3 ms·

Yet again the nerds have become the bullies.

RubenSandwich 10y ago
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." -John Dalberg-Acton. It saddens me how much I have seen that quote play out in my life...
- M_Grey 10y ago
  It's honestly part of such a good quote, I feel compelled to post the rest. "I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means. You would hang a man of no position, like Ravaillac; but if what one hears is true, then Elizabeth asked the gaoler to murder Mary, and William III ordered his Scots minister to extirpate a clan. Here are the greater names coupled with the greater crimes. You would spare these criminals, for some mysterious reason. I would hang them, higher than Haman, for reasons of quite obvious justice; still more, still higher, for the sake of historical science." How right has he been proven, before and after his time? From athletes to politicians, from Steve Jobs to Winston Churchill.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
dboreham 10y ago
Not sure I understand this. This guy doesn't sound like a nerd at all. More like a BSD.
- JustSomeNobody 10y ago
  It's not just _one_ guy being talked about.
aylmao 10y ago
Except I doubt these are "the nerds". These are likely the fratboys who studied business and are continuing their hazing and misogyny as managers after college.
- CodeSheikh 10y ago
  I am also assuming some fancy MBA jerk.
  - JustSomeNobody 10y ago
    She specifically mentions confronting members of her team.
- JustSomeNobody 10y ago
  > It was normal for our supervisors to openly appreciate the performance of one member over the other and publicly demean members who did not perform as per their expectations. Chauvinistic, racist and homophobic attitudes were far too normal at Uber. Once in a group chat, team members referred to a new Asian American recruit as slanty eye joe. It was normal for guys to refer to other guys as fags when they didn’t participate in private parties where sex and drugs were involved. It was normal for guys to openly refer to attractive female colleagues as sluts when they refused to go out with them. They had private chats where guys wrote sexual fantasy stories about female colleagues and supervisors where they performed all sorts of demeaning acts on the women. I confronted the guys on my team whenever they passed lewd comments about female supervisors but never felt comfortable confronting guys who were not in my team. Sounds to me like it was her team members also.
amyjess 10y ago
From the article: > It was normal for guys to refer to other guys as fags when they didn’t participate in private parties where sex and drugs were involved. This was every douchebag in high school who would laugh at me for being interested in computers back in the early '00s. And now they're programmers 15 years later. Brogrammer culture squicks me out in several ways, but mostly because the same people who laughed at, mocked, and belittled anyone interested in programming are now invading our industry and driving the decent folk out.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Archio 10y ago
What point are you intending to communicate here? That there is a stereotype that people interested in software engineering are "nerds" who are losers and picked on in school? That the stereotype is accurate, and "yet again" software engineers bully other people because they were bullied?
xenihn 10y ago
Not sure what kinds of companies you've worked at, but from what I've seen, founders, execs, and their inner circles aren't nerds.
- JustSomeNobody 10y ago
  She specifically mentions confronting members of her team.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." -John Dalberg-Acton. It saddens me how much I have seen that quote play out in my life...

M_Grey 10y ago
It's honestly part of such a good quote, I feel compelled to post the rest. "I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means. You would hang a man of no position, like Ravaillac; but if what one hears is true, then Elizabeth asked the gaoler to murder Mary, and William III ordered his Scots minister to extirpate a clan. Here are the greater names coupled with the greater crimes. You would spare these criminals, for some mysterious reason. I would hang them, higher than Haman, for reasons of quite obvious justice; still more, still higher, for the sake of historical science." How right has he been proven, before and after his time? From athletes to politicians, from Steve Jobs to Winston Churchill.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

dboreham 10y ago

Not sure I understand this. This guy doesn't sound like a nerd at all. More like a BSD.

JustSomeNobody 10y ago
It's not just _one_ guy being talked about.

aylmao 10y ago

Except I doubt these are "the nerds". These are likely the fratboys who studied business and are continuing their hazing and misogyny as managers after college.

CodeSheikh 10y ago
I am also assuming some fancy MBA jerk.
- JustSomeNobody 10y ago
  She specifically mentions confronting members of her team.
JustSomeNobody 10y ago
> It was normal for our supervisors to openly appreciate the performance of one member over the other and publicly demean members who did not perform as per their expectations. Chauvinistic, racist and homophobic attitudes were far too normal at Uber. Once in a group chat, team members referred to a new Asian American recruit as slanty eye joe. It was normal for guys to refer to other guys as fags when they didn’t participate in private parties where sex and drugs were involved. It was normal for guys to openly refer to attractive female colleagues as sluts when they refused to go out with them. They had private chats where guys wrote sexual fantasy stories about female colleagues and supervisors where they performed all sorts of demeaning acts on the women. I confronted the guys on my team whenever they passed lewd comments about female supervisors but never felt comfortable confronting guys who were not in my team. Sounds to me like it was her team members also.

amyjess 10y ago

From the article: > It was normal for guys to refer to other guys as fags when they didn’t participate in private parties where sex and drugs were involved. This was every douchebag in high school who would laugh at me for being interested in computers back in the early '00s. And now they're programmers 15 years later. Brogrammer culture squicks me out in several ways, but mostly because the same people who laughed at, mocked, and belittled anyone interested in programming are now invading our industry and driving the decent folk out.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Archio 10y ago

What point are you intending to communicate here? That there is a stereotype that people interested in software engineering are "nerds" who are losers and picked on in school? That the stereotype is accurate, and "yet again" software engineers bully other people because they were bullied?

xenihn 10y ago

Not sure what kinds of companies you've worked at, but from what I've seen, founders, execs, and their inner circles aren't nerds.

JustSomeNobody 10y ago
She specifically mentions confronting members of her team.