7 ms·

I wonder if Jeff worked somewhere across the pond if he'd be writing the same article. I think people underestimate just how puritanical America is compared to

I wonder if Jeff worked somewhere across the pond if he'd be writing the same article. I think people underestimate just how puritanical America is compared to most of the rest of the (non-theocratic) world.

SamAtt 18y ago
The point of the article is just to say that some people will consider working on a porn project to be a negative and that could have an impact on your programming career. So while I understand that U.S. citizens in general are more puritanical than places overseas I also believe there are people overseas who are just as puritanical as the majority in the U.S. And those people might be responsible for doing the hiring in overseas companies. Which, to me, means the article's point is universal.
- yason 18y ago
  What's universal is that you can never please everybody at once, and you should never try to. You can't be yourself much less do anything of slightest importance without considered negative by at least some people. Also, what other people find negative and positive is certainly out of your control.
jrbedard 18y ago
True, I've spent a few months in Europe for the first time last fall after a life-time in US&Canada. It's quite interesting how people and organizations are more open-minded regarding "adult" discussions and demonstrations. It shows right away with the advertising billboards you see coming out of CDG airport. And if you walk around Nice, Canne or Monaco. When you talk to the people there, even they know about the puritan aspect of the US that shows in mainstream Hollywood movies or american TV censoring where the mature content is far outweighted by gratuitous violence.
teej 18y ago
> I think people underestimate just how puritanical America is. I would guess that the average US public opinion and the special-interest groups that "guide" the media greatly differ. American Family Association I'm looking at you.
biohacker42 18y ago
Bingo. If I see resumes like the ones he describes, I wouldn't blink if it was ultimately to serve porn or gambling. I do agree with Jeff that you should care what the ultimate value of your work is. But I don't think standard business apps are more purposeful then porn, they are both commercial enterprises and don't have any great spiritually transcending qualities. I care about biotech and robotics. And if you want to change the world though business apps or social websites that's great! But don't pretend that porn-IT work is somehow intrinsically less admirable then any other run of the mill coding job that pays the bills.
- gaius 18y ago
  But I don't think standard business apps are more purposeful then porn, they are both commercial enterprises and don't have any great spiritually transcending qualities. Well exactly. I work in online gambling, have done for 3 years now. At my interview they asked me, do you have any problem with working here? I just laughed and told them I'd been working in foreign exchange for 5 years. Should I ever want to go back to the City, I would have no problem at all listing my present employer on my CV, indeed, I would fully expect any potential employers to be impressed (particularly since our transactions/sec dwarf most stock exchanges!)
kingkongrevenge 18y ago
> how puritanical America is Heard this lots; never seen much evidence or experienced it in my travels. I think it's unchallenged BS. I mean, the sale of rated music CDs to 16 year olds is controlled and enforced in the UK. There are a bunch of American movies that are close to banned in Europe, but none of the reverse. As for "sexual liberation", major US cities and major European cities are no different.
- MaysonL 18y ago
  Just talking about this with a friend last night who went to Paris a few years ago. On the road in from the airport she was somewhat surprised by the billboard (advertising orange juice) showing a family - mom, dad, young teen daughter, and about 9 year old boy: full frontally nude. The next day, at about noon, she was surprised by the appearance on the boob tube of Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat.
- biohacker42 18y ago
  I can tell you my personal and entirely unscientific experience. When I first got of the plane years ago, to go to college in the US, the US culture struck me as deeply puritanical. I can't put it into exact words, but there was clearly a big difference compared to Europe. I spoke with other immigrants and they felt the same thing. The best a Brazilian friend and I could come up with was that it was like everyone got stuck in that very awkward phase when you're 12-13 and just switching from hating the other sex to being uncomfortably attracted to it. It seemed to us that somehow Americans just never outgrew that uncomfortable phase, which Europeans and Brazilians outgrow by the time we're 16 at the latest. Again, this is just personal and subjective evidence. And I just remebered something much less subjective. Here's some empircal evidence. I remember watching The Abyss on basic cable, this again shortly after I came to the US. And at one point Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's character is out and needs a defibrillator and her boob falls out. I distinctly remember being genuinely surprised that it was blurred, it was such a nothing! Not a sexual scene, just one boob and someone went through the trouble of blurring it, a profoundly silly thing. I did not expect the US to be that puritanical.
  - kingkongrevenge 18y ago

