i just read about girls in the 80s getting freaked out by MIT boys and the way they would build relationships with computers. the girls were all like “i think that's sick. i don't like it when they talk like that. relationships are for people.”

i think that people nowadays mostly view computers as tools and not relationship partners so that's changed somewhat. but it does bring me back to thinking about my idea of coding for computers versus coding for people.

i think there's a longstanding tradition of writing code that relates the programmer (/ their ideas) to the machine rather than to other users.

this is most blatant with undocumented code, which is hostile to not only other users but other programmers as well, but just generally also.

there is such a thing as writing code for yourself just as there is such a thing as writing for yourself more generally (it's called a diary yo) but when talking about writing code which is meant to be used by others, there's a tendency to emphasize the logic and implementation and procedures in their own right, above and exceeding what it is actually FOR

the article (which was kinda iffy but had food for thought) also talked about how girls were perceived as tending towards easier video games, but what it actually was was that they tended to favour games where they could learn the rules BEFORE starting to play rather than DURING. and how similarly the lack of documentation and structure really hurt them when it came to hacker spaces which expected you to just learn as you go.

this is also a problem i have i like to study the documentation and proceed forward in a straightforward way with little risk and the current state of tech documentation is NOT set up for that learning style let me tell you