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Comment by emteycz | Hacker News Reader

Yeah lol... The apartment building next to mine was having some reconstruction and the guys working on the exterior saw into my office windows (5th story). I started talking to them, had a cigarette together when I saw them lighting up, shared my WiFi password with them, etc, just being friendly. After a few days the guys asked "so, do you ever work man, or are you one of those computer pussies?". I agreed I'm a computer pussy as I'd never want to do any of what I saw them doing, in all weathers, very very early in the morning as well as very late in the evening.

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I've done manual labor. Mowed lawns for a guy who had his own company, he drove us around in the truck, we'd hit the grass with his mowers.

Worked fast food, retail. Been a dishwasher, bus boy....

I think there is something abut the manual labor that gives you a daily sense of accomplishment. The lawn work for sure. Arriving at a tatty yard, leaving it looking like a golf course.... That sort of day-to-day sense of achievement is much more rare in software development.

To be sure I ultimately chased the higher-paying software field. But when I would see the "grounds keepers" at the Apple campus, I was often a little envious....

> I think there is something abut the manual labor that gives you a daily sense of accomplishment.

I think a good part of it is also the fact that manual labor involves physical activity, which in itself can help to improve mood.

"Computer Pussy?.. no mate, computer hacker, and seeing as you all connected to my Wi-fi, my rent is covered for the next 2 months".... <Trollface>

Well I wanted to be a friend. They were cool to me, I was cool to them. It was all in good jest, with a bit of truth. ;-)

I guess but the phrasing that he used was unbelievably condescending and you just accepted it.

It's a hard thing to describe, but among people doing that kind of job, an insult like that can be a signal that you're "on the inside" of the group. It's pretty contextual and you have to listen to their tone of voice.

If you've seen Good Will Hunting, imagine Affleck and Damon's characters meeting again years down the road. Affleck might call Damon a "computer pussy" but both of them know Affleck is proud of Damon and would trade places with him if he had the skills.

Not to say "computer pussy" isn't potentially extremely condescending; just that such usage of profanity among laborers is often colloquially used to express sincere kinship and camaraderie.

Exactly - and I think it's the same among programmers, and more generally in male friend groups. It's a translation btw, but I think it's a fitting one.

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