike Solana last night - I subscribe to his paid newsletter and figured that maybe it'll bear fruit, who knows.

[Vosem]

Voting history?

(This goes back to a significantly younger age than it 'should', because as a child I registered extended family members and neighbors and cast absentee ballots on their behalf with their permission. Knocked it off at 18, both because it seemed like a childish habit of dubious legality and the whole thing became much less fun once Trump came along).

President (primary/general):
2008 (primary NY, general OH): McCain/McCain
2012 (OH): Romney/Romney
2016 (OH): Kasich/Johnson
2020 (primary MO, general OH): Weld/Jorgensen

Governor (primary/general, all OH):
2010: wrote-in personal friend/Kasich
2014: Kasich/Kasich
2018: DeWine/DeWine
2022: DeWine/DeWine

Senator (primary/general, all OH):
2010: Portman/Portman
2012: Mandel/Mandel
2016: Portman/Portman
2018: Gibbons/Brown
2022: Dolan/Vance

My voting history has, for various reasons, ended up looking much more moderate than I am (such as my vote for Dolan in 2022, which was because I believed Trafalgar that he had the best chance of beating Vance; I would've probably preferenced Gibbons and Mandel ahead of him -- or my vote for Kasich in 2016, which was because I live in OH; in a different state I would've been for Cruz). The 2018 midterm happened close to the peak of my mid-2010s disillusion from the GOP, and also I have friends who've been Renacci staffers who returned an image of Renacci as an absolutely poisonous asshole, and there was no third-party on the ballot; the D vote for Senate in 2018 was a perfect storm that isn't super likely to recur. (I really don't like Vance, and I could even see myself voting for Ryan in a nonpartisan race, but that's not what this is and I've made up my mind to grit my teeth and vote for Vance for the greater good of having McConnell be Majority Leader).

[Aurelius]

(I really don't like Vance, and I could even see myself voting for Ryan in a nonpartisan race, but that's not what this is and I've made up my mind to grit my teeth and vote for Vance for the greater good of having McConnell be Majority Leader).

I think I'd feel similarly if I were an Ohioan. Ryan pushes all my least libertarian buttons in a way that makes me kinda like him. Vance pushes all my most libertarian buttons in a way that makes me loathe him.

[Vosem]

Yeah, I'm a comp sci undergrad (class of 2020) who took a bit of a detour for the last two years. Not really interested in startups or React tbh, I have a very strong preference for backend and/or full stack and/or embedded systems work and a decent sized company that has good up-front compensation and not just mostly stock options. I don't necessarily plan on making this a permanent career (interested in studying history down the line, and I have some business ideas floating around), but right now I'm tired of not having money and I'll be doing it for at least a few years.

You definitely took a pretty different path than I did. I'm also trying to cast a very wide net, and I also have a very prestigious alma mater (well, it's very prestigious overall as a university, a lot of people in the comp sci world have never heard of it), but it helps a lot too that I have the degree and four internships under my belt (although three of them were at the same place and those three were IT rather than engineering - and I hate IT). Might DM you later with more details.

I'm not too panicked about the state of the economy in tech - still TONS of listings on all the job boards, and the MIC is just as desperate for people as always - but it's a bit nerve wracking I'm not gonna lie. My parents are freaking out much more than me, and I get it because I'm 24 and temporarily living at their house while I do the search. I did just pick up a 25-hours-weekly job at the local auto parts store to pay the bills in the meantime, but I really do not want that to become a long term thing. I'm being pretty bold about the search, and it even got to the point that I cold emailed Mike Solana last night - I subscribe to his paid newsletter and figured that maybe it'll bear fruit, who knows.

(I am paid in a salary and have zero stock options )

Yeah, the period between graduating law school (and my stipend running out) and actually being hired this past summer was very nerve-wracking. I've gotten close IRL to a friend group who are completing a DPT at Cleveland State, and the distinction between being a high-achiever in graduate school going into a practical field and still being dependent on your parents in your mid-20s is a widespread anxiety. (Much less of one for medical students, just because 'medical student' is already pretty high-status in our society in a way other graduate-school programs aren't, but goes for essentially every other sort of graduate program). Actually being hired feels very freeing at that point. I'm not sure I have a lot of advice for backend, apart from the general point of making sure your resume is tailored to being seen by HR people you have to get past first. In the inexperienced front-end case this means linking to a well-done personal portfolio page.

I also tried to network through Twitter rationalists, who were generally very kind and provided lots of good advice and retweeted me, but this didn't lead to any actual interviews.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Есть причина жизни?

[Boobs]

Есть причина жизни?

Нет, но есть польза

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

[jamestroll]

Do you think Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot by being so anti-gun? Do you think there will be a civil war in the aftermath of the 2024 elections? I do not see any peaceful reaction to the 2024 election results.

[Vosem]

Есть причина жизни?

«Арбайтен по стахановски! Строжайшее соблюдение дисциплины труда, и правил техники безопасности, должно стать нормой жизни! План - закон! Выполнение - долг! Перевыполнение - честь! Всех, которые из дерьма вылупились, помыть, переодеть, и в отряд.»

