4 ms·

> There's a ton of Stupid Computer Shit we all know, mostly from messing around on our own time, that makes programming or doing anything else with computers mu

by sah2ed 9y ago

> There's a ton of Stupid Computer Shit we all know, mostly from messing around on our own time, that makes programming or doing anything else with computers much easier. Thanks for clearly articulating this in 6 words: "Stupid Computer Shit we all know". This is something many people aren't willing to acknowledge (aka tribal knowledge gained from lots of trial and error). It perfectly summarizes what pg tried to communicate in a 2013 interview [0] where he said founders who have been "hacking for the past 10 years" have an enormous competitive advantage over founders who haven't i.e. female founders when it comes to starting technology companies. Unfortunately, the tech press [1][2][3] went out of its way to grossly misinterpret what pg was trying to say [4]. [0] https://www.theinformation.com/YC-s-Paul-Graham-The-Complete-Interview https://www.theinformation.com/YC-s-Paul-Graham-The-Complete... [1] http://valleywag.gawker.com/paul-graham-says-women-havent-been-hacking-for-the-pa-1490581236 http://valleywag.gawker.com/paul-graham-says-women-havent-be... [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/paul-graham-revives-sexism-tech-talk/356541/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/paul-... [3] https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-that-Paul-Grahams-comments-about-women-and-startups-have-been-misinterpreted https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-that-Paul-Grahams-comme... [4] http://www.paulgraham.com/ff.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ff.html

theorique 9y ago
Exactly right. The unstated but important knowledge of Stupid Computer Shit We All Know was spun by the media as "Evil Bigot Paul Graham Says That Only Suburban White Kids Who Have Used Computers Since Age 6 Can Ever Be Successful Tech Entrepreneurs". Which was not at all what he was saying but ... media gonna media.
ashark 9y ago
> Thanks for clearly articulating this in 6 words: "Stupid Computer Shit we all know". This is something many people aren't willing to acknowledge. I think a lot of us have forgotten how strange and frightening a blank command line was the first time we encountered it. And how long it took to actually get comfortable with it. Even a windowing system is weird if you're not used to it, and lots of people use those for years and years without ever actually feeling like they're in control of them. Knowing where the boundaries lie, how to protect oneself from unrecoverable situations and how to get oneself out of bad-but-recoverable ones puts one at ease in front of the keyboard. The absolute n00b (which we all were, once) gets lost navigating directories. The experienced user loses their boot sector, curses, sighs, then fixes the problem. They aren't put off by finding the solution to their problem is to apply a patch to their kernel and compile, and so on. It takes time to reach that kind of ultra-power-user level of competence and confidence, it's hard to teach, but it's enormously useful for letting you put the concerns of basic (ha!) computing in the background and focus on the task at hand (programming, for example).
- nulagrithom 9y ago
  I got dropped in to an AS/400 environment a few years ago. All my knowledge instantly vanished. It was harrowing. There were so many idiosyncrasies my coworkers knew that I had to learn (anyone know how to push the F22 key?) The terminal didn't function in any way I was familiar with at all (no ls, cd, mv, nothing). The "filesystem" was basically for interoperability while the actual system ran with a concept of "libraries" instead of folder hierarchy. I ended up having to take basic lessons on the system. It really gave me an appreciation for "stupid computer shit we all know". It sucks to be in a position of not knowing that stuff. Suddenly the most basic functions becomes monumental tasks.
- lowbloodsugar 9y ago
  >I think a lot of us have forgotten how strange and frightening a blank command line was the first time we encountered it. BBC Computer 32k FS 1.42 BASIC > As an 11 year old, this was thing of joy, not fear.
  - ashark 9y ago
    It's all fun and games until you break the very expensive family computer (and when your parents have written instructions for the sequence of magic commands to run various programs and don't understand the directory tree, "breaking" it can mean a lot of things) and have to figure out how to fix it. With no Google to consult. :-)
    - lowbloodsugar 9y ago
      Directory tree? I had a cassette player. This is a computer that you upgrade the OS by going to a computer show and buying a new ROM. Dad watched just to make sure I didn't electrocute myself. He drove me 50 miles buy a debugger on another ROM chip for my 14th birthday. My parents thought these new fangled computers might be important someday, and bought me one to "play" with. I didn't have Google, but I had the instruction manual for the 6502. Life was good.

by sah2ed 9y ago

theorique 9y ago

Exactly right. The unstated but important knowledge of Stupid Computer Shit We All Know was spun by the media as "Evil Bigot Paul Graham Says That Only Suburban White Kids Who Have Used Computers Since Age 6 Can Ever Be Successful Tech Entrepreneurs". Which was not at all what he was saying but ... media gonna media.

ashark 9y ago

> Thanks for clearly articulating this in 6 words: "Stupid Computer Shit we all know". This is something many people aren't willing to acknowledge. I think a lot of us have forgotten how strange and frightening a blank command line was the first time we encountered it. And how long it took to actually get comfortable with it. Even a windowing system is weird if you're not used to it, and lots of people use those for years and years without ever actually feeling like they're in control of them. Knowing where the boundaries lie, how to protect oneself from unrecoverable situations and how to get oneself out of bad-but-recoverable ones puts one at ease in front of the keyboard. The absolute n00b (which we all were, once) gets lost navigating directories. The experienced user loses their boot sector, curses, sighs, then fixes the problem. They aren't put off by finding the solution to their problem is to apply a patch to their kernel and compile, and so on. It takes time to reach that kind of ultra-power-user level of competence and confidence, it's hard to teach, but it's enormously useful for letting you put the concerns of basic (ha!) computing in the background and focus on the task at hand (programming, for example).

nulagrithom 9y ago
I got dropped in to an AS/400 environment a few years ago. All my knowledge instantly vanished. It was harrowing. There were so many idiosyncrasies my coworkers knew that I had to learn (anyone know how to push the F22 key?) The terminal didn't function in any way I was familiar with at all (no ls, cd, mv, nothing). The "filesystem" was basically for interoperability while the actual system ran with a concept of "libraries" instead of folder hierarchy. I ended up having to take basic lessons on the system. It really gave me an appreciation for "stupid computer shit we all know". It sucks to be in a position of not knowing that stuff. Suddenly the most basic functions becomes monumental tasks.
lowbloodsugar 9y ago
>I think a lot of us have forgotten how strange and frightening a blank command line was the first time we encountered it. BBC Computer 32k FS 1.42 BASIC > As an 11 year old, this was thing of joy, not fear.
- ashark 9y ago
  It's all fun and games until you break the very expensive family computer (and when your parents have written instructions for the sequence of magic commands to run various programs and don't understand the directory tree, "breaking" it can mean a lot of things) and have to figure out how to fix it. With no Google to consult. :-)
  - lowbloodsugar 9y ago
    Directory tree? I had a cassette player. This is a computer that you upgrade the OS by going to a computer show and buying a new ROM. Dad watched just to make sure I didn't electrocute myself. He drove me 50 miles buy a debugger on another ROM chip for my 14th birthday. My parents thought these new fangled computers might be important someday, and bought me one to "play" with. I didn't have Google, but I had the instruction manual for the 6502. Life was good.