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I don’t belong in tech

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Re: I don’t belong in tech

#161

Post by dwaltrip »

angersock wrote: post #115
danso wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a condescending comment because there are many designers who have to design for the real world. It's no less condescending than saying someone should go into programming where they just have to type out code all day and not face the real world.

That's exactly why software engineering is more attractive than hardware engineering though? A condescending comment would be something like: "Maybe you should stick to your pretty R graphs for 'journalism' and leave discussion of software engineering to the professionals who actually get paid to build systems and who haven't, as a profession, fucked up on every metric in the last decade even without including the mo…

If a designer doesn't confront reality while creating a design, then I would say they have failed miserably. Perhaps you are right, and few designers are successful in this regard.

Re: I don’t belong in tech

#162

Post by wycats »

s_q_b wrote: post #150
wycats wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That hasn't happened here, so your opposition is, itself, raising spectres.

The writing is starkly clear. The piece is also listed above, so I am confident the other readers can reach their own conclusions. Secondly, if any spectres be raised, so be it. Scorn is a badge of honor if earned when speaking the truth.

But receiving scorn is no evidence of speaking the truth. A death spiral looms from this confusion.

Re: I don’t belong in tech

#163

Post by sctb »

thro32 wrote: post #74

I agree. As someone with wrong gender, I strugle to find good job in tech. With right gender my chances would be twice better.

We've already asked you to please not introduce flamewar topics like this, so we've banned the account. We're happy to unban accounts if you email us at hn@ycombinator.com and we believe you'll post within the guidelines in the future.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13044957 and marked it off-topic.

Re: I don’t belong in tech

#164

Post by pjmorris »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #160
pjmorris wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tech is big, no need to quit all of it. “Well if no one out there understands, start your own revolution and cut out the middle man” - Billy Bragg, Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards Bragg was writing about the tension between being a musician and being a political activist rather than the tension between problem understanding and problem solving, but the tension seems to be everywhere. I've got a friend who was f…

> I've got a friend who was frustrated about how little his PhD had to do with philosophy because there was no time for that, only time to publish. I don't understand. He studied philosophy but ended up writing a thesis that was only tangentially related to the field? Or he assumed that "Doctor of Philosophy" was related to the field of philosophy, and was disappointed that he couldn't talk about Plato while writing…

More like the later, but less extreme. Disappointed that there wasn't time to talk about the philosophical aspects of computer science in a degree named `Doctor of Philosophy'.

Re: I don’t belong in tech

#165

Post by sctb »

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #106
thro32 wrote: post #74

I agree. As someone with wrong gender, I strugle to find good job in tech. With right gender my chances would be twice better.

If you come across in real life the way you do in your posts, I wouldn't want to hire you either.

No matter what you're replying to, this isn't the kind of comment we need on HN. You know this! So please don't.

Re: I don’t belong in tech

#166

Post by thro32 »

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #142
johnnydoebk wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if I were to make a decision based on HN comments, I'd hire @thro32, no joke. I've read all the comments and their author makes an impression of an interesting person with a broad outlook.

He's a self-described MRA, that's not compatible with any kind of healthy workplace culture.

There is a joke that every hardcore feminist becomes MRA once her son/husband gets into trouble ;-)

Re: I don’t belong in tech

#167

Post by thr23e902 »

sctb wrote: post #163
thro32 wrote: post #74

I agree. As someone with wrong gender, I strugle to find good job in tech. With right gender my chances would be twice better.

We've already asked you to please not introduce flamewar topics like this, so we've banned the account. We're happy to unban accounts if you email us at hn@ycombinator.com and we believe you'll post within the guidelines in the future. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13044957 and marked it off-topic.

But you left parent comment which was 'offended' over disclaimer. I am done with HN community. Enjoy your bigotry.

Re: I don’t belong in tech

#168

Post by fram »

woah wrote: post #38
rm999 wrote: post #23

The author makes some great points that I initially wanted to dismiss, but I think are actually really interesting. Unlike many other types of engineering/craft, most experienced software developers have settled on an aversion to perfectionism. A good carpenter wants to build a solid house even if no one will ever see its frame. Ditto to an auto engineer at BMW, or a hardware engineer at Apple, or a mechanical engine…

I'll have to disagree. I used to be a carpenter and the objective is definitely not to be perfect. Building anything, houses or apps, the objective is to work within tolerances. The modern system of 2x4 framing and drywall allows those tolerances to be very loose without affecting the end product, but I digress. Would you prefer a half-finished house with perfectly cut studs (that you can't see inside the drywall), o…

Not really the same thing though. A low cost house still has to function and is enabled by the use of modern fabrication techniques and things like power tools. Just like you can build less refined web applications with frameworks and cloud services. If the walls crack, the paint chips, wiring starts a fire and the drywall wasn't fire resistant that would be considered bad craftsmanship and you'll probably be liable for a fair amount. In modern software development the equivalent is common place.

I think the attitude of doing less things better is quite common among successful software developers. It's just hard these days to have a good experience while getting to a level where these values matter.

Re: I don’t belong in tech

#170

Post by chris_wot »

dcole2929 wrote: post #130
chris_wot wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not entirely sure that she's right in tarring the whole industry with the same brush. Taking a bug out to tea is fantastic, because it really is about understanding the problem. But she conflates maintenance coding and program writing. There is a lot of half-baked software out there, but to say that this isn't like any other industry - like journalism - is really patently absurd. Despite best intentions, journali…

I think the difference is in how the two industries she are comparing here fundamentally treat mistakes. In journalism, you might not get fired immediately for a mistake like that but certainly you're going to get reprimanded and told how unacceptable that is. Your company is absolutely going to run a correction at the first opportunity they get. Any mistake is treated as a major embarrassment by staff of a respectab…

A bit hard to respond at the moment, I've been rate limited!
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