Being talked down to by a bean counter in a superhero suit is empowering in comparison.
[1] For one example, google "wallmart pep rally".
I wish there were firmer guidelines and pay structure around the title, "practice lead", that it came with the same face time with the C-Suite, and non-billable hours to actually do the job of onboarding and workplace training as managers get.
Granted, I'm well aware the above is almost a caricature of what an old guy would say. Happens I guess.
As a younger person ('92 - I guess I qualify for millenial depending on who you ask?) who was on the internet and a part of nonsensical and whimsical communities like YTMND during my formative years and beyond, the items you listed are lost on me to some extent; I know what they are/what they mean, but all of it is brand new to my eyes. All I can tell you is that in my age group, way before any of this stuff started leaking from the internet, a meme was just an image macro based upon a repeating/old joke. Anything new and trending was appropriately called a "fad" on YTMND; if it stuck, it became a "classic" or was worthy of the title "meme" because of its permanence through the community. There are lots of little things that I wish I could explain that have been altered by outside groups that they no longer resemble what they were to my cohort, or at the very best are caricatures of what they used to be, but that would be a fruitless endeavor.
I used to think that all of what you listed was something targeted at people half my current age. However, my coworker at my last job managed to prove me wrong by being a solid 4 years older than I was and using the above cultural dialects you've referenced above. I think it's a bit of a problem, though not necessarily an emergency in the making.
Side note: It's kind of ridiculous; aforementioned subscribers think they can relate to me, "outsiders" (adults over 30) think I would relate to the subscribers (was an annoyance at college), but I can't relate to them at all. I definitely consider them the outgroup who came in, brought their friends, trashed the place, and went to find the next new thing.
Infantilizing is companies thinking that they can win over employees with ping pong tables, free sodas, and not give them, you know, actual compensation.
Of course, as the dot com boom demonstrated, many in our industry fell for it.
You are not powerless in your situation. Stand up for yourself.
Oh man I hate this. An "IT" job to me just means an admin job where the subject of the admin tasks happens to be computers.
It's worse when "IT workers" try to lump actual technically-skilled roles in with them, like it's just another task to be performed.
IT also gives people the impression that one is a "computer expert", which can't be further from the truth for many developers. I happen to have a relatively detailed understanding of how computers work, but I'm by no means an expert on hardware, setting up large networks, troubleshooting, etc.
Yeah, taking Information Technology literally, we would fall under that. But so would someone operating a book press.
Anyway point is it's a spectrum. Yes some "IT" labor is menial, but I also know IT people who know way more about security and networking and identity etc. than most software engineers will in their entire career.
A danger is the potential exclusion of people who do not participate in that specific culture, and that's something I'm more cognizant of now than I was in the past. If you should have a concern about the interweaving of tech professions and geek culture, I figure this is the most important one.
As an adult, my relationship to comics and geek culture has definitely changed enormously from where it was when I was a child, a teenager, or a college student. Things I thought were awesome I now see as cheesy, trite, or problematic. Things I didn't appreciate earlier on have come to take on new resonance. A few things have remained constant. The opening fanfare to Star Wars, for example, when infrequently presented in a dark theater, will probably never stop sending shivers down my spine.
The trick, then, is to approach the intersection of tech professions and geek culture as grown-ups, shrugging off the (usually blatant) attempts at manufacturing hype, and enjoying the real connection that our culture affords, without pursuing it to exclusion.
Another possibility would be for these companies to just pay more and "cut the crap". If companies paid more, there would be more talent on the market (presumably) and companies wouldn't need to put on the dog-and-pony shows to attract and retain because the economics are doing that for them.
(And of course there are people who like the dog-and-pony shows and the 'un-corporate' vibe of these things. Power to them, but at least personally it would be nice for the "cut the crap and pay more" idea to be more common.)
TBH, if folks are having fun, and companies want to join in, I see nothing wrong with it. Devs are likely aware that the companies don't normally wear super hero costumes, and companies are probably aware that making a good first impression is only the first part of a successful relationship.
The blog post seems to have a pretty toxic view of employers (there are a bunch of assumed "to be explored" paragraphs), and I think that view is poisoning the entire experience.
Some person dressed in the costume. They may have been "representing" a company, but that doesn't matter. It was still a human acting like a condescending twit for their own reasons.
I'm not sure what's "toxic" about identifying insulting behaviors in others. I don't want to be around people who do things like that, whether or not I work for them, and many others feel the same way. Being an employer doesn't mean you suddenly get to be horrible and not get called on it. (It just means your employees might be afraid to call you on it until they can get out from under you.)
This is a thing? Never seen this!
Id expect 2.5 to 3x my FTE rate in the UK where in the USA people seem surprised that people dare it ask for even 20% more.
"This reminds me of north korea"
Trailhead Conference was absolutely pedantic not only did you have the booth babes with the cheap Chinese promo objects. They turn the Moscone center into a goddamned forest, we're talking theme park level decor complete with furries.
I found it cult-like and infantile. Seemed like people were eating it up, not really ever going back.
-Grumpy 30 y/o dev
This company sells a CRM...
But what they really sell is a dream but you gotta pay to play. The bigger they get the more they take away.
When I was a kid "grown men" were only allowed to be really into sports or maybe cars. Now those barriers of what is "acceptable" for adults to be into (among other things) are broken down.
As far as someone dressing up as a super hero for a professional conference; I'm sure if you could dig through the reports of Comdex from the 80s you'll find lots of ridiculous stuff. Most of which would be totally unacceptable today.
Also I think the author maybe should have taken a little more care when referencing attractive females working the booth to contextualize it for people that won't give him the benefit of the doubt that he was pointing out it was absurd. Gender politics being a hot button issue right now.
On a more serious note, the point of the comment is that if the context allows you to be taken relatively seriously in a superhero outfit, it might not be a bad idea to attract people to a booth... Yes, those contexts might not be extremely common.
(Or that seem to forget that on the web there are non-native English speakers too, and that particular "language crime" can be totally how the words work in their language -- though in this case the original author does have an english name).
What if I were a trans-woman and wanted to be called female??
This horrible trans-normative oppression needs to stop!
I am going to go protest at a starbucks.
'identifying' as another gender means wearing a stereotype.
But then the other day I got a haircut and while waiting to pay spied a shelf full of beard products in that cute, hipster art style, the whole display blending in perfectly with all the other hair products. It's difficult to watch something we have defined as the apex of manliness (beards) being treated with the same tone of voice as cosmetics and children's toys.
Infantilisation is endemic at the moment, and I see it as part of a comprehensive attack on American masculinity.
If you want to escape infantilisation, you need to in many ways escape consumerism and go back to the days of just whipping up your own beard oils.
I guess I am against the softening of traditionally 'hard' things. Painful to watch our world (even software!) devolve into bright colors and cute mascots.
One could also interpret this phenomenon as young adults refusing to grow up -- hanging on to childish symbolism concomitant with the rest of millennials' (economically necessary) delayed development into adulthood.
And for the record I am (unwillingly) part of the millennial set and do not have a beard.