[Vosem]

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

(Divisive and controversial answer incoming) mint chocolate chip. I like mint-flavored anything, really.

Do you think Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot by being so anti-gun? Do you think there will be a civil war in the aftermath of the 2024 elections? I do not see any peaceful reaction to the 2024 election results.

I don't think there will be a civil war in the US in the foreseeable future; the main predictor of civil war is just a country's wealth, for the record. I can imagine something like (Al's prediction) the Italian Years of Lead, with sustained occasionally-violent hostility between political tribes, though I don't even imagine that something like that. (My own observation is that it seems like, in terms of the certainty and sheer scale of the defeat coming in the courts, the progressive left in this country seems to be heading down a path similar to the 1960s segregationists, and in spite of a lengthy period of often-violent activism those peoples' ideas ended up just fading away, even as their politicians remained in office.)

On the gun issue specifically, I'm not sure. My observation is that movement in a permissive direction on guns in public opinion seems to presage movement in a conservative direction on specifically 'small-government', or fiscal, issues, so a Democratic Party interested in fighting those ideas would want to fight the culture of gun ownership. It also seems like an issue their donors care about a lot. It's pretty poisonous with the actual voters, but this goes for lots of social-issue positions on the other side, too, and might not even be as bad for Democrats as other social-issue possibilities. Also, I think surrendering on guns would quickly lead into a wide surrender on many other issues. So perhaps not.

[politicallefty]

Which Supreme Court Justices in the history of the Court do you feel most aligned with (choose 3)? What are your top 3 Supreme Court decisions (apart from some of the most obvious, such as Brown)?

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Why do you think people are shifting further right on economic issues and what do you have to back it up?

[Kamala's side hoe]

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

(Divisive and controversial answer incoming) mint chocolate chip. I like mint-flavored anything, really.

I see you too are a man of culture.

What is your favorite part about living in and possibly having grown up in NE Ohio?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's your favorite Family Guy episode?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Есть причина жизни?

«Арбайтен по стахановски! Строжайшее соблюдение дисциплины труда, и правил техники безопасности, должно стать нормой жизни! План - закон! Выполнение - долг! Перевыполнение - честь! Всех, которые из дерьма вылупились, помыть, переодеть, и в отряд.»

лмао

[MarkD]

Early yesterday morning, when I first thought of what I wanted to ask you, I started thinking of making my question into a really, really long post, filled with lots of details. But now after thinking about it for over 24 hours, I have realized that I can make this question a relatively short one, and omit all of the details I was going to include.

Do you really think your interpretation of the Fourth Amendment is correct? Even after what I am going to say here?

First of all, we must distinguish between substantive constitutional rights and procedural constitutional rights. Not all constitutional rights are the same, but they can all be put into the two categories: substantive and procedural.

True substantive constitutional rights (that neither the federal gov't or the states may violate): freedom of religion, freedom of speech, press, peaceful assembly, and petition; the right to keep and bare arms. Alleged substantive constitutional rights (that states cannot violate)(alleged by the SCOTUS via its decisions): the "freedom of contract" (during the Lochner era); the "right to privacy" (which you apparently agree with).

True procedural constitutional rights (that neither the federal gov't or the states may violate): immunity from cruel and unusual punishment; the right to counsel; immunity from self-incrimination; due process of law; immunity from unreasonable searches and seizures; the right to a fair trial - during which the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty, with proof beyond a reasonable doubt; immunity from double jeopardy, and the right to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses. Lastly, a constitutional right that only the federal gov't may not violate, but which state gov'ts may "violate": only being put on trial after indictment by a grand jury.

Summed up: substantive rights are those which you have a right to do what you want to do. Legislatures can potentially violate these kinds of rights as they pass laws to regulate the conduct of civilians. Procedural rights are those which pertain to how the federal gov't or state gov'ts must treat you while it is investigating you as, potentially, a perpetrator of a crime. Legislatures typically only violate these kinds of rights as they pass laws to instruct law enforcement officers about how to investigate. As all sane people know and understand, no one has a right to commit murder, arson, or rape. If anyone accused of committing those acts were to try to claim that they do have the right to do those things, they would be making a substantive rights claim (and those claims would be, appropriately, rejected). But just because no one truly has a right to commit murder, arson, or rape does not mean that murderers, arsonists, and rapists have no constitutional rights. Even perpetrators of heinous crimes have procedural rights protected by the Constitution; not the right to do what they did, but rights about how the gov't must treat people while investigating and prosecuting them.

Substance --> WHAT you have the right to DO; procedure --> HOW the gov't must treat people who are being investigated and prosecuted.

I assert that the Fourth Amendment protects only a procedural right. I am fairly certain that you, Vosem, agree with Justices Brandeis (in Olmstead v. United States), Douglas (in Griswold v. Conn.) and Blackmun (in Roe v. Wade and Bowers v. Hardwick) that the Fourth Amendment protects both substantive rights as well as a procedural right. That is, they don't seem to acknowledge the difference between the two kinds of rights. "Rights are rights," is all they seem to be able to think.

