In late-2013 I was lucky to be commissioned by king of Internet culture exploration Tim Hwang to investigate the stereotypical brogrammer—literally jock-ish computer programmers.

The eight-month project turned into Cool Code, Bro: Brogrammers, Geek Anxiety and the New Tech Elite—a long read ebook we put out in the Kindle Store. It touched on topics more interesting than frat guys and their startup, including feminism and diversity in technology and education as well as the ethics of the API age at various stages. Turns out technological progress does not equate to moral progress.

I won’t give it all away—you’ll have to check out Cool Code, Bro on Kindle to find out how things end up.

The project itself was loads of fun. I got to talk to a whole wide range of people, from cultural researchers like myself to students to professionals working in software development to suss out just how much veracity there was to the media drift. It was also great to learn the ins and outs of publishing on the Kindle Store and get briefly roasted on Hacker News. Shouts out to Mark Melnick for the fist-bump cover and Tricia Romano for the extra ear and editorial hand.