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God's Lonely Programmer

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Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#211

Post by vinceguidry »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #87
kstenerud wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm barely able to contain my rage at this moment, so I'll make it short. The ONLY time you're allowed to intervene is when someone's life and self image is visibly deteriorating. If it's stable, leave it the fuck alone. I've gotten into the habit of hiding what I've got because of people like you, and judging by the downvotes I'm getting, you're not alone in perpetuating the stigma and condescension. Every single "o…

That's all you have to say. "No, thank you. Please leave me alone." And then you're left alone. We live in a world where we help each other. Offering help isn't a bad thing. Some people aren't as strong as you.

> And then you're left alone.

Until the next guy does the same thing. And the next guy. And the guy after that.

This is the Internet. Don't do something like this unless you're sure there's not a problem with 1,000-10,000 other people with the same idea do the exact same thing.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#212

Post by vinceguidry »

yzzxy wrote: post #108
vinceguidry wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not this helpless, crazy clod, he has a network and friends and everything. His fate is not wholly in the hands of "average hiring managers".

So isn't help from friends or a professional network related to hiring EXACTLY what I described?

No, you're suggesting random people on the Internet who don't know him do it.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#214

Post by seabee »

peterwwillis wrote: post #72
alexbecker wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While regrettable, his hellban is entirely necessary. Almost every comment he makes refers to "f------- n------" (censorship mine). To quote one from his page of most recent comments: "I spend my days clubbing r----d-n------. CLUB! CLUB! DIE N-----! CLUB! R----D! N------! DIE!! CLUB! N-----!" That's not really something we can have on HN. (edit: right, asterisks are formatting here)

If you deal with the mentally ill you begin to see the differences between intentionally abusive behavior and behavior that's just highly erratic or unusual. Sometimes the mentally ill are dicks. But also, sometimes they just say or do things that are culturally insensitive without intending to hurt anyone's feelings, or understanding how they could do so. While I think the above comment is offensive, it also appears…

Internet eugenics^W^W Hellbanning is a lot easier to justify when pseudonymity makes it easy to pretend everyone is a healthy WASP male like you are.

That said, signal-to-noise still needs to be maintained. I think the ability to resurrect a comment from the dead when the quality is verified by others would help people like Terry Davis feel less ostracized by hellbans.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#215

Post by kaffeemitsahne »

lmm wrote: post #88

The lionization of this guy reminds me of the reporting of the Charge of the Light Brigade. All those noble British soldiers, following orders even unto death, what courage, what majesty... when what should really have been said was: what a bunch of bloody idiots, who got themselves killed for no reason. And so the same foolishness repeated throughout the first world war. So let me say it: this guy, whether through h…

In some countries they have huge working places for the mentally disabled to do pointless work. One place screws caps on bottles for a day, then they ship the bottles to another place, where they screw the caps off the bottles. I prefer TempleOS's work.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#216

Post by DanBC »

hueving wrote: post #205
king_jester wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His racism probably isn't his fault. It's probably a factor of his condition. I don't know if his racism is the result of or related to his condition. However, even if it is, so what? Why exactly does that behavior get to be overlooked as though it doesn't have a real effect on people who suffer from it? Why does he get assistance to find a job while non-white people struggle to find work in tech?

"while non-white people struggle to find work in tech?", said nobody who has ever been in Silicon Valley.

What happens if you send two identical resumes to a gajillion different jobs - the resumes are identical except one has the name "James Smith" and the other has the name "Jamal Jackson".

Luckily, other people have done this for us:

http://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/discrimination-jo...

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#217

Post by vinceguidry »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #115
kstenerud wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I could impart upon you the disempowering effect of condescension. When you "offer help" to someone who is happy with where they're at, and not in distress, you're basically telling them that they probably can't make it without you stepping in to support them. You're telling them that they, the wretched ones, are dependent upon the real people, who come down from on high to help them sort their obviously broke…

I appreciate the perspective. I'm here to learn and to understand. It's very difficult to understand this, but I can see how it might be true. If that's the case, the only alternative seems to be not to offer help to anyone. Is that preferable, especially if the entire world starts behaving like that? It just seems like "Hey, do you need any help?" can't possibly be a negative. But I'm willing to accept I could be wr…

Just use your judgment. Terry is a very well-known figure around here. If you really want to help, the first thing to do would be to find someone who's connected to him and ask them about his life and if there's anything that can be done.

Now if you really thought they were all alone and had nobody, then you might reach out. See if they need a friend. A lot of people, that's the very best thing you can do for them. This is a rich country. There's plenty of material resources and avenues for getting material resources to take advantage of.

But that's what everybody wants to push him, like here, have this job, this will fix you. Tact, friendship, companionship, these things are in shorter supply. You offering him the former without even trying to accommodate his needs regarding the latter, is not being helpful.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#218

Post by seanmcdirmid »

hueving wrote: post #205
king_jester wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His racism probably isn't his fault. It's probably a factor of his condition. I don't know if his racism is the result of or related to his condition. However, even if it is, so what? Why exactly does that behavior get to be overlooked as though it doesn't have a real effect on people who suffer from it? Why does he get assistance to find a job while non-white people struggle to find work in tech?

"while non-white people struggle to find work in tech?", said nobody who has ever been in Silicon Valley.

The definition of "whiteness" in discrimination actually isn't very well correlated to skin color; e.g. Irish people until recently were considered to be "black", and in the UK, still kind of are. Some non-white people like Asians are often considered white in many contexts (like tech hiring in the USA). Try applying for a job in Beijing as a Uighur and even though your skin is whiter than Han, you are still going to have lots problems.

It is basically bias of ethnicity that transcends skin color.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#219

Post by _exec »

lmm wrote: post #173
nekopa wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hold on, let me get this straight: You think that someone who does what he does because he honestly believes he is doing god's work (because of a mental illness) is a dumbass? Next you'll call John Nash fucking retarded for being afraid of men in red ties.

Nash was great in spite of his issues, not because of them; his work was a real, useful contribution to human knowledge, because (in contrast to this guy) he worked with the wider mathematical community, which then in turn later built on his work. Being afraid of men in red ties is still a dumb thing to do, and won't make you a great mathematician. We romanticize the outsiders, but the great bulk of the mathematical…

What about Erdős :) ?

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#220

Post by rantanplan »

jcromartie wrote: post #118
anigbrowl wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a problem in the same way that Tourette's Syndrome often creates employment problems (some people with TS have an uncontrollable urge to swear a lot, a problem known as coprolalia - this can make it hard to get served as a customer in a store, never mind hold down a job). You gotta treat God as entertainment, mostly. He's not prophetic in this. I caution against latching onto any particular thing He says. If I…

Coprolalia: Latin for "poop talk"

It's Greek, not Latin.
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