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Where does the author get the idea that it's ok to refer to people as "Old Fart" Programmers?
by milemi 7y ago
Where does the author get the idea that it's ok to refer to people as "Old Fart" Programmers?
- Edmond 7y agoOP here. I am an "Old Fart" Programmer myself, no offense intended :)
- milemi 7y agoIt's offensive regardless.
- shijie 7y agoMeaning, you took offense to it. I’m sure you’re aware that it is impossible for one to offend another human being. One has to make the choice to take offense. Which you did.
- danharaj 7y ago> I’m sure you’re aware that it is impossible for one to offend another human being. What?
- Karunamon 7y agoIn other words, offense is taken, not given.
- milemi 7y agoThis is one of the dumbest lines of argument I've read here. On the level of "you can't punch a person, it's only their face that can get in the way of your fist." I'm getting all kinds of enlightened today.
- camdenlock 7y agoThe transfer of information (i.e. reading some text) is not the same as a punch being thrown. The punch is liable to damage your body. The information, on the other hand, has to first be processed by your brain. Because of this processing, you can even give something like this a try: simply notice and become curious about the feeling of offense that wells up inside of you, instead of allowing it to fully take you for a ride resulting in embarrassing comments on Hacker News.
- throwaway8879 7y agoThe stoics had a great deal to say about reacting to insults. I suggest you read Seneca or Epictetus for some perspective on taking offense.
- milemi 7y agoI'm not reacting to a personal insult. I'm reacting to ageism. It's the people who are reacting back who are taking personal offense at what they perceive as an attempt to take away their freedom to casually demean people of the group they're not (yet) a part of.
- keymone 7y agoNo, it’s literally true. For different people in different contexts “you’re an idiot” can be both offensive and not. Even Intention to offend doesn’t matter in the slightest. For instance if I don’t care about somebody’s opinion, his statement that I’m an idiot is simply ignored. Offense is taken, not given.
- milemi 7y agoThat's assuming you have a choice to not be affected by someone's opinion. If there was a pervasive culture of people posting articles on HN casually assuming that you're an idiot you'd find it much harder to ignore. And if people on hiring committees, in fact just one person on each hiring committee, absorbed this by simply not having time and effort to expend to mentally challenge that assumption, you're pretty screwed, all philosophical arguments aside. Assuming you have to work for a living.
- leesalminen 7y agoJust because you chose to be offended by a series of words doesn’t make it objectively offensive. That’s your opinion, you’re entitled to have it, but it doesn’t make it true.
- milemi 7y agoStop blowing my mind man, it's too much.
- leesalminen 7y agoIt’s almost like appeal to emotion arguments don’t work on all people all the time. Huh.
- nqzero 7y agoit's not a question of being offended - age discrimination is illegal
- pm90 7y agoPlease stop this, you are being deliberately obtuse. This is neither a forum where such laws apply, nor an instance of what the laws around age discrimination try to address.
- nullandvoid 7y agoYou're offended by a title some one gives themself? Lighten up buddy
- milemi 7y agoThe title doesn't say "Reactive and Component Frameworks for me - an Old Fart Programmer"
- cjaybo 7y agoI struggle to see how any charitable interpretation of the article could arrive at this conclusion.
- tonyarkles 7y agoI personally prefer the more respectable Greybeard :). Although I’ve been blessed to not have my grandfather’s beard genetics... I’m currently only a Salt & Pepper Engineer
- asark 7y agoGood lord, don't worry about this BS, it's clearly fine outside the world of fringe complaint-seeking Internet loonies. Or well-attuned trolls, which I'd say is more likely in this case (in which case: well done troll, I mean look at this thread! But then HN's got some of the worst troll defenses around, so, middling victory). Anywho, unless you're punning with "brought to bare" it should be "brought to bear", as in "bearing", as in the direction of something. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bring_to_bear https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bring_to_bear
- milemi 7y agoHi, the fringe complaint-seeking internet loony here. Ageism is a real thing with consequences affecting the very livelihood of millions of people. I don't know the author's age, but people in their thirties sometimes think calling themselves old farts is cute. My bet is they'll change their minds once they hit their fifties, if they don't exit the industry by then. But dismissing all that as trolling is certainly the easy way to go.
- youeseh 7y agoAh, but you're mixing industry with skill here. I can be an old-fart surfer and not be a paid surfer, for example.
- rathel 7y agoMaybe the author lives in a world where there's no reason to be offended by every little thing and people can take a joke? ;) Granted, text can't convey irony, I know.
- milemi 7y agoFor something to be called a joke it should require at least some creativity. Check out Don Rickles and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog for good examples of what an insult joke is. Calling someone an old fart just isn't funny. It's a worn out insult.
- tenaciousDaniel 7y agoFor something to be called a joke it should simply be intended as a joke. My goodness, do we really need to overanalyze everything? Just relax.
- JustSomeNobody 7y agoThis is HN. A certain segment of the community here has a tendency towards over analyzing things. They can’t help it.
- milemi 7y agoI come to this site primarily because I like to analyze things. And no, an attempted joke is not necessarily a joke.
- greggyb 7y agoProbably their life experience.
- Biganon 7y agoIMO it's not offensive since it's not targeting anyone in particular. You are free to consider yourself an old fart or not.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- pier25 7y agoBecause he is referring to himself as an old fart.