Programmers are usually either libertarian types, the worst type of radlib imaginable, or cool anarchists/communists and it skews heavily towards the first two.
I've noticed programmers leaning leftward the longer they're in the workforce. Watching the machines of commerce from the inside has a very sobering effect, particularly if you're not one of the guys getting paid out the nose for the privilege.
But straight out of college? I'll admit it. I was a Ron Paul guy.
Making something that can provide value to the company in perpetuity, and then having the company forget you did that and demand more, over and over again, while they're still profiting off the first thing, really is some of the purest alienated labor.
I wish the core principles of the hacker ethos weren't so utterly hijacked by libertarian ideals. I think being a keyboard-jockie or an E-wizard should make us more likely to fight the system not want to be a part of it. I feel like being a 9-to-5 MEGACORP programmer turns people into the ad men of yore without the cool suits.
It's so strange to me that at my MEGACORP job so many of our developers and IT professionals think all this stuff is cool and good. I know a lot of people have to drink the kool-aid to get through the day, but i thought we were all supposed to do what you do in the cartoons and throw it on the plant that comically withers immediately. I have meet some cool anarchists/socialist/communists types here and there on the job, but it seems like it's less and less each year.
Not on some doomer-shit, just sayin' it's important now more than ever for techo-dweebs to openly talk about leftie ideals in regards to tech.
I think being a keyboard-jockie or a techno-wizard should make us more likely to fight the system not want to be a part of it.
If Shadowrunner has taught me anything, its that the quest for money makes assholes of us all.
Not on some doomer-shit, just sayin' it's more important for techo-dweebs to openly talk about leftie ideals in regards to tech.
When I'm eyeballs deep in a trashy implementation of Microsoft DevOps, I can find it hard to be an idealist because I just want to scream at my coworkers all the time.
Good coding is as much about good organizing as advanced technical skills. And good organizing isn't a skill the modern Western workforce cultivates.
When I'm eyeballs deep in a trashy implementation of Microsoft DevOps, I can find it hard to be an idealist because I just want to scream at my coworkers all the time.
BRO FOR REAL THO! I FEEL THE EXACT SAME WAY! HOLY SHIT WE WOULD HAVE SO MUCH BETTER TIME DEVELOPING IF WE TOOK LIKE EIGHT SECONDS TO ADDRESS THE HOW'S AND WHY'S OF CONFIGURATION RATHER JUST FOCUSING ON THE "DELIVERABLES"!
Good coding is as much about good organizing as advanced technical skills. And good organizing isn't a skill the modern Western workforce cultivates.
Agreed, and this is a really big thing we need to address both from a tech and labor perspective (well I guess they are one in the same when you think about it). Organization is really what MEGACORPS really truly hate, every bit of software is meant to be "plug & play", every thing is modular, everything is a node unconnected to any other node. Nothing is really meant to be a whole. Nothing is meant to planned everything is ad-hoc. Everything is a part, especially individuals members of teams. No one really works together, no one is really on teams, it's just collections of discrete entities. These companies want all the benefits of organization with ever allowing actual organization to come about because we all know it wouldn't be organized like this.
last time I was on a dev team, there was maybe 1 or 2 people who would actually comment/document their code, tag what bug ticket they were addressing, or do any kind of human communication outside of an agile meeting. the rest would just autopilot through everything with a hyper-competitive mindset and and not extend any kind of courtesy or cooperation to any peers. it was... depressing.
Most programmers are completely dedicated towards hating everyone else. Other programmers, laymen, whatever. If they HAVE to interact with another person it’s even worse.
And it’s not a case of them legitimately just disliking human interaction- That would make sense, be somewhat understandable, and even be outright valid in the case of neurodivergent people dealing with neurotypical bullshit. No, they hate interacting with other people simply because they think they’re smarter and better than everyone else.
programmer is a job. i think your take is kind of reductive. if there are reactionary tendencies with programmers, it is because they are products of the capitalist base and superstructure of our society, but to suggest that they are all this way because they are simply inherently flawed and that it has nothing to do with neurodivegence or the system we live in is kind of reactionary in my opinion. I think other posters have laid out better why there are reactionary tendencies with programmers, for example, the proximity of tech to the MIC, or the tendency of programmers to grow up in a bourgeois milieu. But even that is a historical explanation since programmers are increasingly downwardly mobile, nonwhite, and third world, since the imperial core has been outsourcing programming, and since there is a tendency of job markets to become oversaturated and under paid.
