4 ms·

Isis Casalduc, a Miss Universe Puerto Rico 2002 turned indie hacker

34 points by sergiomattei 6y ago

ykevinator 6y ago
I doubt it
- netsharc 6y ago
  What are you doubting? The fact that she can be attractive and can also code and has business skills? This kind of instant dismissal based on looks is one of those unconscious bigotry/judgement that we've learnt the past few week still control us and have been getting our fellow human brothers and sisters killed...
- dang 6y ago
  Vandalizing HN threads with low-rent flamebait will get you banned here. No more of this, please.
xenihn 6y ago
>I also happen to be quite geeky and nerdy. Which is probably something most people don’t expect when they think of a beauty queen. It's 2020. There are now lots of attractive women who are geeky and nerdy. Just look at the cosplay industry. Or, ahem, Twitch. It's not the 90s or early 2000s anymore. There's nothing exceptional or noteworthy about a beauty queen or lingerie model or whoever who likes anime, or board games, or manga, or programming, or gaming on a desktop. People (of both genders) used to be looked down on for liking these things, but that hasn't been the case for over a decade. They're cool now.
- skciva 6y ago
  I'd say its still exceptional and noteworthy. When you think "beauty queen" is a word you associate with them "anime" or "programming?" Norms and culture are certainly shifting but there still exists a lot of prejudice against nerd culture AND gatekeeping within nerd culture. Anecdotally I know a few women who have switched into tech in the last few years. They all talk about how they never even knew it was a viable path for someone like them. (And "someone like them" means "normal" young woman.)
  - cadence- 6y ago
    There aren’t that many beauty queens out there. So anything they do outside of being a beauty queen will seem exceptional.
    - filmgirlcw 6y ago
      Exactly this. The number of exceptionally beautiful people (using whatever standard of beauty your culture defines) is limited in nearly every field except for acting. It’s just not common, regardless of industry.
  - filmgirlcw 6y ago
    > Anecdotally I know a few women who have switched into tech in the last few years. They all talk about how they never even knew it was a viable path for someone like them. (And "someone like them" means "normal" young woman.) Speaking as a woman who most would consider conventionally-attractive, I really think most of that is less about prejudice against nerd culture and more about what happens when more women become more visible and vocal in tech. It’s not as if suddenly, “beauty queens” started to study computer science or get interested in engineering, there have always been beautiful women who work in tech. It’s that when there is more visibility — and this is true for people of color too — that can five individuals who don’t fit the stereotype the confidence to join in.
  - xenihn 6y ago
    >there still exists a lot of prejudice against nerd culture We are not on the same page here. You think "nerd culture" is still distinct from "normal culture". I disagree with you. It is no longer distinct. It has been normalized and absorbed. This is a good thing. >gatekeeping within nerd culture See above.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
fizwhiz 6y ago
This is great! Though I'm not entirely sure why she's loitering around on the Google MTV campus in those pictures captioned San Francisco :/
- Melting_Harps 6y ago
  > This is great! Though I'm not entirely sure why she's loitering around on the Google MTV campus in those pictures captioned San Francisco :/ PR? I mean San Francisco evokes the thought of people's image of Silicon Valley (perhaps more so than the vast homeless situation and the vast economic divide that actually afflicts it) way more than if you say Mountain View, or Palo Alto for most people not in tech or in California for that matter. And quite frankly that's who this story appeals to: non-tech people. I've seen plenty of very attractive woman (of all races) who joined SCCA sanctioned racing events via their school's Engineering program with a bunch of nerdy t-shirts. I heard one yell 'Leeroooooooooy Jenkins' in the pits at an autocross/drifting event back in 2005! I also used to go to the 24-hour marathon Hackathons at CU Boulder and saw the same thing. Lots of them were from out state and country teams, too. After 2013 or so the Bitcoin 'Blockchain' Industry got inundated by finance and bank brain-drains and it wasn't uncommon to see very attractive woman from the banking Industry get in the space. How much they actually knew of the underlying tech, rather than some tired line about 'disrupting the financial products Industry' is another matter, but to be fair that's the case with most males, too. And these weren't just booth babes handing out schwag, but were actual employees. I still remember turning down the lone programmer at her booth handing me a 21 shirt because she couldn't/wouldn't tell me what tech they were working on at the Bitcoin Job Faire in Sunnyvale in 2015. I saw her later after Blaji's 'BUIDL' talk after the hackathon and we had a laugh about it. But this really a fluff non-story, but welcomed given the depressing amount of news this year so far, and while I'm not saying tech is a 50/50 equal ratio of male-female. I'm not really buying the narrative of this being some unicorn either. I guess the notable thing being she still spent most of her Life, and likely lots of her family's money, in that pageant circuit and can now try and make it back programming?
cadence- 6y ago
I think words like “geeky” and “nerdy” lost their true meaning in the last decade. It’s now more about image and fashion. Anybody who writes a simple website is now called geeky or nerdy. It’s especially abused to describe pretty girls, since many guys figured out that calling a girl nerdy or geeky increases their chances of getting in her pants.
cczizou 6y ago
I love stories about people who got into tech along an uncommon path.
rurban 6y ago
She was never Miss Universe. She won the national Puerto Rico Miss Universe contest, and in the international Miss Universe competition she won two minor prices. (most photogenic and best dress) She's also not that exceptionally looking, guess her geekness shows.
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  > She's also not that exceptionally looking, guess her geekness shows. At this point I'm not even sure if it's an American thing (ugly nerds vs popular cheerleaders) or just plain sexist (a woman can't be both attractive and smart).
  - rurban 6y ago
    Of course people can be both very attractive and very smart, but statistics. Both are uncorrelated, and thereby having both properties is very rare.
    - dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
      I agree, that's fair. But "her geekness shows" means something completely different.
hih 6y ago
no esta mal para un principiante, la tegnologia subyacente es un tema perfecto para hablar.No? . hacker02
hih 6y ago
muy convincente chaval.Hablar sobre BUIDL bastante gracioso no? hacker02