SamAtt 18y ago

The point of the article is just to say that some people will consider working on a porn project to be a negative and that could have an impact on your programming career. So while I understand that U.S. citizens in general are more puritanical than places overseas I also believe there are people overseas who are just as puritanical as the majority in the U.S. And those people might be responsible for doing the hiring in overseas companies. Which, to me, means the article's point is universal.

yason 18y ago
What's universal is that you can never please everybody at once, and you should never try to. You can't be yourself much less do anything of slightest importance without considered negative by at least some people. Also, what other people find negative and positive is certainly out of your control.

jrbedard 18y ago

True, I've spent a few months in Europe for the first time last fall after a life-time in US&Canada. It's quite interesting how people and organizations are more open-minded regarding "adult" discussions and demonstrations. It shows right away with the advertising billboards you see coming out of CDG airport. And if you walk around Nice, Canne or Monaco. When you talk to the people there, even they know about the puritan aspect of the US that shows in mainstream Hollywood movies or american TV censoring where the mature content is far outweighted by gratuitous violence.

teej 18y ago

> I think people underestimate just how puritanical America is. I would guess that the average US public opinion and the special-interest groups that "guide" the media greatly differ. American Family Association I'm looking at you.

biohacker42 18y ago

Bingo. If I see resumes like the ones he describes, I wouldn't blink if it was ultimately to serve porn or gambling. I do agree with Jeff that you should care what the ultimate value of your work is. But I don't think standard business apps are more purposeful then porn, they are both commercial enterprises and don't have any great spiritually transcending qualities. I care about biotech and robotics. And if you want to change the world though business apps or social websites that's great! But don't pretend that porn-IT work is somehow intrinsically less admirable then any other run of the mill coding job that pays the bills.

gaius 18y ago
But I don't think standard business apps are more purposeful then porn, they are both commercial enterprises and don't have any great spiritually transcending qualities. Well exactly. I work in online gambling, have done for 3 years now. At my interview they asked me, do you have any problem with working here? I just laughed and told them I'd been working in foreign exchange for 5 years. Should I ever want to go back to the City, I would have no problem at all listing my present employer on my CV, indeed, I would fully expect any potential employers to be impressed (particularly since our transactions/sec dwarf most stock exchanges!)

kingkongrevenge 18y ago

> how puritanical America is Heard this lots; never seen much evidence or experienced it in my travels. I think it's unchallenged BS. I mean, the sale of rated music CDs to 16 year olds is controlled and enforced in the UK. There are a bunch of American movies that are close to banned in Europe, but none of the reverse. As for "sexual liberation", major US cities and major European cities are no different.

MaysonL 18y ago
Just talking about this with a friend last night who went to Paris a few years ago. On the road in from the airport she was somewhat surprised by the billboard (advertising orange juice) showing a family - mom, dad, young teen daughter, and about 9 year old boy: full frontally nude. The next day, at about noon, she was surprised by the appearance on the boob tube of Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat.
biohacker42 18y ago
I can tell you my personal and entirely unscientific experience. When I first got of the plane years ago, to go to college in the US, the US culture struck me as deeply puritanical. I can't put it into exact words, but there was clearly a big difference compared to Europe. I spoke with other immigrants and they felt the same thing. The best a Brazilian friend and I could come up with was that it was like everyone got stuck in that very awkward phase when you're 12-13 and just switching from hating the other sex to being uncomfortably attracted to it. It seemed to us that somehow Americans just never outgrew that uncomfortable phase, which Europeans and Brazilians outgrow by the time we're 16 at the latest. Again, this is just personal and subjective evidence. And I just remebered something much less subjective. Here's some empircal evidence. I remember watching The Abyss on basic cable, this again shortly after I came to the US. And at one point Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's character is out and needs a defibrillator and her boob falls out. I distinctly remember being genuinely surprised that it was blurred, it was such a nothing! Not a sexual scene, just one boob and someone went through the trouble of blurring it, a profoundly silly thing. I did not expect the US to be that puritanical.
- kingkongrevenge 18y ago