As a programmer, I'm here to say that my people are not alright.
Backing up this claim sadly.
Programmers are usually either libertarian types, the worst type of radlib imaginable, or cool anarchists/communists and it skews heavily towards the first two.
I've noticed programmers leaning leftward the longer they're in the workforce. Watching the machines of commerce from the inside has a very sobering effect, particularly if you're not one of the guys getting paid out the nose for the privilege.
But straight out of college? I'll admit it. I was a Ron Paul guy.
Making something that can provide value to the company in perpetuity, and then having the company forget you did that and demand more, over and over again, while they're still profiting off the first thing, really is some of the purest alienated labor.
Explains a lot for me personally, and the surprisingly positive interactions with colleagues when politics are brought up
I wish the core principles of the hacker ethos weren't so utterly hijacked by libertarian ideals. I think being a keyboard-jockie or an E-wizard should make us more likely to fight the system not want to be a part of it. I feel like being a 9-to-5 MEGACORP programmer turns people into the ad men of yore without the cool suits.
It's so strange to me that at my MEGACORP job so many of our developers and IT professionals think all this stuff is cool and good. I know a lot of people have to drink the kool-aid to get through the day, but i thought we were all supposed to do what you do in the cartoons and throw it on the plant that comically withers immediately. I have meet some cool anarchists/socialist/communists types here and there on the job, but it seems like it's less and less each year.
Not on some doomer-shit, just sayin' it's important now more than ever for techo-dweebs to openly talk about leftie ideals in regards to tech.
If Shadowrunner has taught me anything, its that the quest for money makes assholes of us all.
When I'm eyeballs deep in a trashy implementation of Microsoft DevOps, I can find it hard to be an idealist because I just want to scream at my coworkers all the time.
Good coding is as much about good organizing as advanced technical skills. And good organizing isn't a skill the modern Western workforce cultivates.
BRO FOR REAL THO! I FEEL THE EXACT SAME WAY! HOLY SHIT WE WOULD HAVE SO MUCH BETTER TIME DEVELOPING IF WE TOOK LIKE EIGHT SECONDS TO ADDRESS THE HOW'S AND WHY'S OF CONFIGURATION RATHER JUST FOCUSING ON THE "DELIVERABLES"!
Agreed, and this is a really big thing we need to address both from a tech and labor perspective (well I guess they are one in the same when you think about it). Organization is really what MEGACORPS really truly hate, every bit of software is meant to be "plug & play", every thing is modular, everything is a node unconnected to any other node. Nothing is really meant to be a whole. Nothing is meant to planned everything is ad-hoc. Everything is a part, especially individuals members of teams. No one really works together, no one is really on teams, it's just collections of discrete entities. These companies want all the benefits of organization with ever allowing actual organization to come about because we all know it wouldn't be organized like this.
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last time I was on a dev team, there was maybe 1 or 2 people who would actually comment/document their code, tag what bug ticket they were addressing, or do any kind of human communication outside of an agile meeting. the rest would just autopilot through everything with a hyper-competitive mindset and and not extend any kind of courtesy or cooperation to any peers. it was... depressing.
I'm the second kind but I'm lazy and apathetic instead of competitive.
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programmer is a job. i think your take is kind of reductive. if there are reactionary tendencies with programmers, it is because they are products of the capitalist base and superstructure of our society, but to suggest that they are all this way because they are simply inherently flawed and that it has nothing to do with neurodivegence or the system we live in is kind of reactionary in my opinion. I think other posters have laid out better why there are reactionary tendencies with programmers, for example, the proximity of tech to the MIC, or the tendency of programmers to grow up in a bourgeois milieu. But even that is a historical explanation since programmers are increasingly downwardly mobile, nonwhite, and third world, since the imperial core has been outsourcing programming, and since there is a tendency of job markets to become oversaturated and under paid.
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deleted by creator