While I disagree with the stance and tone of that repo, I appreciate that someone stops being a corporate lackey even on their personal websites; we've all become sterile, pleasant representations of the ideal worker just hoping for someone to have the decency to pay us for our programming ability and talent.
Maybe be a little careful with the conspiracy theories, but I am quite done with the corporate-friendly personas we are pushing in our tech world.
I wanted to write a couple posts about anarchism on my personal blog, nothing crazy, and kept being concerned it might drive off a potential recruiter. Who the hell cares, a company where I cannot have a touch of personality is not a place I want to work at either.
Must be because I learned this job in the early 2000s, when sysadmins were wearing black shirts and listening to death metal, and the CEO stayed well away from that office, not the shirt-wearing, well-trimmed DevOps you see at conferences these days.
The only potentially "controversial" idea (as in, corp might not like it but will have to deal with it) that is still accepted in tech is being trans or a furry. I have no issue with either, mind you, just pointing out that anything else is a no-no.
> I wanted to write a couple posts about anarchism on my personal blog, nothing crazy, and kept being concerned it might drive off a potential recruiter. Who the hell cares, a company where I cannot have a touch of personality is not a place I want to work at either.
If it's important to you then you should. There are places that allow/encourage people to be individuals.
>The only potentially "controversial" idea (as in, corp might not like it but will have to deal with it) that is still accepted in tech is being trans or a furry. I have no issue with either, mind you, just pointing out that anything else is a no-no.
That said be careful what you write and how you phrase it because it's one thing to have an opinion, and another to make a statement like that.
> That said be careful what you write and how you phrase it because it's one thing to have an opinion, and another to make a statement like that.
That's the bloody point. Fuck having to walk on eggshells, especially when I made it quite clear I have no issues with that. I had to be quite careful with the wording, and I know exactly this opens me to be attacked and pointed out as a bigot because I equated gender identity struggles with identity in general. How dare I.
We're all walking on eggshells and get quickly silenced if we even dare question it. I do not wish the Internet to operate under mob rule.
No, what you are railing against is that your actions have consequences. But it is your choice wether you are willing to bear them and act or not and do not act. That's a basic anarchist tenet reaching back to the Cynics of ancient Greece.
The things you say in public could be heard by someone and those someones have the gall to form an opinion of you you don't like -- some may even confront you about it.
Disagreement, unemployability, hostility, these are among the prices we pay for saying things in public places such as the internet. You can decide to pay the price and maybe turn it into a fruitful discussion (granted, unlikely on the internet) or you can shut up and seethe with anger for "being silenced".
You made a conscious decision to introduce gender identity into the discussion when nobody else was talking about it. It's not walking on eggshells for getting pulled up on you bringing up your beliefs when nobody asked.
> especially when I made it quite clear I have no issues with that.
No, you didn't. You pretty much said "just saying" as though that absolves you of what you actually said [0].
> People increasingly don't even read the posts before the go off on ideological rants and false accusations.
Eh? The comment I replied to said `The only potentially "controversial" idea (as in, corp might not like it but will have to deal with it) that is still accepted in tech is being trans or a furry. I have no issue with either, mind you, just pointing out that anything else is a no-no.`
I should be able to mention it en passant without having to dive deep into my opinions of the matter which are wholly unrelated and just a way to entrap me.
The discussion is around identity, and mentioning that these days only gender identity is a corporate-acceptable struggle. I claim that identity in general should be celebrated. I shan't be afraid to say, on my blog I'm an anarchist, or, for argument's sake, I'm a satanist, I am trans, I vote Trump, Google is a shitty company, or Star Wars is a terrible franchise.
> I should be able to mention it en passant without having to dive deep into my opinions of the matter which are wholly unrelated
No, you don't get to do that on any topic. If you write a blog post on a programming language feature, and in the middle of your post decide to slip in a note about your feelings on the middle east conflict, web3/crypto or your political opinions, expect people to talk about that. You decided it was important enough to mention in your post, so it's up for discussion.
> and just a way to entrap me.
Nah, you don't get "woe is me" card if you shoehorn in a dog whistle and get called out on it.
> I shan't be afraid to say, on my blog I'm an anarchist, or, for argument's sake, I'm a satanist, I am trans, I vote Trump, Google is a shitty company, or Star Wars is a terrible franchise.
