Brilliant analysis, and accurate. I worked as a builder for a few years, and the social stigma really bothered me. Baby boomers were the worst offenders.
there is no stigma, there is a stereotype, and it is individual's choice whether to live up to it. I don't know a single guy in tech who had trouble getting dates or socializing with people through the fault of anything but their own. There is no stigma against people in tech, there is a stigma against a certain type of person that is easily found in (but not limited to) tech.
A lot of people live up to the stereotype though, and that's where the author of the article is coming from. To repeat a saying I heard a lot during my undergrad at a Stem-heavy school that had male-dominated ratio - "The odds are good, but the goods are odd."
When single I remember the intense look of an interested girl, that switched off at hearing what my job was.
However, I also think that is offset by some positive bias towards looking for wrll paid professional partners.
The stigma exists. I do think it is fairly easy to avoid its effects (don't be the "undesirable" stereotype). I also think most jobs have a stigma, with negative reactions from some people.
If someone only sees you as your job, that is their problem!
He was good-looking enough, but I wasn’t going to be able to get it up for a boring tech dude. And my city, Seattle, like San Francisco is lousy with them.
Poor her. She should move to a city with less intelligent and successful men, I suppose.
There must be chemistry. Compatible minds, attraction, love/lust, ... luck, whatever chemistry really is.
If feelings aren't mutual, then I don't see the point of it.
Luck is a great factor. He might have dodged a bullet, she might have made the wrong choice. Frankly I don't give a damn about them.
I've turned down worthy people, I've been turned down by less-worthy ones, and reverse. It doesn't matter. I don't have any regrets.
Programmers, like all people, can be good looking, physically fit, not socially awkward(?:, successful, financially stable/rich, confident, healthy, faithful, non-promiscuous, happy, etc., etc.)? and good in bed. The exact opposite can also happen. Most times it's a variable combination and that's just the way it is. That is how nature works.
Tastes and opinions (not only prejudices) can change and people can find themselves compromising as they grow older. This is what matters to me, I don't want to see myself regretting choices related to my love life.
Meh. Feminists bloggers have a notorious axe to grind with developers (this is Dame magazine after all). In my experience, regular people don’t try to project this stereotype on tech employees. Most people will not know what a “brogrammer” is.
Incorrect. Most people outside of the blogging bubble have not heard of this term. Also incorrect that a “huge part of the city’s industry” is “brogrammers”. The vast majority of programmers are just that, programmers.
I’ve been in the industry my entire adult life and have never met one of these mythical creatures. After all, the term started off as a joke developers themselves would use then got co-opted by anti-tech people and used literally.
I dunno, but in my experience generally speaking the folks at top companies are well adjusted and have lots of interesting hobbies, at least the ones I know of at FB and a few startups. My guess is it's a consequence of graduating from elite institutions.
Engineers are pretty much never the heroes in Hollywood productions, they're usually portrayed as sidekicks at best, and usually pathetic objects of scorn. The Big Bang Theory is just the most obvious example.
Hollywood is full of negative stereotypes of all sorts, especially of women (an entire gender); and well actually men too. it’s not a good barometer of this.
