Shoulda clarified... Dinosaurs that don't yet know they're extinct.

You can't credit non-specific neurological differences and turn around and call my arguments ignorant. Well, I mean, you can, but that's just silly. Fact is, women used to be far more prevalent in mathematics and computing than they are today. It's not that their "puny female minds" can't comprehend the work, it's that society pushes them toward more "feminine" pursuits than computers. Given a depressing perusal of the /. commentary here, I'd say the industry is also doing a bang-up job of pushing them out as well.

Can't tell if serious or... oh god, you are serious.

If this were Jalopnik I'd post an image captioned "Bitch, are you for real?" It would get so many recommends. But alas, this is /., and I gotta say, given though the discussions on tech topics is usually quite enlightening, reading a lot of commentors views on this story is excruciatingly depressing. My only solace is that most of us don't leave our basements and as such don't influence others with our ridiculous world views.

...so they go into education and other fields with lower earnings potential and more work hours?

Bravo my friend, brilliantly executed!

I'm guessing he's merely pointing out that bigotry is certainly alive and kicking on /.

Yes, we should. If you see a male hair stylist, what's your first impression of him? What about a man who really loves working with children? We lose out on a great deal of talent by assuming gender roles apply to careers.

This is spot on, though I did want to add a bit...

My gf, who predictably enough works in education, is absolutely desperate to get more men into the field. As teachers, as volunteers, as just about anything we are willing to do, just to get more interaction between children and adult men. Society is slowly becoming aware of gender gaps in those fields and starting to provide incentives.

As for social aspects of software engineering, I posted about it before I read what you wrote. I think computer-related jobs get that reputation because they are some of the few fields where anti-social people can excel. I think that's great, but that reputation has clouded the view of software engineering, which in general is a very social task requiring a great deal of interaction among the team. To repeat myself, your anti-social programmers are going to be brilliant because the *have* to be. Where I am, a programmer who's merely pretty good but can't work with the team is going to fail.

How is software engineering not social? I work as a part of a team and frequently interact with my team to see how my little piece of the pie needs to talk with their pieces. Are there times I need to hide away and crunch some numbers work hammer out some documentation? Absolutely, but by far my most productive time at work is when I'm in the lab working directly with the other engineers.

The whole "anti-social software guy" as the norm is absolutely untrue. I work with a handful of them, and while they generally do brilliant work (they have to, they can't count on the team to help fill knowledge gaps), they are handled carefully and given tasks they can crunch on without much interaction.

I'd also argue that the rockstar programmer is a myth, but that's a rant for another time.

Men may be more suited to worth that involves heavy lifting, but writing code? No way. In the early days of computers, you had a far more even split (if not more women than men programming).

It's more an issue of societal views on gender roles influencing young people. Society gives the impression that men should be the nerds sitting at their computers designing whatever, so women shy away from engineering, math, and sciences. Society gives the impression that women should nurture youth, so men shy away from elementary education.

Suitability has absolutely nothing to do with it. Yes, men and women may "think" differently, and while that may impact an individual's style of code or design, it doesn't have an effect on their ability to do so.

And what "male rights" are you talking about that females wouldn't have as well?

But you got a new one this year, because despite those flaws they are just so *cool*!!!

How is it a depressing topic? If I do something nice for somebody else - I'm not sitting there thinking "man, I'm gonna feel so damn good about this!" I'm thinking about what they get out of it. If it makes me feel good too, that's gravy. Is that selfish? Maybe in some small way, but it seems you're trying to put negative connotations on that which really don't apply. In the end, everybody wins.

Maybe we should shy away from the specific term "altruistic" because the pedants jump all over it as there are benefits on both sides. There may not be such a thing as a truly "selfless" act - but people for damn sure perform acts knowing the recipient gets far more out of it than they do. That's the essence of it, working toward a disproportionate benefit for others. Hell, it's far less depressing knowing nobody was entirely hosed.

My god you people are depressing.

Good lord, first I grow up jealous that all the Jewish church songs are so much better than Christian hymns, now you tell me this!?!

I may have to seek religion again...