And techies wonder why San Franciscans are pissed off about gentrification and their disappearing culture.
Sure. I would imagine most of those San Franciscans would prefer for the tech crowd to keep amongst themselves though...
What happened to all the non-programmers?
81–90 of 125 posts
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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?
I meant "just like," not "just" in the sense you mean.
I'll admit I jumped the gun on that one.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#83... You are simply a nerd/geek/techie surrounded by likeminded people. Nothing wrong with that. I am a programmer that has met most of his friends in bars, raves and other music related places. Guess what? All of my friends are musicians or DJs. What happened to all the non-musicians?! ... Well, I am simply not going to meet them in the backstage of a show. I was under the impression that this is general knowledge, n…
That being said, most of my co-workers are avid hockey players. We have a team that is mainly programmers, a few designers and some managers.
No need to base all your hobbies around chess, you will still be a good programmer if you have hobbies that make you sweat!
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 i…
Interestingly, I also work remotely from a rural farming area and have found that the farming community is a lot like the tech community. They, like you, love the future and technology. Robotics is huge in agriculture right now. Tractors that drive themselves, cows that can milk themselves, how software can be used to improve the bottom line, etc. are hot topics, and come up frequently among my farming friends. In my…
> cows that can milk themselves
What
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#85A much longer post with a similar gist is "I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup"[1] by Scott Alexander (I recommend the whole blog actually):
> According to Gallup polls, about 46% of Americans are creationists. Not just in the sense of believing God helped guide evolution. I mean they think evolution is a vile atheist lie and God created humans exactly as they exist right now. That’s half the country.
> And I don’t have a single one of those people in my social circle. It’s not because I’m deliberately avoiding them; I’m pretty live-and-let-live politically, I wouldn’t ostracize someone just for some weird beliefs. And yet, even though I probably know about a hundred fifty people, I am pretty confident that not one of them is creationist.
1: http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything...
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#86This subject is one that interests me a lot. As I've mentioned before (in fact, I created this account to post about it a few weeks ago), I'm MtF transgender, and it's been my observation and the observation of the trans communities I participate in that a disproportionately high percentage of MtF trans people work in the tech industry and/or are tech hobbyists. The "MtF computer geek" is in fact one of the most prev…
I've noticed a similar thing in the furry community (also has a lot of geek MtF people, and GSM people in general). It seems like every other person is in IT. Even the non-IT people are more focused on the technical aspects of their hobbies and professions than most people.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#87A 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 i…
Your small town experience roughly equates to the environment I grew up in, except my small town had programmers, and I wasn't one of them. My technology angst only increased when visiting my mom's relatives, who still live in the sticks.
I visited some over a year ago. Both my aunt and uncle had laptops which you could tell were heavily used. They had satellite internet (again, really out there). I didn't, but I almost wanted to say something along the lines of "Thanks for finally understanding what I've been doing and talking about for the past 20 years."
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interestingly, I also work remotely from a rural farming area and have found that the farming community is a lot like the tech community. They, like you, love the future and technology. Robotics is huge in agriculture right now. Tractors that drive themselves, cows that can milk themselves, how software can be used to improve the bottom line, etc. are hot topics, and come up frequently among my farming friends. In my…
> cows that can milk themselves What
Perhaps stated more accurately as: Choose when to milk themselves. A robot does the actual act of milking. With context of robotics already setup, I made assumptions based on that when making that statement. If I said that around farmers, they'd know exactly what I was talking about. I guess that goes back to being able to speak the language of the people you are interacting with.
But if you're looking for more general information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_milking
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#89Earlier 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.
>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.
You're working class if you are renting your labor out to a capital owner to produce your income.
You're middle class if you are applying your own labor to capital you own to produce your income.
You're capitalist class if you are renting other people's labor to apply to capital you own to produce your income.
(These aren't discrete categories; they might be better read with "if you are" replaced with "to the extent you are".)
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#90Earlier 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…
Its extremely easy to live in the Bay Area comfortably on a 6 figure salary-lots of working poor live here on far less. When engineers complain that their six figure salary isn't keeping up with the cost of living, what they really mean is that they can't afford a 4 bedroom house with a two car garage and lawn in a nice part of MV/PA or Sunnyvale, a new car, vacation and Burning Man every year, expensive hobbies, travel and tons of electronic gadgets. Not that they can't find a decent apartment to live in and are homeless in Sunnyvale.