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Comment Brain Change (Score 4, Informative) 545

So... how was it that women's brains were "wired" for programming from 1940 to 1985 [1], but suddenly around 1990 they stopped being interested in "coding" and "IT"?

sPh

[1] From 1940-1950 approximately 100% of programmers were women; from 1950-1980 the percentage was still very high and probably a majority. 1984 was the peak year for women graduating with engineering degrees since WWII and a large percentage of those women took CS degrees.

Comment Re:It'll work if you want to suceed (Score 1) 397

Okay but American blacks have NEVER felt like part of mainstream society and they are definitely the least prosperous group. That's a great big gaping hole in the theory that needs to be explained.

There is no gaping hole in the theory here, you've just failed to understand it.

Having a culture that glorifies violence and street crime and actively persecutes those who want education really, really doesn't help. That's what gangsta culture does.

I completely agree with you, and so does the article. Gangsta culture is all about glorifying poor impulse control. Note that impulse control is one of the things the article says is essential to success (and not just this article, there are tons of studies backing up that assertion). Additionally, that glorification of negative achievement promotes the opposite of the second item on the list of essentials, "insecurity, a feeling that you or what you've done is not good enough."

No group could thrive with that. So the real question is why the nearly suicidal anti-achievement attitude? Where does it come from? Why can't people understand that embracing it means forever denying yourself your true protential? The successful black people who own businesses, enter the professions, and work in academia all have one thing in common: they rejected thug culture and growing up, they were often targeted and harasses and assaulted because of it. Not by whites, but by fellow American blacks.

Again, you are correct, and the article agrees with you:

"The first is a superiority complex — a deep-seated belief in their exceptionality."

This is really the big issue facing the African American community, IMO. This one is about having a sense of racial/ethnic/cultural superiority, and they've been told they're inferior so often and for so long that they've come to believe it. People fight hard to defend their beliefs, even when those beliefs are harmful to themselves. The evidence of their inferiority (their inability to overcome the oppression of The Man) is all around them, so it's easy to excuse a lack of personal success. And if they're prevented from achieving success within mainstream culture they must seek it elsewhere, meaning the underground economy and the thug culture that comes with it. Anyone similar to them who is able to achieve mainstream success is a threat to that narrative, and stands as a silent accusation that their of mainstream success might be due to personal failure rather than the inevitable result of powerful forces working against them.

To sum up, in the language of the article:

The typical Successful Immigrant has a sense of ethnic superiority, personal inferiority, and strong impulse control, and this is why they are successful.
The typical Gangsta Thug has a sense of ethnic inferiority, personal superiority, and poor impulse control, and this is why they are not successful.

Where is the hole in the theory?

Comment Re: Reinforcing the term (Score 1) 464

Yes, the law is the law, but some laws leave a lot of room for interpretation, and some cops can be very creative. Here's an example to illustrate my point:

My brother-in-law (we'll call him Dave) is a CHP officer. One day he spotted a van on the freeway that was weaving a lot. It was a clear day, mid afternoon, and the van was going 65mph, which is the posted speed limit on that section of road. Upon pulling the van over, Dave discovered that the driver had a punch bowl full of soup in his lap which he was attempting to eat with a large serving spoon. Dave wrote the driver a ticket for going 65mph over the legal speed limit. His argument was based on the California Basic Speed law, which allows an officer to cite a driver for going faster than what the officer deems is safe under the current conditions. In Dave's opinion, the only speed at which it is safe for a driver to eat soup out of a punch bowl is zero, and this driver was going 65mph faster than that.

FWIW, Dave fully expected that ticket to get thrown out by a judge, and he had no doubt that the driver would fight it since he estimated the fine would be about $2000. But he also felt certain the driver would never do that again, and that he would probably tell all his friends about this crazy ticket he got, and those friends would likely also never try anything that stupid. Mission accomplished as far as Dave was concerned.

Comment Re:Why (Score 1) 333

It's a nonsensical argument, pay it no mind. The fact is that everyone in China pirates all their software, so forcing everyone to upgrade will only result in a spike in piracy numbers, which will make the guys (allegedly) trying to reduce piracy in China look bad. Looking bad (aka "losing face") is a big deal in most Asian cultures. That's really all that's driving this announcement.

In reality, EOLing XP will make no practical difference in China any time soon. The Chinese love XP. I've sent refurbished laptops with clean installs of Win7 to friends in China, and the first call I get after they get it is "how do I install XP?" Anyone who thinks those people are going to give two shits whether MS continues to support XP or not is nuts.

Comment Re: There is no "shortfall". (Score 1) 381

I agree in principle that it's best for the company to hire promising individuals and train them. In fact, my company does this. The majority of our employees start out as interns, and the ones that work out get hired full time (I was one of those). The thing is, not everyone works out.

Some of them just never seem to get it. Generally it's because their problem solving processes are just too convoluted, and it leaves them unable to organize things intelligibly. We're big on mentoring, and give plenty of second chances, but at some point you have to just cut your loses.

Comment Re:Bipartisanship (Score 1) 494

= = = I am getting pretty tired of reading asserions like "we can't even launch a damn website". What they were trying to launch was not a Website but a very complex, probably too complex, brokerage-type system to mate people with myriad insurance options. -= = =

Megadittos, as a certain demographic likes to say. healthcare.gov was in essence one of the largest EDI projects of all time, with all the transactions going live on the same day rather than phased in. And we all know how much the current generation of Web n.x people loves to work on EDI code. They just run to sign on for EDI projects the way lemmings run to embrace Disney film crews.

Very, very complex project. Certainly some senior management failures all the way to the Oval Office, and probably (as is often the case) a portion of those failures due to arrogance and failure to listen. But at the same time, not working too badly given the size, scope, and hard deadlines, and apparently getting better day-by-day as anyone with megaproject experience would expect.

sPh

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