
'Brogrammers' challenge coders' nerdy image - gibsonf1
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/03/BUIO1NFAMI.DTL
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benihana
>This brogramming thing would definitely turn off a lot of women from working"
at startups, said Chipps.

How about, change women to everyone - no one wants to work with an egotistical
douche who thinks he's special. Especially if he thinks he's special because
he thinks he's cool.

~~~
jensnockert
Yeah, I think most people would rather work with a geek or nerd than a
'brogrammer', even just socializing with the 'brogrammers' seems awkward based
on the article.

This whole 'brogrammer' thing must stop, please think of the children^Wrest of
the world.

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corin_
> _"We got invited to a party in Malibu where there were naked women in the
> hot tub," said Stern-Sapad, 25. "We're the cool programmers."_

To me at least, that just sounds like an insanely geeky thing to say - if you
have to talk about how not-geeky you are, you are probably geekier than you
think.

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k-mcgrady
This is one of the saddest things I have ever read. It sounds like something
out of the Onion or a cheesy sitcom about geeks.

Why do these people feel the need to prove they are 'cool'?

~~~
motoford
_Why do these people feel the need to prove they are 'cool'?_

Because they aren't.

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holdenc
There are probably plenty of bros who can write code and be well-liked with
the sales dept. But how many bros are willing to spend 16 hours straight to
debug the latest broken distro of some open source project because only that
has the feature they need to run some obscure component of their website?
Truth is, nearly every great programmer I know is a masochist when it comes to
figuring out difficult problems. And they're willing to sacrifice a lot to
make it work.

I know some great programmers, but none of them happen to be brogrammers.

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ryanbrunner
Maybe I'm confused - I've always seen the brogrammer thing as firmly tongue-
in-cheek, dripping in irony, and primarily poking fun at "bro" culture. Have I
got it completely wrong, or is this one of those things where a meme peaks in
popularity, and people start to take it at face value rather than ironically?

~~~
RobSpectre
Agreed. I can't believe anyone is taking this seriously.

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smacktoward
Oh, for the days when this industry was run by grown-ups.

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FuzzyDunlop
While I appreciate anything that attempts to suppress the 'anti-social nerd'
stereotype associated with programming and other specialist computing fields;
I don't think it's entirely appropriate to do so by becoming the polar
opposite of that. _Especially_ by using stupid terms like 'brogamming' or
making portmanteaux of words starting with 'bro'.

The aspirational tone of the article is dreadful, too. So one guy listens to
Swedish dubstep? That doesn't make him a role mode. Just someone who has his
own routine.

In fact, I'd hate to be defined by that... I've done all this amazing work,
and people remember me only because I listened to Swedish dubstep.

~~~
mindcrime
_So one guy listens to Swedish dubstep? That doesn't make him a role mode.
Just someone who has his own routine._

No doubt. I mean, plenty of us listen to Swedish death metal and/or black
metal, and we don't go around patting ourselves on that back for that. Not
sure what any of that has to do with programming in the first place...

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Metapony
Another stupid label invented by a reporter desperate for someone to read his
story. All sorts of dumb. I guess 'brogrammer' sounds better than
'douchegrammer'? People are just people. There's all sorts of people and all
sorts of programmers.

~~~
cpeterso
"douchegrammer" made my day. :)

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corford
God I hate the term "brogrammer". It just conjures up an image of that
narcissistic wanker on the train who talks loudly so everyone can here what
"cool" things he's been doing. Grrr.

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maxklein
Such fluff stories were also very common in 1998 and 1999. You never read such
stories about car designers, do you?

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heydenberk
BREAKING NEWS: stereotypes aren't universally true and sometimes you can even
find an extreme counter-example. Thank god for this brave journalist for
breaking this story and not being afraid to use a portmanteau.

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moocow01
Makes me think it may be time for a career change if this is what the industry
is coming to.

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kellyreid
tongue in cheek or not, I see no problem with it. I'm a guy in my 20s who
likes to code, runs his own business, and enjoys games like 'beer pong'.

it's a welcome 180 change from the typical "all computer programmers are
autistic virgins" stereotype that's persisted for a while.

and nerd or no nerd, there's nothing wrong with a hot tub full of pretty
girls.

~~~
briancurtin
You see no problem with it because you're a guy in your 20s.

Shit like this makes it painfully obvious why people, especially women, are
not entering software-related fields. Fuck everything about this.

