Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male • Hacker News Board

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#91

Post by lutusp » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

dpritchett wrote: post #69

lutusp wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Only because you're so sure of yourself, I have to correct you. 1. I'm 67. Here's my Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus 2. Here is a list of my recent Android apps: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=paul+lutus&c=apps 3. I was proba…

Sure, but did you win the Putnam?

I'd love to be able to qualify to compete in the Putnam, much less win. I can speak math reasonably well:

http://arachnoid.com/gravity

But I'm not in the Putnam class, more's the pity.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#92

Post by lutusp » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:46 PM UTC

zerostar07 wrote: post #89

lutusp wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally i think there's a lot more to learn from seasoned developers ... Thanks, but for balance, I recently had a conversation with a talented young developer who, unlike me, is fully conversant with modern times. I said, "How do the Angry Birds developers make money if they give away their app?" He patiently replied, "It shows advertisements." My mid-20th century brain slowly wrapped itself around this idea: a…

That's not really a programming/development concept.

Making money? Only if the programmer under discussion is a salaried employee, disconnected from any economic issues apart from being paid regularly.

Some programmers still market what they write. Granted, this is a shrinking sector.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#93

Post by pixelbath » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:48 PM UTC

I find it interesting that DoubleClick (Google) claims to have accurate data about HN's demographics when HN doesn't use ads or the DoubleClick network.

I've seen a few people mention "tracking cookies" that DoubleClick leaves on your machine. Without something on a HN page serving content from an ad network page, cookies won't work that way.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#94

Post by lutusp » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:50 PM UTC

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #90

lutusp wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Only because you're so sure of yourself, I have to correct you. 1. I'm 67. Here's my Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus 2. Here is a list of my recent Android apps: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=paul+lutus&c=apps 3. I was proba…

Hey. I read your sailing book and absolutely loved it!

Thanks! For others, here's a link to the free online version:

http://arachnoid.com/sailbook

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#95

Post by hnriot » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 6:21 PM UTC

_p62c wrote: post #34

sbierwagen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

39 people who are either lying or accidentally clicked on the first option.

I'm not sure you are correct, I began teaching my little sister the most basic forms of programming a few months ago, she's 9 and now she can easily form and use arrays, functions, database loops and simple OOP. She isn't anywhere near what I would consider a "good" programmer, but she is capable and for her age her intelligence level is phenomenal.

this is great, but it says nothing about how likely a 0-10 year old would be to find the content on hn interesting for any period of time.

it's pretty obvious people are either unable to read, or more likely deliberately trying to skew the results. There will always be those that try to break things, the ones that were likely bullies in high school, didn't get laid in college and are now bored and discontented in their jobs. it's a fraction of every group, but always present.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#96

Post by astrodust » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 6:35 PM UTC

lutusp wrote: post #55

astrodust wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. Only because you're so sure of yourself, I have to correct you. 1. I'm 67. Here's my Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus 2. Here is a list of my recent Android apps: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=paul+lutus&c=apps 3. I was proba…

Apparently people take offense when you talk about things in general terms. Why is it out of place to say that people who are 60+ who do program are the exception? It was not really a career open to most people forty years ago, it was a rather exclusive field or one left to brave adventurers and hobbyists.

You've been a developer for some time. How many people in your age group do you know that have recently taken up that as a career path?

And no, you weren't programming before I was born.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#97

Post by astrodust » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 6:37 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #79

astrodust wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There aren't many 20 year olds, but there are even fewer 60 year olds. That's all I'm saying.

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#98

Post by zargon » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 7:01 PM UTC

lutusp wrote: post #85

zerostar07 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, he hasn't always been an android developer, plus the guy hasn't always been a developer (designed electronics for NASA before). You really believe anyone can write their wikipedia page and not have it deleted within 10 seconds? Personally i think there's a lot more to learn from seasoned developers who have literally seen it all, rather than the next-instagram-wannabe boys that frequent here.

> Personally i think there's a lot more to learn from seasoned developers ... Thanks, but for balance, I recently had a conversation with a talented young developer who, unlike me, is fully conversant with modern times. I said, "How do the Angry Birds developers make money if they give away their app?" He patiently replied, "It shows advertisements." My mid-20th century brain slowly wrapped itself around this idea: a…

They also sell lots of Angry Birds merchandise. Clothing and plushies and pencil erasers and coloring books and keychains and usb drives and multitudes of other branded products. This article says that 30% of their revenue comes from merchandising and licensing: http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/roundup/rovio...

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#99

Post by nacker » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 9:48 PM UTC

lutusp wrote: post #84

nacker wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your personal website is fascinating! Particularly the anti-psychology and Aspergers material. This piece was extremely well written and intructive: http://arachnoid.com/psychology/aspergers.php

> This piece was extremely well written and intructive: > http://arachnoid.com/psychology/aspergers.php Thanks, but my latest article is better IMHO, as well as more up-to-date: http://arachnoid.com/trouble_with_psychology Thanks again for your support.

I enjoyed the personal story, it was quite gripping!

Inspired by "Broca's Brain" by Carl Sagan, I made it halfway through medical school with the intention of being a psychiatrist, before I finally realized that, on closer examination, psychiatry was not only a scam, but actually pernicious, repressive and evil!

Re: Hacker News is 44% 18-24 year olds, 77% male

#100

Post by roguecoder » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 10:14 PM UTC

rdl wrote: post #53

I wonder how different the stats are for casual users (browsing headlines once or twice a month), people who read all the interesting links on the frontpage, those who read comments, those who sometimes comment, and those who routinely comment. I can only thing of a few female commenters. zero on http://news.ycombinator.com/leaders right?

The leaders were probably commenting 3 years ago when the site was, from other stats on this page, 95% male. I see quite a few women who regularly comment: DaniFong, Dove and tessr, off the top of my head. Never mind those that don't mention gender or IRL identity, or have user names that are read as male.

"I don't notice any women here" =/= "There are no women here".