4 ms·

>There’s an obscure blog by a guy who talks about the three or so stages of popular trends Is this what you’re referring too? “Geeks, MOPs, and Sociopaths”? h

>There’s an obscure blog by a guy who talks about the three or so stages of popular trends Is this what you’re referring too? “Geeks, MOPs, and Sociopaths”? https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths By this formulation, it’s hard to argue that “tech” as a subculture hasn’t been overrun by sociopaths. Just compare the tech heroes of yesteryear (thinking the 70s/80s) with those of today.

allovernow 7y ago
>If the scene is sufficiently geeky, it remains a strictly geek thing; a weird hobby, not a subculture. To some degree you may be correct, but tech is unique. It primarily falls into this category, however in recent times, probably as during the tech boom, the culture is also rightly seen as a strong career path. And the people who spend their lives coding out of pure passion make these things look extremely easy to outsiders - you can't deny that someone who spends 4-8 hours a day coding in their spare time since teenagehood isn't likely to outperform someone who just does this for a living. So there will be a particularly strong pressure to coopt the subculture - but my point is that tech is different, because it isn't a subculture, it's a passion that cannot be simply emulated because in the end code either works or it doesn't.
- claudeganon 7y ago
  I think that’s a separate concern from what this post is describing though, which (in this framing) is whether tech continues to exist as a geek driven is consumed by sociopaths and made into something instrumental and without any real ethos. Geeks (your spending 4-8 hours a day coding) and sociopaths both exist a priori in this argument. It’s about which faction is the dominant one and the consequences of their being dominant.

4 ms·

>There’s an obscure blog by a guy who talks about the three or so stages of popular trends Is this what you’re referring too? “Geeks, MOPs, and Sociopaths”? h

by claudeganon 7y ago

allovernow 7y ago
>If the scene is sufficiently geeky, it remains a strictly geek thing; a weird hobby, not a subculture. To some degree you may be correct, but tech is unique. It primarily falls into this category, however in recent times, probably as during the tech boom, the culture is also rightly seen as a strong career path. And the people who spend their lives coding out of pure passion make these things look extremely easy to outsiders - you can't deny that someone who spends 4-8 hours a day coding in their spare time since teenagehood isn't likely to outperform someone who just does this for a living. So there will be a particularly strong pressure to coopt the subculture - but my point is that tech is different, because it isn't a subculture, it's a passion that cannot be simply emulated because in the end code either works or it doesn't.
- claudeganon 7y ago
  I think that’s a separate concern from what this post is describing though, which (in this framing) is whether tech continues to exist as a geek driven is consumed by sociopaths and made into something instrumental and without any real ethos. Geeks (your spending 4-8 hours a day coding) and sociopaths both exist a priori in this argument. It’s about which faction is the dominant one and the consequences of their being dominant.