8th graders don't think you're cool
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I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services[rant] I really don't know where did you get the impression that geeks were cool and object of fear or admiration. Our job have never been cool to the others and thanks to Heaven for that and I hope it'll stay that way. The last thing I want is bunch of idiots trying/pretending to do our job just because they think it's cool. To be honest, I really hate current coolness on popularity of the Interweb. There's no fricking day without someone bothering me with f*c*ing Facebook. I don't give a sh*t about god damn Facebook and the fact that it's popular and 'everybody' is using it, won't change that. I just want back the days when computers were mystery and uncool to other people, so I can enjoy my life without constantly being irritated with silly questions and discussions. If you want talk to me, talk about football, I don't give a sh*t about it, but still it's much more pleasant than discussing latest happenings on Facebook or your newest phone application or why your computer doesn't work or what AV you should use or whether I have some 'cool' application that I can share. And than this happened[^]. And I'm not sure what bothers me more, the fact it won by popular vote or look of that thing or that Society of Women Engineers approves this crap... It's just wrong on so many levels. I didn't choose this profession because it was cool, but because I loved it and that doesn't mean I like talking about my job with other people or trying to make them believe it's interesting. And if it every becomes popular, I'll seriously consider changing my profession. [/rant]
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I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesChristopher Duncan wrote:
The wild and wooly geek
wool·ly[^] /ˈwʊli/ Show Spelled [wool-ee] Show IPA adjective,-li·er, -li·est, noun,plural-lies. –adjective 1. consisting of wool: a woolly fleece. 2. resembling wool in texture or appearance: woolly hair. 3. clothed or covered with wool or something resembling it: a woolly caterpillar. 4. Botany. covered with a pubescence of long, soft hairs resembling wool. 5. like the rough, vigorous atmosphere of the early West in America: wild and woolly. 6. fuzzy; unclear; disorganized: woolly thinking. _______________________________________________________ Perhaps, the 8th grade geeks were just sheepish?
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Christian Graus wrote:
Now, programming is a low paid, outsourced job.
That was the next thing I told them after asking how many people wanted to be programmers.
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services*grin* and you wondered why they didn't think your job was cool ? I'm surprised they didn't offer to lend you a few bob to tide you over to payday.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
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*grin* and you wondered why they didn't think your job was cool ? I'm surprised they didn't offer to lend you a few bob to tide you over to payday.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
lend you a few bob
Product placement in schools? :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read code that is properly formatted, adding PRE tags is the easiest way to obtain that.
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But was it cool to be a software developer that time. My guess is, it was never cool compared to say: being a pilot, being Jack Bauer, being a rocket scientist.
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I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services -
*grin* and you wondered why they didn't think your job was cool ? I'm surprised they didn't offer to lend you a few bob to tide you over to payday.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Hey, I'm not above mugging a few 8th graders. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services -
Excuse me, your nose is bleeding. :)
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
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[rant] I really don't know where did you get the impression that geeks were cool and object of fear or admiration. Our job have never been cool to the others and thanks to Heaven for that and I hope it'll stay that way. The last thing I want is bunch of idiots trying/pretending to do our job just because they think it's cool. To be honest, I really hate current coolness on popularity of the Interweb. There's no fricking day without someone bothering me with f*c*ing Facebook. I don't give a sh*t about god damn Facebook and the fact that it's popular and 'everybody' is using it, won't change that. I just want back the days when computers were mystery and uncool to other people, so I can enjoy my life without constantly being irritated with silly questions and discussions. If you want talk to me, talk about football, I don't give a sh*t about it, but still it's much more pleasant than discussing latest happenings on Facebook or your newest phone application or why your computer doesn't work or what AV you should use or whether I have some 'cool' application that I can share. And than this happened[^]. And I'm not sure what bothers me more, the fact it won by popular vote or look of that thing or that Society of Women Engineers approves this crap... It's just wrong on so many levels. I didn't choose this profession because it was cool, but because I loved it and that doesn't mean I like talking about my job with other people or trying to make them believe it's interesting. And if it every becomes popular, I'll seriously consider changing my profession. [/rant]
Spoken like a true geek! I'm on you with the facebook crap and I can feel your pain. It just keeps coming. X|
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
The wild and wooly geek
wool·ly[^] /ˈwʊli/ Show Spelled [wool-ee] Show IPA adjective,-li·er, -li·est, noun,plural-lies. –adjective 1. consisting of wool: a woolly fleece. 2. resembling wool in texture or appearance: woolly hair. 3. clothed or covered with wool or something resembling it: a woolly caterpillar. 4. Botany. covered with a pubescence of long, soft hairs resembling wool. 5. like the rough, vigorous atmosphere of the early West in America: wild and woolly. 6. fuzzy; unclear; disorganized: woolly thinking. _______________________________________________________ Perhaps, the 8th grade geeks were just sheepish?
