I finally found that essay that Simon’s old officemate posted on their office door. I like it, though I roll my eyes at it a bit too.
And also showing up when I googled ‘gender geek’ was this article about gender, computer science, and the monofocused geek from my beloved alma mater, cmu. =) Somewhat interesting. I can see myself in there in places.
Interesting. I didn’t read the second one through all the way, but I skimmed it. I think this may come into play in the Gender and Language course I’m taking next term!
Thanks for the second link. That post changed my life. Well maybe not. But it explains somethings about the monofocused geek. (CMU? They are like famous amoung monofocused geeks – the monofocused geeks geek.)
From a part of the conclusion: My point is that staying up all night doing something is a sign of single-mindedness and possibly immaturity as well as love for the subject. The girls may show their love for computers and computer science very differently. If you are looking for this type of obsessive behavior, then you are looking for a typically young, male behavior. While some girls will exhibit it, most won’t. But it doesn’t mean that they don’t love computer science! (emphasis mine)
The longer I personally am in the field of IT/Computer Science the less I feel like I fit. That’s been a source of stress lately. Now I can say I’m just maturing. Either that or I’m turning into a girl. 🙂
For what it’s worth — which is pretty much nothing, I admit — the Allan Fisher whose name is on the CMU article is an old friend of mine. (I may even have mentioned his name the night we chatted to see whether you knew him.)