As a female developer, I would intuitively feel glad when seeing this kind of events/groups being formed, but thinking about it I am not sure why. I don't even think I feel like going to them for any other reason than, well, I am female and they're also female so I should probably check it out.
After reading the reasons Github wrote, I find it hard to relate. For me picking up coding has nothing to do with seeing some other women do it, but perhaps seeing some human beings do it. And I don't think seeing female developers would inspire me further more than male developers. But I could be completely false and it might be that turns out I don't know what I really feel...
Perhaps it's because I have not yet noticed any serious injustice around where I've been, could be that I just didn't realised what they were or I haven't spend enough time in the tech industry. The most unfair thing in tech I've ever encountered was interviewing at a company where there is no ladies restroom...
Anyhoo. I don't personally know any other female developer and I've been coding since 11, that's 10+ years, I guess that's ought to be wrong. And since there are no samples around me, I don't really know what inspired other female developer to learn how to code. Is there anyone here who cares to share her experience?
I think the biggest difference here is that he's not dreaming alone. His wife is extremely supportive on his career and was as committed as him in his pursue to be great in film. In the essay he wrote he tore up the schedule after his wife told him: "Don't forget your dreams." because she found out he'd been going to computer classes and got upset by that. He was not the only on in the pursue of the big dream, they both were, so he doesn't get to make the decision to give up on his own. It's a great, great fortune to have someone who stands by you in the long, frustrating journey, and it made all the differences.
Imagine the joy of getting 2 marshmallows instead of 1, the struggle is definitely worthwhile; especially when it's not about marshmallows but about expectations on oneself, I believe she's merely trying not to disappoint herself, as the alternative is simply unbearable.
> Imagine the joy of getting 2 marshmallows instead of 1, the struggle is definitely worthwhile
Is it? Maybe. Maybe not. Our desire is largely disconnected from our reward mechanism. Dopamine will cause an intense drive to reach a goal, but once the goal is met, the faucet is switched off, and unless you derive a reward from the goal in itself, you're not guaranteed a feeling of wellbeing at all.
In other words, often we will agonize over cravings for a long time, only to find no joy when they're fulfilled.
Maybe that second marshmallow really would provide enough of a reward to be worth 15 minutes of potentially agonising wait. Or maybe not.
Some persistence is clearly worth it, and in this case the experiment did predict material success later in life. It's then down to what you consider "success" to what extent this is a good thing.
I don't believe they measured happiness for example, and happiness is notably not tied to a great extent to material success (people who don't have shelter and food are substantially less happy than average, but people who are wealthy are only slightly happier on average than the rest of the population - happiness is largely tied to other factors).
Looking at material success it is no wonder that those who are able to resist cravings does better in life. But they are also able to resist pleasures that might very well not be compensated for in any way by whatever goals they are chasing. It is not a given that this tradeoff is good for them. I'm sure some managed to strike a good balance, in both groups, and I'm sure some of the kids who did not have good impulse control ended up doing quite badly because of it. But I'm equally sure some of the kids with good enough impulse control ended up miserable because of that.
Maybe a 15 minute wait for two marshmallows was better for these children than one right away and no agonising for 15 minutes, but I doubt I'd see it that way for my part: I'd see it as a single free marshmallow and get out of there. A second one would be welcome, but it provides far less pleasure than the first one. And 15 minutes to enjoy life rather than trying to keep my mind of something I crave would certainly provide far more pleasure.
