

Things You Love are Made with Code - yawz
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/things-you-love-are-made-with-code.html

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colmvp
I'm curious, are there growing initiatives to make every career gender/race
balanced? Because it seems like we're fixated on getting female representation
in computer/mathematical occupations from 26.1% to 50%. Yet there are lot
other occupations which have pretty low representations, i.e. only 1.6% of
architects are black, 0.1% of judges/magistrates are Asian, only 1.8% of
automotive repairers are women, only 5.2% of truck drivers are women, 19.7% of
social workers are men, 5.2% of childcare workers are men, 3.8% of
physicians/surgeons are Hispanic, etc.

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mrgn
No, and the answer why should be blindingly obvious to any intelligent person:
computer engineering (as opposed to your chosen examples of truck driving
childcare, and auto repair) is among the most well-paid, economically
influential, and entrepreneurial profession today, and will become
increasingly so in the future. Gender and race representation is simply of
less concern for less aspirational, lower-paid professions that do not require
extensive education or access to technical resources.

~~~
adamnemecek
So it's about equality and equal gender representation only in well paying
professions? Doesn't sound all that equal to me.

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mrgn
Perhaps you didn't read closely, but the fact that computer engineering is a
well-paid profession is only a result of its demand, influence and importance
to the future economy. Devoting equal time and resources encouraging people to
abandon higher education in order to pursue unskilled labor may sound like
"equality" to you, but hardly seems like a sound strategy for the economy or
any industry.

~~~
adamnemecek
Well but all these initiatives are not so much about encouraging all people,
but mostly women it appears.

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thegeomaster
While I commend initiatives like this, I don't think people should be so eager
to make girls start coding. If your daughter shows no interest whatsoever
after being exposed to coding, well, maybe it just isn't her cup of tea. It's
the same with boys, of course. I know so much people who had been pressured
into the same profession as their parents. Not all of them today love what
they do.

We should be helping kids discover coding, not making them love it. I started
hating chemistry and biology because I'm forced to study them in thorough
detail in school and I have no interest in them--they're really just a pain in
the ass. If someone has genuine talent for a particular area, you don't have
to push them to explore it--you just make them aware of it and their natural
curiosity will do the rest.

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Lewisham
I wish I remembered where the study was now, but I remember reading one which
said that girls were naturally curious about STEM careers, up to around 12,
when it starts to tail off dramatically. The theory was that societal issues
begin to kick in that makes girls not want to: no role models, fellow students
telling them it's for nerds and no girls do it, male jock stuff.

So the curiosity and talent is just drained out of them. That's the issue.

But as I don't have the study to hand, of course I could just be making this
all up :/

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tjr
Don't similar societal issues also turn off many boys to STEM around the same
age? I was definitely not in the larger, more popular bunch of kids starting
around 10 years old.

~~~
snowwrestler
Whatever the effect is, it's obviously stronger with girls given the ratio of
adult men to adult women in STEM.

Which is the whole point of these sorts of programs, of course. The issue is
not that some people don't go into STEM, the issue is that there is something
about STEM that repels girls and women far more strongly than boys and men.

And since there is nothing inherent to STEM jobs that is in conflict with
women's capabilities (doesn't require extremes of height, strength, weight,
etc.), it seems likely that the issue is social factors, which can be changed
with effort.

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schoen
I'm curious about the use of the terminology "code/coding/coder" as distinct
from "programming/programmer".

I've noticed that a lot of recent programming outreach and education efforts
consistently use "learn to code" instead of "learn to program". How come? What
connotations do they perceive? Are they intending to refer to a broader set of
activities (including document markup, which I wouldn't refer to as
programming)? Do they think that some audiences find the term "programming" to
have negative connotations that aren't present for "coding"?

~~~
acabrahams
I remember seeing some statistical evidence that women in particular are more
responsive to ads to 'learn to code' than 'learn to program'[1], which would
ring true with my personal experience where I notice I often describe myself
as 'learning to code' rather than to program.

[1] But I can't remember where I saw it and googling hasn't helped me to find
it... :/

~~~
schoen
That's interesting; did anyone have suggestions about why that should be so?

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return0
> engineering isn’t just for engineers.

Yes it is.

~~~
afarrell
Yes it is. There is value in learning to build things without being an
engineer, but you should know the limits of your skill so you don't cause
others harm.

~~~
ProAm
| _you should know the limits of your skill so you don 't cause others harm_

Which is funny how the 'hacker' mentality is to build things fast and cheap.
Along with Zuckerberg's "Most fast and break things" mantra.

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judk
Moved fast and broke the quotation.

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ProAm
Which quotation? [1]

[1]
[http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE0LzA0LzMwL2ZjL1p1Y2tlc...](http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE0LzA0LzMwL2ZjL1p1Y2tlcmJlcmcxLmQxYTYzLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/c2caaa03/dd9/Zuckerberg1.jpg)

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Fuzzwah
As the proud father of a 5 month old baby girl, things like this make me
really happy and eager to see how my daughter interacts with technology.

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sigil
In the earliest iLuminate photo I can find, Miral is hacking on an Arduino
prototype board and staring at piles of glowing EL wire on the floor. Barely
anything worked back then. Five years, numerous televised appearances, and 400
Off-Broadway performances later, the company is still doing amazing stuff at
the intersection of art and technology. [1]

Miral is the reason why. She can code, she can choreograph, she can manage and
inspire people, she can dance, and most importantly, she can pursue a vision
_relentlessly_. She's a great example of that "formidable" quality that pg
ascribes to successful founders.

So, while I get why Google is trying to inspire more women to code with this
story, there's inspiration here for all of us. Build something you love and
don't let the hard stuff stop you. (There will be lots of hard stuff.)

[1] Seriously, go see the show if you're in NYC, it's mind-blowing.

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cheez
I think I inhabit a different world than most people. I didn't even need to
encourage my daughter to get into coding. I only exposed her to it.

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dang
Url changed from [http://www.themarysue.com/google-made-with-
code/](http://www.themarysue.com/google-made-with-code/), which points to
this.

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judk
Why does a feminist(?) blog have a logo that is a picture of a woman sticking
out her butt with her hand on it?

Isn't that the atmosphere that contributes to "the gender gap in tech"?

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DaveSapien
Looking through now, it doesn't appear to be a feminist blog.

I dig the idea of celebrating cool stuff women do rather than pointing out the
'oppression' of everyday western life.

Shouting about how sexist the tech industry is only puts people off coming
into it, celebrating all the cool stuff is the best way to attract more people
that aren't dudes. I think this is what the site is doing.

The lady's bum logo is part of that celebration... because you know bums are
great.

