Project 01

Please find the Project 01 link below.

Project 1

Project 01-Response

Project 1 (PDF of Manifesto and Portrait)

Blog Response:

Being a non-computer science major I believe that our manifesto does a good job of accurately portraying the role a computer scientist plays at Notre Dame. Notre Dame is not like MIT in computer scientist. The kids do not only live, breath, eat computer science, they do know about other topics they do explore their other interests. Notre Dame does not computer scientist that are only good for coding, the students are able to act as a bridge between the computing world and the business world. I think that our Manifesto depicts this and is almost a retaliation against everyone at Notre Dame thinking they are nerds that only talk computing.

In terms of the Portrait I do not identify with most of it. Again, it is difficult for me to fit this since I’m not a computer science major, but I know that when we were going through and thinking of the stereotypes for kids in the major, the people in our group did not fit most of them. I think that computer science kids get a bad rap because it is a new field and so does not have much respect yet. People used to scoff at the businessmen of the world and now look how we treat the Mendoza students. I think it will just take time for people to come around to understanding that computer science kids are made up of more than just computing, and in fact do not only sit behind their computers all day coding.

I think that stereotypes are very significant to how the world views people. I do not think there will ever be a way to eliminate them and some stereotypes are not bad to have. I mean all stereotypes, whether people like to admit it or not, have some truth to them. Stereotypes allow people insights into different groups and are made to give generalizations. I do not think that in this day and age people take rumors or stereotypes they hear about a certain group of people and apply to everyone in that group. Our society is too smart for that. So, if they hear a stereotype and understand that this is not true about everyone I think this can be a positive thing. I think it is a good way to distinguish people in the world and differentiate people’s likes and dislikes.

Along that point, I think the presence of a Manifesto or Portrait can be helpful. I think it gives everyone and anyone a voice. It allows people to explain their point of view and set things straight. If there are untrue rumors floating around, a Manifesto or Portrait allows for them to be set straight.

A Business Spin on Jobs

As a non-computer science major, I probably have not had the same experience as many of you taking this class. I am also only a junior, so I have only just landed las semester an internship in Investment Banking. This career choice is pretty unique as most people know it comes with rigorous hours and difficult tasks as an analyst. Usually people that going into banking work for 2 years as an analyst and then try to land a job in Private Equity. Now, many banks are in the process of trying to change this route, but this is still the typical path one takes. Personally, I am considering taking this same path myself. This is not as easy as it sounds, though. Some banks are very open about trying to get you the best job you can get at a Private Equity company. This is because some companies believe in the relationship they have made with a person and think that even at a different company that person can still bring in new clients and work since Private Equity and Investment Banking are super interconnected. Yet there are other companies that do not believe in this and actually scold you if they find out that you are recruiting for Private Equity jobs. I know of kids that have had to lie and say they cannot come to work because they are sick when actually they are going to an interview. Who is right in this sense? Should companies be open to trying to get their employees to the best Private Equity firm or should they try to scare them into staying with their company? It is a hard thing to know, but I think that it should be a balance between not screwing over the company you work for but also not screwing yourself over. In the end, you do need to look out for yourself.

But when you enter non-competes and trade secrets into the mix things get even tricker. In one way, it makes sense to have these because especially in my industry, deals can sometimes go on for years. What if I have heard information about a deal and then decide to leave the company and work for a rival company that could easily benefit from this company and steal the client. This obviously seems to be extremely unfair. However, on the other hand, how can someone define another’s “know-how” knowledge and from that force them not to use their special talents and abilities. The “How Companies Kill Their Employee’s Job Search” article mentioned how some companies are trying to cover both the company’s concrete secrets, but also an employee’s knowledge and skills they picked up on the job. To me, this seems extremely unfair. This is too limiting. People go to school to learn a ton of knowledge and find a job, are the schools trying to prevent the students from getting a job? No. So, why are employers trying to limit innovation and hold this world back by blocking employee’s from using their gained talents and skills. Another point to make, specific to my industry is that a lot of kids go into Investment Banking because they are unsure of what they would actually like to do. Of course they are some what interest in it otherwise they would not put themselves through all of that work and hours, but a part of them also does it because of the great training and experiences involved in banking. If anyone in banking were to be limited by non-competes or trade secrets, the whole industry would fall apart. This is one of the truly helpful things about banking, it would ruin it to take it away.

