tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post5948686235741853572..comments2024-03-15T20:52:26.967-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: NYT: "Alpha-male culture" is "endemic in software engineering"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-66915067615326398252014-04-29T12:38:28.679-07:002014-04-29T12:38:28.679-07:00The selectivity of outrage reminds me of an old sa...The selectivity of outrage reminds me of an old saying: The meek may inherit the earth, but someone has to drive the big trucks. Outraged folks don't want to take on such risks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-27812559952060560322014-04-23T10:45:25.793-07:002014-04-23T10:45:25.793-07:00Like, you never see these red-faced feminist rants...<i>Like, you never see these red-faced feminist rants about how women are excluded from work as auto-mechanics, construction workers, or investment bankers.</i><br /><br />First you have to pare away all non-air-conditioned jobs. Women hate Hate HATE non-air-conditioned jobs and feminists never Never NEVER agitate for more female representation in those fields. So, they don't count.Svigornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-46388791262400833982014-04-23T10:42:42.098-07:002014-04-23T10:42:42.098-07:00The irony is that nerd culture is about as pussy-w...The irony is that nerd culture is about as pussy-whipped PC as it gets.Svigornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-47670699481386890982014-04-23T03:39:31.444-07:002014-04-23T03:39:31.444-07:00"So I don't know where the hell all you g..."So I don't know where the hell all you girlymen talk down to software development people and engineer types as being BETAS."<br /><br />Beta is social. Lots of beta guys own guns to make up for their humiliation in the social arena. A gun will help if some diversity attacks you, but it won't get you laid.<br /><br />Not that I'm against gun ownership, BTW. I'm a firm supporter of the Second Amendment because, well, even if Alan Moore said it, governments should be afraid of their people. Not everything is about being beta and alpha. SFGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-57246051684652528942014-04-22T21:14:54.936-07:002014-04-22T21:14:54.936-07:00When I was at Bell Labs in Naperville, IL, I was A...<i>When I was at Bell Labs in Naperville, IL, I was ALWAYS amazed at the shear number of gun owners amongst us "soft, apologetic nerdmen of the software/IT world." Hell, the very first person I knew that owned a S&W M29 .44Mag was a woman there. I bought my AR-15 within about a year working there, other men were thinking of how to convince the wife to buy a handgun. An MTS I knew went out and bought TWO Beretta M92s AND an 8" M29.<br /><br />So I don't know where the hell all you girlymen talk down to software development people and engineer types as being BETAS.</i><br /><br />Mr. Rip Van Winkle, Bell Labs was a long time ago. Things are different now. The entire business and sociological context of Bell Labs is long gone.<br /><br />Cail Corishev commented about the All-American ( He didn't say "All-American.") folkways of old school computer men on another thread a week or so ago.David Davenporthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03315090179595817174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-3388790559801637862014-04-22T21:08:27.136-07:002014-04-22T21:08:27.136-07:00"If you are clever you can move from place to...<i>"If you are clever you can move from place to place every year as a contractor..."</i><br /><br />I was talking recently to some folks about what changed when silicon valley went from probably the world's greatest place for US "have great code chops, will travel" types to the current semi-Indian plantation and realized I'd overlooked the most obvious thing (which relates to what you say here).<br /><br />It used to be easy for a contractor to get a contract to work for the large companies (the Apples, Suns, Microsofts, etc.). Then the tax law, I think it was, changed (or the way the accountants wanted to do things) and it became next to impossible to get a direct contract with these large companies. Instead you went through a temp agency and the contract was actually an agreement between the temp agency and the company. So you weren't a contractor any more, you were an employee of a temp agency. They did the paperwork, kept the tax records, paid the quarterly taxes, etc.. <br /><br />A lot of contractor types just wouldn't do this (they were contractors exactly so they could negotiate their own deals and didn't have to work for a large company).<br /><br />I think this may have come about in some indirect way from when Microsoft's contractors sued them and won, or the government made Microsoft classify contractors differently, or some such. Maybe it was that if you worked for a temp agency it was clear that Microsoft wasn't abusing you by keeping your position a revolving contractor slot instead of making it a real employee slot with full benefits, etc.. My memory is vague, I'm sure the details are out there.<br /><br />After this happened, a few smart Indians set up Indian temp agencies contracting to the US, and the rest is history. <br /><br />But there was more gee-wiz sizzle in the air when the US contractors were buzzing around like bees.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-25454127749684189062014-04-22T14:36:59.859-07:002014-04-22T14:36:59.859-07:00Maybe they're trying to figure out what they&#...Maybe they're trying to figure out what they're going to do with all the women when a worsening economy dries up many of the make-work jobs in government and the corporate world. Most can't lift much -- especially within OSHA regs -- and we don't have many factories anymore, so no Rosie the Riveter jobs to save the day. Where else are they going to go where they can sit at a keyboard in the air conditioning and get paid well enough not to need a husband?