Hackers? Techies? What To Call San Francisco's Newcomers
npr.org
npr.org
What is the word when you know you shouldn't look at something, but the urge to do it is too strong? Masochism doesn't quite cut it. "Mild death drive"? Anyway, I had to check the article. Here's how it ends:
"So, the next time you see someone taking up a seat at a coffee shop to work on a cold cut delivery app at 2 pm, resist the urge to slur—instead of "techie," just call them a fucking loser dork with inconsequential ideas and a dumb life."
No, those "techies" don't make the search engine you use to find the information you need in your work and your daily life. They don't make the operating systems that run on your computers and mobile devices, nor the devices. They don't make the software that runs in your appliances, the automation systems that allow billions of people around the world to have products and services only the rich could afford in the past. They don't make novel ways to discover drugs and the origins of diseases. They don't make the communication services that allow you to stay in contact with people you know and discover people you didn't know. They don't make CMSs, blogging engines or web browsers.
They make cold cut delivery apps. Fucking cold cut delivery app making loser dorks.
I hope you used ad block. Otherwise you're basically paying them.
> "Software Americans"
That's just silly. We're Wetware Americans. Software Americans would be AI!
I've heard the more generalized version of this phenomenon (meaning "s/look at/do") referred to as "the call of the void". Interesting and slightly haunting.
On an unrelated note... Wtf is wrong with Sam Biddle... Troll extraordinaire?
>Sam Biddle of the Gawker site ValleyWag
People that are seriosuly interested in solving the problem with expensive housing would probably spend their effort on lobbying for taller housing and better public transit.
But hey, linkbait like this gets more hits.
- I immigrated from Softwaria.
- Our flag is a bunch of 1s and 0s.
- Our national anthem ends with "return 0;".
- All of our city streets look like logic-gates from a bird's eye view. http://doc.union.edu/PL/ee_master_gate.jpg (yeah, I know... this is more on the side of hardware)
- Our homes & buildings square footage are always divisible by X where X = 2^N, where N represents all real numbers. (what was that symbol for all real numbers again?)
All you need is NAND gates.
Plus if you tile the NAND icon it makes a fish skin pattern. Perfect for our heraldry.
Compulsion?
Why not judge newcomers as individuals? They're people first. Some of them are assholes. Others are awesome people who are positive for the community. Same as any group.
Rents are going up. It sucks, and something should be done about it. The city should permit more construction. The Ellis act should be repealed.
One thing I'm pretty certain won't make rents go down: labeling a group of people and pressuring them to leave.
Communist.
Haters gonna hate though, especially in SF the snob capitol of the world[1].
why does this piss me off so much? it was all well and good when we were servin' you, and now we make something of ourselves and you mad?
while I can see that change is happening a little too fast for most people, I do believe it was society that set us up to be nerds at the unpopular table. WELL ITS MY CAFETERIA NOW BITCHES! WHAT?
'"Techie" used to suggest a computer whiz with no social skills, now it suggests one with no social conscience.'
This article boasts several choice phrases: "chronic obliviousness", "hermetic subculture", "techie theme park". I'd venture Mr Nunberg has visited our golden city some.
the truth is that this city is: dead at nights. have a lame hipster wanna-be community. too expensive.
p.s older san francisco residents are extremely nice!
But I don't think it's about the "coolness" reflecting on you that these software developers are actually going for. I think it's more along the lines of having a store nearby that sells liquid nitrogen ice cream during the summer. Which is pretty cool. (And other establishments including night life and dining establishments, naturally.)
Homophobia is passe now, but I hope the word "nerd" will serve people who want to stir up hate against us just as well.
I've never seen a place with so many well-bred automobiles in my life.
The arts and culture establishment, with their refined humanities backgrounds, and accustomed to being the social elite, are disturbed to see that not only are vulgar techies making lots of money, but that nerds are now being seen as cool. This is simply too much to bear.
Based on everything I've read about this new bubble and how SF is changing even more, I doubt very much I'd want to live there. Any sort of 60s vibe that I did 'pick up' (that was one of the attractions for me) seems to have faded away. $250K for new grads at Google? God almighty. There is too much money sloshing about in the Bay Area now and money always changes things.
The fruits of IT are useful, at the top commenter points out, but I think some humility needs to be learned. Then more effort will be spent on useful stuff, and not making cold cut apps or figuring out how to manipulate users into clicking more ads. Man is a tool making animal, but happens when one's ego becomes tied up in those tools?
Besides the linkbait title, this article is full of painfully accurate observations, which will ironically be completely ignored by most of HN's SV population.