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At the risk of confirmation bias, this seems to back fairly common beliefs in developer communities... namely that developers are individually optimistic and pr

At the risk of confirmation bias, this seems to back fairly common beliefs in developer communities... namely that developers are individually optimistic and problems are largely the fault of mismanagement or other externalities. > software developers are a slightly happy population > the vast majority of the causes of unhappiness are of external type. Since external causes may be easier to influence than internal causes, and since influencing them will impact several developers rather than only one at a time, this suggests that there are plenty of opportunities to improve conditions for developers in practice. Also noteworthy: this study skewed highly male (94% v 5%). This may be a source of uncertainty.

sniglom 9y ago
Isn't the field heavily skewed towards males as well? It wouldn't surprise me if 94% of software developers being male was perfectly true. Think about how many female software developers (not managers) you've seen per guy within IT. At least for me, it's seldom that I meet female developers. At the workplaces I've been, it's approximately those numbers, perhaps even less.
- Qwertious 9y ago
  IIRC the female developer stats were in the double-digits, varying somewhere like 20-40%. A 6% rate is therefore unrepresentative.
  - sniglom 9y ago
    Where are those numbers from? Those numbers would imply 20-40% at computer science in universities as well. AFAIK that isn't the case in Europe or the US.
    - pjmlp 9y ago
      Depends where in Europe. In Portugal and Spain, many universities are full of females on CS degrees. Already in the 90's my faculty had around 10%. FOSDEM also has a good presence of females per room. Meanwhile in Germany they seem not to like CS.
  - EGreg 9y ago
    Care to back this up with links and data?
- forgottenpass 9y ago
  Think about how many female software developers (not managers) you've seen per guy within IT. Why would I compare the number of women in one department to the number of men in another? Such a number doesn't mean anything.
- dagw 9y ago
  Anecdotally it seems to vary massively between different workplaces. Smaller internet and games companies seem to have a much bigger male skew than larger, "boring enterprise" companies.
  - david-cako 9y ago
    Larger companies have more time, energy, and money to worry about their hiring demographics. Everyone else just wants smart people in chairs in front of keyboards.
watwut 9y ago
> problems are largely the fault of mismanagement or other externalities Those externalities are often (not always) manageable through. And a lot of them are caused by developers themselves or by developers having wrong job.

sniglom 9y ago

Isn't the field heavily skewed towards males as well? It wouldn't surprise me if 94% of software developers being male was perfectly true. Think about how many female software developers (not managers) you've seen per guy within IT. At least for me, it's seldom that I meet female developers. At the workplaces I've been, it's approximately those numbers, perhaps even less.

Qwertious 9y ago
IIRC the female developer stats were in the double-digits, varying somewhere like 20-40%. A 6% rate is therefore unrepresentative.
- sniglom 9y ago
  Where are those numbers from? Those numbers would imply 20-40% at computer science in universities as well. AFAIK that isn't the case in Europe or the US.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    Depends where in Europe. In Portugal and Spain, many universities are full of females on CS degrees. Already in the 90's my faculty had around 10%. FOSDEM also has a good presence of females per room. Meanwhile in Germany they seem not to like CS.
- EGreg 9y ago
  Care to back this up with links and data?
forgottenpass 9y ago
Think about how many female software developers (not managers) you've seen per guy within IT. Why would I compare the number of women in one department to the number of men in another? Such a number doesn't mean anything.
dagw 9y ago
Anecdotally it seems to vary massively between different workplaces. Smaller internet and games companies seem to have a much bigger male skew than larger, "boring enterprise" companies.
- david-cako 9y ago
  Larger companies have more time, energy, and money to worry about their hiring demographics. Everyone else just wants smart people in chairs in front of keyboards.

watwut 9y ago

> problems are largely the fault of mismanagement or other externalities Those externalities are often (not always) manageable through. And a lot of them are caused by developers themselves or by developers having wrong job.