[TriLUG] The biggest deterrent for women in tech

[Brandon Van Every]

On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 1:14 PM, John Vaughters <jvaughters04 at yahoo.com>wrote:

>
> I am not claiming a fact, but my opinion is the only difference is the
> hard work. Just look at the data on the study hours. It is fairly clear to
> me. Somehting along the lines of 4 hours to 1 difference.
>

I am inspired by the example of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Marshall_Williams , one of our native
sons whose gun workshop is on display in the Raleigh Museum of History.  He
invented the M1 Carbine rifle which was a pretty good benefit for American
infantry fighting WW II.  He was a jailbird working on it; yeah, people
could make guns in prison back then.  There's a big quote on a placard,
about the nature of the inventive process.  Can't remember it exactly but
it's along the lines of, "I never worked hard to do this.  I could be out
drinking a beer and things would come to me."

Translated, I think all this STEM flogging is an outright failure of
perspective and understanding of process, something the "widget and
policies" people are trying to push because they really don't know how to
make anything.  They just want a bigger supply of techie slaves they can
pay less money.  When I recently heard the acronym STEAM on this list for
the 1st time, I immediately understood what the addition of "Arts" to the
mix implied.  We shouldn't bother with the Chinese "work hard study hard"
flogging.  Let's face it they live in an autocratic repressive regime,
where you get rewards as long as you shut up about politics and make money.


Cheers,
Brandon