Mistakes we've made
hackerschool.com
Mistakes we've made
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: Mistakes we've made
#2 presents strong evidence that this language is gendered.
We've since stopped saying that people must "love"
programming
Re: Mistakes we've made
#3presents strong evidence that this language is gendered. We've since stopped saying that people must "love" programming Could someone expand on this point and explain how the "love programming" phrasing is gendered?
The linked book (Unlocking the Clubhouse[1]) is based off a multi-year study of Carnegie Mellon CS majors. They found it was common for the male CS majors to describe themselves as "in love" with programming but much less common for female CS majors to do so.
(That's obviously greatly simplified, but that's the gist of it.)
Re: Mistakes we've made
#4 We shouldn't have named our company "Hacker School."
Both parts of our name have caused us trouble: Hacker
because so many people take it to mean a person who
breaks into computers rather than a clever programmer.
Re: Mistakes we've made
#5For what it's worth I still think the name is great. The meaning of words change. The identity of Hacker School is strong, and I could easily see it deciding what hacker and school means in the future, not unlike YC and the words hacker and incubator. Granted, it's an uphill battle, but the name recognition is strong, unlike Foo Bootcamp (I might be biased in this regard, but friends have remembered the name without being prompting just because it sounds cool).
Re: Mistakes we've made
#6presents strong evidence that this language is gendered. We've since stopped saying that people must "love" programming Could someone expand on this point and explain how the "love programming" phrasing is gendered?
The linked book ( Unlocking the Clubhouse [1]) is based off a multi-year study of Carnegie Mellon CS majors. They found it was common for the male CS majors to describe themselves as "in love" with programming but much less common for female CS majors to do so. (That's obviously greatly simplified, but that's the gist of it.) [1] http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/unlocking-clubhouse
That doesn't imply that "love" is a gendered word, it implies that males use the word more.
Re: Mistakes we've made
#7We shouldn't have named our company "Hacker School." Both parts of our name have caused us trouble: Hacker because so many people take it to mean a person who breaks into computers rather than a clever programmer. Why would that matter? Everyone who's interested in Hacker School is a hacker and understands the true meaning of the word.
That was initially our assumption, but we've learned that there are some people who are interested in (and ultimately great fits for) Hacker School who don't primarily interpret the word as we do.
Also, while most people who come to Hacker School understand our use of hacker, many of their families and friends don't. And that's caused Hacker Schoolers a surprising amount of annoyance ("What do you mean you're quitting your job and moving to New York for Hacker School?!")
Re: Mistakes we've made
#8For what it's worth I still think the name is great. The meaning of words change. The identity of Hacker School is strong, and I could easily see it deciding what hacker and school means in the future, not unlike YC and the words hacker and incubator. Granted, it's an uphill battle, but the name recognition is strong, unlike Foo Bootcamp (I might be biased in this regard, but friends have remembered the name without…
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Re: Mistakes we've made
#9We shouldn't have named our company "Hacker School." Both parts of our name have caused us trouble: Hacker because so many people take it to mean a person who breaks into computers rather than a clever programmer. Why would that matter? Everyone who's interested in Hacker School is a hacker and understands the true meaning of the word.
> Why would that matter? Everyone who's interested in Hacker School is a hacker and understands the true meaning of the word.
No, not everyone who is a hacker (in the clever programmer sense) understands the word primarily in that sense. And, furthermore, not everyone who would be interested in what Hacker School offers is already a hacker (in the sense at issue), though presumably going to Hacker School would make it more likely that they would be.
Re: Mistakes we've made
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
The linked book ( Unlocking the Clubhouse [1]) is based off a multi-year study of Carnegie Mellon CS majors. They found it was common for the male CS majors to describe themselves as "in love" with programming but much less common for female CS majors to do so. (That's obviously greatly simplified, but that's the gist of it.) [1] http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/unlocking-clubhouse
That doesn't imply that "love" is a gendered word, it implies that males use the word more.
It suggests (but certainly does not, as described, certainly establish) that the associating the term with a particular kind of affection for a vocation may be tied to gender, and therefore that suggesting that identifying with the use of that term in that relation as a qualification for a program like Hacker School may be an unintentional gender filter.
Interestingly, I'd never thought about that previously but as soon as I saw a reference to it I realized that I'd much less frequently seen women use the term in that context (with regard to vocational activities) compared to men, so, while I don't know that different word usage by gender is really the issue, I see that it certainly could be, and that it makes sense to avoid that usage in the context Hacker School was using it.