Unfortunately, this is the downside which Jon has celebrated elsewhere - the Net has liberated the geek, but it's not all for the good.
As Jon pointed out in his series on geek culture, geeks in school often can't fit in and are hassled by the mainstream. They can't fight back, because they're often not strong; even if they are, they're outnumbered. All they can use to fight back with are words, and geeks are often articulate.
So on-line culture has liberated many geeks, putting them in touch with each other and letting them communicate with like-minded people - but these are like-minded people in a word-based environment who are used to using words as weapons, and for whom verbal aggression is a substitute for, or response to, physical aggression.
This is of course on top of the issues of anonymity, not having to meet the target of your flames, etc. I don't think there's much to do about it except existing techniques such as moderated fora, etc. This is the Yang of the Net, alongside, and inseparable from, the Yin of cooperation and increased communication.
Obviously, it's like working out, or going through an intense training course - as you repeat, you get better. The more you code, the better you get at it. So obviously, if you've developed a way of thinking, you're likely to get a job which encourages or uses that. As you settle into the job, you get more practice and you get better better, developing more synapses to help you do what you do better. It's a positive feedback.
However, I guess it's like only ever doing pushups in the gym - your pecs will be superb, but it doesn't mean you'll be a champion athlete. Just because we develop synapses to help us do one kind of mental task better, doesn't mean they'll be of any help at other ta
Slashdot Mirror
Do you mean a strong, surly contender? :-)
Unfortunately, this is the downside which Jon has celebrated elsewhere - the Net has liberated the geek, but it's not all for the good.
As Jon pointed out in his series on geek culture, geeks in school often can't fit in and are hassled by the mainstream. They can't fight back, because they're often not strong; even if they are, they're outnumbered. All they can use to fight back with are words, and geeks are often articulate.
So on-line culture has liberated many geeks, putting them in touch with each other and letting them communicate with like-minded people - but these are like-minded people in a word-based environment who are used to using words as weapons, and for whom verbal aggression is a substitute for, or response to, physical aggression.
This is of course on top of the issues of anonymity, not having to meet the target of your flames, etc. I don't think there's much to do about it except existing techniques such as moderated fora, etc. This is the Yang of the Net, alongside, and inseparable from, the Yin of cooperation and increased communication.
Obviously, it's like working out, or going through an intense training course - as you repeat, you get better. The more you code, the better you get at it. So obviously, if you've developed a way of thinking, you're likely to get a job which encourages or uses that. As you settle into the job, you get more practice and you get better better, developing more synapses to help you do what you do better. It's a positive feedback.
However, I guess it's like only ever doing pushups in the gym - your pecs will be superb, but it doesn't mean you'll be a champion athlete. Just because we develop synapses to help us do one kind of mental task better, doesn't mean they'll be of any help at other ta