When I play softball is what feels like the only time I meet someone who isn't a programmer here. I briefly took swing dancing lessons with my SO and it was 90% programmers, maybe more.
What happened to all the non-programmers?
31–40 of 125 posts
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, there's sort of a weird meme among (for lack of a better word) creative class types that anyone who doesn't use a Macbook for work is literally working 120 hrs in a salt mine to support 8 children as a single parent. It's sort of a noble savage stereotype, but in reality "working class" (even just that name is indicative of this idea) people are still people too -- they do things on their time off, some of them…
Btw we are working class too, even with those fancy 6 figure salaries... At least I'm not living of off strutting around in my park telling my gardener what to do while stroking a white cat. I don't have employees in my factory solely working for me generating my income while I twiddle my thumbs. I'm actually sitting on a computer working for money every day, so: working class.
>Btw we are working class too, even with those fancy 6 figure salaries...
No, we're not. We're the down trodden, continually squeezed middle or upper middle class depending on the cost of living where you are.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#33This is why I love New York. There are so many industries here (media, fashion, finance, etc) that tech is just part of a larger pool of people (who often cross over between different industries).
I've found that people in big cities can get pretty provincial in their thinking at times. At least with NYC, this kind of isolated thinking doesn't cut you off from too much of the rest of the world.
I live near D.C. and it's hard to fathom that people have lives that aren't in some way connected to the Federal Government or Government Contracting.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#34A person who looks around at the people he's socializing with, then apparently immediately grabs a computer, downloads a statistical data set and begins to analyze it in R wonders why he's surrounded by other programmers?
You can analyze data and use R and not be a programmer. Less than half of the students in my advanced stats classes at college which used R were CS majors. Granted, for me, knowing how to program made things a lot less frustrating.
Spreadsheet programs are built for analysis without deep programming knowledge too.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Btw we are working class too, even with those fancy 6 figure salaries... At least I'm not living of off strutting around in my park telling my gardener what to do while stroking a white cat. I don't have employees in my factory solely working for me generating my income while I twiddle my thumbs. I'm actually sitting on a computer working for money every day, so: working class.
In the US, we distinguish between the "working class" and the "professional class", with programmers falling into the latter group. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class#The_prof...
In the UK it's basically if you work for wages and/or in low skilled or manual labour.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#36None of my friends are programmers and hardly anyone I meet at parties understands what I do or what my job is. I live in NYC.
I chalk it up to being late to the game and hardly going to any meetups.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Btw we are working class too, even with those fancy 6 figure salaries... At least I'm not living of off strutting around in my park telling my gardener what to do while stroking a white cat. I don't have employees in my factory solely working for me generating my income while I twiddle my thumbs. I'm actually sitting on a computer working for money every day, so: working class.
That's not what working class means, though.
In the dichotomy between workers and capitalists it does. Though I doubt that's what was meant.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#38A person who looks around at the people he's socializing with, then apparently immediately grabs a computer, downloads a statistical data set and begins to analyze it in R wonders why he's surrounded by other programmers?
You can analyze data and use R and not be a programmer. Less than half of the students in my advanced stats classes at college which used R were CS majors. Granted, for me, knowing how to program made things a lot less frustrating. Spreadsheet programs are built for analysis without deep programming knowledge too.
I am not, nor have I ever been, a CS major. Yet I am a programmer.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#39"In fact, just the fact that I’m interested in doing sports for leisure is associated with class, since it’s not something that would be so easy for, say, manual laborers or shift workers." This statement says a lot about his bubble. Most of the adults I see playing soccer in the Washington, DC, area are most likely working in construction or service trades. Softball can be pretty blue collar, depending on where you…
Yeah, there's sort of a weird meme among (for lack of a better word) creative class types that anyone who doesn't use a Macbook for work is literally working 120 hrs in a salt mine to support 8 children as a single parent. It's sort of a noble savage stereotype, but in reality "working class" (even just that name is indicative of this idea) people are still people too -- they do things on their time off, some of them…
The working poor holding down two jobs are definitely doing that.
Most blue-collar & white-collar middle class are working less than the average startup. Recall way way back before startups were what everyone and their brother wanted to do after graduating, the premise was 'if instead of holding this easy job, I worked my ass off to my full potential, I could cash out at 35 and retire'. Admitting that startups were a huge amount of work, but something you did for a few years only, was part of the narrative.
Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for forty years, you work as hard as you possibly can for four. This pays especially well in technology, where you earn a premium for working fast. - Paul Graham
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#40A person who looks around at the people he's socializing with, then apparently immediately grabs a computer, downloads a statistical data set and begins to analyze it in R wonders why he's surrounded by other programmers?
You can analyze data and use R and not be a programmer. Less than half of the students in my advanced stats classes at college which used R were CS majors. Granted, for me, knowing how to program made things a lot less frustrating. Spreadsheet programs are built for analysis without deep programming knowledge too.
I'd say that by virtue of using R, regardless of your major, you are a programmer.