An amalgam of "yak shaving" and "shaving yoctoseconds". This line is commonly mistranscribed as "shaving yoctoseconds".
"Yoctoseconds" - Second smallest unit of time, above the Planck time.
"Yak shaving" - A term often used by programmers to mean a chain of useless activity that is prerequisite to a desired task. Can also mean intentional non-essential procrastination.
References:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yak_shaving
http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/34775/correct-definition-of-the-term-yak-shaving
The line in the show could be interpreted as the team toiling away at even the most miniscule and seemingly-useless tasks to achieve tiny speed improvements.
"We're about shaving yaktoseconds off latency for every layer in the stack." -Gilfoyle
An engineer that is competent, good looking, dresses well and is not socially awkward.
John: How come no other engineers are like David?
Mary: He's an engineer unicorn. They are rare.
"Unicorn" is a common term for an engineer (usually front-end) who also has good taste in design and is able to contribute to UX early on. But "unicorn" is also used for startups that turn out to be breakout successes, like Uber and Airbnb. Silicon Valley really likes unicorns.
A mythical University in Canada where many good Engineers and Computer Scientists come from.
Sam: "Where are all these Canadians from?"
Matthew: "We hired 10 interns and 20 full-times from Waterloo. They get shit done because if we don't hire them, they'll have to work for Blackberry."
@orien No what are you talking about
@SingleCommaClub It's similar to what you see from immigrants to a new country like US or Canada
I have a lot of friends from canada and waterloo and this seems really accurate from what i've heard
It's like a parallel universe of Silicon Valley where people speak American English...
@zazpowered aren't you from waterloo
@SingleCommaClub That's not true at all. Pretty much everyone I know from my graduating class got offers from US companies. A significant proportion of students choose to stay because the region is booming right now, and also the quality of life in Canada is pretty high.
@freefunctor toronto and canada are awesome
Have worked with a lot of engineers from Waterloo through internships and full time. Can honestly say they are very talented, but there is a bias because all the ones that make it to US companies are generally top notch.
I love this site!
A Wharton MBA who will overestimate the value of his idea and underestimate the value of the person who will implement it. Often wonders why his technical cofounders leave him and the apps they build look like shit and get hacked all the time.
Non-technical Cofounder: Why do all these technical cofounders leave me? Did they not see the MBA from Wharton in my email? I'm telling you right now, I know how to write a business plan. I even offered the last guy 10% of my company.
Worked with a guy just like this before. We had tons of competition doing the exact same thing but dude refused to change his ideas or strategy at all. Happy it was contract work.
Also known as "Ideas Guy"
As opposed to a technical cofounder that shaves yaks because they have no clue about business?
Popular phrase: "Looking for a technical co-founder"
An expression created by a marketing team within Microsoft that hypothesized that people would say this over the more commonly used expression "Google it."
Microsoft Marketing Rep: I want you to figure out Google's market share.
Bing Product Engineer: Sure one sec let me Google it.
Microsoft Marketing Rep: NO! Bing it!
Bing Product Engineer: Oh right, I forgot.
Swift is a multi-paradigm, compiled programming language created by Apple Inc. It is also the last name of a famous American pop star.
Zeeshan: Your resume says you have 10 years of Swift experience.
Intern Applicant: Yes sir.
Zeeshan: You do realize it hasn't been around for that long...
Intern Applicant: Sorry sir I was trying to look cool.
The number of people that need to be hit by a bus before their project is dead.
"Our engineers work in teams of 10 for the higher bus factor"
It is well known that engineers make a "SPOF" sound when hit by a bus.
The legend says some of them can be found here http://www.engineerunicorns.com