34 points by sergiomattei 6y ago

ykevinator 6y ago

I doubt it

netsharc 6y ago
What are you doubting? The fact that she can be attractive and can also code and has business skills? This kind of instant dismissal based on looks is one of those unconscious bigotry/judgement that we've learnt the past few week still control us and have been getting our fellow human brothers and sisters killed...
dang 6y ago
Vandalizing HN threads with low-rent flamebait will get you banned here. No more of this, please.

xenihn 6y ago

>I also happen to be quite geeky and nerdy. Which is probably something most people don’t expect when they think of a beauty queen. It's 2020. There are now lots of attractive women who are geeky and nerdy. Just look at the cosplay industry. Or, ahem, Twitch. It's not the 90s or early 2000s anymore. There's nothing exceptional or noteworthy about a beauty queen or lingerie model or whoever who likes anime, or board games, or manga, or programming, or gaming on a desktop. People (of both genders) used to be looked down on for liking these things, but that hasn't been the case for over a decade. They're cool now.

skciva 6y ago
I'd say its still exceptional and noteworthy. When you think "beauty queen" is a word you associate with them "anime" or "programming?" Norms and culture are certainly shifting but there still exists a lot of prejudice against nerd culture AND gatekeeping within nerd culture. Anecdotally I know a few women who have switched into tech in the last few years. They all talk about how they never even knew it was a viable path for someone like them. (And "someone like them" means "normal" young woman.)
- cadence- 6y ago
  There aren’t that many beauty queens out there. So anything they do outside of being a beauty queen will seem exceptional.
  - filmgirlcw 6y ago
    Exactly this. The number of exceptionally beautiful people (using whatever standard of beauty your culture defines) is limited in nearly every field except for acting. It’s just not common, regardless of industry.
- filmgirlcw 6y ago
  > Anecdotally I know a few women who have switched into tech in the last few years. They all talk about how they never even knew it was a viable path for someone like them. (And "someone like them" means "normal" young woman.) Speaking as a woman who most would consider conventionally-attractive, I really think most of that is less about prejudice against nerd culture and more about what happens when more women become more visible and vocal in tech. It’s not as if suddenly, “beauty queens” started to study computer science or get interested in engineering, there have always been beautiful women who work in tech. It’s that when there is more visibility — and this is true for people of color too — that can five individuals who don’t fit the stereotype the confidence to join in.
- xenihn 6y ago
  >there still exists a lot of prejudice against nerd culture We are not on the same page here. You think "nerd culture" is still distinct from "normal culture". I disagree with you. It is no longer distinct. It has been normalized and absorbed. This is a good thing. >gatekeeping within nerd culture See above.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

