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Pixels don’t care

warpspire.com

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Re: Pixels don’t care

#101

Post by robmcm »

chimeracoder wrote: post #80
austenallred wrote: post #66

I started out as a 13-year-old entrepreneur selling stuff on eBay (which was pretty new at the time). There was a loophole when they first opened where you could sign up under someone else's name and switch all of the records over to your name; that way you didn't have to be 18 to register. I first grew to love the Internet as the only real meritocracy I experienced in life. No one knew I was 13. When I talked to peo…

> While the Internet is no longer as anonymous > You don't know who I am from this comment (unless you stalk my bio and find me on Twitter). If you like it you'll upvote it. That's exactly (one of the many reasons) why I love the Internet. That's the one sad thing, though: as you yourself point out, the Internet is moving in a direction where this concept of an anonymous meritocracy is already becoming more and more…

I agree it's becoming a lot easier to find out who people are on the internet, but its still very easy to create a new pseudonym and no one will know who you are :)

Re: Pixels don’t care

#102

Post by enry_straker »

kstenerud wrote: post #61
kneath wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be a great argument if my peers had formal education or experience with big clients. None of them did. There is no "point" to be made by my post, rather a description of two vastly different ways I was treated for the same work I was doing during the same point in my life — one online, one in person.

All the same, you should be careful about using deductive reasoning in this way. You're assuming that the only criteria upon which you were measured were formal education and experience with big clients, but what about how you struck them emotionally? Did you have that trustworthy/hardworking/whatever air about you that perhaps some of your colleagues had? Did your mode of dress impress them as much as for other cand…

You might not be saying it, but you certainly are implying it.

It's possible to nit-pick potential reasons for bias against some unknown stranger on the internet while discounting his actual experiences and feelings.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#103

Post by Heliosmaster »

sneak wrote: post #90
kneath wrote: post #74

(Author here) Just wanted to clarify, since it seems a lot of people seem to think I'm frustrated with being discriminated against. I'm not. It's a fact of life. I got over it pretty early in life. I love being short, it's fucking awesome. If ever you meet me, you'd probably agree I don't have an issue with it. I wrote this article to illustrate the power of the internet and this industry we work in. I used two examp…

I secretly cringed after that time we were in Berlin and I told that terrible "Have you guys... SEEN KYLE??! (He's about this tall.)" joke. (For those that don't know it, you extend your right arm out, palm down, horizontally, while saying the last part loudly.) It wasn't until after I'd said it that a) I realized that it was totally and absolutely illegal to tell there and b) that I was calling attention to the heig…

a little explanation for those who not get it: he said something which resembles "sieg heil" (hail victory!) while doing something which resembles the nazi gesture, i.e. the two parts of the nazi salute.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#104

Post by tucson »

anonymous wrote: post #97
sneak wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I secretly cringed after that time we were in Berlin and I told that terrible "Have you guys... SEEN KYLE??! (He's about this tall.)" joke. (For those that don't know it, you extend your right arm out, palm down, horizontally, while saying the last part loudly.) It wasn't until after I'd said it that a) I realized that it was totally and absolutely illegal to tell there and b) that I was calling attention to the heig…

That's a common misconception. Making fun of nazism is allowed. Spreading propaganda that nazism is the best thing since sliced bread is not.

> "Making fun of nazism is allowed."

Making jokes using the word "Nazi" is common in America and England but is not well received by German people. I would recommend not making this type of jokes in Germany.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#105

Post by csomar »

geon wrote: post #58
dhaivatpandya wrote: post #25

I totally agree with the "too young" thing. I'm 15 and been freelancing since I was 12, and this gets in the way all the time . People try to take advantage of you once they realize that you're young(er) than most in the field.

Unless you are a prodigy, you simply haven't had the time yet to become really good at anything. Supposedly it takes 10.000 hours or so of exercise, which would be 9 years at 3 hours daily. I'm not trying to push you down, and anyone not paying you what your work is worth is definitely taking advantage of you.

He doesn't have to be a rock-star to be able to freelance and charge decent rates. Also, it's not about the quantity of hours spent; it's also about the quality and focus.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#107

Post by robotmay »

twodayslate wrote: post #2

Good for him. My brother had a similar experience selling things online. If you are able to write professionally, people are more willing to trust you - even if you are 13.

Back when I was 14 I played quite a lot of Phantasy Star Online on the Xbox (which had a very small community). My voice broke a year or two beforehand, and I was pretty respectful and eloquent. I had people constantly looking to me for advice and help, under the assumption I was significantly older (I have a pretty low voice). It was quite nice being treated as an adult years before people would treat me the same in person.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#108

Post by blablabla123 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #16

Silicon Valley has a strange fixation on age which waffles between discrimination and fetishisation. I started working as a trader at a Swiss bank in New York when I was 20. There were lots of jokes cracked about "traders south of the drinking age" and the number mattered more to some than others, but in the end it was meritocratic. When I was 21 (after leaving the bank), I interviewed at a well-regarded Palo Alto-ba…

Yes probably 25 is the perfect age -- and even then some (unprofessional) professionals will still consider you too young to seriously talk to. But the most amazing fact is this: these kind of people who do this discrimination probably also discriminate against people who are older than themselves. And one day chances are they will be discrimininated against for that.

This definitely must change, everywhere.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#109

Post by corporalagumbo »

enry_straker wrote: post #102
kstenerud wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the same, you should be careful about using deductive reasoning in this way. You're assuming that the only criteria upon which you were measured were formal education and experience with big clients, but what about how you struck them emotionally? Did you have that trustworthy/hardworking/whatever air about you that perhaps some of your colleagues had? Did your mode of dress impress them as much as for other cand…

You might not be saying it, but you certainly are implying it. It's possible to nit-pick potential reasons for bias against some unknown stranger on the internet while discounting his actual experiences and feelings.

It's also reasonable to ask whether there is another side to someone's story beyond what they're telling you.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#110

Post by corporalagumbo »

graeme wrote: post #59
kneath wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be a great argument if my peers had formal education or experience with big clients. None of them did. There is no "point" to be made by my post, rather a description of two vastly different ways I was treated for the same work I was doing during the same point in my life — one online, one in person.

As an anecdote: I'm 5'6", and I don't think this has been a barrier to anything. I've had to be more careful about my appearance, of course. My clothes fit well, I'm lean, and I work out. Despite my diminutive stature, men get out of my way, because I look strong and I walk confidently. Men didn't do this until I got strong. I get looks from girls all the time. They don't seem to care that I'm in about the 2nd percen…

How much does it matter to you that you're taken seriously? Does it satisfy you that you intimidate other men and get attention from women?
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