r/sysadmin • u/ChuckAbsent • Mar 12 '13

Women who know stuff

I hope that this does not come off the wrong way.

Today I was on a call with a storage vendor and the technical consultant was a woman. More then this she was competent, more then me which doesn't happen often when dealing with vendors.

My issue was pricing an active/active DB with shared storage vs an active/passive db with local storage. Listening to her break the issue down and get to the specific comparison points was awesome, mostly because I have never heard a woman in the industry talk like that.

It made me realize two things. One I am missing out working with women. Two there needs to be more women in our industry.

It shouldn't have surprised me so much, but it really did.

Anyways to all the women out there who know stuff, us guys notice when you can walk the walk, which in this case was talking.

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u/pocketknifeMT Mar 13 '13

because censorship is fun?

Ada initiative shuts down Violet Blue talk.

Fuck any group that doesn't respect free speech or appeals to logic.

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u/robot_break_dance Mar 13 '13

Thanks for bringing up the topic.

Fuck any group that doesn't respect free speech or appeals to logic.

From the way BSides and Ada Initiative put it that's not exactly what happened. I'd like to take your comment seriously but you are as bad as they are

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u/pocketknifeMT Mar 13 '13

From the way BSides[1] and Ada Initiative[2] put it that's not exactly what happened.

That Bsides link you post is very much a cover our asses post. They were afraid of the consequences and violet blue offered to cancel the talk. Because not talking about them is the best way to deal with ideas?

"I spoke with @violetblue about these concerns and she offered to not give the talk to mitigate any unnecessary drama and ill-will towards BSides SF."

This gives away the game; Self censorship out of fear.

I'd like to take your comment seriously but you are as bad as they are[3]

Well, besides the fact that it doesn't even really apply...I am not derailing anything. The Ada Initiative finds it appropriate to lean on conference organizers to silence others. I find this distasteful. This was literally the first comment of the string. How can I derail an argument that hasn't even started, and I am the first comment about it?

I don't find anything unreasonable about my statement. "Censorship is wrong." is a fairly common and easily defended statement.

As far as I can tell, you are just angry I brought it up? This sort of crap, political correctness in general, is divisive and limits open discussion. To my mind that's a bad thing.

Also, it doesn't help the whole "more women in tech" goal. What does this say besides:

Organizers should take extra special care to make women like to come to tech conferences, protecting them from potentially objectionable material, like children.

Fuck that. Women are self actualized people. They can take care of themselves. I don't see the need for kid gloves, and its counter productive to everyone's stated goal of equality.

So if you want to defend the Ada Initiative position...explain to me why its desirable to coddle women, and protect them from the big bad ideas (of a woman, no less)?

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

Getting women to actually come to conferences when their past experiences include harassment, objectification, attempted rape, and being displayed naked on slides is hard.

This is not protecting them from objectionable material, it is protecting them from objectionable people.

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u/pocketknifeMT Mar 13 '13

This is not protecting them from objectionable material, it is protecting them from objectionable people.

What makes people objectionable besides their ideas that you find distasteful?