Adrianna Tan
Some dudes would rather clean up documentation for AI agents than make documentation easier to read for everyone, such as people
Feb 3 at 4:26amWeb
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 3

Someone objected to ‘dudes’, apparently it’s sexist so I’ll just leave this here.

In California, everything and everyone is a dude

EDIT: i don't think there can be sexism towards men in tech. that's a bit like all of the reverse racism people.

Show threadÆ.Feb 3
@skinnylatte I just wish Californians who call everyone "dude" would realize that the rest of the world isn't California
Show threadSpace HoboFeb 3
@aesthr @skinnylatte I am always reminded of the Hofstadter essay on gendered language where he asked the office about the status of the word "guys" in this context. Apparently one woman said something like "Of course it's gender-neutral! Even *guys* use it that way!"
Show threadÆ.Feb 3
@spacehobo @skinnylatte except this really isn't true outside the US and it's just another case of American exceptionalism to use the excuse of "actually over here it's neutral" instead of apologizing
Show threadSpace HoboFeb 3
@aesthr @skinnylatte I believe the point of the anecdote was that it was self-debunking.
Show threadBai ShenFeb 3
@aesthr @skinnylatte @spacehobo Asking people "How many dudes have you slept with, then?" often highlights whether they consider it gender neutral or not.
Show threadPerrin42Feb 3

@skinnylatte

Dude? Dude. Dude!

Add a Californian, I can attest that the above is a complete and meaningful conversation. 🤣

Show threadMinmiTheDinoFeb 3
@skinnylatte we are all united in a great web of dude-hood, all made of the same dude-stuff, on this great spinning rock we call dude.
Show threadstaringatcloudsFeb 3

@skinnylatte I called everything & everyone "Dude" once

Nowadays I tend to call everyone "Honey"

Show threadElias MårtensonFeb 3

@skinnylatte they're seems to be this widespread belief in the us that there is a single correct way to say/do things.

As it turns out, things that are offensive in one place are not in others.

A lot of things that are perfectly normal in the us will mark you as really rude in Sweden. Likewise, there are things I do in Singapore that's perfectly normal that would get me ostracised in the us

Show threadIan SmithFeb 3
@skinnylatte as a non-Californian, I can attest to universal dude as a thing that existed in English during the 80s beyond the geographic borders of California.
Show threadSuper Ratboy 64Feb 3
@skinnylatte
I’m a dude
He’s a dude
She’s a dude
We’re all dudes
Show threadstaringatcloudsFeb 3

@jaykass @skinnylatte Can't believe no one has posted this yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IqiRY60ZDE

Mott the Hoople - All The Young Dudes

Original music video for CBS Records. Produced and directed by Richard Weaver

YouTube
Show threadMightyBigCarFeb 4
@skinnylatte @jaykass it's dudes all the way down.
Show thread𝙽𝚘𝚊𝚑 𝙼𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚍Feb 3
@skinnylatte I spent just enough time in California that I referred to my pants as dude...also the coffee I spilled on them as dude. The event itself was dude. All things are one under the path of dude.
Show threadDr. Tiki, doctor of pandologyFeb 3
@skinnylatte As a native Californian I can attest. "Dude" is kind of our way of saying "Y'all." If we're being especially affectionate, we'll call you "little dude." Even if you are big. I don't make the rules.
Show threadWinterKnight Feb 3
@skinnylatte people still think dude is a gendered term?
Show threadAdrian Riskin Feb 3

@skinnylatte

People need to understand that there is such a thing as a local dialect, and that criticizing folks for speaking in theirs is inherently authoritarian. Crushing out vernacular language has been an authoritarian tactic since forever and it should be resisted whenever possible. Got it, dudes?

Show threadPaul KoenigFeb 3
@skinnylatte Dude. Often it is not even a noun.
Show threadSharpe!Feb 3

@skinnylatte I feel like dude is the Californian "fuck" - it expresses frustration and elation, it can insult or exalt someone, it does service as a catchall term for sentient life form.

Yes, it has /a/ gendered meaning, but that's not enough to stop me from hissing it out when the grocery checkout lines take forever or shouting it when one of my buddies shows off their new bike or grabbing my kids' attention when I need to tell them they just did something way, way uncool.

Show threadfedward Feb 3
@skinnylatte but also, statistically the people who'd rather fix documentation for coding agents but not humans ARE dudes (gender) and not just dudes (California), and that dude should have known better than to reply what he did.
Show threadThe Great Llama Feb 3
@skinnylatte
I feel the same way about this as I feel about "guys". We're trying to communicate here. If the person saying the word and the person hearing the word agree, then no problem. If they don't, then we aren't communicating as effectively as we're trying to. I find it's easy enough to try and change my speech to match the audience. I don't always succeed, but usually the effort is welcome, whether it's not say guys/dudes, using they/them when my impulse is to say he/she, etc...
Show thread-rbFeb 3

@skinnylatte my gen-Z daughter uses “girl!” In the same way. Referring to her friends, her hair, characters on tv, and even me (a dude in the classic definition).

So yea, dude is gender neutral. And so is girl, apparently. 😆

Do words even matter any more??

Show threadAllan ChowFeb 3
@skinnylatte what if we use very explicit words in a particular order and use specialized punctuation to denote meaning
Show threadMichael SimonsFeb 3
@skinnylatte @tante It's true :(
Show threadVon XylofonFeb 3

@skinnylatte People are difficult, machines are easy*. All squishy and sweaty, with different education backgrounds and different levels of English, god forbid other languages. Who would ever want to cater to them?

Why yes, I work in documentation, why do you ask?

*Machines are also difficult. We just pretend they're not.

Show threadXe Feb 3
@skinnylatte Look, this is the only way that management will fund improving documentation at all.
Show threadBastelwombatFeb 3
@skinnylatte Same thing with APIs. Stuff that previously couldn’t get an interface for whatever reason: Adding an MCP-Interface is suddenly possible.
Show threadNeil MoffattFeb 3
@skinnylatte Documentation is a fine art requiring patience, people skills and a deep understanding of what you are documenting. Rarely, it seems, is that understood by decision makers.
Show threadkoorogiFeb 3

@skinnylatte I'm encountering this at $DAYJOB. Not so much with documentation, but with tooling improvements. I've been pushing for improvements to some of our internal tooling for over a decade to make developers' lives easier, and not gotten much traction.

Now that those same changes might benefit LLM based tools, there are all the resources in the world to work on them. And I no longer have any interest in being involved.

Show threadJohanna, CanCon varietyFeb 3
@skinnylatte no lies detected.