I know it's a silly game, but I'm slightly uneasy with it.
If you remember a time when programming computers was considered nerdy, in a socially discouraged and mocked kind of way (until it became big money)... a game of guessing whether a photo is of a serial killer or a computer programming nerd... might seem a little abusive.
Another interpretation is that the portraits communicate essentially zero information about the subject. No information means no way to differentiate beyond the absolute basic facts: male, age such and such, seems to be wearing western clothes, things like that. No information means no way to shade probabilities. You might as well flip a coin.
Or this way: Serial killers look like random people, just as programming language inventors look like random people.
Facial asymmetry, testosterone (thick eyebrows, baldness), weight, piercings, tattoos, unnatural hair colors etc. surely have some correlation with being a serial killer?
> Shortly after, the court learned of a complication in the trial regarding a former friend of Hans Reiser named Sean Sturgeon. Sturgeon, who had previously dated Nina Reiser, was claiming to be responsible for eight murders and possibly a ninth.
The company you keep...
I haven't read up on Reiser since it went down-- it was the 2000s and I #believedallwomen so I wrote him off as a piece of shit. He absolutely did it, but in retrospect his late wife was a real piece of work herself:
> Nina was a Russian-born and -trained obstetrician and gynecologist[16] who was studying to become an American licensed OB/GYN.
> Hans' father, Ramon, became suspicious of his new daughter-in-law when she took the title of CFO at Namesys at that time [...] and claimed that Nina lied to him when he confronted her about inexplicably-fast-shrinking reserves of Namesys.
> Nina Reiser filed for divorce [...] citing irreconcilable differences and alleging that their children "hardly know their father" because he was out of the country on business for most of the year, according to court records. She was granted sole legal custody of the children and shared physical custody [...]
> Nina Reiser alleged in court filings that her husband had failed to pay 50 percent medical expenses and childcare expenses as ordered by a judge and was in arrears for more than $12,000.
> [...] on September 3, 2006, Nina Reiser dropped their two children off with Hans Reiser at his mother's house, where he was living at the time. The pair got into a heated argument over Nina Reiser taking the children to the doctor's, with Nina referencing that she had custody over the children, and so was free to do as she wished. [...] Hans Reiser alleged that Nina Reiser was fabricating illnesses in the children. In a fit of rage, Hans Reiser hit her in the face and strangled her to death.
> On July 2012, a jury awarded Reiser's children $60 million against their father for the death of Nina Reiser.[69] Reiser acted as his own attorney during the trial and tried to argue that he killed his wife to protect their children.
Having dealt with a custodial Munchausen/grifter parent myself since that played out, it's a fucking nightmare. Reiser was especially fucked with her having the credentials of a doctor; her word on medical decisions would always trump his. If the kid presents as sick in any way, you're a monster for not supporting medical intervention-- there is no support or framework for questioning whether such care is in fact iatrogenic. The most you can hope to do is stall for time and be as much of a nuisance is possible-- reimburse claims late, nitpick over accounting errors and contractual terms, question everything, invite yourself into medical discussions to challenge the narrative, etc. Someone with Hans' temper wouldn't stand a chance when it's an actual doctor colluding with colleagues to conduct these shenanigans.
And for the love of Christ, never accept these open-ended 50% clauses-- offer to pay more in support as a flat fee instead. Giving a bitter ex-spouse a blank checkbook with your name on it never ends well. And make sure this stuff has an end date in your divorce papers. It's 18/end-of-high school by default, but one trick I've seen (and been burned by) is the other party's attorney slipping verbiage in to make child support/medical payments extend to 21. It depends on the "illness" and whether they're also playing at disability fraud but when you're in a situation like this for real, you'll find the kids magically stop being sick all the time the day your support obligations end.
kind of agree - its the same "humour" which devolved TV like big bang theory into canned laughter shit-shows - poking fun of "virgin nerds" (which make bank).
And worse. When, say, GvR was a kid, it was normal in many schools for nerds to be bullied.
Imagine someone doing this game back then, in that context, passing it around school (before cyberbullying), and it'd be pretty nasty.
We can say "but computer programming is OK, now that it's a status career that rich kids have blessed as cool, and kids don't get bullied like that in school so much, so now it's funny in a non-bullying way", I guess.
Still feels like punching-down, to me, but not everyone knows the earlier context.
It sounds like you're the one doing the punching down by tacitly assuming that who write software are or were wimpy, creepy nerds. If that's not a stereotype, than I don't know what is.
And trust me, there are plenty of bullies in tech.
Don't worry. There's no one needing to be rescued here.
I agree with this sentiment, but I’ve always wondered about a person’s face or appearance and how that might correlate to other traits.
I think we could all agree that a person’s face might indicate ‘shiftiness’ or ‘meanness’ and that there is a decent probability that you’d be right in your assessment.
Has there ever been studies that correlate face types with personality traits?
It's an attractive idea that the surface of one's body can tell you something about its inner truth, but it's incorrect. The field is called physiognomy, which is a pseudoscience that's been the basis of scientific racism and eugenic programs.
Some names you can look up are Johann Lavater, as well as Alphonse Bertillon, inventor of the mugshot, and Francis Galton, inventor of composite portraiture.
I've heard of various bits of pseudoscience around that, including in eugenics and criminology.
One of the times, it escalated to genocide, and the people who committed that are widely known to history as the epitome of evil. They were trying to characterize and identify "lesser" people, and it turned out they themselves will be known forever as the worst of humanity.
There's some curious questions (e.g., why do so many overtly mean people we've seen look mean). But I suggest being careful with this space, and skeptical of people who are motivated to pursue it and those they attract.
If you remember a time when programming computers was considered nerdy, in a socially discouraged and mocked kind of way (until it became big money)... a game of guessing whether a photo is of a serial killer or a computer programming nerd... might seem a little abusive.