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comment by caeli
caeli  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Stop Acting So Surprised: How Microaggressions Enforce Stereotypes in Tech

    It's a culture that fosters "I know what I'm talking about better than you", even though there's no right way to handle any situation considering it's a concept that never ends. Codebros compare lines of code like its penis size

Yup. The elitism is ridiculous. I'm not in comp sci but I do a lot of stats and some ML here and there in R and Python. My code isn't the most beautiful thing in the world but it gets the job done. I know not to bring this up with computer science majors anymore because they just go crazy. From the way they talk you'd think I'm literally Hitler for programming without having a CS degree.





briandmyers  ·  3438 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.

- Bill Gates

hogwild  ·  3438 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I majored in CS (and am now getting a PhD in it), and guess what? Actual academics in CS also write shitty research code! Those undergrad CS majors you're talking to would be horrified by some of the code I've written, and even more by some of the code I've seen out there.

The only thing I'd recommend is actually reading some good code (hopefully in your area of interest), just so you get a feel for some efficient patterns that are readable and intuitive and useful for your work.

caeli  ·  3438 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Actual academics in CS also write shitty research code!

:') I feel less alone now

    The only thing I'd recommend is actually reading some good code (hopefully in your area of interest)

Wow, that's a really good idea, I hadn't thought of that. Time to creep through my labmates' and advisor's R scripts on the server...