Bacon is bad for you.

This isn't a talk about this awesome conference, nor about nitrates (which I'm not qualified to discuss). It's a talk about developer monoculture and how it puts all of us (even the vegans) at risk. Sure, we're portrayed as buffoons in popular sitcoms, and people make broad and often incorrect assumptions about our social skills, but there are more tangible dangers in allowing - and even encouraging - others to sum us all up with a collection of specious tropes. People outside our little profession can, and do, use this to take advantage of us. I'm not going to try and convince you not to have bacon on your sandwich, but I think the results when we portray ourselves as a group of people who uniformly place great value on cured pork and little value on our lives outside our work are results worth examining.

Transcript

1. Bacon is bad for you. Garann
2. what we love
3. everybody just slow your roll.
4. what’s wrong with that? •discourages
5. devs vs. hipsters
6. why don’t we like hipsters? •unfriendly •know-it-alls •obsessed
7. unwelcoming
8. know-it-alls
9. obsess about trivial things https://github.com/h5bp/html5-boilerplate/issues/610
10. overprotective of culture
11. the goals are noble •finding
12. but the results suck. •group
13. worse, our caricature is public •money
14. as a culture, we’re sitting ducks.
15. (or more realistically..)
16. and so people opt out. http://www.washington.edu/news/2009/12/14/of-girls-and-geeks-environment-may-be-why-women-dont-like-computer-science/
17. back to bacon. •some
18. not just interests, but identity. “The
19. developers developers love •young •anti-social •arrogant,
20. is assimilation a reasonable request?
21. things developers hate: professionalism
22. current approach: 1. someone
23. thick skin syndrome http://harthur.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/771/
24. professional standards: theirs •9-5
25. professional standards: ours •wear
26. but who cares? we’re winning. “Demand
27. professional benefits: ours •free
28. professional benefits: theirs •work
29. no one expects much from us. http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com/
30. to clarify: that sucks •we’re
31. we have an asshole problem.
32. it means we have to be babysat •middle-management •event
33. we’re gonna have a bad time.
34. we can babysit ourselves •set
35. this helps us •grow
36. who needs a drink?
37. everything is fine •we
38. ..for now. “Or
39. this is the climax of our golden age.
40. not the end.. •advances
41. just the climax •unrealizable
42. expect the system to balance itself.
43. what is a developer? •someone
44. that can be almost anyone.
45. “I
46. it’s a fucking tv commercial.
47. our culture is bad for us. •our
48. thanks! @garannm