The Brogrammer: Who He is and How to Spot Him
What is a brogrammer? As defined by Urban Dictionary: “A programmer who breaks the usual expectations of quiet nerdiness and opts instead for the usual trappings of a frat-boy: popped collars, bad beer, and calling everybody “bro”.
A brogrammer can also be defined as “a programmer who behaves in a stereotypical frat-boy manner”.
How do you know if you’re a brogrammer? See if one or more of these checklist items apply to you:
- Tight polo so chicks can see how defined your muscles are
- Mirrored aviators, multi-colored wayfarers, or any type of sunglasses
- Wear sunglasses inside
- A couch and blanket to write code with
- Rage in PHP or your favorite language
- Listen to ice cream paint job by Dorrough
So how and why has the brogrammer achieved such notoriety? One factor may be that the technology and startup industry is becoming mainstream. Steve Spurgat, CEO of VYou, claims, “Ten years ago, it required somebody who was much more technical … When you were writing [code], it was much less abstracted layers where it would take a much longer time to build something that would take a couple of days now.” Perhaps one could argue that the barrier to entry for coding has lowered, and that's why we have more types of people coding.
What about women - where do they stand in all this? Recent stats show that women make up only 1.5% of coders on open source projects. They also provide two female perspectives on why more women don't code: "Without positive role models, the problem is self-perpetuating. Girls will not see the opportunities for themselves in technology will not choose careers in technology and therefore there will be fewer role models, and on and on." -Nelly Yusupova, CTO of Webgrrls International.
Big-name celebrities are jumping on board to invest in tech startups, and the media has a hand in crafting the brogrammer perception. Take the Facebook documentary The Social Network. This movie hits the bull’s eye in terms of what kinds of people the coding world is attracting. But is this perception good? Is the brogrammer withholding room for women and other demographics in the coding industry? Share your thoughts!