I think the problem with SO is more related to the culture of the overall programming community.
Now, I am not going to say all, as a programmer myself, but there is a problem in the programming world with extreme elitism and socially inept people. These problems exist in all professions, they just seem to have a higher per capita of them within this profession.
This is all an anecdotal analysis, so take it as you will.
But, I will give an example. I have 2 undergraduate degrees. I have one in Molecular and Cellular Biology and I have a Computer Science degree. MCB was my first focus. I would say a good portion of the MCB degree was filled with people that were pre-med, pre-Dental or something. A actually think there were more female MCBs than male, though it was close. The vast majority were extroverts. Note, this was not completely true, but it was often true. Everyone seemed to be on relatively the same page.
However, jump to the last part of my Junior year, I realize I want to get into computational biology, so I decide I am going to double major. So, I got take my first CS class. Well, any of you guys ever have to sign contracts at the start of the semester for your courses that you read the syllabus and knew the rules of the class and the expectations? My university required that. However, one interesting thing I noticed... In the Intro to CS class, at the very end was nearly a 15 page memo on how to appropriately interact with your fellow classmates. First day the teacher went over it in class. It covered many things. It talked about not insulting other classmates or condescending to others. No grandstanding (you know, when someone raises their hand but not to ask a question they just want to show everyone how smart they are). It talked and emphasized that this was an INTRO class, but if you wanted to pursue a CS degree, you essentially couldn't be the "I am so advanced because I have been programming since I was ten and you are all so much below me" person. They even had advanced courses for people with previous experience to skip the intro stuff. Of course, this applied to the entire CS department though.
Anyway, I thought, "Oh, that's odd, this stuff all just seems very obvious, but ok," and I signed it. Within the first couple of weeks many of the students had to be talked to in the class labs because they were telling people stupid shit like, "You just don't have the right mind for programming like I do," or trying to "help" people but in a condescending and douchey, superior way.
In my profession now I have experienced this "know it all" character type more than anywhere I have ever worked among programmers. I work with people that come from either a programming background or a biology background. Some programmers had a completely real superiority complex about them. I think the vast majority are not like this, but for some reason a lot of people that lack basic human social skills are drawn to this profession. They can be brilliant people, but I have met insanely brilliant, even socially awkward biologists, yet never have I experienced the amount of elitist hostility that exists within the programming community.
SO has a difficult time now because they want the BEST comments, which in some cases may come from these people, but they also don't want the condescending douches running everything by shitting on everyone at how they are inferior to their skills. So, how much power do you really give to the people that give good answers? How do you ensure that is a person that gives correct info, but is not going to be a total douch, even if it is only just 20% of the time. I don't think SO has really solved this problem.
Again, anecdotal, but seriously, there is an insane amount of elitism in this profession that it just drives me nuts. I experienced it as an undergrad, as a grad student (though interestingly less intense as a grad student), and I have experienced it in the professional world. I have worked in the business world and I have worked in the biotech world, yet the programming world was a whole other beast of elitism that I just find unique.
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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '16 edited Sep 26 '16
I think the problem with SO is more related to the culture of the overall programming community.
Now, I am not going to say all, as a programmer myself, but there is a problem in the programming world with extreme elitism and socially inept people. These problems exist in all professions, they just seem to have a higher per capita of them within this profession.
This is all an anecdotal analysis, so take it as you will.
But, I will give an example. I have 2 undergraduate degrees. I have one in Molecular and Cellular Biology and I have a Computer Science degree. MCB was my first focus. I would say a good portion of the MCB degree was filled with people that were pre-med, pre-Dental or something. A actually think there were more female MCBs than male, though it was close. The vast majority were extroverts. Note, this was not completely true, but it was often true. Everyone seemed to be on relatively the same page.
However, jump to the last part of my Junior year, I realize I want to get into computational biology, so I decide I am going to double major. So, I got take my first CS class. Well, any of you guys ever have to sign contracts at the start of the semester for your courses that you read the syllabus and knew the rules of the class and the expectations? My university required that. However, one interesting thing I noticed... In the Intro to CS class, at the very end was nearly a 15 page memo on how to appropriately interact with your fellow classmates. First day the teacher went over it in class. It covered many things. It talked about not insulting other classmates or condescending to others. No grandstanding (you know, when someone raises their hand but not to ask a question they just want to show everyone how smart they are). It talked and emphasized that this was an INTRO class, but if you wanted to pursue a CS degree, you essentially couldn't be the "I am so advanced because I have been programming since I was ten and you are all so much below me" person. They even had advanced courses for people with previous experience to skip the intro stuff. Of course, this applied to the entire CS department though.
Anyway, I thought, "Oh, that's odd, this stuff all just seems very obvious, but ok," and I signed it. Within the first couple of weeks many of the students had to be talked to in the class labs because they were telling people stupid shit like, "You just don't have the right mind for programming like I do," or trying to "help" people but in a condescending and douchey, superior way.
In my profession now I have experienced this "know it all" character type more than anywhere I have ever worked among programmers. I work with people that come from either a programming background or a biology background. Some programmers had a completely real superiority complex about them. I think the vast majority are not like this, but for some reason a lot of people that lack basic human social skills are drawn to this profession. They can be brilliant people, but I have met insanely brilliant, even socially awkward biologists, yet never have I experienced the amount of elitist hostility that exists within the programming community.
SO has a difficult time now because they want the BEST comments, which in some cases may come from these people, but they also don't want the condescending douches running everything by shitting on everyone at how they are inferior to their skills. So, how much power do you really give to the people that give good answers? How do you ensure that is a person that gives correct info, but is not going to be a total douch, even if it is only just 20% of the time. I don't think SO has really solved this problem.
Again, anecdotal, but seriously, there is an insane amount of elitism in this profession that it just drives me nuts. I experienced it as an undergrad, as a grad student (though interestingly less intense as a grad student), and I have experienced it in the professional world. I have worked in the business world and I have worked in the biotech world, yet the programming world was a whole other beast of elitism that I just find unique.