Andrew Rissing wrote:
wool·ly[^] /ˈwʊli/ Show Spelled [wool-ee] Show IPA adjective,-li·er, -li·est, noun,plural-lies. –adjective 1. consisting of wool: a woolly fleece. 2. resembling wool in texture or appearance: woolly hair. ...
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
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Any chance this is at least in part a communications problem? What if you said you were one of the guys who made HALO and did anyone want to do things like that when they became adults?
Well, if you're going to lie like that, you might as well go completely overboard with it: "The top fifty richest people in the world all work with computers, most of them writing software, and in fact if you become a programmer you're pretty much guaranteed to become obscenely wealthy very quickly. And it's been scientifically proven that the hotter the girl is, the more attracted she is to a guy who works in a technical field. It's also been scientifically proven that software engineering increases the size of your penis. And your muscles. And the average life expectancy is, like, twelve years longer. And it increases your sperm count so much that they can't even be counted because there aren't enough atoms in the universe to express the digits." And so on. Teenagers are stupid - they'll believe it.
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For some reason, rocket scientists traditionally used to speak German.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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peterchen wrote:
Todays kids mantra seems to be "don't care about anyhting" - at least, noone should notice.
I got a feeling that our folks said the exact same thing. And so did their folks.......
I do see a change here: Our parents complained that we cared about the wrong things, and didn't care about the right ones (though things were a bit different here anyway). But now it seems carign about anythign at all makes you an outcast.
Agh! Reality! My Archnemesis![^]
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | µLaunch - program launcher for server core and hyper-v server. -
For some reason, rocket scientists traditionally used to speak German.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
And what is it that put America in the forefront of the nuclear nations? And what is it that will make it possible to spend 20 billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon? Well, it was good old American know-how, that's what. As provided by good old Americans like Dr. Wernher von Braun.[^]
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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And what is it that put America in the forefront of the nuclear nations? And what is it that will make it possible to spend 20 billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon? Well, it was good old American know-how, that's what. As provided by good old Americans like Dr. Wernher von Braun.[^]
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
Yes, rocket scientists back then may have come from Germany, but they easily became Americans or Russians, no questions asked. Especially no question asked what kinds of things they were involved in apart from rocket science.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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Sure! But how many more wolfbinaries where there in your class or in the entire school?
Does 7th grade count too? That's when I stumbled over my first TRS-80 and had to convince my poor parents of getting me a computer.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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And what is it that put America in the forefront of the nuclear nations? And what is it that will make it possible to spend 20 billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon? Well, it was good old American know-how, that's what. As provided by good old Americans like Dr. Wernher von Braun.[^]
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
Those lines sure sounded familiar. Now I need to go find my old Tom Lehrer recordings and listen to them again! A local theater group did a show called Tomfoolery about 15 years ago - a musical presenting probably 2 dozen of his songs. They did a darned good job of it, too.
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Andrew Rissing wrote:
wool·ly[^] /ˈwʊli/ Show Spelled [wool-ee] Show IPA adjective,-li·er, -li·est, noun,plural-lies. –adjective 1. consisting of wool: a woolly fleece. 2. resembling wool in texture or appearance: woolly hair. ...
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
;P I had to provide context for my pun. :cool:
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I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesI don't stop in much, but I I still get the code project newsletters so I had to see what this one is about. I strongly disagree, with reservations. First, few at that age know what a programmer is, usually, but they do know the market areas they would like in 8th grade. And one of those areas is games. They want to make games, but they don't know that is programming. I regularly attend career day events from middle school to college and I am always one of the most talked about presenters. Why? Games. I don't actually write them, but everything I do is related to games and I present it as such. I've written a few small ones that were never marketed, but for the military I produce just shy of flight simulator and commando 3D style graphics. Physics and explosions go hand in hand, a 6th grader last year asked his teacher to come over and find out EVERYTHING he had to learn to write what I do. He wanted a laundry list to become my twin (or successor since it will be a while before he comes to the market). I come armed to these events with a laptop, joystick and the ability to shoot missiles at things and blow them up. Middle school, especially, love the special effects. The fact that each particle is controlled by math and physics begins discussions about what it takes to write stuff like this. But 3D graphics catches the eye, and the mind. Programming most kids don't recognize as a career, but making games they do. What most don't realize is, until much later, that is programming. Now off to my cave again!
_________________________ John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." Proudly folding for Team Code Project!! and Keeping "Team Lavaboy" at bay since 2009-02-04
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I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesDid you try pointing out that the cell phone in your pocket, or their Wii at home, or the car Daddy drives (or that drives itself, if it's a new Toyota), are all computers, or contain a bunch of computers? I think that would make a difference, but haven't tried it myself.