dneronique

9/10 times for me it's because I'm filtering them out. It's not a good feeling to go back to work after a few days being out to a full inbox.

The other 1/10 of the time is because I probably pushed something out last-minute before I left due to some deadline, and I want to make sure my coworkers have their questions answered. I don't necessarily look at it as a fear of being fired, more so as someone who has been on the opposite end of that scenario and it's frustrating. If spending 30 minutes answering an email from a coworker on my vacation prevents a day's worth of frustration on their end, yeah, I'll take one for the team.

I'm always looking for something interesting, but there isn't anything new.

Agreed. There's been a shift where the focus isn't on introducing new products. Instead, focus has been on expanding the options within already established items. Eg. more flavors of chips, more types of hummus, different sizes of the same products, gluten free/HMO/low sugar versions, etc. Have you been in the cereal section lately? There are about 10 flavors of frosted mini wheats. Part of this trend could be that consumers are facing severe decision fatigue and end up opting for simpler (and in most cases cheaper) products.

I read it this way the first time, too.

I am a female developer about 6 years older than the author. I absolutely love the end of this article:

Slowly but steadily, I am learning to see my dresses and high­-pitched voice not as hurdles to my success, but as symbols of the perspective I bring to the table.

This conclusion is fantastic and shows a sense of confidence and maturity that I think all professionals of all genders need to project.

Humorously, a Facebook-esque header on one spectator’s smartphone screen has disappeared.

I didn't notice the header. However, I did appreciate that they changed the mountains on the smartphone picture to match the updated landscape.

people who actually have an understanding of economics and finance.

I'm not sure such people exist.

Economics and finance is full of very smart people who are very good at convincing other people that their opinion is more valid than the next guy's. The more convincing the argument, the more suspicious you should be of it.

edit: bad editing

Stray cats/dogs are incredibly rare in NYC, especially Manhattan. The structure in place that allows people to report unsupervised animals works too well.

This is more than a bit snarky.

I find traveling home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas is prohibitively expensive and difficult to acquire sufficient time off for both from work. I usually opt for taking no time off Thanksgiving week, holding a Friendsgiving, and then being free to spend more days with the fam at Xmas time. Friendsgiving is not always an excuse to avoid family.

I've had similar experiences with recruiters, so I don't really understand all the hate. If you're not looking you can be direct and get rid of them quickly without being rude, and if you are looking you just need to be smart like any other business transaction and keep an eye out for time-wasters and scams. The more I work with them, the more I appreciate their services and the better I get at spotting the 'real' professionals.

We need to teach boys that they are not, in fact, entitled to women's bodies

It was my understanding that most harassment and abuse is about dominance of the mind rather than physical. It's not about exercising entitlement, it's about establishing ownership. Subtle, but different.

In that regard, I feel like blocking websites would just be transferring the power from one dominating force to another. Alone, I don't think this would solve much since it ends up punishing the platform instead of the participating individuals. Killing 4chan would be like dropping a brick on a piece of shit - you don't have any less shit, just scattered.

feelings of isolation and frustration

I am a female born in 1987 and have similarily been interested in programming for a long time.

After reading several comments, I'm getting some sense of resentment that you were driven away from your passion while others were able to stay on course despite similar obsticles. I in no way wish to diminish their accomplishments or claim any secret insight into any hardships they had to overcome or did not have to overcome; however I feel there are some aspects that are unique to the female experience of 'isolation and frustration' in learning how to program that I wanted to clarify:

Starting off, it is not at all unusual to be the only female in the class/room. The reason this is horrible is not because there's no one to talk to or connect with, but because it's completely impossible to shake off the feeling that everyone is watching you, very closely, all the time. Having this constantly on your mind hurts your concentration, your productivity, and your ability to freely explore ideas without judgement - a very important part of learning. This is something that the female needs to come to terms with and learn to be comfortable in her own space regardless.

Second - and this one hurts to type because I can feel the coming backlash - you programming gentlemen can be a bit too... helpful. When a female does need extra help in understanding something, help is appreciated and needed! However, when several people, usually male, come at you at once wanting to help it can be a negative experience. As good intentioned as this is, it is incredibly frustrating for me for three reasons: 1) the more people that want to help only fortifies the pervasive paranoia discussed earlier, 2) the more people that want to help me highlights my knowledge gap and is incredibly discouraging, and 3) gentlemen, when helping a lady in need of something, you tend to get a sense of bravado and in an effort to show us something, you end up just doing it for us. When this happened to me, I not only missed out on an opportunity to do a task myself and learn, it also served to fortify the sense of "move aside, young lady, and let the men take care of this." Furthermore, once a female smarts up to this enough to be brave enough to refute said help, she will often do so in an unappealing way until she learns what gets the best response. I want to point out that I don't blame yall males at all, and this is something a female will need to learn to deal with.

For the record, I stuck with it and got my CS degree. I think this has more to do with stubbornness than fortitude.

All this said, however, I've come to be pretty blind to the gender gap in my day to day and try to shy away from these types of conversations because there is no winner. Starting any field of study will have its own set of unique challenges that every student needs to overcome. Right now, for females as well as males in software, one of those challenges is how to treat the gender gap. I'm pretty much over it.