<br /><br />Not that they'll ever get more than a tiny percentage of women to <em>want</em> to write software or be productive at it, of course. But they can't see that because they don't have any idea what the work actually involves.Cail Corishevhttp://cailcorishev.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-75500201067510957122014-04-22T14:23:47.302-07:002014-04-22T14:23:47.302-07:00White Male Privilege Squandered on Job at Best Buy...<a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/white-male-privilege-squandered-on-job-at-best-buy,35835/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1:Default" rel="nofollow">White Male Privilege Squandered on Job at Best Buy</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-54694582582906856312014-04-22T14:23:26.708-07:002014-04-22T14:23:26.708-07:00"Any guy who hypenates his name is sure-as-he..."Any guy who hypenates his name is sure-as-hell no alpha-male."<br /><br />I think there is a possibility that he grew up with that name. His bio mentions that his mother was widowed young and he was raised by his stepfather. Maybe the first name is his late father's and the second name is his stepfather's? <br /><br />That actually seems like a pretty good compromise to a difficult psychological problem. I have four cousins: Their father died when they were young, and their mother remarried and changed their last names' to her new husband's. But when they hit 21 they all changed back to their birth name. Hyphenation sounds like it might have been a better way to go for them.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-50651598939340514462014-04-22T13:25:50.618-07:002014-04-22T13:25:50.618-07:00Ninety-nine point nine percent of protest resignat...Ninety-nine point nine percent of protest resignations don't make a ripple. By lunch that day the resigning person is the scapegoat for everything that ever went wrong in that company; by the start of business the next day he is entirely forgotten.<br /><br />Mr. Preston-Warner should have responded by saying: "Julie who?"Davidhttp://david-passingparade3.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-40564055154367735522014-04-22T12:41:05.497-07:002014-04-22T12:41:05.497-07:00"Its overwhelmingly the soft, apologetic nerd..."Its overwhelmingly the soft, apologetic nerdmen of the software/IT world that are targeted."<br /><br />When I was at Bell Labs in Naperville, IL, I was ALWAYS amazed at the shear number of gun owners amongst us "soft, apologetic nerdmen of the software/IT world." Hell, the very first person I knew that owned a S&W M29 .44Mag was a woman there. I bought my AR-15 within about a year working there, other men were thinking of how to convince the wife to buy a handgun. An MTS I knew went out and bought TWO Beretta M92s AND an 8" M29.<br /><br />So I don't know where the hell all you girlymen talk down to software development people and engineer types as being BETAS.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-77883858730919934822014-04-22T12:05:15.854-07:002014-04-22T12:05:15.854-07:00"Your work is judged almost entirely on wheth..."Your work is judged almost entirely on whether the code works. Hard skills are essential. Nobody gives a shit whether you play office politics. "<br /><br />Usually, but not always. Horvath seems to be a case in point. As far as I can tell, she's a css/html type who draws pretty pictures on the screen. She weaseled her way into dev circles and gained commit privileges, but was really more interested in the social side of things. Talks from women in Silicon Valley! Public speaking at conferences where she talks about the Big Picture! Then she started complaining about people being mean to her in code reviews, and eventually went nuclear with the chicks-are-discriminated-against charge, and took down a company founder, probably doing serious damage to company morale along the way. Github will be bowing to the Gods of inclusiveness for the foreseeable future.<br /><br />Don't trust anyone with a self-consciously cyber handle. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-73800268435352957132014-04-22T12:00:17.033-07:002014-04-22T12:00:17.033-07:00If you go to Julie Ann Horvath's LinkdIn page ...If you go to Julie Ann Horvath's LinkdIn page she has a BA in english and creative writing from University of San Francisco. From LinkdIn, her past experience was in marketing and yet a number of stories describe her as a "prominent engineer"?!<br /><br />This is just like the Adria Richards story. Some woman with soft tech skills is hired for social promotion and also brings a bunch of drama to the workplace. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-34538568752238521082014-04-22T11:59:30.874-07:002014-04-22T11:59:30.874-07:00It's all relative. A beagle is an alpha to a c...It's all relative. A beagle is an alpha to a chihuahua. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-60533752306772913722014-04-22T11:54:49.542-07:002014-04-22T11:54:49.542-07:00Histrionic Personality Disorder at a bare minimum,...Histrionic Personality Disorder at a bare minimum, but the demand that the founder's wife and her friend stop being friends is a strong indicator of Borderline Personality Disorder.Akulkishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16434980084717899251noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-5255267416410605002014-04-22T11:03:49.132-07:002014-04-22T11:03:49.132-07:00The only alpha-male dominated industry is grass hu...The only alpha-male dominated industry is grass hut construction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-72625071243492805382014-04-22T10:46:17.856-07:002014-04-22T10:46:17.856-07:00Good Lord! Ms Horvath has no sense of feminine wil...Good Lord! Ms Horvath has no sense of feminine wiles. She's putting out for a friend of the boss's wife, and she's threatened by that friendship? Rather than playing on that to improve her position? "Hey honey, can you put in a word with Mrs. P-W about ..."