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Many techies were once also the geeks, the nerds, the rejects, the misfits, the outcasts, the beaten and the downtrodden. This creates the perfect foundation f

Many techies were once also the geeks, the nerds, the rejects, the misfits, the outcasts, the beaten and the downtrodden. This creates the perfect foundation for personalities with something to prove and little to no empathy to stop them from doing it.

noncoml 9y ago
I disagree. The nerds and the geeks are not rejects, misfits or outcasts. They choose to live in distance from the "popular" folks and the crowd around them because they don't understand them and don't find any enjoyment or meaning in that.
- matte_black 9y ago
  I don’t think they choose to live at a distance, I think they do it to avoid getting hurt. This is purely anecdotal, but I remember a brilliant nerdy kid back in high school days dared to talk back to some bullies that were messing with him. He ended up getting beat the fuck up and they purposely broke his glasses. At the end of the day though, the bullies were still popular and accepted by everyone, and the nerd was still a nerd who should have known his place. How does a life event like that affect someone’s world view later when the very thing that once made them an outcast is suddenly the source of all their power and wealth in this word?
PhasmaFelis 9y ago
It's slick, privileged, socially-adept tech bros who are calling the shots here. The actual misfits and nerds are just the cogs in their machines.
csydas 9y ago
While this may be it in some instances, it could be a lot of things I think. For the same reason (geeks/nerds/rejects etc) may feel they cannot by definition be oppressive because they too were oppressed before by the popular ones. Of course, anyone is capable of oppression and discrimination, to varying degrees of efficacy, but that tends to get lost when you feel pretty beat up from others and suddenly are confronted with the fact that they are doing that very thing. The headline is sensational, though, as it's not all techies, no. But at the same time, there are quite a few who, as the article's opening illustration shows, are happy to put their head in the sand and just tell themselves "It's not me doing it, I know what it's like to be oppressed/discriminated against, I did x/y/z action, so I'm a good guy", all as their colleagues have to put up with such non-sense. I would suspect that is where a lot of the frustration and backlash against a lot of tech folk during these issues over the past few years has come from; the eschewing of any responsibility with mantras and "not all of us do that, some of us were the ones that got picked on in high school!". I don't mean to say that there is a concrete hierarchy of suffering and only those with the most suffering may complain; I don't subscribe to the War Orphans in Darfur clause. What I would say is that suffering is suffering and if we can help, the world is better for it. And I think that is the basis for the complaints against tech folk - there is a lot of potential to stop it or to help, but many do not. I get there may be some awkwardness and even professional risk to confronting bad behavior, and I respect that it's a hard decision for some.
zaptheimpaler 9y ago
I am one of those misfits (not an evil or unempathetic one i think...), and people like you are just the shitty bullies all over again. Tech has an abundance of non-nerdy types now, and arguably those are the people with enough business and social savvy to have made it into the force it is today. The VCs who choose what to fund, the advertisers that shape content platforms, the founders who care only about engagement.. These socially "well-adjusted" people are just as culpable (if not more) for the evil tech has done, but yet people like you point the finger at nerds and only nerds. There are many, many socially competent people who do evil things, but they have good social skills so you don't care. Its just a trash regurgitation of the hierarchies of high-school all over again. Its oh-so-convenient to believe "evil" ties in perfectly with your intuitive sense of "well-adjusted", to divide the world so easily into "misfit = evil" and "friendly = good", but truly evil people have to blend in as "good" to get anything done. The sociopaths are running the show.
- watwut 9y ago
  Nerd types are no better ethically then the rest of population. Not worst either I would say, the major difference is lack of influence. Thinking that being nerd implies good and does not help anything ethical. It makes it worst, because it removes doubt.
  - zaptheimpaler 9y ago
    Yep, exactly. I don't think nerds are all good, but I don't think they are all evil because of their childhood experiences either as OP implies. The fact is good and evil people are everywhere.
    - matte_black 9y ago
      I don’t think they are all evil, but I think the cause for at least some evil is shaped by those experiences. Especially on a young impressionable mind.
      - sitkack 9y ago

noncoml 9y ago

I disagree. The nerds and the geeks are not rejects, misfits or outcasts. They choose to live in distance from the "popular" folks and the crowd around them because they don't understand them and don't find any enjoyment or meaning in that.

