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A comment on I Learned French in 12 Months. Parent comment

Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by animalnewbie on Sunday February 16, 2020 @11:49PM (#22345680)
I've seen computational biologists , mechanical engineers , non-programmjng entrepreneurs but what does a diplomat do on HN?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by Mediterraneo10 on Monday February 17, 2020 @10:02AM (#22348106)
Alan Mustard, former US ambassador to Turkmenistan and trained in agriculture, is a well-known OpenStreetMap geek and quite familiar with GIS issues. Diplomats can have hobbies, you know.

I myself am a linguist and translator, no professional background in the hard sciences or IT at all, but I have still been involved in Free Software for many years and so HN is a natural news channel to read.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by rmc on Monday February 17, 2020 @11:10AM (#22348640)
And Allan Mustard is now Chairperson of the OpenStreetMap Foundation Board of Directors

https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board_Member_Bios

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by BTBurke on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @12:57PM (#22358300)
Programming is now a hobby and I still do some open source stuff and push out various side projects for fun.

Eventually I'll have to retire and so I always hope some of my side projects will take off to supplement my retirement income.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by orthoxerox on Monday February 17, 2020 @12:54AM (#22345872)
Why can't a diplomat have a tech-related hobby? Most people outside tech have hobbies that are unrelated to their daily job.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by oblio on Monday February 17, 2020 @04:48AM (#22346578)
Heck, I work in tech and my hobby is history. I would have probably majored in history if it didn't lead to a crappy career where I'm from.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by wtmt on Monday February 17, 2020 @03:49AM (#22346399)
It could be someone who was in tech or was educated (formal or by oneself) on tech but switched to being a diplomat on seeing opportunities to make a better difference with their skills. Depending on the area of work, diplomats could highly benefit in today’s world by understanding tech better. We have allowed tech to dictate policies for too long and playing catch up. So any diplomat who understands tech well would be a great asset to policy makers and decision makers.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by ryanmercer on Monday February 17, 2020 @08:33AM (#22347534)
>but what does a diplomat do on HN?

Learn things? I'm none of the things you listed, nor do I do anything remotely related to computer sciences, but I still frequent HN.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by sfgweilr4f on Monday February 17, 2020 @12:51AM (#22345867)
Tech news with hacker directed filtering.
[ Parent | on HN ]