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Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

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Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#201

Post by laumars »

lurker14 wrote: post #181
laumars wrote: post #105

"Computer languages and “real” languages are actually very similar." I really couldn't disagree with that more. Sure, some languages' syntax borrow English words (Python, Pascal, VB, etc), but that's such a minor similarity. Those words are completely arbitrary and the syntax could have been in Klingon for all the difference it would make to the compiler. Computer languages are a maths language; albeit a very very du…

Natural-language likeness, with all its weirdness and power, was an explicit design goal of Larry Wall's perl, a language which was instrumental in creating the WWW as we know it.

That may have been true for it's original goals, but as a UNIX developer who's primary language is Perl, I can assure you that the modern day implementation (read Perl 5.8+) is anything but pseudo-English.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#202

Post by jrogers65 »

illuminate wrote: post #189
jrogers65 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, yes, people do have to walk on eggshells around here. I am walking on eggshells right now for I can not express myself freely in a forum like this without suffering from social manipulation (downvoting, hellbanning). And this is while adhering to practices such as "no personal insults". In a place like this, you get banned for disagreeing, let alone speaking in an "unapproved" way. This place is hardly an e…

"I am walking on eggshells right now for I can not express myself freely in a forum like this without suffering from social manipulation (downvoting, hellbanning)" That's certainly a good sign that social sanctions for sexism, racism, etc work. People ~should~ think before they speak, much more than they do in most sites and blogs.

I apologise if I'm misinterpreting but did you just insinuate that I'm holding back racist comments?

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#203

Post by jamesmiller5 »

jrogers65 wrote: post #139
kalkin wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeez, as far as I can tell the person you're replying to is just defending affirmative action.

Many people argue that affirmative action is institutionalized racism.

Those people probably don't understand how much of a disadvantage minorities face even in this day and age.

I used to be against affirmative action until I realized how many more opportunities were offered to me simply because of my culture and the expectations of my culture for me.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#204

Post by papsosouid »

eliza1wright wrote: post #180
michaelochurch wrote: post #113

I'll make a controversial observation, but it's worthy of discussion. If you're a woman of average or better looks, you have one under-spoken superpower. Namely, how you interact with other men will have a huge effect on their social status. I'm not talking about overt flirtation (don't do it) or office relationships (avoid, avoid, avoid). I'm talking about more subtle stuff, like who a woman smiles at, who she initi…

I think your theory hinges on the idea that most, if not all, of the players in this scenario are single. I work in a start-up environment with a bunch of men, but most of them are married or in a committed relationship. For what it's worth, I'm engaged. The whole "mysterious feminine influence" thing that you're talking about tends to disappear when people don't see you as a potential romantic/flirting partner. I th…

>I think your theory hinges on the idea that most, if not all, of the players in this scenario are single

Not at all. In fact, he was quite clear that this has nothing to do with flirting or relationships in any way. It is simply that female approval is a huge factor in social status. Men instinctively view other men as more powerful, more competent, and respect them more if a women asks him a question instead of asking one of the other dozen men. There is nothing sexual about it, relationship status doesn't matter at all.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#205

Post by crusso »

illuminate wrote: post #197
crusso wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political Correctness is about hypersensitivity to possible insult to the point that using direct and clear communication is frowned upon in the public discourse. Political Correctness is an extraordinarily sad advance of style over substance that has attempted to address the language used to describe problems in our society over actually addressing the problems themselves. Ultimately, Political Correctness is yet an…

Your assumption that "direct and clear communication" requires that you use offensive and exclusive phrasings is false, and your complaints about your inability to exert "power" over others are unmoving. "they've had so much trouble trying to legislate against the First Amendment" If you believe proper behavior has anything to do with the First Amendment it would do you better to read the US Constitution.

your complaints about your inability to exert "power" over others are unmoving

Huh? Were you trying to reply to someone else's post? That's the OPPOSITE of what I said and your other two "points" are straw men at best.

Ironic that you'd attempt to defend control of speech to prevent giving offense by offensively misrepresenting my position. Ranks right up there with the grandfather poster's accusation that those committing the sin of Political Incorrectness are "lazy".

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#206

Post by jrogers65 »

kalkin wrote: post #194
jrogers65 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps our definitions of institutional racism differ but I'm going by the dictionary definition: >Accepted social arrangements that exclude on the basis of race. Source: http://dictionary.babylon.com/institutional_racism/ As such, affirmative action fits the bill. Martin Luther King Jr preached that since whites had actively harmed blacks through the practice of slavery, they should do something special to fix it.…

I don't think "here's the dictionary definition" is usually a useful argument, but in any case it's hard for me to see affirmative action as "excluding" white people, since it's generally practiced in fields where they remain dominant. I agree that in a world where racial discrimination is a thing of the distant past, affirmative action wouldn't make sense. But that's not our world. See for example: http://scholar.ha…

If the issue is that people are suffering prejudice based on their names then a better solution is to mask the names during the initial screening as opposed to making it a point to hire someone based on race. I'm sure that a study exploring the effects of different "white-sounding" names would see differences too.

