How many Lemmy users are non-technical background?

We should normalize what you do. Woman can build racecars or do any other work a man can. Great work, keep it up!

@techconsulnerd I agree!!! It's been a very, very slow process, but I have been seeing more women in motorsports, which is awesome. Even F1 has a new series F1 Academy, which is an all women series. I'm way too old, but if I was younger, I'd sure be trying to get in.
Male prostitute

/s

(Seriously, agree with you in general though)
- I mean, shouldn’t is more applicable for “male prostitute.” Really depends on the gig, and how closely the client examines your assets.
  
  I guess it depends what the client things the right tool for the job is. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail
  
  And when all you have is a Phillips head screw, you might overlook who’s holding the handle of the exact size screwdriver you need.
As long as high physical strength is not required, I strongly agree. These days the need for that is becoming less and less unless you want to be a marine.
- You're conflating physical strength with gender, but when it comes to who can do the work, only one of those is relevant.
  
  I think we're on the same page, I'm just pointing out that the statement "women can do any work a man can, as long as high physical strength is not required" is just as inaccurate as saying "all men can do work that requires high physical strength". As a man, I'll be the first to say there are a huge number of women who are more physically capable than me. Turns out, a task that requires high physical strength doesn't need a man, it needs a person with high physical strength.
  
  I don't think you were replying to me, but objectively the average man, of similar size, is going to be stronger than me, in the brute force, or explosive force aspect. It's just an unfortunate fact of human genetics. Men typically have denser bones, ligaments, and tendons, muscle fiber, more muscle mass, and testosterone to help build and maintain all of it. Women are said to be something like 60% as strong as a man on average. HOWEVER, women typically have better stamina, longevity, are better at enduring trauma, etc.
  
  I am by no means frail or weak, and am probably stronger than a lot, but I will never be as strong, or as lean as a man with equal work put toward it.
  
  There is no disagreement that, in the current day and age of the human species, men are biologically predisposed to be more physically capable on average. There is no contention about that.
  
  The point I am making is that two bodies with similar bone density, muscle mass, testosterone, etc. are going to be physically capable of the same thing, regardless of their genders. The gender is a red herring, what matters is the capability of doing the work.
  
  As I told the other commenter,
  
  We have a history of giving jobs to men because we’ve conflated their gender with other capabilities, not because they actually are the most capable. But my point is, we’re smart enough as a species to not do that anymore.
  
  But my point is, we’re smart enough as a species to not do that anymore.
  
  Lol. Are we? Maybe it's just my small world but I don't see that at all. I encounter sexism CONSTANTLY. Hell, scroll down to the bottom of the comments on my main reply, it's right there for everyone to see.
  
  The point I am making is that two bodies with similar bone density, muscle mass, testosterone, etc. are going to be physically capable of the same thing, regardless of their genders.
  
  But gender does matter because one gender is predisposed to be bigger, stronger, have more testosterone, and has the ability to be stronger/build muscle more easily. I'd love to agree with you, that in a perfect world, gender didn't matter in brute strength, but it does. All things are not equal out of the box.
  
  Now, as I have clearly proven, brute strength isn't everything, in fact most of the time it only means so much, but it's still there regardless. I think a more accurate statement would be something like "strength only gets you so far, capability is more important"
  
  Lol I meant it more in a "you're smart enough to stop leaving the milk out of the fridge, child!" kind of way. I agree sexism is still rampant, and I guess I'm implicitly saying people in the past are somehow excused because they weren't as intelligent, but what I'm intending to saying is that we're smart enough now, so we have no excuse.
  
  one gender is predisposed to be bigger, stronger, have more testosterone, and has the ability to be stronger/build muscle more easily
  
  I see this as a heuristic at best, and an excuse for sexism at worst. In my example above I'm specifically referring to two people who are equally physically capable of doing a task by definition. The man shouldn't be given preference simply because he's a man, and men happen to be stronger on average. That's not relevant when picking someone who can do the job.
  
  Sure but you are probably aware that all boys being born have higher strength than females, just because of biology. Then of course in life as we grow, some men don't maintain that strength and lose it. But I think it's still accurate to think that men in general are stronger than women, even if there are exceptions.
  