fizwhiz 6y ago

This is great! Though I'm not entirely sure why she's loitering around on the Google MTV campus in those pictures captioned San Francisco :/

Melting_Harps 6y ago
> This is great! Though I'm not entirely sure why she's loitering around on the Google MTV campus in those pictures captioned San Francisco :/ PR? I mean San Francisco evokes the thought of people's image of Silicon Valley (perhaps more so than the vast homeless situation and the vast economic divide that actually afflicts it) way more than if you say Mountain View, or Palo Alto for most people not in tech or in California for that matter. And quite frankly that's who this story appeals to: non-tech people. I've seen plenty of very attractive woman (of all races) who joined SCCA sanctioned racing events via their school's Engineering program with a bunch of nerdy t-shirts. I heard one yell 'Leeroooooooooy Jenkins' in the pits at an autocross/drifting event back in 2005! I also used to go to the 24-hour marathon Hackathons at CU Boulder and saw the same thing. Lots of them were from out state and country teams, too. After 2013 or so the Bitcoin 'Blockchain' Industry got inundated by finance and bank brain-drains and it wasn't uncommon to see very attractive woman from the banking Industry get in the space. How much they actually knew of the underlying tech, rather than some tired line about 'disrupting the financial products Industry' is another matter, but to be fair that's the case with most males, too. And these weren't just booth babes handing out schwag, but were actual employees. I still remember turning down the lone programmer at her booth handing me a 21 shirt because she couldn't/wouldn't tell me what tech they were working on at the Bitcoin Job Faire in Sunnyvale in 2015. I saw her later after Blaji's 'BUIDL' talk after the hackathon and we had a laugh about it. But this really a fluff non-story, but welcomed given the depressing amount of news this year so far, and while I'm not saying tech is a 50/50 equal ratio of male-female. I'm not really buying the narrative of this being some unicorn either. I guess the notable thing being she still spent most of her Life, and likely lots of her family's money, in that pageant circuit and can now try and make it back programming?

cadence- 6y ago

I think words like “geeky” and “nerdy” lost their true meaning in the last decade. It’s now more about image and fashion. Anybody who writes a simple website is now called geeky or nerdy. It’s especially abused to describe pretty girls, since many guys figured out that calling a girl nerdy or geeky increases their chances of getting in her pants.

cczizou 6y ago

I love stories about people who got into tech along an uncommon path.

rurban 6y ago

She was never Miss Universe. She won the national Puerto Rico Miss Universe contest, and in the international Miss Universe competition she won two minor prices. (most photogenic and best dress) She's also not that exceptionally looking, guess her geekness shows.

dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
> She's also not that exceptionally looking, guess her geekness shows. At this point I'm not even sure if it's an American thing (ugly nerds vs popular cheerleaders) or just plain sexist (a woman can't be both attractive and smart).
- rurban 6y ago
  Of course people can be both very attractive and very smart, but statistics. Both are uncorrelated, and thereby having both properties is very rare.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
    I agree, that's fair. But "her geekness shows" means something completely different.

hih 6y ago

no esta mal para un principiante, la tegnologia subyacente es un tema perfecto para hablar.No? . hacker02

hih 6y ago

muy convincente chaval.Hablar sobre BUIDL bastante gracioso no? hacker02