We need more of this. I played baseball and basketball and yes, I also played chess. I'm not an introvert (although I do love alone time). This narrow idea of w

We need more of this. I played baseball and basketball and yes, I also played chess. I'm not an introvert (although I do love alone time). This narrow idea of what traits a good programmer has is the fault of Eric Raymond who when describing what kind of person is a good hacker was clearly just describing himself (interested in martial arts, plays a musical instrument and speaks a foreign language, all perfectly great interests but what makes them better than cooking or chess or painting?). While it's great to have hobbies that involve critical thinking, nothing about the going stereotype of a programmer is necessary to be a good programmer or good thinker. Imagine if there was an equally narrow stereotype about what kind of person is a good doctor or lawyer. Doesn't that seem ridiculous? What about programming is different? Nothing. It seems so absurd to me that as an industry we're telling interested parties that diverse interests are a bad thing if you're a programmer and you should just stick to a short list of approved interests. No wonder there's no diversity in our field.