  Otherwise we are just ignoring a fact of how our bodies are different.
  
  But due to how natural selection works, that's a self-fulfilling argument. Men are biologically stronger specifically because people have made the argument you're making for hundreds of thousands of years, thereby selecting for the pattern you're claiming exists.
  
  When you're looking for someone to do a task, you aren't looking for a biological explanation, you aren't looking for a man, you're looking for someone who can do the task.
  
  I don't think people have selected for that. It was necessary in the past to be strong to survive and provide for your family. So those genes were selected because those people could survive long enough to have kids. If you were too weak, you didn't make it.
  
  I'm not saying it was deliberate (i.e. artificial) selection, the selection was natural. I'm just saying, think on it more.
  
  It was necessary in the past to be strong to survive and provide for your family
  
  But you're saying those genes weren't required by females for some reason? Why? Honestly the only answer is: because it just happened to work out that way. The evolutionary coin could have just as easily flipped the other way and resulted in women being biologically predisposed to be stronger. We see this in many animal species, in fact.
  
  We have a history of giving jobs to men because we've conflated their gender with other capabilities, not because they actually are the most capable. But my point is, we're smart enough as a species to not do that anymore.
  
  Of course, coin could have flipped the other way. Its not like men did anything to get higher strength. Just like woman didn't do anything to be able to have children.
  
  I think we should celebrate that we are different. Sometimes it feels like people thinks higher strength means "better gender". It doesn't mean that at all. :)
  
  I love that woman are different from me. I love everything about it. And my partner loves that im a man. I think we should just celebrate that we have two genders that are different in many nice ways.
  
  As for job history, tall men are paid more than women, and found by girls to be more attractive, at least where I live. I think it's similar to young girls being preferred by almost any man. We have our biological patterns inside and we are not going to get away from them very easily.
  
  The brain is like "this is not right" but our emotions are like "yeah but it's fun". Humans are quite interesting in that way, because we are both emotional and intellectual.
  
  But people are different. It's not a homogenization to treat each person as an individual, exactly the opposite. Just as the coin could have flipped the other way, the coin could have been a 1 sided, or an N sided. If someone identifies strongly with their gender, then that's great, celebrate who they are as part of their gender. But other people want nothing to do with the social associations people make between them and their gender, often because they don't apply. Gender norms are great for people who identify with those norms, but they're a prison for people who don't.
  
  We do have biological patterns, but they're not nearly as clean-cut as Leave it To Beaver, or a high school text book might paint them to be. In some cases, there are very real, very measurable biological patterns that society refuses to accept as real, instead insisting that every human falls into a simple "male" or "female" bucket that they can be defined by. That simply doesn't reflect reality.
  
  I know it may feel like I'm going on a tangent, but it is relevant. Humans are far more interesting and different than just "men and women are different", and we should celebrate that.
  
  I can absolutely see your point about not fitting in to a gender role. I think many people in technology felt something similar growing up, way before computers were popular. They were considered geeky and people who used them were strange and a bit weird. Absolutely not popular.
  
  It hurts to be treated that way, because you just want to be yourself. And I understand that feeling very much myself. It's the same when you are ugly by the way. Life is completely different when you are ugly compared to when you are beautiful. It's just a different world because every single person will treat you differently. But sorry, that's me going on a tangent...
  
  It makes sense that when you feel like that, you want people to stop treating other people like that.
  
  Gee, Mr. Manager, that's odd, I lift and carry my husband in and out of his wheelchair everyday because he's a quad and was a floppy baby who's never walked, but apparently "all boys being born have higher strength than females just because of biology."
  
  You're sure it's ALL boys? You're absolutely sure that strength between two individuals is dependent upon their sex? We're the same age and height. I weigh more because he has no muscles and I do. And yet, SOMEHOW, I'm a woman.
  
  Gee, ladies , why are we NOT surprised at that "boys"/"females" word choice in Mr. Manager's assertion?
  
  I guess it didn't take long for the incels to follow the crowd over from Reddit.
  
  I'm sure there are exceptions like in your case. But in general yes, boys are born physically stronger. Your insults won't change those facts. But you know, you can have your own beliefs. That's the great thing about life. If you want to believe that females are physically stronger, or that there is no difference between men and females physical strength, you can do that.
  