Overall, I think that companies should limit against true trade secret, but should not have control over someone’s knowledge and skills. That is too much of a gray area and limits our world and people’s special place in it.

Reading 01

When one thinks of a hacker, a negative connotation of a nerd in a hoodie sitting behind a computer for hours trying to infiltrate some website or break some code for malicious reasons comes to mind. However, this is not the reality. Sure, some hackers might be hacking for the wrong reasons, but hacking can be used for good too. Sometimes by exploiting the weaknesses in a computer system, we can actually make it stronger and protect our country from outsiders obtaining our secrets. Or someone could be hacking in a more playful sense to achieve a certain goal.

In addition to this, I think it is important to break down computer scientist. On one end of the spectrum there are mathematicians who are focused on the algorithms and figuring out code and computer based things primarily focusing on math. Moving towards the middle there are people who look at the history of computers and study the behavior of routing data through networks. And then finally at the other end there are hackers. Hackers are merely trying to write software.

In this sense, hackers can be compared to painters. Both are trying to make things, good things. Just as a painter uses an easel and paintbrush to achieve their beautiful work, hackers use a computer as a medium to write beautiful software. “The hacker modifies the machine to make it self-destruct, or programs it to frustrate its owners, or opens its usage to those who don’t own it”. The hacker tells the machine exactly what to do, and the machine does it.

I would not particularly define myself as a hacker. I personally do no think that I spend enough time dealing with code and making small tweaks or writing my own to be considered a hacker. However, I would say that I participate in writing beautiful code and use code to achieve a goal. So, from that standpoint I could be considered a hacker, or rather a baby hacker. Maybe I am still on my way to becoming a hacker but am not fully there yet.

Despite not considering myself a true hacker, I still believe that it is not fair for hackers to get a bad name because some people abused their power and have used hacking for criminal or malicious use. There are many hackers out there that have used their skills for the betterment of society and for good. Hacking should be looked at in a more benign way. It should be seen as a way for people to create something beautiful, even if it is not understood by a majority of people.

Introduction

My name is Hannah Nichols and I am a junior majoring in Economics with a Finance Concentration and minoring in Computing and Digital Technologies. I am originally from Wilmette, Illinois a northern suburb of Chicago. I am the fourth of six kids in my family and ever since high school I have been interested in both Economics and Computer Science. My mom has a degree in Computer Science and is the one who initially sparked my interest. I like the logical, black and white nature of it combined with the creative side of writing your own code. Studying people’s behavior from and economical standpoint has always drawn my attention. Being one of the middle children in my family I have learned to connect with various people and observe their behavior. This has made thinking through economic problems easier. Aside from my family and academics, I play on the club tennis team here at Notre Dame. I have been playing tennis competitively since 7th grade and because it has been such a big part of my life I wanted to continue in any way possible in college.

I want to learn more about intellectual property and the laws behind hacking in this class. Last semester I took a course on the First Amendment in this ever-changing digital world and we briefly discussed anonymity and hacking and that was by far my favorite unit. I want to learn from more a technical standpoint the ins and outs of what is allowed.

Going off that, I think that as our society today becomes more and more reliant on software and more digitally involved one of the biggest ethical and moral issues deals with the information that we are able to retrieve on the internet and the information that others can retrieve on us. If a person does not know that much about computers it would be easy for some to hack their computer and view everything that they are doing. Obviously this poses a lot of threats to people and creates worry for our society. Learning about situations like this and gaining an understanding of how they are treated is something I want to walk out of this class knowing.