Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dartvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!hao!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!dartvax!rccall From: rccall@dartvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: Hackers Message-ID: <1823@dartvax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 11-Jun-84 01:49:43 EDT Article-I.D.: dartvax.1823 Posted: Mon Jun 11 01:49:43 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Jun-84 02:31:44 EDT References: <183@hopd3.UUCP> Organization: Dartmouth College Lines: 39 > ... I think that you are making a *very* seroius assumption that all women > (or all anyone else, for that matter) who work in a computer science field > are hackers or talk endlessly about computers. I work with them, however, I > don't even own one of the beastly things. Yet. Just because I am a computer > scientist dosen't mean that I don't enjoy other subjects as well. Most of > my close friends are musicians and journalists who don't know a thing about > computers (I met them while working on campus for a political science (!) > organization), and we get along quite well. Don't lump us all into the same > category. > I didn't read the original article (i.e. the one being responded to in the above excerpt), so I hope I'm not simply re-stating what it said. There is a grain (maybe even a teaspoon or two) of salt in the statement that people (not just women) who work in computer science talk endlessly about computers. I'm not trying to lump them all into one category, and I realize that there are computer scientists who have other interests; nevertheless, I have noticed that in general, computer scientists talk a LOT about computers -- to the point of being very boring and sometimes quite sickening. It seems that whenever I'm in a group of people including a couple of "computer people", the topic of conversation always drifts to computers, much to the disappoinment of the others in the group. When computer people are present, it seems, all roads lead to ROM [sorry...]. It is only natural that people in the same field want to talk about their work; but the computer people that I know take it to an extreme. I don't notice that sort of thing happening to people in different fields, and I often wonder whether I simply notice it more because I hang around with a lot of computer enthusiasts. Does anyone out there understand what I'm talking about, and is there anyone who does notice the same kind of enthusiasm among people in other fields? By the way, I am a "computer person" myself; and yes, the phrase "computer person" does rub me the wrong way. I just can't think of a better phrase right now.