Move to New York.
What happened to all the non-programmers?
51–60 of 125 posts
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#52A 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?
Exactly. As ridiculous as it sounds, that's an act worthy of ostracism in the small town where my wife grew up (and I lived for a while).
Living in a small town and working (remotely) in tech was an eye-opening experience. There wasn't another programmer within 100 miles. I learned that not only had I previously surrounded myself with a very homogenous group, but that the way I think and act most of the time simply isn't compatible with the way a lot of average Americans think and act. I don't say that to be prideful - it was a struggle. I simply approached situations and thought about things differently than most of the farming community around me.
Now, (and I'm a touch ashamed to say it), my social circle has become homogenous almost consciously. I just couldn't handle it anymore. Being the outcast "nerd" gets really old.
I love technology and the Internet. I want to live in the future. If you don't want to come with me, that's fine, but I'm not going to stay with you. I can't pretend to give a shit anymore about who has the biggest truck or who shot the biggest deer, and yes, I do care about whether my president is intelligent. I like acknowledging soccer as something more than "a Mexican sport" and not dismissing Tesla as something "for tree huggers." Does that make me "classist" of some sort? Maybe. But I'd just rather not put up with it.
There's a longer essay I could write about how it feels like learning to program made me an introvert, but that's a different topic altogether.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#53Move to New York.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#54Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#55Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#56Earlier 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.
> even with those fancy 6 figure salaries... And I hate to break to it you Google and Facebook employees, but your salary ain't that great when you factor in cost-of-living. There are many, many thousands of devs across America making much more than you once you account for cost-of-living (and you should). But between the proven wage suppression, ageism, and now this passing meme that somehow making $100,000 in the m…
This really depends on where you are in life. Cost of living calculations tend to not work well with individual preferences and situations. In this case, it depends on how much living space desired.
Generally speaking, the premium a single programmer makes for living in the Silicon Valley makes it worth being there. If said programmer is happy living with roommates, all the more so.
However, the premium must be higher for someone with dependents due to the desire to have more living space.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say that by virtue of using R, regardless of your major, you are a programmer.
The author of the article seems to mainly be concerned with being in a really homogenous social group according to job title. You're right that everyone who programs is a programmer, but 'programmer' in the article means someone for whom programmer is their job title.
I bet they people in his social circle would have the same argument.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Marxist.org has this definition (https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/p/e.htm):
Petty-bourgeois
...
2) Also refers to the growing group of workers whose function is management of the bourgeois apparatus. These workers do not produce commodities, but instead manage the production, distribution, and/or exchange of commodities and/or services owned by their bourgeois employers.
While these workers are a part of the working class because they receive a wage and their livelihood is dependent on that wage, they are separated from working class consciousness because they have day-to-day control, but not ownership, over the means of production, distribution, and exchange.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#59And techies wonder why San Franciscans are pissed off about gentrification and their disappearing culture.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#60Earlier 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.
By far the biggest thing that surprised me after entering into the CS field 3 years ago is that being a programming just like a white collar version of being an electrician or plummer. Looking at the from the outside it seems like a career with a lot more power there really is.
"Just". What is "just" about being an electrician? Is it less than being a more conventional white collar worker, like some kind of administrator or manager?