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This is why I hate identity politics and why I believe all jobs for a given role should pay identically. Men/women are created equal but different. Praise peopl

This is why I hate identity politics and why I believe all jobs for a given role should pay identically. Men/women are created equal but different. Praise people for their merit, not their sex. I know women who can run circles around men in coding and sysadmin work. I sometimes have to remind myself that I'm working with a woman when we're sat together working on something. I just tend to notice that this person is smart, often smarter than me in a given area, and I can learn. One of my favorite team leads is a woman from Ethiopia. Smart, pretty, funny, able to handle the BS some of the guys give her. The guys quickly realize she's better than most of them and they defer to her where her knowledge exceeds their own. Let's be honest, it's refreshing to see women excel in an area where men are usually dominant, and let's not forget, programming in the beginning years was mostly women. I'm attempting to teach my own teenage daughter some programming basics, not to get her into the industry, but to show her cause and effect, abstract thinking, building something from nothing, critical thinking, etc.

notadoc 8y ago
> Men/women are created equal but different. Praise people for their merit, not their sex. Many people will find those mere statements to be offensive and inflammatory. You must know that we have reached a point where large segments of society find acknowledging achievement and/or biology to be a cultural faux pas and highly controversial.
- nuclearburrito 8y ago
  I can appreciate your comment, but I respectfully disagree. So many high-profile people and groups want to completely eradicate any differences between the sexes. This is wrong. Women should be praised for who and what they are. Being smart,feminine, caring, and nurturing are virtues for women, much as strength and physical performance is for men. Notice I didn't mention fashion, physical possessions, or the ability to acquire them. I appreciate the everyday woman and man far more than those who exist to toot their own horns. There is something to be said for the woman that can juggle a coding job and then be a mom at 5 PM. Kudos to her. Ditto, men should be praised for their abilities to hold down a good job, provide for and protect their wives and children should they have them. Yes, I am a social conservative, but I'm not misogynist or blind to the modern world. Every family has a different dynamic. Everyone has to work things out for their own situation. I'm old school enough to realize what identity politics is, can spot it a mile off, and reject it. But... we can never erase the differences as they are innate. Women should be celebrated as feminine and men as masculine. To do anything else is disingenuous. This is not to say women are sex objects, for example. They are not. Nor are men to be idolized for their prowess on the field. This crap can be taken too far and injures both sexes and compartmentalizes them. In a nutshell, I tend to embrace sci-fi author, Robert Heinlein's, famous quote in life: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
solipsism 8y ago
This article is about how professional women are described, and it takes as a premise the fact that women are equals with respect to merit. Given that, your comment seems off topic. No one is talking about whether women can hang in our industry. Is it necessary to derail this discussion by opening up that can of worms?
rayiner 8y ago
> Men/women are created equal but different. Identity politics is a reaction to people who say stuff like that.
- viridian 8y ago
  It's not society and nurture stopping a woman from deadlifting 800lbs, or a man from breastfeeding. Humans are a sexually dimorphic species. My girlfriend and I were just talking about how it's pretty unfortunate that there are basically no top level female smash players, but the fact is that reaction time is such a huge advantage that only a fraction of a percent of men can perform at the top level, and the female bell curve just doesn't stretch that far. The opposite is true for some traits as well, like top percentile flexibility.
  - tptacek 8y ago
    Well, what's stopping men from deadlifting 800lbs? Because only a tiny fraction of men can deadlift 600lbs (the women's deadlift record), let alone 800lbs. Will a man hold the deadlift record? Most assuredly. Does this in any way matter? It sure doesn't seem like it does.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - moduspol 8y ago
      It matters when the 800lb deadlifting community is accused of rampant sexism, and counter-productive policies are put in place to correct this perceived injustice.
    - subjectsigma 8y ago
      People's lives literally depend on whether or not you believe in physical and mental differences between men and women. https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/blog/2012/07/05/get-over-it-we-are-not-all-created-equal https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/blog/2012/07/05/get-over... https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/2014/09/why-women-do-not-belong-us-infantry https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/2014/09/why-women-do-not... http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-special-ops-should-be-off-limits-to-women/ http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-special-...
BadDebug 8y ago
Why do you say "attempting to teach my daughter programming" and not "I am teaching my daughter programming"? You make it seem like she's not interested.

notadoc 8y ago

> Men/women are created equal but different. Praise people for their merit, not their sex. Many people will find those mere statements to be offensive and inflammatory. You must know that we have reached a point where large segments of society find acknowledging achievement and/or biology to be a cultural faux pas and highly controversial.

nuclearburrito 8y ago
I can appreciate your comment, but I respectfully disagree. So many high-profile people and groups want to completely eradicate any differences between the sexes. This is wrong. Women should be praised for who and what they are. Being smart,feminine, caring, and nurturing are virtues for women, much as strength and physical performance is for men. Notice I didn't mention fashion, physical possessions, or the ability to acquire them. I appreciate the everyday woman and man far more than those who exist to toot their own horns. There is something to be said for the woman that can juggle a coding job and then be a mom at 5 PM. Kudos to her. Ditto, men should be praised for their abilities to hold down a good job, provide for and protect their wives and children should they have them. Yes, I am a social conservative, but I'm not misogynist or blind to the modern world. Every family has a different dynamic. Everyone has to work things out for their own situation. I'm old school enough to realize what identity politics is, can spot it a mile off, and reject it. But... we can never erase the differences as they are innate. Women should be celebrated as feminine and men as masculine. To do anything else is disingenuous. This is not to say women are sex objects, for example. They are not. Nor are men to be idolized for their prowess on the field. This crap can be taken too far and injures both sexes and compartmentalizes them. In a nutshell, I tend to embrace sci-fi author, Robert Heinlein's, famous quote in life: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

solipsism 8y ago

This article is about how professional women are described, and it takes as a premise the fact that women are equals with respect to merit. Given that, your comment seems off topic. No one is talking about whether women can hang in our industry. Is it necessary to derail this discussion by opening up that can of worms?

rayiner 8y ago

> Men/women are created equal but different. Identity politics is a reaction to people who say stuff like that.

viridian 8y ago
It's not society and nurture stopping a woman from deadlifting 800lbs, or a man from breastfeeding. Humans are a sexually dimorphic species. My girlfriend and I were just talking about how it's pretty unfortunate that there are basically no top level female smash players, but the fact is that reaction time is such a huge advantage that only a fraction of a percent of men can perform at the top level, and the female bell curve just doesn't stretch that far. The opposite is true for some traits as well, like top percentile flexibility.
- tptacek 8y ago
  Well, what's stopping men from deadlifting 800lbs? Because only a tiny fraction of men can deadlift 600lbs (the women's deadlift record), let alone 800lbs. Will a man hold the deadlift record? Most assuredly. Does this in any way matter? It sure doesn't seem like it does.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - moduspol 8y ago
    It matters when the 800lb deadlifting community is accused of rampant sexism, and counter-productive policies are put in place to correct this perceived injustice.
  - subjectsigma 8y ago
    People's lives literally depend on whether or not you believe in physical and mental differences between men and women. https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/blog/2012/07/05/get-over-it-we-are-not-all-created-equal https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/blog/2012/07/05/get-over... https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/2014/09/why-women-do-not-belong-us-infantry https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/2014/09/why-women-do-not... http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-special-ops-should-be-off-limits-to-women/ http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-special-...

BadDebug 8y ago

Why do you say "attempting to teach my daughter programming" and not "I am teaching my daughter programming"? You make it seem like she's not interested.