Im one to agree. I can see how a woman would be pleased by seeing this, but, when I scroll up and notice it's a "Nick" who wrote the article, all I can think is; huh? Is this guy trying to be edgy? So I re-read, like you said, and there is no mention of a she.

It's just awkward, please stop with the forced gender equality if that's what that is. If it's just being playful then I guess you can shrug it off.

From the article (the first time "she" is used):

"The developer refuses. She’s worked too hard on Feature X, and dammit, you’ll have to pry it from her cold dead hands!!!"

With the exception of the unnecessary extra !! I don't see what is wrong with the grammer, it's clear in this context that "she" is the developer.

"Let's artificially use the statistically unlikely case that the developer is a woman, in order to inspire more women to be programmers"...

What kind of BS magic thinking is that?

If you want to inspire women, teach them about the technology as girls and encourage those who like to work with it.

Pronouns ain't where it's at.

I disagree with you. Although I stick to "they" as I think it's perfectly fine grammar wise, you getting upset because of your own bias and thinking it's an issue because the author wrote "she" instead of "he" is a bit silly, in my opinion.

Edit: Oh, and language has a massive effect on our thinking patterns, so yeah, you actual could possibly make the case that pronouns matter. They don't to me, at all, and if they "don't" to you, why express frustration or call it "BS"?

This seems rather a stretch , I don't see anybody suggesting that this is a panacea but I see no downside to this approach.

There is no loss of clarity in writing whether your hypothetical developer is a "he" , "she" or any other pronoun. It is certainly preferable to clumsily using "they".

When I see a comment like this, it makes me reflexively stop and look back to see if the commenter is trying to make a joke, or is really so dense and petty that they're trying to make this an issue.

On HN? Do you really have to ask?

Maybe the problem is with you, and not with the text?