Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why?
Take a look at the HN circle on Google+. That's definitely not just 77% male.
Neither is Google+. It's not representative of anything.
Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male
71–80 of 101 posts
Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male
#72This poll from a year ago regarding age is probably more representative: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175588 Results pasted here: Age Points --- ------ 0-10 39 (0.6%) 11-15 32 (0.5%) 16-20 462 (7.5%) 21-25 1620 (26.4%) 26-30 1945 (31.6%) 31-35 1049 (17.1%) 36-40 488 (7.9%) 41-45 269 (4.4%) 46-50 117 (1.9%) 51-55 54 (0.9%) 56-60 35 (0.6%) 61-65 19 (0.3%) 66+ 19 (0.3%) edit: Found a male/female poll here from ~…
egor83 graphed several polls here:
http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=2175...
http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3298...
http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3786...
original:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4398621
original Hacker News demographics post:
Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male
#73Remember that any external analytics can only report on viewers, not members.
Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male
#74Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male
#75Where is the information about the methodology of the survey? The submitted article says the "survey" is based on DoubleClick Ad Planner, https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=branding... a Google service, but it's not explained how DoubleClick knows about (for example) users who habitually block cookies and the like, and anyway how does DoubleClick match its data sources with the overall population tha…
Well lets check result of their methodology with other data.
For example for Slashdot. Geeknet provides very different data http://geek.net/our-network/slashdot/
Linked article suggest almost 50% in age 35-54 but geeknet stats says it's only 5%. I cannot find it now but someone wrote that about 1/4 or 1/3 of slashdot audience are female which again differs from result in article.
I looks like that either US audience is very different from global(although it seems unlikely on US centric site like Slashdot) or methodology of linked article indeed is far from perfect. Obviously I checked only one site from article and there are other possibilities (like geeknet lying or having bad methodology itself), but I would take pingdom report with a big grain of salt.
Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male
#76This honestly makes me pretty curious. I thought the 25-34 range would be larger, especially compared to other sites that seem to have a much less professional atmosphere(Reddit, etc). Hacker News certainly isn't some bastion of intelligent thought and discourse, but it's definitely above average in that, which makes me wonder if the 18-24 year olds are just keeping quiet in the comments, if they're really that smart…
Maturity and intelligence don't go hand in hand. Most of my intelligent friends act immature on a regular basis, and most of the older, 'more mature' people I work with don't display any noteworthy level of intelligence.
It's also pretty easy for anyone to act politely if they want to. Combine this with the generally accepted notion that a lot of intelligent young people are cocky and egotistical and maturity doesn't have much to do with intelligence at all (IMHO).
Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are few on HN that claim they started programming at the age of 3 to 8. I'm guessing it's either them or their offsprings... On a more serious note, does anyone still trust online survey results?
In my opinion starting programming at a young age is almost orthogonal to being interested in HN links and discussions from a young age, mostly because kids have other interests than adults, even if they like programming. I'm not saying that there aren't any children reading HN btw.
I'm fifteen and have been reading HN for more than a year now, and I would have to agree. The content on HN is interesting for those who intend to make a career out of technology, not necessarily those who program solely because it's fun.
Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aren't you proving the parents point? He was saying the only 60+ developers have always been developers... Also, having a wikipedia page that you wrote yourself, doesn't really say anything...
> Also, having a wikipedia page that you wrote yourself, doesn't really say anything... I didn't write the Wikipedia page. If you think otherwise, locate evidence to the contrary, like a responsible adult. And if you cannot locate evidence to the contrary, ask yourself whether you really want to go on record saying what you have just said about a named person.
Your personal website is fascinating! Particularly the anti-psychology and Aspergers material. This piece was extremely well written and intructive:
Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a pretty out-of-touch statement. The Web has been around 20 years now. There's plenty of 60+ years olds in many far-reaching corners. Smart startups would be thinking about that.
What I mean is that there aren't many 60+ year old people that think "Hey, you know what, I'm going to develop an Android application." It just doesn't come up. The adoption rate of technology is always slower in older age groups. The way technology is used between 20-40 and 40-60 is enormous. Between 40-60 and 60-80 is even more dramatic.
To be fair, there aren't many 20 year olds who think that, either. There are many on college campuses who have Macbooks and iPhones just so they can check Facebook.