
Lynn Conway's Career Retrospective - tofu-fu
https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/RetrospectiveT.html
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throwaway78492
To whoever submitted this, thank you so much for doing so. Seeing how long it
has been up, I regret not finding it earlier. My teenage me would have needed
this story even more than me now.

I can't stop crying. The stigma, shame; the mask. All those kind people living
somewhere in the society around you, but not being able to reach out to them
for fear of reprisal. Conversely, the condemnation without ever meeting you or
anyone of your 'kind'.

Her struggle in all those little details is so creepily recognizable to me.
Some days more than others. Only it's in this day and age, and with a
different 'deviancy' most will readily denounce, even only for fear of
association, and many times due to a lack of knowledge. The upside these days
is the accessibility and reach of anonymous communication. "You are not alone"
helped me avoid suicide when I was fourteen, found out and thought I was all
alone.

It gives so much comfort and hope to read her story overcoming it. Then, I
might even dare to think I will be able to overcome it as well in my lifetime.

~~~
tofu-fu
I'm so glad I could bring this story to you. Her story also inspires me a lot
in seeing how great life can be despite, or even because of great strife and
rejection by people you love.

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pgcj_poster
As a trans woman, I found the first few chapters absolutely heart-wrenching. I
look up to Lynn so much.

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tofu-fu
Yeah. So much pain, all before even becoming an adult.

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ptrott2017
I remember reading Introduction to VLSI when I was a student and it is still
one of my favourite books. I always thought of Carver Mead and Lynn Conway as
electrical engineering and computer science magicians who not only invented a
new type of tech magic but then pulled off a small miracle by making it
accessible and understandable with a thoroughly great book.

Michael Hiltziks excellent book, Dealers of Lightening, touches on Lynn's
career at Xerox PARC (Dealers is one of the better history's of early
innovation at Xerox PARC). However I had no idea of Lynn's full life story and
her incredible life journey or the myriad of challenges she had overcome. Not
only a brilliant innovative engineer and awesome educator but a truly
remarkable person. @tofu-fu thanks for submitting this.

~~~
tofu-fu
Isn't it amazing? Yeah, I'm so glad that I now know about the full story of
her life.

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bE9a3S5So8igd3
I find this article highly inspirational and will now consider to become
trangender thank you for sharing this tale about transgenderism

~~~
dang
We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines and ignoring our
request to stop.

