Path... Uninstalled. If this is how there "executives" think, I'm sure they could care less about the ethical use and protection of user data.
Did you miss the part where Path was caught hacking users phones to steal their addressbooks?
"Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
331–340 of 375 posts
Re: "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
#332If you look past the horrible sexism I see an actually different undercurrent going on here. The clash of cultures is not between these "brogrammers" and women, but between brogrammers and "geek culture".
Geek culture has for various reasons dominated the technology sector for the last couple of decades however the risk and reward situation involved in startups has been attracting a different type of crowd, the brogrammers. The geek culturists feel threatened by this new crowd and so attack them by accusing them of sexism (a valid criticism) as it goes against one of the core geek tenets of tolerance towards others.
I on the other hand, view the inclusion of different subcultures in the tech industry, regardless of how they act, to be a positive thing. I hope more subcultures will come along which will continue to break up the dominant stereotypes in the tech industry (and hopefully address the gender imbalance at some stage ... bring on the sisgrammers!).
Re: "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
#333Earlier quoted context omitted.
The same can be said of the opposite end of the geek cultural spectrum, though -- the stereotypical Mountain Dew & video games contingent. I interviewed a startup where one of the co-founders openly mocked me for wearing a tie; when he asked what my interests were (sports and music, amongst other things), I got criticized for not liking "Starcraft and normal programmer stuff." The issue isn't one specific subset of t…
True indeed; othering is othering, be it over-bro-ing or ignorant defense of "nerd culture".
In fact, I see "bro-ing" to be a defence against "nerd culture". I assert the only reason it has become popular is because of that other end of the spectrum.
Re: "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
#334Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you misread that paragraph. He does not seem to be writing only about programmers, but about everyone that a startup might need to hire. Read this again: "Shapiro, who has blogged in the past about sexism in the tech industry, notes that "it is a widely understood truth that the single biggest challenge to a successful startup is attracting the right people. To literally handicap yourself by 50 percent is ins…
So in reality women don't flock to the alpha frat parties? Because that is the image portrayed in the media (for those who live far away from the US). They prefer to hang out with nerds instead. Great news.
Let me tell you, if you want to meet women just check out the CS labs at your local college...
Oh wait, exactly the opposite of that.
Re: "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
#335The brogrammer meme is JUST A JOKE! It's the very opposite of a stereotypical programmer. It's simply taking a stereotype, flipping it around, and poking fun at it. Instead of being disgusted by jokes about nudie calendars, do something about it. Go give your own presentation. Recruit more women at your company. Turn the boys club into an everyone club. I'm not saying that everything people are doing is okay, I'm jus…
I tire of this facet of postmodern culture whereby one can avoid being held to account for one's character flaws and unpopular attitudes by hiding forever behind a veil of ambiguous "irony". Make a claim in a possibly-ironic tone; see how your audience takes it; if they seem to agree with your overt sentiment, become unambiguously sincere; if they seem to disagree, become unambiguously ironic. Either way, you can ada…
I also find this quality quite disgusting however, I am commenting because I found your diction refreshing.
Re: "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
#336Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a fair hypothesis. I know a few rape victims. I was able to get ahold of two of them and talk it out. Their opinion was the described interview tactic does not sound like something they would want to go through and it is reasonable to speak against them. Both also mentioned that gang bangs are not equivalent to gang rapes, differing in consent.
That sort of seems to dissolve the parallel between interviews-by-committee and actual gang bangs, though.
Does it though? interviews-by-committee are consensual too...
Re: "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
#337Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not that this applies to you, but I have seen a female programmer (co worker) invoke the chauvinist card, when in fact she was no good as programmer. She wanted to be involved, she wanted to do cool stuff. But she didn't have the basics dialed at all and didn't have the work ethic to pick it up at an accelerated pace. As far as I have seen the guys in hard fields (as AI and Robotics) are pretty selective bunch and wi…
> I have seen a female programmer (co worker) invoke the chauvinist card Incompetent people will invoke whatever card is convenient for them, whether it's sexism, racism, ageism, what have you. > But I have only met a handful of women willing to put in the necessary work. If I were to go by my experience of people in tech (which includes non-startup environments), only a small portion of people are willing to put in…
> Incompetent people will invoke whatever card is convenient for them, whether it's sexism, racism, ageism, what have you.
Of course they will, but then the pathologic PC people will attack anyone calling them out on it. With this modern attitude that no one should ever get hurt, we are giving a carte blanche to the rotten apples. Just keep that in mind.
> There's a higher concentration of people of people willing to pay their dues in the smaller companies like startups, but I'm not convinced that percentage-wise, the "handful of women" you talk of is any worse than the percentage of men in tech on the whole, which includes the non-startup world.
The handful of women I talk about were absolutely brilliant and could and did go in stride with the best of us guys. And thus they were accepted as a part of the team. I have never thought of a coworker "she is incompetent because she is a woman" but I have thought of a coworker "she is incompetent and expects to get away with it because she is a woman".
Many women often try to play their sex to their advantage when in a bad position. e.g.: I have never heard of a woman demand to be given a ticket by a policeman, when in fact such would be the law.
Tech people just have really low tolerance for bullshit and don't care as much about etiquette. That is all I'm trying to say.
Being politically correct for the sake of it won't do much for quality of engineering being done.
Re: "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
We are not ready for these sorts of jokes yet. Once a community overcomes its sexism and does start treating people equally then we can start joking about it. However at the moment these jokes give strength to sexists and discourage women. As such, we should not make these jokes yet. Or to rephrase it "Too Soon"
Sexism isn't the main reason that women aren't in computing. Sure, it's a reason, but it's not even close to the biggest one.
Oh? What's the biggest/bigger reasons?
Re: "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
And not just women either. It's ridiculous to assume that 100% of the best/qualified programmers would want to work at a place like that.
Incidentally, this is how we fix it. If everyone just refuses to work with these assholes, and says so loudly, they'll... well, I'd like to say they'll pack up and leave the valley, but more likely they'll wind up concentrated in their own bro-heavy companies, which still seems like a net win for the rest of us.
Yes that can be an effective way to change the world for the better, however we should still have state regulation and laws. We should not leave this entirely up to the labour market.
Re: "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
#340This is not sexism--it's bad taste. A marketing guy that can only use sex to sell sucks as a marketing guy and I'd expect more people to jump on that aspect of the story. (I realize I'm probably jumping the gun, and he could have instances of marketing brilliance). What Sqoot did was kind of sexist--implying that women were only good for getting beer. What most of these other instances have been are just bad taste.
There is no one commonly agreed-upon definition of sexism. Also there is degrees of sexism. From "We don't hire women" to subtley making it uncomfortable for female employees to actual gender equality. Things are not Black or White. There is a continuum between "Saudi Arabia style" and gender equality.
(This applies to most -isms aswell)