  You are acting quite immature with your insults here. If you can't even talk about these things without getting upset, maybe you are not completely objective here. Give it some thought.
  
  Oh you're also one of the ones who likes to pretend he's being strictly logical and doesn't realize how his prejudices and emotional insecurities show through in his posts. I'm sorry you're threatened by the fact that your masculinity doesn't guarantee you greater strength than most women. If you want to be physically strong you're going to have to get off the couch and exercise those muscles and ligaments. And if you want your opinions to be respected, you need to exercise respect for facts, even when it's women telling them to you. You speak like someone whose notions of "biology" haven't changed since they were 5 years old. There's a whole lot of "Mom said I can't hit girls but I really wish I could" leaking out all over the place in your comments. I'm sorry you're so emotionally stunted and I sincerely wish growth for you.
  
  I'm sorry but you are not acting emotionally stable here. There are many things you are saying that obviously have been painful experiences in your life, but they have made you wrongfully interpret things people are saying. You have no idea who I am but your comments show you are visualizing someone who have hurt you before I guess.
  
  Anyway let's move on in other posts. Have a good day.
  
  Sorry dude, you're projecting. Not unexpected from a delusional person, I guess. I am already having a nice day, and you're having no effect on it. Feel free to dodge if you're uncomfortable.
- Eh, it's still required to work on cars/engines. Thankfully we work on smaller vehicles (Mazda/Nissan mostly) and not some big ass diesel stuff.
  
  I can "engineer" my way out of most situations, and have been very successful accomplishing things that many men can't, because they can't "think outside the box". What I mean by that is that I have to approach things differently. I have to understand things more completely sometimes, so I can work my way around the lack of brute force, where many men can just push/lift/torque something without thought, and they get complacent. That allows me to see different solutions to things that may stump others.
  
  That said, I have found instances where I am just not physically big, or strong enough to do something, and need help.
  
  I also have the benefit of being much smaller, so I can get into places a lot of men can't. It has its benefits and drawbacks.
  
  I believe you, and I have many examples from my own life where girls are outsmarting guys because they are forced to use their brains. Guys sometimes doesn't because we can just use strength instead, like you said.
  
  And being smaller and more agile is a huge plus in most situations as well.
  
  Pretty much agree 100%.
  
  Man I'm so glad that zoomers understand the difference between sex and gender, and are doing away with this, "boys do this, and girls do that!" bullshit.
  
  Like, oh yeah, do you know a lot of girls who are, in your mind, uncharacteristically smart? That right? That's not condescending in any way.
  
  I don't know anyone who would say "uncharacteristically smart" like that. Sounds very offensive.
  
  I agree. Maybe you shouldn't imply it then.
  
  I didn't. Maybe you shouldn't read things that aren't there.
  
  Maybe you're just oblivious, but that's exactly what you implied. That "girls" "outsmarting boys" is something novel to you.
  
  I'm amazed you are reading that into what I said. Seems more likely you want to pick a fight with someone. But I have no interest in that, so let's just stop here. :)
- I think it's just more accurate to say that "there are things that only certain people with high physical strength can do." There's no reason to gender it.
  
  I disagree actually, but no offense to you personally. I think it's better to be specific and clear and say what we mean. It becomes ridiculous to say "some people" when we mean men most of the time.
  
  Imagine trying to explain to a kid... He asks "are men stronger than females". You are supposed to say "no, some people are stronger than others" and leave it at that? The poor kid is growing up to be an idiot then, not knowing basic biology. Maybe I'm not understanding you correctly.
  
  Fyi, just because you took a biology course 15 years ago, doesn't mean you have a firm grasp on the modern understanding of the subject. Sex and gender are two different things.
  
  We can agree on that too. Nice.

Yeah the only other abnormal demographic I can think of is being totally normal and well functioning mentally.

But I mean c'mon, this is an internet forum, we are all nuts here haha

Haha, yeah I'm DEFINITLY not "normal" or "well functioning mentally".
- Don't you love the term "well adjusted" :)
  
  Always makes me smile.
  
  ha. I'm definitely not that either, but yes.

