Learning how to speak chicken is not becoming a chicken. That's a frequent misconception that borders cultural appropriation. Chickens aren't just about a few bock-bock and cockle-doodle-doos. They have a rich set of physical expressions as well (flap flaps, head kicks, grating the soil, etc) and a vibrant culture that is transmitted between generations. Their philosophy on death and their capacity to always see life on the sunny-side is both unique and deep, the fruit of seeing their children being picked for food on a daily basis. This should be celebrated. The article completely missed the point on that aspect.
Pretending you became a chicken because you're now performing a few chicken-like sounds is plain wrong, an insult to the poultry community.
Trigger Warning: may elicit images of graphic violence.
Although I agree with your general sentiment, I feel your comment should have been prefixed with a trigger warning. Use of the term ‘sunny-side’ is problematic and insensitive, particularly when used to describe children of chickens.
You need to prime the cycle somewhere though, i.e. Either someone started identifying as a chicken and laying eggs, or someone started identifying as an egg and transformed into a chicken.
That whole pure astral energy egg inception has no scientific basis and comes entirely from poultryian cults chickenshit
I think GP was understood the joke as was continuing the parody... Buy with all the people having conniptions about "litter boxes in schools" it's honestly hard to tell.
I can't tell if you're actually quoting the show Chuck or just summarizing charles_f's comment and attributing it to "Chuck", which is a nickname for Charles.
This happens all too often and furthermore is a problem beyond the chicken realm. Attention to detail is an integral part of human life and it is disgusting to see mere humans pretend to comprehend the intricacies of escaping beyond their mortal self, just for internet points.
The author also has some other hilarious articles:
- How to get over your Impostor Syndrome and become a Professional Fraudster
- Programmers, Please Stop Referring to your Significant Others as "Sugar Babies," You are Not That Rich (Also, They are Not That Hot)
- How to Reassert Dominance in the Zoom Era as a Tech Bro
- Book Review: 95 JavaScript Theses - I’ve been reading a lot of JavaScript books lately, and I have to say that "95 JavaScript Theses" is the best thing since the Protestant reformation.
As both the guilty party behind "I no longer build software" and the keeper of some chickens, I'd just like to suggest that anyone who wants to get out of software strongly consider woodworking over becoming a chicken.
I still have all ten fingers.
For comparison, we have acquired fifteen chickens over the last two and a half years and now have five. We lost two to a bear that broke into the coop[0], turned an aggressive rooster into soup, and the rest to foxes. They mostly stay cooped up lately unless we're around :-/
EDITED TO ADD:
Oh yeah, I really do still write code from time to time!
Yeah, the paper provides good insight into the phenomenon. Doug also gives a really good presentation on the same material: https://youtu.be/yL_-1d9OSdk
I know many engineers who would love to become chickens. But they also have responsibilities. They can’t just drop everything and commit to the faunamorphosis. Not to mention that faunamorphosis costs so much that pretty much only FAANG salaried folks can go through with their chicken dream -- and especially now in this economy.
This c̶l̶i̶c̶k̶chickbait article fails to answer the question on why the programmer crossed the road to become a chicken, and whether they went from programmer → egg → chicken, or just programmer → chicken.
This is from the same guy who wrote the absolutely wonderful NAND gate article[1] that also featured on HN about a year ago (and was taken surprisingly serious) [2].
It’s fascinating because it (inadvertently, maybe) shows that you can’t do satire without understanding the topic. The author seemingly set off to make fun of digital something, couldn’t grok it, and settled for documenting an afternoon sort of trying.
The nerds missed the joke and jumped in wanting to help, marking one of the first times I’ve seen this dynamic play out at this level of engagement in web space, although it happens all the time irl.
The author even comments he was trying to capture the “saudade” of trying to understand something using web sources.
If anyone else struggles with the concept of "saudade", the Portuguese entry to this year's Eurovision Song Contest explains it beautifully: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQul-rkcGPQ
I was programming at home for my job last week and heard my free reigning chickens make a lot of noise.
Went outside and saw a coyote with one of them in it's mouth.
I chased it away. I'm sick of being in front of a screen all day, but grateful I don't have to worry about being killed by wild animals on a daily basis.
I was just feeling down as I completed a 3 hour code screen where I was supposed to be recording my screen the whole time I worked, but somehow I botched it and don't have any recording to show. Awkward and my own fault...
Those chicken diagrams got a legitimate smile and chuckle out of me though. Thanks for the day brightener!!
Reminded me a bit of this "Microservices" youtube sketch which also includes a surreal architecture diagram (and is very funny):
In all seriousness, part of me wants to replace all coding questions in future interviews with the code from this article. It isn't hard to follow, it just looks absurd. So if people can follow it, they can code -- No more FizzBuzz - just CluckCluckity.
That’s likely ret-conning the joke - first, the earliest references (mid 1800s) say “to get on the other side” which doesn’t track to the dark interpretation as well.
Also, in the mid 1800s, crossing a road wouldn’t pose any danger to a chicken. A railroad track - yes, a factory floor - sure, but a road? Used mostly for foot or carriage traffic? No danger whatsoever - a chicken can move more than fast enough to get out of the way of even a quickly driven carriage.
Third, and most importantly, it was a common minstrel show line, and minstrel shows were filled with anti-humor.
Sometimes the easiest and most obvious answer is actually the right one.
This feels like my brain after a week of agile/scrum/bullshit meetings and processes that get in the way of creating software. Takes the weekend to go return to normal.
I'm going to suggest that polyglot literate programming would be the most metamodern (another term for post-postmodern) take, with humor and self criticizing progress journaling thrown in.
Pretending you became a chicken because you're now performing a few chicken-like sounds is plain wrong, an insult to the poultry community.