Do that. But don't be surprised if people treat your words equally.
If you can't keep your message on-point, that's a you problem, not an everyone else problem.
This is why social media is shit today. It's full of people unable to sustain intelligent discussion, so they try to find hidden meaning behind someone else's words.
You see a dog whistle, I see a person that gets off doing online witch hunts, instead of simply knowing how to disagree. If you have to resort to the personal attack, it's quite obvious there is no intelligent argument to be had here.
This. I got a very mixed feeling after reading his blog. On one hand it looks like he lacks self-awareness to the point that he didn't realize the blog makes him quite unemployable. On the other hand, I don't want to live in a society where a blog can make you unemployable, and I kinda admire his audacity to keep it on.
You're allowed to discriminate based on personality by law, but socially, if you do it with anyone you don't agree with completely:
1. You probably don't have many friends or
2. Your friends are not very diverse
Outside, in the real world, I can sit and have a very pleasant conversation on TV shows or Lisp interpreters with someone with terrible ideas or belief which are inconsequential to the matter at hand and are not part of the conversation. I can sit for a beer with childhood acquaintances that I know are racist, bigots or generally idiots, because we're talking about something else than the things I know we don't see eye to eye. And that's fine.
It is frightening that we're forgetting how real people outside the Internet are, behave and can get along in all their complexity.
> if you do it with anyone you don't agree with completely
Where did I say that?
> Outside, in the real world, I can sit and have a very pleasant conversation on TV shows or Lisp interpreters with someone with terrible ideas or belief which are inconsequential to the matter at hand and are not part of the conversation. I can sit for a beer with childhood acquaintances that I know are racist, bigots or generally idiots, because we're talking about something else than the things I know we don't see eye to eye. And that's fine.
Good for you. We're multinational company with thousands of employees, I personally been witness to situations where incompatibility in views caused issues during work.
In my free time, with my childhood acquaintances I can talk about anything, during work with my colleagues I want to have productive workday - not arguing about current flavor of racism or whoever-knows-what's opinions about anarchy.
Yeah, but it's a bit like to refuse to work with someone who follows a different religion than you, or someone who is into astrology a bit too much.
Again I know it's not black and white and everyone has different red lines. If someone treats killing baby mammals as their favorite form of entertainment I probably can't work with them.
My original post was refuting claims that a blog and public code could get you hired.
I know that companies will see me as not a good fit. That's a good thing for both of us because I've come to realize that I'm not a good fit for a sterile office environment.
I thought about it but no. I am OK with who I am, and I don't have any hate speech to share that I need to hide my identity. I just want to show the Internet world a side of me that is not only the stereotypical software engineer, because I'm not. No one is, is the point I'm making.
We all have our quirks, and we should celebrate them. I know your blog, I can't say I understand where you're coming from or that I relate very much with your persona, but I appreciate that you're able to stand out as your own, and I'm able to recognise you among the masses.
But in many cases, outside the fight for gender identity freedom, this is not possible in the world of modern social media, where you're always one step from being lynched by a mob because you dared go against the grain. The Twitterverse is the reason we're all sterile clones of each other, dividing everybody into a us vs them culture battle. That's too much nonsense for me.
Yes but really, having a pseudonym that is wholly unrelated to you and letting you get things out on that side blog that way can be invaluable. I have at least two such side blogs. Statistically you've probably read one of those side blog articles without knowing.
Yes you might be right. Also the hacker culture has always been centered around pseudonyms and fake identities. My quest might be a bit quixotic in this day and age.
Maybe be a little careful with the conspiracy theories, but I am quite done with the corporate-friendly personas we are pushing in our tech world.
I wanted to write a couple posts about anarchism on my personal blog, nothing crazy, and kept being concerned it might drive off a potential recruiter. Who the hell cares, a company where I cannot have a touch of personality is not a place I want to work at either.
Must be because I learned this job in the early 2000s, when sysadmins were wearing black shirts and listening to death metal, and the CEO stayed well away from that office, not the shirt-wearing, well-trimmed DevOps you see at conferences these days.
The only potentially "controversial" idea (as in, corp might not like it but will have to deal with it) that is still accepted in tech is being trans or a furry. I have no issue with either, mind you, just pointing out that anything else is a no-no.