Def need an AMA. Or whatever we call it here. What kind of racing?

Can definitely do an AMA, but not sure how interesting it would be.

We have built multiple kinds. We have build engines/cars for Rolex GrandAm, Drifting (Formula D), Land Speed Racing (we actually hold a bunch of records in our class), King of Hammers/Baja type off-road (engines/wiring only, not chassis), and then the more casual type stuff for the weekend warrior types (autoX, desert toys, etc).
- I'm super jealous. I live for motorsport so yeah, I'd be down to hear any cool stories! (No obligation, just curious)
  
  It's not as glamourous as it seems lol. It's so much awful shit sometimes, but it's fun sometimes too.
  
  I'll preface this story with here are some articles about a car we built (engine/wiring mostly), and took to Bonneville Salt Flats. (I'm not sure if links are allowed, so if not, LMK) If you want to read about it, there are about 15-20 pretty technical articles on Moto-IQ about the build (I'm co-owner of 5523 Motorsports, so articles with us apply). You can see them here (they don't seem to be in any particular order, and there's other unrelated shit, but they were publish chronologically originally and I suggest reading them chronologically). If the link doesn't get them to load, search project LSR on Moto-IQ site.
  
  So, we were out at Bonneville, running the LSR 240SX which had our destroked SR20 in it. We get up to the line, start our pass, take off, and the car spins at right about 200mph (we never officially clocked 200 (lame), but datalogging shows we exceeded it). Next pass, same thing (I think it was a total of three times it spun that weekend). One of, if not the last pass we did of the weekend, we were in line in front of (maybe we were right behind, it's been a while) Danny Thompson (Mickey Thompson's son), who was running his dads Challenger II car (google the history, it's long, sad, and sorted). Our team was mostly at the start line, but I was at about mile 5.
  
  Whichever order the cars went out in, I saw both from mile 5. Challenger II takes off, and I can't see it (curvature of the earth, I couldn't see it until it reach somewhere around mile 2) but the announcers are broadcasting on an AM channel so I can hear whatever they are calling out. I hear mile 1 xxx MPH, mile 2 xxx MPH, mile 3 xxx mph. I witnessed this car go 450.9 MPH on salt. I know that kinda sounds dumb, but you're brain really can't comprehend how fucking fast that is until you see it in person. I've been around cars, and fast car my whole life, but this was something else. Danny beat his dad's old record, which was the point, but my god that car was impressive.
  
  So we go back out for our next pass, and what do we do, again? Spin, of course. There is the in car video of it in this article on page 3. The funny part, is that I have series of pics (which I'd have to go searching for now), where you can see the spring come off the chute, then the knob (the cable for the chute itself wrapped itself around the knob and launched it when it deployed), then the chute starts to deploy, and the last pic of the series was the nose of the car facing the fully deployed chute. We did set the record though. yay!
  
  IDK how interesting that story is, but it was a fun weekend of racing. If you ever get the chance, going to the races out there is really fun. It still feels like back in the day, where everyone helps each other, and seemingly wants to collaborate, in some capacity. The crew next to us in the pits had a ranchero that they had put a Nissan engine in. It was an older Nissan engine (I don't remember it even having a true ECU in it) and they were struggling with the "tech" that was in it. IIRC it was just one of those MSD electronic ignition boxes (like the 6AL). We helped them as much as we could, and they lent us some tools. Hell, tech inspection, after we spun was some dude rubbing his hands around the circumference of the tires, to check for anything abnormal, and then the thumbs up to go again.
  
  I will say the most flattering part of the whole weekend was these HUGE teams that were running these crazy cars really took notice of what we were doing with our little team/car. I didn't even have to be near the car, or mention it, and people would ask me about it. It's really something different from most other forms of racing anymore.
  
  I found a REALLY shitty picture of a computer monitor with the dyno of the SR15VET we built for the LSR car.
  
  sorry it’s an instagram link
  
  You can see how low the power is until about 6k rpm, and then it’s like a switch was flipped, and POWER.
  
  Little bit of the wiring

You’re my hero. I always wanted to work on cars. I ended up in IT. I miss repairing shit back in my tech bench days. Using my hands to repair, build, make better. What kind of racecars?