So basically menstruation.

If it goes well nobody cares, if you slip up then everyone jumps all over you and calls you a sexist.

Most things in life are like this. Do what's expected and it's just another day. Fuck up and you'd better prepare for a shitstorm.

the marketing has to establish a hierarchy

Most mature products (particularly of leisure) have an associated hierarchy of quality. Top shelf vs. bottom shelf liquor. Name brand food products vs. generic. High fashion outlets vs. walmart.

I don't know your card-usage habits, but if it was triggered by a jail phone operator within the US, it's much more likely your account information was taken at an unrelated time/event than this breach.

If stealing card/account information was their goal, there are a lot easier ways to do it. Any time you use your card at a non-official ATM, put it down to pay at a restaurant or even not shredding any mail with account information, you're putting yourself at risk. Heck, account information can be social engineered out of people quite easily as well - your particular usage habits could have nothing to do with it.

The Algorithm Design Manual

My 'technical non-fiction' read to help keep my mind sharp.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B8139Z8/ref=oh_aui_d_det...

The Disaster Artist

My 'non-technical non-fiction' read to help keep me interesting around non-tech folk. The making of 'The Room,' complete with lots of weird Tommy Wiseau moments and behind the scenes insanity.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BSAZ6LE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl...

Neuromancer

My fiction read to help keep my mind young.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O76ON6/ref=oh_aui_d_det...

Edit: formatting

Puberty range in most women and bitches

At first I was offended and then I was 'Oohh...'

> Oh no! He was attracted to and dated women! How terrible!

No one is taking him down a notch for being attracted to/dating women. It's his chosen techniques in doing so.

I'm going to say on a whole, most females enjoy being considered attractive and enjoy being dated. There just happens to be quite a few ways you can fuck up going about it. Deception is one.

Included in the basses oeuvres was a management role over other social pariahs, from whom the executioner could levy a tax, suggesting that he was a sort of sovereign of the underworld.

I am so ready for this video game.

Do I drink 10 drink every day? Naw. But I drink 1-2 every week night and 6-15 on the weekends. So yea, I can see this averaging out awkwardly...

As an adult who reads a large variety of fiction and non-fiction alike within varying degrees of quality, I find myself enjoying the occasional YA book because they're often such shameless, reductionist broth that you're entirely freed from taking it too seriously and just take it at face value. Whether the protagonist is 10, 18, 25 or 40 is somewhat insignificant for me. Anyone of any age will deal with "struggling to define themselves while figuring out social standing, who their friends were, how to interact with their parents and managing their obligations."

At the end of the day, I'm just glad people are still reading.

but not anyone that thinks about the merits of various architectures, reads up on optimal coding practices, or that learns in their free time

That's a bit demeaning IMO. As with any large corporation, there will be people who stay for years and years just coasting and letting their skills stagnate. However, there are also a lot of people who work hard, learn rapidly, and move around a lot internally instead of changing companies.

> For those who don't know, laws are different, sometimes in major ways, when you cross a state line

That seems like a recipe for a huge disaster that we should rectify.

Naw, bro. It's by design. I'd rather not get into the US's extensive history of states rights vs. federal goverment, but you have to appreciate the fact that it's even possible for a state to independently and legally override a federal law.

Simmons said all that the law requires is for a teacher to sit down with a kindergartener and ask about what he or she learned.

This would have scared the crap out of me as a child. Heck, sitting down in front of an authority figure and trying to convince them I've learned from them still scares me.

Wall Street is noticing that they're losing talent and are slowly but surely responding. The mentality of 'tech as a cost center' is still prevalent but slowly fading as the older crew retire and the younger generation takes on more power. I've seen senior management in finance be fired for not supporting technology.

Bloated sell side firms are seeing how much money the leaner tech-oriented buy side shops are making and are taking note. Several large firms are hiring big names in tech, such as Morgan Stanley recently hiring Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of C++.

I think the main difference between Silicon Valley and Wall Street is that Wall Street is unapologetically and obsessively about nothing but profit whereas Silicon Valley companies tend to have more holistic and varying business goals.

This is a bit misleading. Those 100 work weeks are for workers on the business/finance side. Software folk are expected to work ~50 hrs / week on the sell side, closer to 60 on the buy side.

Source: I work at a large investment bank.

soon, simstim, soon

We were all told we have to memorize things because we can't carry the textbook around with us

I was told to memorize things because it's much faster to recall items than it is to look them up.

I also don't consider memorizing certain historical facts "pointless", I think they are vital for context. The birth/death dates of a certain author may have little value in of itself, but it may have a lot of to say about the era they lived in and how/why their works were/are relevant.

Agreed that "critical thinking style education" is worlds better than mere memorization, but let's not forget that the devil is in the details, and its those details that you benefit most from memorizing.

Same here. I also see it as an almost endearing term between 'hardened' females.

"That's my bitch."

Not untrue, but it's important to note that in many cases 'workplace friend' is basically 'someone they made me sit near that I feel share some interests'. Not exactly someone you'd invite to your birthday party.