

Leah Culver - Three weeks of iPhone development - twampss
http://blog.leahculver.com/2010/03/three-weeks-of-iphone-development.html

======
wallflower
> Memory management in Objective-C isn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it
> would be but it is very frustrating to see the non-descriptive EXEC BAD
> ACCESS. I always make a ton of mistakes when trying out new things. Luckily,
> I'm good at debugging!

At some critical point, Objective-C/Cocoa stops being the problem
(EXC_BAD_ACCESS, IB gotchas, CoreData mysteries) and starts becoming the
_solution_. Highly recommend "Cocoa Design Patterns"

I really like Leah's tone in this essay. It sounds like she is having fun with
the jump-in-the-deep-end and start treading code method of learning.

~~~
ryanpetrich
> It sounds like she is having fun with the jump-in-the-deep-end and start
> treading code method of learning.

The best way to learn how to swim is to drown.

Wait, that can't be right.

------
muffins
I'm sure I'll get buried for this, but I have a hard time believing I'm not
right. Before I start, I don't know Leah and I'm not judging her character or
her coding abilities.

Leah gets a lot of attention for the one obvious reason that doesn't need to
be restated. That is why these articles are posted. This blog post doesn't
contain any unique information that is presented any better than you could
find elsewhere. She has not been involved in that many projects and few of
them have gone very far. Pownce was probably her peak.

So I'm not trying to be negative or a nitpicker or anything else like that. I
just can't stand that people post the most minute things she does. I remember
Techcrunch posted an article the other day because she joined some other
company and left SixApart.

There are so many developers and designers that are switching around every day
and we barely hear about it aside from the big league players. The fact that
Ms. Culver gets her own slice of attention for doing almost nothing of
noteworthiness starts to wear on my patience is all.

~~~
dannyr
Have you seen her work in OAuth? Her other open-source projects?

You are guilty for the same reason you are accusing others for giving her
attention.

You don't think she's good enough because of it.

Seriously, the startup world and the Valley is such a male-dominated place. I
would imagine it's not easy being a woman in this space.

There are so many blog posts from men who went to the top of Hacker News and
some of them from people who have no experience delivering. I also haven't
seen any of her posts here for a long time.

I'm not saying we cut her slack but let's hold her to the same standard we do
for posts by men here on Hacker News.

~~~
jimboyoungblood
_I'm not saying we cut her slack but let's hold her to the same standard we do
for posts by men here on Hacker News_

That's exactly what the post you're replying to was suggesting.

Their point was that if any other (male) developer had made the exact same
post, it would not have made it to the front page of HN.

~~~
amackera
I don't think it's fair to say that.

------
ryanwaggoner
A lot of the comments seem to be pushing Titanium Mobile or other schemes to
avoid dealing with the nitty-gritty details of Obj-C. Does anyone have any
comment on that? I'm a couple weeks into learning iPhone development, coming
from a (mostly) LAMP background, and I'm really enjoying the new direction. I
tend to view things like Phonegap and Titanium with skepticism, as it seems
like a way to avoid learning hard stuff, and you'd end up giving up a lot of
control, performance, and flexibility, but is this the case?

~~~
ryanpetrich
Yes, you do end up giving up a lot of control, performance and flexibility,
but a lot of applications don't require it. Titanium has the ability to code
modules in Objective-C for those that do, but this might be more complicated
than just writing the entire application in Objective-C.

------
Rauchg
Please, this is a very decent blog post. For those quoting the "HN standards",
I see poorer articles than this every single day.

~~~
jasonmcalacanis
Feels strange, and frankly bitter, for folks to take her apart like this. If
you don't like the story just skip it.

~~~
alayne
So many people aren't even talking about the content. It's a glimpse into
iPhone development which is an interesting alternate universe for me. I don't
think she was going for a Pulitzer.

I think we need to celebrate the fact that there are women in software and
technology. Look at how Kathy Sierra was attacked. Men do not get abused like
this. It is a very demographically skewed business and that just seems wrong
to me.

------
bonsaitree
I held my tongue on this earlier today thinking it would simply go away, but
no more.

Bottom line #1: The content of this article is not technically newsworthy by
HN norms.

Bottom line #2: If you're a photogenic & telegenic young woman software
developer in Silcon Valley and you're also sufficiently socially charming,
creative, or just plain lucky enough to fall in with the "right crowd" at the
"right time" you can get spades of press far easier than any male or any non-
photogenic female.

Remember Kim Polese? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Polese> ('nuff said)

I can't cite the study offhand (I believe it was published in Nature in '05),
but physical looks are a large multiplier (and and even larger divider) in
young women's careers in almost all fields (there's an XKCD for this somewhere
too). The effect dampens sharply later in life. As society has become more
mediated, I'm sure that effect has only grown.

Looks sell, but that sales job must be followed through with commitment and
execution. Judging from afar (Pownce's infamous Python eval() hole aside),
I've not seen her lacking in either.

"Easy" fame and press is a double-edged sword. She's then expected to live-up
to her "billing" and I doubt anyone is quite prepared for such a sudden burst
of notoriety and the implicit expectations which come as part of fame's
"package deal". At least by being a developer, her contributions can be more
objectively judged. I suspect she takes great comfort in that.

I also think even by Valley Standards she's bounced from one company (and one
relationship) to the next with alarming frequency. The fact that I even KNOW
those few details of her personal life is evidence of our society's double-
standard for women.

I can't think of a single other 'famous' developer who's personal life I know
about other than Guido, but that's because he and his family used to live near
us in Virginia.

I suspect Leah had few options for advancement at SixApart and simply had to
"ride-out her earn-out" per Pownce's acquisition agreement.

I also suspect one of the implicit assumptions with her arrangement at
Plancast was press-related (again simply leveraging fame as many
"advisorships" in Valley companies end up being).

Nevertheless, I'm sure she takes a good deal of comfort from the fact that, at
the end of the day, she's now a developer with a deliverable exploring a fresh
new non-Django-related API and platform.

If she had wanted to be purely a "face" she likely would've stayed at CNET
(err..Webshots) or moved to a more media-centric role.

I also suspect she's already seen the darker side of Silicon Valley and has
little wish to return to those salad days. Let her build. Let her be.

~~~
petercooper
_If you're a photogenic & telegenic young woman software developer in Silcon
Valley and you're also sufficiently socially charming, creative, or just plain
lucky enough to fall in with the "right crowd" at the "right time" you can get
spades of press far easier than any male or any non-photogenic female._

Even if true (cough.. iJustine.. cough..) that's just "how life is" and
complaining about it doesn't change human psychology. Like magpies, people are
attracted to shiny things - you just gotta make yourself more shiny.

~~~
bonsaitree
Did you read the full post?

This was not a "complaint". I was trying to sum up the 2 key points of the
discussion and defend Ms. Culver's excess press via sociology in both the
historic (e.g. Ms. Polese) and current context of the Silicon Valley press
ecosystem. I also did my best (clearly poorly) to give some defense of her
efforts.

This sort of thing gets highlighted on HN, and having modern studies to
quantify the effects is useful, but one need look little further then Helen of
Troy.

Nothing new under the sun here.

Who's iJustine? ;-)

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khelloworld
Wow. I can't believe the controversy here. Reading some of the comments, it
seems people are actually jealous of her renown.

