Cat HicksFeb 27

I enjoy when using tech tools on my extremely femme-gendered hobby projects makes them feel out-of-genre important

What an interesting way to trigger some stereotype incongruence and realize how much "tech weight" we give things just by all these relatively shallow signifiers

Show threadCat HicksFeb 27
Look at that font. She must have a hacker brain
Show threadCat HicksFeb 27
Are there things that make work "look Technical" to you? Are there secret signifiers you have become aware of? I love hearing people notice these things
Show threadGlyphFeb 27
@grimalkina off the top of my head: monospaced fonts, dark mode, hosting things in source control, customer service with issue trackers rather than ticketing systems, Markdown (sort of, that gets complicated), command-line instructions or aesthetics
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27
@glyph @grimalkina dry and formal prose, muted colors [not the case for VC/AI stuff but i do not internally think of that as "technical"]
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27
@glyph @grimalkina gratuitous use of acronyms, especially if introduced without explanation
Show threadCat Hicks
@whitequark @glyph this one constantly making me mad. The Fancy Names for everything and you get in there and you're like "it's JUST THIS?"
Feb 27 at 5:57pmWeb
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27
@grimalkina @glyph I know a lot of people have this reaction but mine is to assume upfront that each Fancy Name refers to something relatively straightforward (but very specific) so I don't let it bother me much
Show threadCat HicksFeb 27
@whitequark @glyph I think this is really helpful
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27
@grimalkina @glyph (this as in, the kind of reaction I have or the explanation I wrote?)
Show threadCat HicksFeb 27
@whitequark @glyph developing the reaction seems really helpful! And it's one I think I'm getting toward as well
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27
@grimalkina @glyph yep! I do my best to encourage this (and more generally demystify the "techy" bits) whenever I talk to, really, anyone interested in it but especially people without a more traditional background; I want it to be fun, not a source of anxiety, insecurity, or fear, and "I bet you can understand these things despite how they may look" is I think pretty key to it