The Contradictory Feelings Thread

[Travis B.]

3) Having to explain point 2) to someone who always took pride in their very progressive politics is a bit galling.

Most people on this forum are upper-middle class white men, often working in the tech industry and such. I think it was quite reasonable of me to assume you could afford to move. Apologies if you are one of the rare exceptions here.

I must roll my eyes at "upper-middle class white men", first because that implies a sort of moral inferiority in the whole inverted pyramid, and second because even if you are an upper-middle class white man it should not be assumed that you don't have other circumstances (e.g. family) that ties you to where you live.

Also, it is rather presumptuous to assume that we are all "upper-middle class white men, often working in the tech industry". Like yes, I personally am a middle class (I would not necessary say upper-middle class) white man who works in the tech industry, but it is not safe to assume that of people just because they are on this forum.

[Man in Space]

Most people on this forum are upper-middle class white men, often working in the tech industry and such.

[citation needed]

[nominated for speedy deletion]

[malloc]

Most people on this forum are upper-middle class white men, often working in the tech industry and such.

[citation needed]

For starters, I seem to recall you admitting that you were practically a millionaire. But alright, perhaps I was painting with too wide a brush. It does seem fair to say, based on stated locations and life details, that this forum skews white and male and wealthier than average with many working in tech. But just to confirm, does anyone here not recognize the word "malloc"?

[Rounin Ryuuji]

But just to confirm, does anyone here not recognize the word "malloc"?

I did not know it was anything other than your name till now. I had assumed it was either an ordinary given name (possibly Welsh or Catalan, or maybe Irish), or a word you'd invented.

[Travis B.]

But just to confirm, does anyone here not recognize the word "malloc"?

I recognized the word "malloc" immediately, which shouldn't be a surprise given my background.

[linguistcat]

But just to confirm, does anyone here not recognize the word "malloc"?

I am a second person who assumed it was likely a word from a conlang you had created and not any word in a specific irl language.

[KathTheDragon]

that this forum skews white and male and wealthier than average with many working in tech.

Hi, I'm female and currently absolutely broke.

[Raphael]

But just to confirm, does anyone here not recognize the word "malloc"?

I am a second person who assumed it was likely a word from a conlang you had created and not any word in a specific irl language.

Third.

[alice]

But just to confirm, does anyone here not recognize the word "malloc"?

I am a second person who assumed it was likely a word from a conlang you had created and not any word in a specific irl language.

Third.

I know what it means By some standards it is in fact a word in a conlang, but one from half a century ago.

[WeepingElf]

I also know what it means.

More: show

It is a memory allocation function in the programming language answering to the long-winded name C.

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Also, surveying for knowledge of an item of technical vocabulary won't necessarily net you all the people in a related field, much less tell you their socioeconomic status, or what their political views might be.

[malloc]

Also, surveying for knowledge of an item of technical vocabulary won't necessarily net you all the people in a related field, much less tell you their socioeconomic status, or what their political views might be.

On the other hand, how many randomly chosen laypeople would you expect to know what "malloc" means?

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Also, surveying for knowledge of an item of technical vocabulary won't necessarily net you all the people in a related field, much less tell you their socioeconomic status, or what their political views might be.

On the other hand, how many randomly chosen laypeople would you expect to know what "malloc" means?

I haven't the slightest idea, but that doesn't change that it won't tell you if somebody has a career in tech, how wealthy they are, or what their economic or political views will be.

[malloc]

I haven't the slightest idea, but that doesn't change that it won't tell you if somebody has a career in tech, how wealthy they are, or what their economic or political views will be.

You can certainly make some reasonable guesses, though, simply based on statistics and such. It is well known that software engineering is an incredibly lucrative field with many making a quarter million dollars a year. Likewise the sheer profusion of right wingers in tech is well-known. Sorry if I seem unduly harsh and accusatory, but I simply can't forgive the tech industry for what it has unleashed.

[Travis B.]

I haven't the slightest idea, but that doesn't change that it won't tell you if somebody has a career in tech, how wealthy they are, or what their economic or political views will be.

You can certainly make some reasonable guesses, though, simply based on statistics and such. It is well known that software engineering is an incredibly lucrative field with many making a quarter million dollars a year. Likewise the sheer profusion of right wingers in tech is well-known. Sorry if I seem unduly harsh and accusatory, but I simply can't forgive the tech industry for what it has unleashed.

Just because there are rightists in tech does not mean anything about tech aside from mere guilt by association. There are plenty of people in tech (such as myself) who are anything but rightists. And as for those making "a quarter million dollars a year", you do realize how high the costs of living are in places like on the West Coast, right? I don't make anywhere near that, but as costs of living are considerably lower where I live, I don't need to.

[Linguoboy]

Most people on this forum are upper-middle class white men, often working in the tech industry and such.

[citation needed]

For starters, I seem to recall you admitting that you were practically a millionaire.

I am, in point of fact, technically a millionaire. (Working with a financial advisor has taught me just how illiquid most of that million is, but that's a rant for another time.) I didn't get achieve this by working, however; most of my wealth is inherited from my late husband, who was very shrewd about saving money for retirement and ended up dying before he could make use of much of it. My salary (or pay, I should say, since I'm not even salaried but hourly) is about half what's generally considered necessary to land one in the "upper middle class" income bracket. If not for my RMDs, I wouldn't be able to keep up with my mortgage payments.

BIt does seem fair to say, based on stated locations and life details, that this forum skews white and male and wealthier than average with many working in tech. But just to confirm, does anyone here not recognize the word "malloc"?

I thought it was pseudo-Middle Welsh.

I would agree with the white and male part (since that's true of the Internet in general), but I seriously question "wealthier than average". For every person on here I can think of with a well-paying tech job, I can think of at least two who are under- or unemployed. There are lots of academicians here, for instance, and high-paying jobs are rather thin on the ground in academia these days (assuming they're even in full-time work and not spending most of their time studying or doing research).

[Travis B.]

I would agree with the white and male part (since that's true of the Internet in general), but I seriously question "wealthier than average". For every person on here I can think of with a well-paying tech job, I can think of at least two who are under- or unemployed. There are lots of academicians here, for instance, and high-paying jobs are rather thin on the ground in academia these days (assuming they're even in full-time work and not spending most of their time studying or doing research).

Academicians from what I gather are notoriously underpaid and are always having to chase the next grant, part of why I do not regret not going into academia, even though I probably would have had it not been for factors not under my control.

[Linguoboy]

Academicians from what I gather are notoriously underpaid and are always having to chase the next grant, part of why I do not regret not going into academia, even though I probably would have had it not been for factors not under my control.

It varies quite a bit from institution to institution. While there are some sinecures left, in general academic positions in the USA are becoming both more precarious (with tenure on the decline almost everywhere) and more poorly compensated. Whether you have to chase grants constantly or not is somewhat dependent on your field and specialty. No one expects a professor teaching six courses of freshman English to apply for grants, but that of course has its own headaches.

My own feelings about going into academia were very mixed, which is why I put off pursuing an advanced degree and ultimately didn't. I enjoy a lot of things about academia, which is why I work where I work, but ultimately I don't think I would have been very successful as a professor.

[Travis B.]

The good: I had fixed a longstanding division/modulus bug in zeptoforth on the RP2040 that was causing subtle problems.

The stupid: due to idiocy on my part, I first overwrote my changes to fix that and some other issues and then released code with it, necessitating another release to actually fix said issues.

The stupider: it turns out that my "fixes" actually included major performance bugs in the stream and chan modules, so had to restore that code and make yet another bugfix release.

[Man in Space]

I am somehow happy, sad, and angry all at once. Why?