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Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
71–80 of 520 posts
Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
#72There is an expression which I think is fitting, in a weird way - a successful marriage does not have to last forever. For some reason, we always tend to imagine that, once a company or organization is created, it must last forever. That for it to ‘close its doors’ or ‘wind down’ is somehow a failure. And that’s just not true; a professional athletes career does not last forever, and neither does the lifespan of most…
In fact, we consider a marriage successful if it ends in the death of one of the partners.
Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, anyone who deliberately increases the supply of something does so in an effort to diminish the price of something.
The creation of computer science degree courses did not push down the price of software engineers.
The popularization of computer science degrees absolutely did push down the price of software engineers on average. The Big Names in SV are outliers; the rest of the industry employs us at wages far closer to other professions than they could a generation ago.
Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
#74Tech industry is imploding, there is no need whatsoever to push women (or men) into a career in tech that has very limited opportunities at the moment.
More like easy tech careers that pay big from the get-go after a bootcamp are imploding. Those workers with a lot of experience and those with the skills, passion and patience, willing to push through the rough tides will be rewarded in the end. However, SW dev is still a tough career, requiring constantly learning the new things in your free time if you want to stay employable, that's not to be understated, especial…
I've been developing software for a living for 40 years now (even longer if you include when I wasn't developing software for a living) and I feel that the pace of change has dramatically slowed down in the past 10 years:
- We've stabilized web front ends
- Mobile application development has stabilized
- Architecture patterns are well-known and there are plenty of (now legacy) products with which to implement them
- Ditto with integration patterns and APIs
- We finally have security figured out (OAuth) and I now have the means to identify and authenticate a person who's not even in my own repo
- We have tools such as Copilot taking the grunt work out of coding - leaving developers to work only with the most interesting bits
- I could go on with lots of stuff that has now matured
I feel like it's easier than ever to develop software, and like I said, the pace of change is rapidly diminishing. I think software development has finally become a mature practice. Admittedly, that takes some of the fun out of it, but we knew that day was coming anyway, right?
Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, computing is a profession where historically women were not only good at it, they were nearly exclusively occupying the industry. When pay went up it inverted and that is really the problem. Men colonized computing and pushed women out only when it became a source of good income and respected as a profession.
> When pay went up it inverted and that is really the problem. Men colonized computing and pushed women out only when it became a source of good income and respected as a profession. You're using some loaded terms there. How exactly did men "push" women out of computing? Women were just as free as men to create their own tech startups. Yet in the past 50 years most tech startups and today's tech giants were created b…
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Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
#76At the risk of posting a reflexive comment, what should we be doing here? It seems like everything has unintended consequences (not on a cost-benefit basis): - Minority affinity groups pull people from majority groups and decrease integration. - Anti-discrimination/sexism/etc. movements often add social barriers to interactions (e.g. things I do within my identity group would be misperceived if done across) - Affirma…
I have seen data presented multiple times showing the relation between a country’s wealth and/or economic freedom and women’s participation in stem fields. It’s a negative correlation. I often wonder if we should just be focused on maximizing individual freedom and let the chips fall where they may. This will result in some professions with extreme sex imbalance, and we should accept that outcome.
Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, anyone who deliberately increases the supply of something does so in an effort to diminish the price of something.
The creation of computer science degree courses did not push down the price of software engineers.
You're on a boat with a hole in the bottom. The water is rushing in.
You grab a bucket and keep scooping water out, but not as fast as it rushes in.
Throwing water out of boats do not make it more buoyant.
Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
The creation of computer science degree courses did not push down the price of software engineers.
The popularization of computer science degrees absolutely did push down the price of software engineers on average. The Big Names in SV are outliers; the rest of the industry employs us at wages far closer to other professions than they could a generation ago.
This. People really do forget what it was like just before the peak of the dotcom bubble. There were companies that offered perks like a fully paid lease on a brand new Porsche 911. This wasn't just for the software engineers either.
If you could breathe on a keyboard, you could land a high-paying job.
Demand was that high.
That era of tech minted way, way, way more millionaires on average.
Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
#79At the risk of posting a reflexive comment, what should we be doing here? It seems like everything has unintended consequences (not on a cost-benefit basis): - Minority affinity groups pull people from majority groups and decrease integration. - Anti-discrimination/sexism/etc. movements often add social barriers to interactions (e.g. things I do within my identity group would be misperceived if done across) - Affirma…
>Minority affinity groups pull people from majority groups and decrease integration.
Integration === subjugation for minorities
>Anti-discrimination/sexism/etc. movements often add social barriers to interactions (e.g. things I do within my identity group would be misperceived if done across)
Indeed that's the point. You should be more mindful of things you do and say in this context.
>Affirmative action makes minorities feel like they don't deserve to be there (and often leads to resentment and other consequences)
And it pays their rent and provides social mobility for themselves and their families. We can get over the imposter syndrome; everyone has it for one reason or another. We can't get over being unemployed due to systemic biases.
Ultimately yes, for the prevailing group, DEI efforts will always feel like a personal attack. Levelling the playing field has that effect.
Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years
#80There is an expression which I think is fitting, in a weird way - a successful marriage does not have to last forever. For some reason, we always tend to imagine that, once a company or organization is created, it must last forever. That for it to ‘close its doors’ or ‘wind down’ is somehow a failure. And that’s just not true; a professional athletes career does not last forever, and neither does the lifespan of most…
In fact, we consider a marriage successful if it ends in the death of one of the partners.
That's certainly a theory that Bluebeard would subscribe to.