Laptops with Stickers

Wow most of these are quite the contrast to what I used to see back in the day. At least in my circles it was just a collection of the technologies you’ve learned and enjoy. These are more like bumper stickers on the back of car. To each their own I suppose.

When I was going to conferences, my laptop stickers were a public display of "these are technologies that I use and you can strike up a conversation with me about them." To an extent, a resume that you can glance at from across the room.

It's a bit of a statement for what you're trying to communicate with that lid - professional experience, political statements, personal "this is neat"...

And part of this is a for me the lid of the laptop is something that I'd need to be able to be comfortable with displaying in front of a CxO without worry about if they may be offended or not (though perl might be offensive to some).

I've got stickers on my laptops. None of them are political, but I've got various indie fashion brands, music related, furry stickers, etc. If someone managed to be offended by them that's more their problem than mine. I can go work anywhere and have enough savings that it would be no inconvenience to me. I wouldn't want to work with someone who couldn't handle some trivial self expression on the back of a laptop.

So far no one has ever been offended by this though. HN is far more sensitive than the average CTO.

> If someone managed to be offended by them that's more their problem than mine.

That can be a healthy attitude outside of work. People love personality.

But at work, that's not a healthy attitude. You're there to work together, not to be uncompromising in expressing yourself. Your stickers are probably fine, but I can also imagine plenty of musical artists that would certainly be offensive (and rightly so) to some people, whether for their lyrics or for their criminal behavior -- and then the attitude of "that's more your problem than mine" is not gonna fly.

Sure there is some content that is obviously not appropriate, but I'm not seeing it in the OP link. Meanwhile the comments here are filled with a thinly veiled anger over seeing rainbow flag stickers. These are the people I'd be quite happy to self filter themselves out in the workplace. Though I've never met someone like this in the office. Or at least they keep their thoughts to themselves offline.

> These are the people I'd be quite happy to self filter themselves out in the workplace.

Same. If my stickers serve as a self-filter away from companies I'd rather not work at, or people I'd rather not work with, then that's a positive thing for me.

If someone's offended by, for example, a rainbow sticker on my laptop, well I'd rather not work with them, or for that company. I'll look elsewhere.