Paranoia and Consequences

I have been paying a lot more attention to feminism over the last few years. Reading more stories on sexism, sexual assault, etc.

GamerGate in particular has weighed heavily on my mind. It's a nightmarish shitshow of men repeatedly attempting to destroy women, their reputations, and terrorizing them out of 'gamer' spaces and their own homes. Arthur Chu points out some roots in a touching personal essay, that I completely sympathize with. Allow me to be frank here: I can imagine a hypothetical path, in which my life went a little differently, where I could have become an absolute misogynist GamerGator. I hung out in the right communities and was sympathetic to the kinds of arguments that pervade those spaces. 

One of the side effects of this is a paranoia I've developed. I am continuously terrified that I will find out that a friend or a co-worker is a gamer-gate supporter. This is not the justified fear Felicia Day had, but a fear that I will stand silent.  

You see, I like the people I work with. I (obviously) like my friends. Yet, recent history has taught me that the internet allows people to be absolute fuckers on the internet, yet seem to be perfectly reasonable human beings in reality. I have moved halfway across the country recently, and am very hesitant to burn any bridges.  However, I have to stand up for what I believe

Let me say this here and loud: 

If I ever discover that any of you, my friends or co-workers, harass women, attack women, or participate in a movement that implicitly supports these actions, I will do everything in my power to remove you from my life, and see that the consequences you deserve fall upon you. 

I will not be your silent aid. 

Three Months

I am rapidly approaching the three month anniversary of me starting my new job. It has been a very interesting timespan. I've learned a ton about the actual nuts and bolts of large software projects: 

  1. My skills with C++ have dramatically improved, while I've simultaneously been pushing it to its boundaries. I'm regularly confronted with issues solved in C++11 or C++14. My skill with templates has increased to the point that last week I used them to write code only possible with templates (I think). The language's warts and wrinkles are slowly becoming second nature to me, all while I try to prevent them from forcing me down ugly roads. 
  2. Principals of software design that never took in a scholastic setting are starting to have real impact. A more visceral understanding of decoupling provided by factories, the perils of inheritance etc. 
  3. The vital importance of excellent tooling.

I've really been enjoying my time. My team has been fantastic, and our project, [REDACTED], is going quite well.