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0 pointsRealityNow8y ago0 comments

I never really understood this loaded/gendered "brogrammer" term. In my experience programmers tend to be shy, introverted, soft spoken, and more socially awkward than average - the exact opposite of the type of person "bro" typically refers to. I've never worked at a company where the programmers are the extroverted outspoken machismo ex-fraternity type who regularly lift weights and play beer pong at their bachelor pads before hitting the bars/clubs.

Martin Shkreli (the pharma CEO who gained fame after jacking up the price of a drug by 5000% overnight) is referred to in the press as "pharma bro". What makes him a "bro"? He's awkward, unpolished, and more resembles the overcompensating nerd from high school than the binge-drinking football-playing jock who got invited to the parties.

Tech has never had a "brogrammer" culture. The term is just used to paint the picture of programmers as being misogynistic.

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dunkelheit8y ago· 1 in thread

> I never really understood this loaded/gendered "brogrammer" term.

Me neither. I'm not Silicon Valley-based so when the articles started to appear about some guys who pop their polo collars and work out between writing lines of code I just assumed that this is a quirky new meme that is based on a few eccentric characters existing in real life. And a stereotypical google engineer in my mind is polite to a fault and not in any way a brogrammer (I wonder, is this grounded in reality or are my stereotypes off the mark?)

Evidently, the word "bro" is convenient: it is short; it is vaguely pejorative; you can seamlessly attach it to other words to mark the specific bro (pharma bro, google bro etc.)

Analemma_8y ago

They're not anywhere near as common as Silicon Valley's detractors claim, but they do exist. They tend to cluster, which is maybe why you haven't seen (m)any. I would cite the early Rails community (from maybe 2005 to 2009, but don't pin me down on exact dates) as one that had a very high concentration of "brogrammers", which lead to all kinds of nastiness; most infamously, the deliberate sexism at their conferences.

Fortunately, once Rails grew up and put on a suit and tie, they kicked out most of the toxic people and the situation got a lot better... and Rails even became a better framework at the same time to boot. Just one example of the axiom that "rock stars" and "brogrammers" don't actually produce better code.

jayd168y ago

There are brogrammers. I don't think they're more or less sexist on average though. Just out going engineers in a male dominated field.

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