It's social groups. Want to meet people different from yourself? Study jiu jitsu or ballroom dancing.
For better or worse, I noticed at a recent friends catch-up that almost everyone was in advertising technology.
What happened to all the non-programmers?
11–20 of 125 posts
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#12I dunno, I like hanging out with tech people.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#13I purposefully do not gather techies as friends. While I share some similar interests, I don't want my life to become a mirror of the people I work with. I feel enriched by my diverse friendship base.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#14A 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?
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#15"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…
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.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#16Could some non-programmers be masquerading as programmers? A little more observation and less R could reveal this. It is also quite possible to play flag football without risking your brain. If I were in SF and weighed 150 I would definitely look into sailing.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#17This 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).
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#18It's quite likely that many of his choices regarding non-programming hobbies have been highly influenced by programmers/tech people around him in the workplace or outside it.
He also likely has developed biases, not on socioeconomic grounds but through his own experiences and influences, regarding certain things in society. Football, for example, he probably consciously or subconsciously regards as being something for "jocks" or the people he didn't get along with in school (presumption here).
Ultimate frisbee, however, is probably something he regards as being in-line with that with which those that influence him partake in, or that which he imagines his peers (mainly techies) would approve of.
It's an ok article from the point of it being a look at someone's personal experience, but it's certainly more reflective of his experience and the bubble he lives in than a commentary on society.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#19I've never lived in SF but this is a reason why people sometimes mention how they prefer to live elsewhere. I've lived in Los Angeles and New York and I feel a nice sense of diversity in interests and backgrounds [of all forms] and I like it. And the tech communities aren't too small either.
Re: What happened to all the non-programmers?
#20"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…
The use of the description "manual laborers or shift workers" leads me to believe this is a lot more about the upper middle class to wealthy under 35 group ending up in tech related occupations than anything else. Time to go grab a data set and R-Studio.