The Weirdest Developer Job, Ever

 Quick summary:

• Hello! I’m Aman, the founder of DenseLayers — it’s an early-stage “moonshot” project, that aims to speed up frontier STEM research.
• First, we’re building a social platform where people from around the world can easily read and understand breakthrough AI research. Read more about it here: alpha.denselayers.com/about.
• Right now I’m a solo dev, so I’m looking for a developer to pair-program with!
• It’s an ideal role for a mid/senior level engineer open to a part-time project.
• You will help launch the platform to the world, and then continuously improve it, working closely with me at every step. You can learn more about me here: https://aman-agarwal.com
• Two important things:
  1. We would start part-time, pair-working for anywhere from 4 to 8 hours per week. Entirely up to you how many days/weeks you commit to.
  2. Live pair-programming (while being on a video/voice call) is critical to this job. If you’re not happy about that, this role is not a fit for you.
• We’ll use Python/Flask btw, and collaborate on Replit.

What a typical day/session would look like:

• Join a pre-scheduled call with me, chat a little bit, and then get started solving the problem of the day.
• We take turns being the Driver (i.e. typing on keyboard), and the Navigator (i.e. reviewing code, sharing observations, and providing directions/guidance).
• Put up with my jokes, pretend not to laugh so I stop making them, question the meaning of life while sobbing in the bathroom, etc.

Minimum Requirements:

• Knowledge: Python (Flask / Django), SQLAlchemy, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and some front-end frameworks.
• Soft skills: Positive mental attitude, patience, willingness to dig into technical cobwebs, good communication skills, showing up on time, etc.

Selection Process:

I don’t care about your resume/CV. I also don’t want to sift through thousands of applications. Usually, the way companies get through this is by making you do a programming test. But these were always a pain in the ass for me, so I won’t inflict that on you.

I’ve designed a unique, fun assignment instead.

It doesn’t involve coding, and it’s also designed such that it would be a useful thing for you, forever. There’s also a cheat code that lets you bypass this application under certain conditions.

It involves making a unique video, and emailing it to me. Here are the instructions.

1. Choose an original full-stack application that YOU have recently built to finish, and whose entire code is on GitHub.
2. Record a video / livestream in which you do the following:
3. Show off the application you’ve built, talking about its functional requirements, features, any unique decisions you had to make, etc.
4. Then, walk the viewer through the codebase, explaining how it’s organized. Walk through the important files and folders, talking about what’s in that file and how it relates to the rest of the codebase.
5. Walk through an http request in detail. Your application probably handles many kinds of GET/POST requests. Choose one such POST request (not the signup/login flow, but something core to the functionality), and walk through the code to show how that request is handled end-to-end, both on the back-end and front-end.
6. Feel free to be creative, and do whatever you want — for example, you could include a whiteboard/powerpoint segment to explain things visually if needed.
7. Upload the video on your favorite platform whose name ideally rhymes with the word tube, such that one could click on a link to play it. (Please don’t make me download or play raw files in your Google Drive.)
8. Send an email to aman@denselayers.com with this subject line format: (Full Name): Full Stack Dev Application

Special instructions:

1. While making your video, please make sure your font-size and file names are big enough that things are easily readable in your screenshare. If I can’t read the code, I can’t evaluate your application.
2. Please make sure you choose a full-stack web project, i.e. it involves a fair amount of custom front-end code, using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
3. Please don’t choose a project based on weird/niche technologies like, I dunno, .NET or Visual Basic or Salesforce etc. Also, assume that the viewer won’t be familiar with the frameworks you’re using.
4. Please feel free break this up into a series of smaller videos if you want.

Now for the cheat code: if you already regularly stream your coding sessions online (Twitch/Youtube), you can just send me the links to the top 1-2 streams you’re most proud of, in which you build a full-stack web or mobile application. But choose a stream that still meets the above special instructions.

After this preliminary application round, I’ll invite you to a live-programming session. This will help us see if we can work together.

The Pay

Range from €25 to €40 per hour, depending on your skills. Happy to discuss equity too.

DenseLayers is for-profit, but operated like a non-profit (similar to Wikipedia, but without the donations aspect).

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Good luck! You can email me at aman@denselayers.com at any time, if you have questions.