matte_black 9y ago
I don’t think they choose to live at a distance, I think they do it to avoid getting hurt. This is purely anecdotal, but I remember a brilliant nerdy kid back in high school days dared to talk back to some bullies that were messing with him. He ended up getting beat the fuck up and they purposely broke his glasses. At the end of the day though, the bullies were still popular and accepted by everyone, and the nerd was still a nerd who should have known his place. How does a life event like that affect someone’s world view later when the very thing that once made them an outcast is suddenly the source of all their power and wealth in this word?

PhasmaFelis 9y ago

It's slick, privileged, socially-adept tech bros who are calling the shots here. The actual misfits and nerds are just the cogs in their machines.

csydas 9y ago

While this may be it in some instances, it could be a lot of things I think. For the same reason (geeks/nerds/rejects etc) may feel they cannot by definition be oppressive because they too were oppressed before by the popular ones. Of course, anyone is capable of oppression and discrimination, to varying degrees of efficacy, but that tends to get lost when you feel pretty beat up from others and suddenly are confronted with the fact that they are doing that very thing. The headline is sensational, though, as it's not all techies, no. But at the same time, there are quite a few who, as the article's opening illustration shows, are happy to put their head in the sand and just tell themselves "It's not me doing it, I know what it's like to be oppressed/discriminated against, I did x/y/z action, so I'm a good guy", all as their colleagues have to put up with such non-sense. I would suspect that is where a lot of the frustration and backlash against a lot of tech folk during these issues over the past few years has come from; the eschewing of any responsibility with mantras and "not all of us do that, some of us were the ones that got picked on in high school!". I don't mean to say that there is a concrete hierarchy of suffering and only those with the most suffering may complain; I don't subscribe to the War Orphans in Darfur clause. What I would say is that suffering is suffering and if we can help, the world is better for it. And I think that is the basis for the complaints against tech folk - there is a lot of potential to stop it or to help, but many do not. I get there may be some awkwardness and even professional risk to confronting bad behavior, and I respect that it's a hard decision for some.

zaptheimpaler 9y ago

I am one of those misfits (not an evil or unempathetic one i think...), and people like you are just the shitty bullies all over again. Tech has an abundance of non-nerdy types now, and arguably those are the people with enough business and social savvy to have made it into the force it is today. The VCs who choose what to fund, the advertisers that shape content platforms, the founders who care only about engagement.. These socially "well-adjusted" people are just as culpable (if not more) for the evil tech has done, but yet people like you point the finger at nerds and only nerds. There are many, many socially competent people who do evil things, but they have good social skills so you don't care. Its just a trash regurgitation of the hierarchies of high-school all over again. Its oh-so-convenient to believe "evil" ties in perfectly with your intuitive sense of "well-adjusted", to divide the world so easily into "misfit = evil" and "friendly = good", but truly evil people have to blend in as "good" to get anything done. The sociopaths are running the show.

watwut 9y ago
Nerd types are no better ethically then the rest of population. Not worst either I would say, the major difference is lack of influence. Thinking that being nerd implies good and does not help anything ethical. It makes it worst, because it removes doubt.
- zaptheimpaler 9y ago
  Yep, exactly. I don't think nerds are all good, but I don't think they are all evil because of their childhood experiences either as OP implies. The fact is good and evil people are everywhere.
  - matte_black 9y ago
    I don’t think they are all evil, but I think the cause for at least some evil is shaped by those experiences. Especially on a young impressionable mind.
    - sitkack 9y ago