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Okay, Feminism, It’s Time We Had a Talk About Empathy (2013)

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Re: Okay, Feminism, It’s Time We Had a Talk About Empathy (2013)

#12
post #9

Interesting that she is autistic. Autism is apparently more common among boys than girls. Could this be one reason why tech attracts more men than women? Arguably, a slightly autistic personality is helpful for a programmer. Possibly it could also be a big reason for many future programmers to turn to tech in the first place, where you deal with strict, deterministic rules instead of emotions. This would obviously no…

> Arguably, a slightly autistic personality is helpful for a programmer.

This sounds a bit like people who go "haha, I'm so OCD, I like my pencils all pointing the wrong way" - incorrect self-diagnosis. "Slightly autistic personality" unfortunately seems to be fairly frequently used as an excuse to be an asshole.

Re: Okay, Feminism, It’s Time We Had a Talk About Empathy (2013)

#13
post #10

To work in technology, especially programming, you have to put a heck of a lot of effort into the subject. If it's not some legacy technology then that also means learning constantly (on your own initiative). That's what I like about programming, it rewards knowledge and ability - whereas other careers reward other attributes. I look at the Twttier-style feminists (I don't mean the traditional equality types, but the…

> That's what I like about programming, it rewards knowledge and ability - whereas other careers reward other attributes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Re: Okay, Feminism, It’s Time We Had a Talk About Empathy (2013)

#14

I don't know how much sense it makes to argue with "feminism" since it's an umbrella that covers a bunch of different schools of thought that have pretty serious disagreements among each other.

Yea, but then it doesn't really make sense to argue about anything, because everything can be statically defined in terms of the environment it exists in. The part can be described in terms of the the discrete whole of which it belongs to, minus the part.

I like to complain a lot, about many things, for like an hour, and then I get frustrated without observable resolution. It's all thinking noise, patterns, I prefer to stay at home, I like sleeping, so tired of arguing on the internet.

Re: Okay, Feminism, It’s Time We Had a Talk About Empathy (2013)

#16

I don't know how much sense it makes to argue with "feminism" since it's an umbrella that covers a bunch of different schools of thought that have pretty serious disagreements among each other.

Yes. she just disagrees with a specific article of Shanley and calls it "feminism".

Re: Okay, Feminism, It’s Time We Had a Talk About Empathy (2013)

#17
post #9

Interesting that she is autistic. Autism is apparently more common among boys than girls. Could this be one reason why tech attracts more men than women? Arguably, a slightly autistic personality is helpful for a programmer. Possibly it could also be a big reason for many future programmers to turn to tech in the first place, where you deal with strict, deterministic rules instead of emotions. This would obviously no…

> Arguably, a slightly autistic personality is helpful for a programmer. This sounds a bit like people who go "haha, I'm so OCD, I like my pencils all pointing the wrong way" - incorrect self-diagnosis. "Slightly autistic personality" unfortunately seems to be fairly frequently used as an excuse to be an asshole.

Asperger's is a real diagnosis.

Re: Okay, Feminism, It’s Time We Had a Talk About Empathy (2013)

#19
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Arguably, a slightly autistic personality is helpful for a programmer. This sounds a bit like people who go "haha, I'm so OCD, I like my pencils all pointing the wrong way" - incorrect self-diagnosis. "Slightly autistic personality" unfortunately seems to be fairly frequently used as an excuse to be an asshole.

Asperger's is a real diagnosis.

Certainly, when diagnosed by a doctor.

I'm talking about the "I've never been formally diagnosed but..." and "I think I'm a little on the spectrum" sort of comments that often wind up in threads about programmers being socially awkward.

Side note: having Aspergers doesn't make you an asshole.

Re: Okay, Feminism, It’s Time We Had a Talk About Empathy (2013)

#20
The only problem I have with feminism is that it's often a movement against men, and not for women. I think they would be a lot more successful doing things to encourage women rather than disparage men. Meredith would not have had to write this article.

Of course, it's a lot harder to be positive rather than negative.

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