I have learned a lot about myself over a 30+ year career in tech. I started programming in 1983 on a Commodore 64, and had my first job programming in 1988 in Cobol for the software used by schools in Oregon. I now realize more about my personality traits that attracted me to computers, but also the reasons why companies were looking for nerds like me to program computers, and it isn’t just that I knew a certain programming language—it was more about the human things I don’t see than it was about the technical bits that I did see.
Growing up in the 1980s I was definitely a nerd. I read comic books, played with computers, and sucked at every sport I attempted. Since then I’ve also learned a lot about my super powers—cluelessness. There are so many things that go over my head. It took me years to learn how to get the attention of a girl, and even more to realize when a girl was trying to get my attention. Historically I just don’t see a lot of the cultural, social, and human nuance of the world. It isn’t just that I am a white male, although that plays a huge role in my cluelessness, it is also my wider social ineptitude that has made me successful in the world of technology. I just didn’t realize this is what actually makes for someone who is successful in delivering technology.
When we look at the technical world we’ve unleashed this century it is easy to point out the lack of diversity, humanity, and care, but I now realize this was a feature not a bug. Guys like me were hired because we didn’t see the human bits, and prioritized the digital bits. We were willing to work insane hours and ignore our families. We didn’t care about going out with friends and were happy to stay up and finish a project. We didn’t care if our software made humans lives harder, as long as it was able to make money. Us nerds thought we had some special skills that set us up for success, but really it was what we didn’t possess that made us so valuable to capitalism, which has resulted in the technological sausage grinder we live in today that is chewing up humans, culture, and now democracy.
