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Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

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Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#111

Post by neic »

The Euro Sign was designed in secrecy

From Wikipedia[0]:

> There were originally 32 proposals; these were reduced to ten candidates. These ten were put to a public survey. After the survey had narrowed the original ten proposals down to two, it was up to the European Commission to choose the final design. The other designs that were considered are not available for the public to view, nor is any information regarding the designers available for public query. The European Commission considers the process of designing to have been internal and keeps these records secret. The eventual winner was a design created by a team of four experts whose identities have not been revealed. It is assumed that the Belgian graphic designer Alain Billiet was the winner and thus the designer of the euro sign.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_sign

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#112

Post by reaperducer »

piaste wrote: post #84
ThePhysicist wrote: post #42

Many women published research under pseudonyms in the past, for example Sophie Germain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain So I'd argue that many past inventions that are credited to men might actually have been achieved by women scientists publishing under their husbands / colleagues / friends name as a pseudonym. In Paris I once saw an original print of Marie Curie's book on radioactivity, where her name…

> In Paris I once saw an original print of Marie Curie's book on radioactivity, where her name is given as "Mme Pierre Curie". This probably shows how difficult it was even then to get something published under your own name as a woman Nothing to do with publishing difficulties at all. It was simply the way a married French woman would be addressed at the time - as "Madame [husband's full name]", eg Michelle Obama wo…

It was simply the way a married French woman would be addressed at the time

Not just in France, and not just in centuries past. I've met women in the United States, England, and Austria who refer to themselves as Mrs. husbands_first_name husbands_last_name.

It's formal. It's not insulting. You can see it commonly in 19th- and early 20th-century literature.

Several of the Christmas cards my wife received this year were addressed that way, plus "and family."

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#113

Post by aaron695 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #88
ThePhysicist wrote: post #42

Many women published research under pseudonyms in the past, for example Sophie Germain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain So I'd argue that many past inventions that are credited to men might actually have been achieved by women scientists publishing under their husbands / colleagues / friends name as a pseudonym. In Paris I once saw an original print of Marie Curie's book on radioactivity, where her name…

Both you and the rebuttal from piaste are correct. "Mme Pierre Curie" was published under her actual name, however lots of women published work under male pseudonyms. Even those who were known by their own names tend to be obscure historical footnotes, not as well remembered as male counterparts. A few related links: https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/12-fem... https://jezebel.com/homme-de-plume-wh…

Male writers also write under female names, not sure of the point. It's about $. They all take the credit when it's due.

Prince used a symbol at one point

> So I'd argue that many past inventions that are credited to men might actually have been achieved by women scientists publishing under their husbands / colleagues / friends name as a pseudony

If this is true why is the one example 100% incorrect?

Since when did we make stuff up just to fit the world the way we think it is?

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#115

Post by Andre607 »

gammateam wrote: post #110
Andre607 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment only seems to reinforce the point that > This probably shows how difficult it was even then to get something published under your own name as a woman Or are you suggesting that it was not difficult for a woman to publish under her name, only that it was not customary to do so? Can you point to some supporting examples of this, if so? > (It's still in use in more formal / old-fashioned contexts.) formal /…

They said it wasnt an example of it without suggesting anything You dont need to have an opinion or dissertation on the topic of dis/enfranchisement to make this observation

They said it wasn't an example of it, but then presented a historical account which only seemingly reinforces the original claim they were claiming it was not.

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#116

Post by Andre607 »

reaperducer wrote: post #112
piaste wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In Paris I once saw an original print of Marie Curie's book on radioactivity, where her name is given as "Mme Pierre Curie". This probably shows how difficult it was even then to get something published under your own name as a woman Nothing to do with publishing difficulties at all. It was simply the way a married French woman would be addressed at the time - as "Madame [husband's full name]", eg Michelle Obama wo…

It was simply the way a married French woman would be addressed at the time Not just in France, and not just in centuries past. I've met women in the United States, England, and Austria who refer to themselves as Mrs. husbands_first_name husbands_last_name . It's formal. It's not insulting. You can see it commonly in 19th- and early 20th-century literature. Several of the Christmas cards my wife received this year we…

> It's not insulting.

It is unfortunate that you do not consider such blatant, ham-fisted patriarchy as insulting.

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#117

Post by c3534l »

reaperducer wrote: post #112
piaste wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In Paris I once saw an original print of Marie Curie's book on radioactivity, where her name is given as "Mme Pierre Curie". This probably shows how difficult it was even then to get something published under your own name as a woman Nothing to do with publishing difficulties at all. It was simply the way a married French woman would be addressed at the time - as "Madame [husband's full name]", eg Michelle Obama wo…

It was simply the way a married French woman would be addressed at the time Not just in France, and not just in centuries past. I've met women in the United States, England, and Austria who refer to themselves as Mrs. husbands_first_name husbands_last_name . It's formal. It's not insulting. You can see it commonly in 19th- and early 20th-century literature. Several of the Christmas cards my wife received this year we…

In American movies, I'll sometimes you'll hear "Mr. and Mrs. John Smith" when introducing a couple at an extremely formal event where everyone wears tuxedos and such. I've never been to such an event before, so I don't know how accurate that is. But it's definitely something odd I've noticed in movies.

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#118

Post by leshow »

Andre607 wrote: post #115
gammateam wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They said it wasnt an example of it without suggesting anything You dont need to have an opinion or dissertation on the topic of dis/enfranchisement to make this observation

They said it wasn't an example of it, but then presented a historical account which only seemingly reinforces the original claim they were claiming it was not.

> only reinforces the original claim

It didn't though, the "Mme" part stands for mademoiselle, indicating it is a woman. Therefore they weren't pretending to be a man for the purpose of getting a paper published.

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#119

Post by [deleted] »

Andre607 wrote: post #115
gammateam wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They said it wasnt an example of it without suggesting anything You dont need to have an opinion or dissertation on the topic of dis/enfranchisement to make this observation

They said it wasn't an example of it, but then presented a historical account which only seemingly reinforces the original claim they were claiming it was not.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?

#120

Post by Andre607 »

leshow wrote: post #118
Andre607 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They said it wasn't an example of it, but then presented a historical account which only seemingly reinforces the original claim they were claiming it was not.

> only reinforces the original claim It didn't though, the "Mme" part stands for mademoiselle, indicating it is a woman. Therefore they weren't pretending to be a man for the purpose of getting a paper published.

> It didn't though, the "Mme" part stands for mademoiselle, indicating it is a woman. Therefore they weren't pretending to be a man for the purpose of getting a paper published.

The specific claim I was addressing is not that one had to pretend to be a man to get something published, the original claim is, once again, that it was difficult to publish under your own name as a woman, as quoted several times now:

> This probably shows how difficult it was even then to get something published under your own name as a woman

The comment that it was customary to use a husband's name preceded by Mme. thus does not negate this original claim, if anything it reinforces it.

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