The Fourth Amendment bans "unreasonable searches and seizures." As such, it empowers judges to create regulations about HOW law enforcement officers may, and may not, investigate crimes. The adjective "unreasonable" only modifies the nouns "search and seizure." Nouns such as "laws," "statutes," or "legislative acts" do not appear in the Fourth Amendment. As such, the Fourth Amendment does not address, at all, which laws legislatures may or may not make - laws which address civilian conduct. For example, the word "unreasonable" does not mean:
 - that judges can decide that banning hard drugs, such as meth, cocaine, and heroine, is reasonable, but banning marijuana is unreasonable
 - that judges can decide that banning child molestation is reasonable, but banning adult sexual conduct - such as using contraceptives or engaging in "sodomy" - is unreasonable
 - that judges can decide which minimum wage laws are reasonable and which ones are not.

Please, I'm begging you, Vosem, do not continue to interpret the Fourth Amendment - like Justices Brandeis, Douglas, and Blackmun did - as if it protects a "right of privacy," a "right to be let alone," that has both substantive and procedural meaning. The latter is the only meaning that the Fourth was intended to have, and judges should not distort that intended meaning just so they can give themselves the power to strike down laws they do not like.

Am I getting through to you?

[Vosem]

Which Supreme Court Justices in the history of the Court do you feel most aligned with (choose 3)? What are your top 3 Supreme Court decisions (apart from some of the most obvious, such as Brown)?

Asking about the entire history of the Court feels difficult, because the Court as an institution has changed so much in quite recent decades; after being depoliticized after the Civil War it was repoliticized as firmly pro-administration in the 1930s; became seen as 'liberal' and not just pro-administration by the 1950s; saw the start of relatively covert ideological attempts to change its posture in defiance of elite legal opinion in the late 1960s; a shift right in the 1970s; the opening of overt ideological conflict in the 1980s; and then a shift much further right in the 2020s. This makes it pretty difficult to say!

Among Justices currently on the Court, I'll name Thomas, almost purely for his dissent in Gonzales, an opinion that made me stand up and audibly cheer in a law library when I first read it. Among early 20th-century members of the Court, I'll say Brandeis -- while I think many parts of his pre-Court career are questionable to say the least, I don't think there's a single important case in decades on the Court that he got wrong, and I think his opinion in Schechter can fairly be said to have saved American democracy; it is in the anti-Dred Scott.

I won't go before the 20th century, since I think the 19th-century Court was a much different (weaker) institution and fewer Justices have left a significant reputation. One is also forced to contend with Marshall as having really, substantially, created the Court as an institution and penned all of its actual most important decisions for 30 years; he remains the single greatest (not necessarily 'best'; 'greatest') member ever. I personally have never quite really fully been convinced by McCulloch, though I'm aware that the horse has left the barn there and would not recommend overturning it.

Among modern judges who have left the Court, I'll say Rehnquist as my favorite conservative (Scalia is more commonly cited here, but I must say having read both the opinion and the dissent from Morrison I find myself much more impressed by Rehnquist, and Scalia's concurrence in Gonzales leaves a bad taste in my mouth), and Blackmun as my favorite liberal, for perhaps obvious reasons.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

(Divisive and controversial answer incoming) mint chocolate chip. I like mint-flavored anything, really.

I see you too are a man of culture.

What is your favorite part about living in and possibly having grown up in NE Ohio?

I became quite Ohio-patriotic after having moved to Missouri for a few years (among other things changing my avatar to Ohio). I like the weather, which is pleasantly cold in the winter and pleasantly warm in the summer without being overbearing in either regard; I like the forest cover and general natural environment here; and I like the friendliness of the people, which stands out as exceptional having grown up in a Russian family in NYC. I guess I also like it because at a certain point I became used to it

What's your favorite Family Guy episode?

PTV rises to mind unbidden as a classic which is still relevant and funny after many years. I got a chuckle out of the song from that one in something like 2006 (age 8? I distinctly remember watching this on an elementary school friend's computer) and it still gets a laugh out of me 16 years later. If I were to watch all of their satires of American literature/movies it might end up being one of those, though, since many of them are pretty well-done.

~~~~

FlyingMongoose and MarkD -- I'll get to your questions, but both of them seem like things where I'll want to cite particular sources, so I'll put a bit more effort into those. (Political Lefty's question overlapped with MarkD's a bit, but that's one where he's just asking for an opinion so I felt more comfortable shooting blind off the top of my head for a bit).

[Crackerjack McJohnson]

What's the best hamburger in all of Ohio? 

[diptheriadan]

What's the best hamburger in all of Ohio? 

The better question would be best shredded chicken sandwich in Ohio.

(the answer is Jolly's in Tiffin)

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Have you read much Nabokov? Your post-Soviet background and strongly liberal-capitalist views remind me of him, to the point that I sometimes picture you as a younger version of him.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Are W*sterners in ushankas engaging in cultural appropriation?