Also note that the study does not draw any correlation between racism and the judgement of a name. Given people's tendency to be averse to things they are not familiar with, it's possible that it's a problem of someone not being comfortable with a culture they don't understand and not necessarily a problem with skin color.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#207

Post by jrogers65 »

blazay_blazay wrote: post #192
jrogers65 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd just like to express my astonishment and disgust at the fact that there are people who defend sexism and prejudice in this day and age. People like you make me ashamed to be human.

So you are opposed to separate male and female lavatories?

I'm starting to get tired of responding to gaslighting comments like these.

Do you honestly not understand that males and females are biologically different (and so have preferences for different types of ways to dispose waste), that they have strong emotional reactions when seeing each other nude or partially nude and that they might be embarrassed if a member of the opposite sex heard them taking a shit?

For the record, a lot of countries do have unisex toilets and that works out just fine too.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#208

Post by papsosouid »

atomical wrote: post #4

"This is a bit of a delicate topic. Quite often I am the only female person in the team and have to be careful not to take advantage of the perks that come with it. Guys are fascinated and scared by girls who roll up their sleeves and take on a job that society labels as “men’s work”. If you’ve ever drilled a hole, skinned a rabbit, or changed a tyre you know what I mean. As I mentioned earlier, guys will definitely…

>Never experienced this

Privilege blindness doesn't just apply to straight white men. The relationship status of the people has nothing to do with it. Men are instinctively predisposed to helping women. Women can and do take advantage of this, and generally don't recognize or acknowledge that they are doing so. You don't see it, because you've lived it your entire life and it is normal.

How many times has a woman put a new water bottle in the water cooler here? I know the exact number, because it is zero. All of the women here are fully capable of doing it, yet they ask men to do it. And how often do men say no? This is very obvious when looking at tasks that are considered stereotypically "men's work" like lifting something, but it applies just as much to anything else.

I've watched my wife get men to do her work for her several times. She simply asks them to do it, and they say yes. When I point it out to her, she insists that they would have done the same for a man, and that had she asked a woman they would have done it for her too. Yet, she never asks another woman to do it, and I know I sure wouldn't do it if a man were asking me. She is taking advantage of being female, and it is so deeply ingrained that it comes naturally and she doesn't recognize that she's doing it.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#209

Post by papsosouid »

illuminate wrote: post #197
crusso wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political Correctness is about hypersensitivity to possible insult to the point that using direct and clear communication is frowned upon in the public discourse. Political Correctness is an extraordinarily sad advance of style over substance that has attempted to address the language used to describe problems in our society over actually addressing the problems themselves. Ultimately, Political Correctness is yet an…

Your assumption that "direct and clear communication" requires that you use offensive and exclusive phrasings is false, and your complaints about your inability to exert "power" over others are unmoving. "they've had so much trouble trying to legislate against the First Amendment" If you believe proper behavior has anything to do with the First Amendment it would do you better to read the US Constitution.

>Your assumption that "direct and clear communication" requires that you use offensive and exclusive phrasings is false

Offense is taken, not given. I am offended by your post, are you going to delete it and apologize? I would hope not, because that is absurd. You don't have the right to use a meaningless word like "offended" to control other people's speech.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#210

Post by papsosouid »

rmc wrote: post #182
yummyfajitas wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not remotely close to what "easy mode" and "hard mode" mean in video games. I'm now convinced this meme should die since it obscures more than it helps. Hard mode is not "elevated chance of Balrog attacks, reduced chance of Death Knight attacks". And as you correctly note, the statistical reference class of men have it easier (in some regards), and harder in other regards. For example: "If a straight woman wi…

This is not remotely close to what "easy mode" and "hard mode" mean in video games. … Hard mode is not "elevated chance of Balrog attacks, reduced chance of Death Knight attacks". Yes it is. Some video games have "the enemies are easier on you" and "bad things less likely to happen" as factors that are controlled by easy mode/hard mode. Anyway, it's just an analogy. And as you correctly note, the statistical referenc…

>Yes it is.

No, it isn't. Hard mode would be elevated chance of balrog and death knight attacks. Not a trade off where one is more common and the other less common. That doesn't make it harder, merely different.

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