Since we’re speculating about programmer culture I’ll bring up the jargon file which describes some hacklish jargon from the early days of computer hobbyists. I think it’s safe to say these kinds of people do not in general like beauty and elegance of computer systems sacrificed for “business interests”, whether or not that includes a political counter cultural attitude.
It could be a lot of programmer disdain for “suits” is traced back to those days, but I’m honestly not sure how niche that culture has become in eternal september. For more context see “Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution” or anything else written by Steven Levy.
but I’m honestly not sure how niche that culture has become in eternal september.
Long gone, I am afraid.
It seems to me that greatest difference is that a few decades ago, the only people who studied computers were math nerds. Then at some moment, computers became a reliable way to make a great salary, and everyone started paying attention… but of course it takes a few years to learn programming (and more years until the school systems wake up and start teaching it), so the first generation of well paid programmers were the nerds who originally learned it for Platonic reasons.
The next generation of programmers, however, consists mostly of people who are there only for the money. Many of them do not even like programming, it’s just that they need to do something to pay their bills. And yeah, the nerds are there too, but now they are a minority, and their preferences are considered irrelevant.
I mean, obviously there’s some of that, but even if you have a high tolerance for necessary ugliness, bad management in tech has so much more to it. Honestly just the whole Agile/Scrum thing and the absolute nonsense it has devolved into would be enough to make most sane human beings hate the guts of anyone who keeps imposing it on them (all the more if that other person then contributes no measurable good to the rest of their day).
Since we’re speculating about programmer culture I’ll bring up the jargon file which describes some hacklish jargon from the early days of computer hobbyists. I think it’s safe to say these kinds of people do not in general like beauty and elegance of computer systems sacrificed for “business interests”, whether or not that includes a political counter cultural attitude.
It could be a lot of programmer disdain for “suits” is traced back to those days, but I’m honestly not sure how niche that culture has become in eternal september. For more context see “Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution” or anything else written by Steven Levy.
Long gone, I am afraid.
It seems to me that greatest difference is that a few decades ago, the only people who studied computers were math nerds. Then at some moment, computers became a reliable way to make a great salary, and everyone started paying attention… but of course it takes a few years to learn programming (and more years until the school systems wake up and start teaching it), so the first generation of well paid programmers were the nerds who originally learned it for Platonic reasons.
The next generation of programmers, however, consists mostly of people who are there only for the money. Many of them do not even like programming, it’s just that they need to do something to pay their bills. And yeah, the nerds are there too, but now they are a minority, and their preferences are considered irrelevant.
I mean, obviously there’s some of that, but even if you have a high tolerance for necessary ugliness, bad management in tech has so much more to it. Honestly just the whole Agile/Scrum thing and the absolute nonsense it has devolved into would be enough to make most sane human beings hate the guts of anyone who keeps imposing it on them (all the more if that other person then contributes no measurable good to the rest of their day).