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Bacon is bad for you.

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.

Garann Means

April 13, 2013
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Transcript

  1. Bacon is bad for you.
    Garann

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  2. what we love

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  3. everybody just slow
    your roll.

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  4. what’s wrong with
    that?
    •discourages

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  5. devs vs. hipsters

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  6. why don’t we like
    hipsters?
    •unfriendly
    •know-it-alls
    •obsessed

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  7. unwelcoming

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  8. know-it-alls

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  9. obsess about trivial
    things
    https://github.com/h5bp/html5-boilerplate/issues/610

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  10. overprotective of
    culture

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  11. the goals are noble
    •finding

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  12. but the results suck.
    •group

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  13. worse, our caricature
    is public
    •money

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  14. as a culture, we’re
    sitting ducks.

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  15. (or more realistically..)

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  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/

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  17. back to bacon.
    •some

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  18. not just interests, but
    identity.
    “The

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  19. developers developers
    love
    •young
    •anti-social
    •arrogant,

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  20. is assimilation a
    reasonable request?

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  21. things developers hate:
    professionalism

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  22. current approach:
    1. someone

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  23. thick skin syndrome
    http://harthur.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/771/

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  24. professional
    standards: theirs
    •9-5

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  25. professional
    standards: ours
    •wear

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  26. but who cares? we’re
    winning.
    “Demand

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  27. professional benefits:
    ours
    •free

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  28. professional benefits:
    theirs
    •work

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  29. no one expects much
    from us.
    http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com/

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  30. to clarify: that sucks
    •we’re

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  31. we have an asshole
    problem.

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  32. it means we have to be
    babysat
    •middle-management
    •event

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  33. we’re gonna have a
    bad time.

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  34. we can babysit
    ourselves
    •set

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  35. this helps us
    •grow

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  36. who needs a drink?

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  37. everything is fine
    •we

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  38. ..for now.
    “Or

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  39. this is the climax of
    our golden age.

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  40. not the end..
    •advances

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  41. just the climax
    •unrealizable

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  42. expect the system to
    balance itself.

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  43. what is a developer?
    •someone

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  44. that can be almost
    anyone.

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  45. “I

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  46. it’s a fucking tv
    commercial.

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  47. our culture is bad for
    us.
    •our

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  48. thanks!
    @garannm

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