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God's Lonely Programmer

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Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#261

Post by judk »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #223
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the perspective. I'm here to learn and to understand. It's very difficult to understand this, but I can see how it might be true. If that's the case, the only alternative seems to be not to offer help to anyone. Is that preferable, especially if the entire world starts behaving like that? It just seems like "Hey, do you need any help?" can't possibly be a negative. But I'm willing to accept I could be wr…

Let's jump this over to a topical thought experiment. A new programmer is hired in your office, who happens to be a woman. She seems to doing ok in her new job, getting things done. She seems fine with it. Her boss seems fine with it. Neither her nor her boss show any signs of dissatisfaction with her work situation. Do you go by every now and then while she's working and ask "Hey, do you need any help?" You don't ha…

Well if you don't, then you get accused of refusing to mentor women.

More seriously, though, how about reaching to everyone who is visibly having trouble.

For example, someone who is hell banned yet posts constantly for months, is likely not getting along fine.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#262

Post by anigbrowl »

fuligo wrote: post #221
anigbrowl wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's 'high functioning' in the sense that he can produce elaborate computer software that runs fast, in other words he has impressive engineering skills. Socially he's pretty incapable. I think his offensive racist, homophobic and other offensive remarks are part and parcel of his condition because I've spent quite a lot of time reading his rants, and disagree with your claim that his use of slurs is not random and g…

It's hard to disagree with that. However, being offensive (in the way that word is most commonly used) is not even my point. I also never expressed doubts about his engineering prowess. People can have significant mental impairments and still perform math or engineering tasks, though the output of these tasks is often colored by their limitations as well. He is the same way. Imagine the things he could accomplish if…

Thanks for articulating that. Id o admire terry because I'm rather amazed by TempleOS and as I'm almost the same age as him I can relate to his Commodore 64 computer roots but can't hold a candle to him in engineering terms. I don't know where to delinerate the lines between mental illness, cultural context, and personality in a complex case like schizophrenia so I've chosen to leave that question ina grey area.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#264

Post by netstag »

DanBC wrote: post #216
hueving wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"while non-white people struggle to find work in tech?", said nobody who has ever been in Silicon Valley.

What happens if you send two identical resumes to a gajillion different jobs - the resumes are identical except one has the name "James Smith" and the other has the name "Jamal Jackson". Luckily, other people have done this for us: http://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/discrimination-jo...

Not to discredit your point, as I do believe it's still has some validity, but that study is 12 years old and I'd like to think there has been some progress since then... You know like maybe having a president with the name Barack Obama.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#266

Post by nyolfen »

emodendroket wrote: post #149
nyolfen wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's no material difference for the purposes of fostering social spaces devoid of racism

Just about all Americans exhibit some racism, although most of it manifests itself in the form of less-obvious, but still insidious, biases and so on, rather than calling people the n-word on Hacker News.

i totally agree but i don't think it serves as any kind of counterpoint to excluding people who use the n-word from participating in discussions

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#268

Post by djur »

qb45 wrote: post #169
king_jester wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His racism probably isn't his fault. It's probably a factor of his condition. I don't know if his racism is the result of or related to his condition. However, even if it is, so what? Why exactly does that behavior get to be overlooked as though it doesn't have a real effect on people who suffer from it? Why does he get assistance to find a job while non-white people struggle to find work in tech?

He apparently knows a thing or two and gets stuff done. I'd hire him.

What would you do when your black employees object to what he would say to them? The words "hostile work environment" come to mind.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#269

Post by vidarh »

pfortuny wrote: post #76
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time his story comes up, there are people who respond with answers along the lines of "what can we do for him? can we find him assisted employment? can we raise money for him?" etc. While these comments are surely well intentioned, they end up being mostly condescending and out of place, as if talking about a completely helpless being. He is openly racist. He can't find a job on his own, unless it's among other…

I think you may be mixing two problems, one ideological (he is a racist), which has little to do with medicine and the other behavioural (he is "aggressive", or whatever). The latter may be a medical condition, the former I am inclined to see as a (wrong, if you let me) set of values.

It is very hard to disassociate his apparent views from his mental illness. If you've followed his past posts, you'll have seen the level of coherence change dramatically over the years, and so has the level of slurs and offensive language.

So it's not at all clear to me whether or not the apparent racism is ideological in any meaningful way vs. being largely a product of his illness.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#270

Post by [deleted] »

fuligo wrote: post #221
anigbrowl wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's 'high functioning' in the sense that he can produce elaborate computer software that runs fast, in other words he has impressive engineering skills. Socially he's pretty incapable. I think his offensive racist, homophobic and other offensive remarks are part and parcel of his condition because I've spent quite a lot of time reading his rants, and disagree with your claim that his use of slurs is not random and g…

It's hard to disagree with that. However, being offensive (in the way that word is most commonly used) is not even my point. I also never expressed doubts about his engineering prowess. People can have significant mental impairments and still perform math or engineering tasks, though the output of these tasks is often colored by their limitations as well. He is the same way. Imagine the things he could accomplish if…

[deleted]
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