If you remember a time when programming computers was considered nerdy, in a socially discouraged and mocked kind of way (until it became big money)... a game of guessing whether a photo is of a serial killer or a computer programming nerd... might seem a little abusive.
Or this way: Serial killers look like random people, just as programming language inventors look like random people.
OTOH, wouldn't it be "File system creator and killer"? :-(
Imagine someone doing this game back then, in that context, passing it around school (before cyberbullying), and it'd be pretty nasty.
We can say "but computer programming is OK, now that it's a status career that rich kids have blessed as cool, and kids don't get bullied like that in school so much, so now it's funny in a non-bullying way", I guess.
Still feels like punching-down, to me, but not everyone knows the earlier context.
I think we could all agree that a person’s face might indicate ‘shiftiness’ or ‘meanness’ and that there is a decent probability that you’d be right in your assessment.
Has there ever been studies that correlate face types with personality traits?
Some names you can look up are Johann Lavater, as well as Alphonse Bertillon, inventor of the mugshot, and Francis Galton, inventor of composite portraiture.
One of the times, it escalated to genocide, and the people who committed that are widely known to history as the epitome of evil. They were trying to characterize and identify "lesser" people, and it turned out they themselves will be known forever as the worst of humanity.
There's some curious questions (e.g., why do so many overtly mean people we've seen look mean). But I suggest being careful with this space, and skeptical of people who are motivated to pursue it and those they attract.
This is still true, regardless of the money.
I see myself on the screen as I enter and think "yeah, that guy's going to hold up the shop or something".
You could do a 'serial killer or ...' about anyone whose prime was between 1950 and 1970-some and has a lot of mostly B&W photos.
But I also think, most people have the potential to become serial killers. Hunting and killing is deep in our genes after all and society can mess up people pretty bad, so some turn their animal instinct against society, while maintaining the facade on the outside.
In psychiatry, you reach the coveted status of Antisocial Personality Disorder (the remorseless manipulative sociopath with a charming personality, but no compassion) by starting out with Conduct Disorder (the kids that hurt animals, lie, cheat, and steal) and not snapping out of it by adulthood
Humans are social animals. If your animal instinct is hunting and killing, and you feel like you're just maintaining a facade... good! You don't choose the instincts you're born with, but please keep maintening the facade thank you! :)
2/10 has a p-value of p = .057.
Or put another way, the 95% confidence interval of scoring 2 out of 10 covers 0.5.
Or as in Seinfeld, when George just decides to do the opposite thing he would normally do and things start going well for him.
Surprised that Hans Reiser wasn't on the list. (Or I didn't see him.)
I keep forgetting he killed just his wife, not his kids as well.
Schrödinger couldn't just invent a cyanide sensor. He was definitely a psychopathic serial killer in addition to being a serial pedophile (this bit is true).
that still doesn't answer the question??
(some of the maniacs could have secretly designed prograrming languages too)
* HMU if you want to screen new hires/potential business partners, no refunds
If you get it wrong and they hire a serial killer... well, I don't think this policy will be necessary.
…aka a “serial” killer.
Sorry.
Programming Language Creator or Serial Killer? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25878602 - Jan 2021 (139 comments)
Can you tell a programmer/language inventor from a killer? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1455383 - June 2010 (12 comments)
Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=135299 - March 2008 (1 comment)
(I put 2003 on it because of https://web.archive.org/web/20031008105832/http://www.malevo... but I didn't have the patience to wait for it to load. How different can it be though, with that url...)
And resulting statistics, of course.
Or is it too dark?
Serial killers have this spark in their eyes that is really difficult to hide.
I feel like with enough photos of just about anyone, you’ll eventually get one that makes them look sinister…
And then there's the trick question where I was right that he looked like a programmer...
Great site, BTW. Plenty of other games and with an unusual twist they are selling them (the sub sites for the games)
In a previous version of this game on another site, Phil Wadler was one of the computer scientists and I was able to say "I've met that one! I hope he's not a serial killer..."
I thought one photo was of Larry Wall, but that was a similary looking murderer (and a programmer, but not known to invent any language)
Not sure what that say's about me ...
Does that mean: A. I'm a sociopath because I'm unable to detect the cues
B. An inherently good / naive person that has never needed to differentiate between a programmer and a serial killer?
Til: keep away from people I think look like programming language designers.
