Stereotyping computer people

An LA Times article about a computer science school perpetuates negative stereotypes about people who study computer science:

"I don't think anybody has enough fun at Neumont -- it's a bunch of people addicted to sitting in their mom's basement playing World of Warcraft and drinking Dr Peppers," said Murray, who himself was drinking a can of Dr Pepper at 8 a.m. on a Friday.

He might have a point. Instead of Mardi Gras, students hold Nerdi Gras, a video game party featuring "nothing that would ever happen at Mardi Gras," according to organizer Keith McIff. And though the student commons doesn't have couches or fast food (or for that matter, any hot food at all), it does have a "Star Trek" pinball machine, a pingpong table and a flat-screen TV frequently hooked up to Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Some of Neumont's female students, who make up about 5% of the 266 enrolled this year, are on a mission to get their peers to tune in to the world around them. In October, one posted a message on Neumont's Web forums protesting what she called "offensive odors."

"The truth is there are people in this school who just don't smell pleasant at all," she wrote.

If you become a computer programmer, you will have to work with these people. See my post on why a career in computer programming sucks.

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And if you think maybe that a quality school like MIT attracts less nerdy individuals, then read this story about the WoW Pod, invented by MIT students. It has everything you need to play World of Warcraft in a pod: computer, food, and toilet, so you never have to leave the game in order to take food or bathroom breaks.

Comments

[Peter]

[Instead of Mardi Gras, students hold Nerdi Gras, a video game party featuring "nothing that would ever happen at Mardi Gras,"]

In other words, no women "earning" beads.

[SFG]

Two women were involved. I think this was intended as a joke.

[mnjohn]

You yourself have admitted to playing world of warcraft all the time. You just posted a very long review on it. This is not a stereotype as most computer science majors I have met do indeed have nerdish tendencies. We need nerds for the world to function. I supposed legalized prostitution is the answer for their sorry love lives.

[HS: I never played WoW at all until last month, when I gave it a spin and then reviewed it. On the other hand, I confess that it's something I might have been heavily into if it existed when I was in my teens or early twenties.]

[James]

man that place sounds AWESOME!!!11!!

umm, why would anyone want to tune in to the SUCKY world around them if they didn't have to? Much better to create a perfect microworld as these students are doing.

My only reason for turning off the screens and going outside is that once in a while it is strikingly gorgeous outside, but most people don't live in a beautiful area like I do so I can't blame them. And I'm sure it is only a matter of time before even this can't compete with wall-size screens and photorealistic graphics. Basically humans are discovering that it is now much easier to create beautiful artificial worlds than to perfect the real one.

[HS: "umm, why would anyone want to tune in to the SUCKY world around them if they didn't have to? Much better to create a perfect microworld as these students are doing."

Now that I think about it, conventional colleges are also a sort of microworld where everyone is young and doesn't have to worry about working for The Man. Only difference is that they entertain themselves with parties, drinking, sex, instead of what these so-called "nerds" are doing. At least the nerds won't ruin their livers or get STDs.]

[Brandon Berg]

"If you become a computer programmer, you will have to work with these people."

That hasn't been my experience at all. The vast majority of my coworkers have been fairly well adjusted. Only about 10% or so have really even been readily identifiable as nerds, aside from being computer programmers.

[Stopped Clock]

Yes there's probably quite a difference between who goes to school for computer science and who actually gets a job in the field. The real world job market is cruel to many a starry-eyed college student.

[Test Test]

I always WoW fans were just geeks that are no good at chess.

Is that not accurate?

[king obama]

Is it really a stereotype when it is actually true?

Nerds tend to have nerd tendencies. End of story.

[eh]

The LAT won't be around that much longer unless they start publishing in Spanish.

[White Whale]

Why would a quality institution like MIT attract less nerdy individuals? Those who are less nerdy will end up at Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. MIT is for those who really like math and science, who are, let's face it, nerds.

[Mike W.]

I have a room full of these working for me. We need them to get product out, but at the same time, I feel sorry for the low-amplitude lives they choose to live.

As far as "stereotyping" goes, it's a useful and necessary skill that, when properly refined, allows the decider to handle large amounts of information in atypically fast amounts of time... you only get so many heartbeats. There was an article in, I think, HBR that surveyed the mix of analytic vs quick seat-of-the-pants/pattern-matching mode of deciding things and concluded (I believe) that as you went up the chain in an effective organization, you needed the analytic skills down in the org and the cultivated pattern-matching in the top.