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Born for IT? How the image of software developers came about

Born for IT? How the image of software developers came about

Presented in November 2016 at GOTO Berlin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk1r4XaWwsM

Birgitta Boeckeler

November 14, 2016
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Transcript

  1. It was with some shock and dismay that he realized

    that “a good part of the remainder of my life was going to be spent in finding errors in my own programs”. Maurice Wilkes, memoirs Programming is hard
  2. “Magic” (“Black art”) “Programmers are born, not made” “When a

    programmer is good, he is very, very good. But when he is bad, he is horrid.” (IBM, 1968) View of programming in 50s/60s “Software crisis”
  3. 1962: 80% of businesses used some form of aptitude test

    Half of them used IBM PAT 1967 alone: 700.000 individuals
  4. …are crazy about puzzles, …tend to like research applications and

    risk-taking, …dislike routine and regimentation, …don’t like people Programmers…
  5. 1956: 700 programmers 700 = 3/5 of available programmers in

    US By 1961: 7000 more SDC & the “SAGE” Project
  6. Female Computer Science student There are people who are born

    to do this, and I am not one of them. And it’s definitely not one of those things that, like, “Oh, with practice, you will become one who is born to do it.” … You just gotta be born to be like, ‘Computers! Yeah! They are awesome!! They are my life!’ You know, a lot of computer scientists, that’s all they do.”
  7. “I don’t live to program. I know guys who live

    to program, or at least they seem to. You find them on the weekends doing nothing but programming and I just think, ‘How can they do that?’ I guess I think I’m more balanced.” “I enjoy computer science, but it’s not my life.”
  8. “If we are using a single model to identify potential

    programmers, we will miss many potential students.” Passion
  9. http://devslovebacon.com/conference s/bacon-2013/talks/bacon-is-bad-for- you @birgitta410 “The computer boys take over” Nathan

    Ensmenger “Pioneer Programmer” Jean Jennings Bartik “Unlocking the Clubhouse” Jane Margolis / Allan Fisher https://modelviewculture.com/piece s/stop-acting-so-surprised-how- microaggressions-enforce- stereotypes-in-tech https://medium.com/this-is-hard/ the-other-side-of-diversity- 1bb3de2f053e “Let IT go” Dame Stephanie Shirley