<br /><br />Unless the "friend" was an ex (or not so ex) of Mrs. P-W, and Mrs. P-W went hostile to Ms Horvath first.Anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12389602137217799305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-68264526253899461682014-04-22T10:13:44.972-07:002014-04-22T10:13:44.972-07:00as stated by others, women have very little intere...as stated by others, women have very little interest in actual alpha male fields. they involve hard, often dirty work, long hours, technical skills, and can be physically tiring.<br /><br />about the only place the workforce was integrated was in air conditioned offices. this is why IT has been targeted.<br /><br />once in a while you see a woman police officer. that's about it for real job integration. of course when you see them you wonder why. they are totally ineffective. everybody is pretending they are real police officers and it's kind of weird to see that many adults all pretending about something so obvious.jodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31289287803735042732014-04-22T10:03:08.158-07:002014-04-22T10:03:08.158-07:00Whenever I see the software guys come into the bar...Whenever I see the software guys come into the bar on a Friday, I know I'm not getting any that night. I can't compete with their natural alpha attractiveness.<br /><br />It's not uncommon to see them leave 20 minutes after they come in, a girl slung over each shoulder soaking through her drawers.<br /><br />I've heard that at start-ups, they have to buy extra strength keyboards to prevent the bulging musclebound alphas from punching their keys right out the bottom. So athletic and lean are they.BurplesonAFBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-17487841121601186652014-04-22T10:02:25.666-07:002014-04-22T10:02:25.666-07:00I guess "alpha-male" now just means &quo...<i>I guess "alpha-male" now just means "male."</i> <br /><br /><br />I think "alpha-male" now means "makes an above-average salary". Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-67774649298392999722014-04-22T09:07:29.403-07:002014-04-22T09:07:29.403-07:00Julie Ann Horvath got her bachelor's degree fr...Julie Ann Horvath got her bachelor's degree from Univ of San Francisco, with the following profile:<br /><br />Test Scores -- 25th / 75th Percentile<br /><br /> SAT Critical Reading: 510 / 620<br /> SAT Math: 530 / 630<br /> SAT Writing: 520 / 620 <br /><br />And what did she major in?<br /><br />Creative Writing.<br /><br />Just the sort of credentials one would expect for a mission critical coder in a major start up in Silicon Valley.candid_observernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-74500452554669522722014-04-22T08:42:06.920-07:002014-04-22T08:42:06.920-07:00Many software engineers are Indian. No kidding.<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6161691.stm" rel="nofollow">Many software engineers are Indian</a>. No kidding.eahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-29977751896783114232014-04-22T08:36:34.238-07:002014-04-22T08:36:34.238-07:00I remember a female student in a database design c...I remember a female student in a database design class I taught. She was remarkable for at least two reasons. First of course her sex. There were always a few women in the elementary classes but they were almost never seen in any of the advanced classes.<br /><br />Secondly she recorded every word I said. <br /><br />There were three alpha type guys who sat side by side in the front row. They talked a lot. I was glad. They really engaged with the subject matter. It was a lecture class and sometimes it's hard to get class participation.<br /><br />But I didn't grade on class participation. To everyone's surprise none of the three guys in the front got the best marks. The woman with the recorder did - by a lot.<br /><br />So I believe there really is an Alpha-male culture in software engineering. I'm sure all of those there guys have done just fine in private industry whereas the brilliant but quiet woman has probably been overlooked.<br /><br />The real problem however is that women don't seem to really love to code. I hired many, many coders thereafter but never a woman. I did hire a female DBA once but she was a lesbian.<br /><br />I think it's like the job of fighter pilot. Women because of their vascular architecture for childbirth can pull more g's than men. But women just don't want to be fighter pilots. Go to the mall and check the gender of kids surrounding the shoot-em-up games. All boys.<br /><br />AlbertosaurusPat Boylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13477950851915567863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52138475618138416842014-04-22T08:16:25.643-07:002014-04-22T08:16:25.643-07:00"Tom Preston-Werner, a co-founder and former ..."Tom Preston-Werner, a co-founder and former chief executive of GitHub, a website for sharing and collaborating on software code, resigned on Monday after an investigation into gender-based harassment."<br /><br />Any guy who hypenates his name is sure-as-hell no alpha-male. Not even a beta.Mr. Anonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-72025271584647553102014-04-22T07:35:34.481-07:002014-04-22T07:35:34.481-07:00I work fo an IT department of over 300 people and ...I work fo an IT department of over 300 people and it is almost half women. My boss is a woman. Dahindanoreply@blogger.com