Greg Wilson
This is the worst job market for junior programmers *ever*. History teaches that people whose hopes have failed look for someone to blame, so if we don't explain how the world works *in ways that angry young men will actually listen to*, many of them will embrace Musk/Thiel/alt-right ideology. https://third-bit.com/talks/sdgc/ is my thoughts on what we might teach and how; feedback as email to [email protected] is welcome. (Please don't thread here.) Thanks in advance.
Cocaine and Conway's Law

Jul 30, 2025 at 10:35amWeb
Show threadSteve LoughranJul 30, 2025

@gvwilson great talk -given me some more books to not quite read. Which one would you recommend as a a lightweight one for a holiday read?

Also I'm sure @grimalkina will be happy for a citation as part of the emphasis on social aspects

Show threadPeter DrakeJul 30, 2025

@stevel @gvwilson @grimalkina Seconded -- my TBR pile is threatening to collapse into a black hole.

Are there some errors with the columns on slide 4? I would think "Constructing useful, efficient, and reliable systems; solving problems" would be engineering and "Limited to axiomatic systems" would be mathematical.

Show threadSteve LoughranJul 31, 2025
@peterdrake @gvwilson @grimalkina I'm going through "Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World", goal there being to understand TLS issues better there. Fear I'll stop partway through and not pick it up again, as per SICP, Readings in Database Systems and more.
Show threada fading echoJul 30, 2025
@gvwilson tell them to get an avocation, that programmers don't need even a computer to do it, and about FLOSS.
Show threadPedestrianError  Jul 30, 2025

@gvwilson It *should* be pretty simple:

"Who is cutting those jobs? Rich motherfuckers like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel."

Unfortunately humans have never been good at class solidarity. It's so much easier to see an oligarch who looks kind of like you and think "I can/should have all that" than to look around at the other people struggling alongside you and see them as peers and potential comrades instead of people to punch down at to establish your own however tenuous position.

Show threadleobardAug 1, 2025

"If we don't explain how the world works, someone much less pleasant will happily do so."

@gvwilson in https://third-bit.com/talks/sdgc/#48

Cocaine and Conway's Law