Patrick Shyu, better known by his screenname TechLead, has drawn the ire of social media after claiming “women shouldn’t code.” Shyu made this claim on Twitter, as well as in a YouTube video.
Shyu is known for his YouTube videos focusing on technology, specifically cryptocurrency. He also posts videos on politics. Shyu claims he was formerly a developer and tech lead for Facebook and Google.
Shyu’s remarks were met with sharp criticism. Brianna Wu, software engineer and former Candidate for US House in Massachusetts, slammed Shyu and labelled him a “sexist manbaby.”
Wu claims people like Shyu are the reason women get out of the tech industry. She ended by saying, “I hope this Tweet haunts you your entire career.”
Fellow YouTuber Mutahar was another blue checkmark account to weigh in, asking Shyu about his “scam token.” Shyu has been accused of operating a Ponzi-like scheme with his own cryptocurrency.
Shyu has been accused by “internet detective” Coffeezilla of scamming his followers with his own brand of cryptocurrency called “Million Token.” Coffeezilla accused Shyu of lying to investors about putting a million dollars of his own money into the project.
Shyu has allegedly made millions of dollars from his scheme. To date, Shyu has not faced any criminal charges.
It is not clear if Shyu was trolling or trying to be funny with his coding comments. It doesn’t appear that many people found any sort of humor in his posts. Many found his comments degrading and misogynistic.
It is notable that women have a long history in coding, with the first computer programmer (ever) being a woman named Augusta Ada Lovelace.
Lovelace is known for working with Charles Babbage in creating the first mechanical computer, which was called the analytical engine. The machine was programmed to add, subtract, multiply and divide.
Mark Slapinski Technology 