Does programming count as a hobby? I waste my free time on it… There’s this funny stereotype, of a queer programmer with long, quirky socks, and maybe even a fursona. Despite being a small percentage, such types are often overrepresented online. It used to bother me a little.
Nowadays I’m so, so glad when someone I’m talking to is part of that group. It usually means I don’t need to worry about them being weirdly sexist, like women don’t suffer enough in STEM already, or insisting that we need to keep politics out of tech (i.e. they want their politics to rule, unquestioned).
(Need something more tangible? Look no further than uncle bob (skip to the bottom). I’ve seen his books in classrooms, in the office, and let’s not speak of online mentions. Imagine how many know him, but have no idea how screwed up he is.)
Silly feelings on my part? Perhaps. One less thing to worry about, though.
I wonder how true that is. Maybe they were considered left in their time, but something we see differently today, then. I really should hit the books on this one.
It’s a bit of a tangent(!), but Parrish gave a talk I think is relevant here. In Programming is Forgetting (transcript, watching optional), she analyzes a book about hackers from the eighties and dissects the ethics of hacker culture—a very loose definition, mind you.
This is all beside the point, because while interesting throughout what I’d really like to point to is the section on the rewiring of the PDP-1. Agree or disagree with any other, that part made me rethink how I saw older generations of programmers. I consider the dignity of all people an important tenet of my leftist values today, and women then were second-class, even in computing. Even when excelling.
So I feel like things have actually improved overall, but it’s difficult to say how much. That really is a shame, it ought to be a lot clearer.
Does programming count as a hobby? I waste my free time on it… There’s this funny stereotype, of a queer programmer with long, quirky socks, and maybe even a fursona. Despite being a small percentage, such types are often overrepresented online. It used to bother me a little.
Nowadays I’m so, so glad when someone I’m talking to is part of that group. It usually means I don’t need to worry about them being weirdly sexist, like women don’t suffer enough in STEM already, or insisting that we need to keep politics out of tech (i.e. they want their politics to rule, unquestioned).
(Need something more tangible? Look no further than uncle bob (skip to the bottom). I’ve seen his books in classrooms, in the office, and let’s not speak of online mentions. Imagine how many know him, but have no idea how screwed up he is.)
Silly feelings on my part? Perhaps. One less thing to worry about, though.
It’s such a shame. I feel like programmers were way more left only a decade or so ago.
I wonder how true that is. Maybe they were considered left in their time, but something we see differently today, then. I really should hit the books on this one.
It’s a bit of a tangent(!), but Parrish gave a talk I think is relevant here. In Programming is Forgetting (transcript, watching optional), she analyzes a book about hackers from the eighties and dissects the ethics of hacker culture—a very loose definition, mind you.
This is all beside the point, because while interesting throughout what I’d really like to point to is the section on the rewiring of the PDP-1. Agree or disagree with any other, that part made me rethink how I saw older generations of programmers. I consider the dignity of all people an important tenet of my leftist values today, and women then were second-class, even in computing. Even when excelling.
So I feel like things have actually improved overall, but it’s difficult to say how much. That really is a shame, it ought to be a lot clearer.