Bored Druid Thread: The Next GenerationFollow

they made me takes lots of math

i use none of it now and am still bitter about it

ya calc is worthless

baynesian probability stuff would have been way better

That's better than me, I'm taking almost a minor's worth in both Biology and Geology classes, when I will never do anything in either of those fields.

You can always make an argument for Literature and Philosophy. You can sometimes make an argument for the higher maths. You can hardly ever make an argument for Geology in the Computer Science field.

Edited, Oct 3rd 2014 10:34pm by IDrownFish

A couple weeks ago someone came in and told me they were a Women's Studies Major. They got a bit offended when I couldn't stop laughing.

At a European Union convention on happiness. This guy from Spain asks for help with the wifi at the hotel. He doesn't speak a word of English, and I don't speak a word of Spanish, but I still manage to get him connected to his daughter on Skype.

The expression on his face when the call went through... that's happiness, man.

I'd very easily call W&GS trainings I had as among the single most useful for my professional life.

A bunch of straight guys really aren't going to understand the constant structure of oppression and microaggressions that gender/sexual minorities face. And W&GS actually helps provide those groups with an understanding of the systems and strategies for coping with them that are hugely invaluable to any professional in one of those groups.

Particularly, because business programs are particularly good at pressuring women to leave, because they're so male-alligned in structure and they typically don't train women on how to deal with that. I've heard of schools taking steps to get their business and W&GS departments to team up to offer those trainings, but right now W&GS is the only route to get them for most people.

As a quick example: US culture very heavily trains women not to advocate for themselves (though they're exceptional advocates for other people). On the other hand, business programs very aggressively train women to act as alpha males... which essentially always leads to really negative reinforcement for women in the workplace.

W&GS is going to teach women to stick up for themselves AND how to do it in the manner best suited to their own situation AND how to deal with the microaggressions it causes. Business is just going to do the first part. Sort of. If they don't get pressured out of the program first (which is actually a serious issue across the country; super high rate of women abandoning the major because it's not welcoming).

Yeah, to business. There's actually a sort of national discussion going on right now on how to make the programs more inviting to women and teach them the skills they'll need, specifically, to survive in the modern environment.

It's actually a really interesting meta discussion. Because modern business is so thoroughly based around culturally male values, its very nature of operation tends to be contrary to the way most women naturally function. So even if a woman happens to get a job in a workplace where she won't need to deal with much of the typical mysoginist behaviors, it's still going to be structured in a way that's stacked against her.

And because most business programs are based around men, they're not teaching women how to deal with that.

Meanwhile, because of many of the same cultural issues that create that problem, women more naturally excel in PR, HR, and other community outreach or negotiation positions, when appropriately trained. But the problem, once again, is that many of these programs are still male-oriented in actual systems of training, so they pressure women out of them instead of fostering the skills they have to offer.

You're comp sci, right Fishy? I have a good analogy here for you then. Comp Sci has a huge problem with failing to bring in, and keep, the female demographic. Thing is, this is primarily due to the way comp sci is taught at schools. Women and men approach code very differently, and are attracted to different aspects of coding. But nearly every program in the US is so firmly based on the male approach that it pressures women out.

Harvey Mudd College has actually started a new initiative to change their demographic by altering the major to be more welcoming to women, putting renewed emphasis on creative approaches to coding, etc. The end result is that they now have 40% women in their program (where most programs are 15-20%). And I'd very much argue that male students are getting a better education because of it, since they're getting both the traditional, systems-based education AND are learning how to think both systematically and creatively.

There's kind of a disconnect we're having here. I'm not denying the information you'd get from the courses is valuable. I think all knowledge is useful, of course provided it's accurate. I'm just saying the piece of paper that says you took those courses is almost useless. It goes about as far as letting you answer yes to the "do you have a degree" question. So in a nonspecific way it's useful, and the information from the courses is of course valuable, but specifically? It's not all that useful.

Exactly! It's a piece of paper that can help overall in life, but shouldn't be relied on. And if you want to rely on it, don't come complaining about debt and being unmarketable. If I need IT, I'm going to favor the people with computer science degrees, not the ones with Latin degrees.

My biggest complaint about college in this country: you spend $100,000 and do years of unpaid work just to get the same job your grandfather got straight out of high school.

Also, on the women thing, if I could express my frustration for a moment: SpoilerWHY IS IT SO ******* HARD TO FIND DECENT ARTWORK OF WOMEN IN ARMOR THAT DOESN'T LOOK SLUTTY? . Not that I don't know the reason or anything. Anyway, after a bunch of searching I think I finally found some I can use in my game mod. This guy's stuff is pretty awesome.

Edited, Oct 7th 2014 10:06am by someproteinguy

If I remember my AD&D days accurately, armor values on actual armor are inversely directly proportional to cleavage size. Bigger cleavage gives more armor so smaller is better for weight purposes.

I'm sure it isn't what you're wanting, but bar none there is no better artist for Wonder Woman than Nebezial. The fact he's a fan artist and not an official book artist is a royal shame. Even his Sexy Wondy is amazing.

Yeah, I'm not leaving sexy asterisked.

Edited, Oct 7th 2014 1:57pm by lolgaxe

Being married to an ENTJ makes me want to say Yes!

Also, check this out Spoilerhttp://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/536/the-secret-recordings-of-carmen-segarra. I heard it one night last week and there was one part where the woman was meeting with her male boss who was super condescending about her "trying to tone it down a bit" when she really needed to tone it up in my opinion.

Men who push people's buttons are just aggressive go-getters. Women who push people's buttons are just pushy bitches.

EDIT: Actually, here's a link to the transcript. See bottom half of page 16 and top half of page 18 for relevant language.



Edited, Oct 7th 2014 5:18pm by cynyck

Evading cops for two weeks in the PA woods? An hour on a bus and I'm ready to confess to any horrendous murder just for a warm bagel and smear. No sir, I am not a creature that would thrive in nature.