We have built engines/cars for Land Speed Racing, Drifting (Forumla D, and lower classes), Rolex GrandAM, 24 hours of lemons (or similar series), more weekend warrior type stuff like AutoX or off-road toys, and engines/wiring for trucks that run in series like King of Hammers or Baja 500
- Can I be you when I grow up? (Am already in my 40s but that’s okay right?)
  
  I mean, if you want to.....

That's an amazing story! I've never been out west, but Bonneville would be awesome. Over 400 on salt sounds absolutely nuts.

Did you ever determine what was causing the spins? Aero or mechanical?

Ok, the TL;DR is lack of aero, and weight, and we couldn't really fix it, and keep our class.

As I mentioned, we took an SR20 and destroked it to get it under 1500cc. We loving (sometimes) referred to is at the SR15VET or the 150SX. The class also limited aero. We were able to take some of the JDM body pieces off of the Type X Silvia, but we couldn't add any other aero components, and keep our class.

Our best guess, since it happened religiously at the same speed, was that it was an aero issue (mostly). Air would get under it, the car would get light and then spin. Land speed racing is counterintuitive to EVERYTHING you know about racing. Typically, you want a light as possible, and the biggest fattest tires, with relatively low tire pressure, amongst other things. You also typically want a linear power band, with progressive power over the whole range. Land speed racing is it's own beast. You want the skinniest tires you can get to work, and I swear, you overinflate them. You want the car to be heavy too. Our power band was also, basically, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing ALL OF IT. I can't find the dyno right now, but it really couldn't get out of it's own way, and then when like 6k rpm hit, and the turbo started to get happy there was a MASSIVE power/torque increase.

Some of the old timers came by our pit, in their golf cart, and started chatting with us. They seemed fascinated by our little import, and what we were doing. So they start asking questions. "How much does the car weigh?" "2800lb", or whatever it was. "bullshit, you need to add xxx more pounds" "what kind of tire pressure you running?" we reply "xxxpsi" "bullshit you need to be over 70psi". "did you add ballast?" "no....." "bullshit. you need to talk to xxx guy, he'll tell you where to get some cement" This was really our first foray into land speed racing, and it was definitely a learning experience.

Our next course of action was to add ballast, but the thing about land speed racing is that it takes place on "dry" lake beds (typically). Here is an iconic pic of Challenger II in 2014, when Speed Week got rained out (happens a lot). They had dragged the car all the way to Boneville only for the weekend to ultimately be cancelled. And they had to take pics of the car on the "salt" of course.

The year that we went out, and set the record (same year Challenger II did) a massive storm blew in over the mountain range, as our car was in tech, making sure we could make another pass, on our last day. Well, it was lingering over the mountain range, and heading for us. I've seen what that amount of water can do, and how fast it can do it, so we decided to get the pit packed up and head out, before we were submerged. There were EZ-Ups blowing away, shut flying everywhere, raining, windy, and salt was already getting more soggy (there is only a patch in the middle of the lake that's dry enough to drive on typically. The edges are usually still lake-ish. The day we arrived, I drove the "borrowed" SUV off the end of the road, and onto the salt, but I had to drive through water to get to the pits. The water was up to about the side skirts of a big chevy SUV. When we left the salt on the last day, the water was basically trying to come in the cabin, it was that high, at that point. The whole point of that is that we didn't have time to play with any changes, and the team captain and driver weren't able to continue with the car the following seasons, so it go mothballed.

@Plaid_Kaleidoscope

@techconsulnerd
- Amazing! Thank you for sharing. I've heard about the wanting heavier cars and over inflating your tires before, but I had never considered the powerband before.
  
  I've watched a few things about land speed machines and it's truly fascinating. Especially the aero stuff. Aero seems to be the epitome example of dunning Kruger, as the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. (as I've been told)
  
  That was a really cool picture too. When it rains like that, does the salt stay hard underneath or is it muddy?
  
  Everything about cars is that way. You think you know something, and then you learn a little bit more of the tech behind something, and it just makes a million more questions.
  
  As for the powerband, if you think about it, it all kinda makes sense. If you’re driving a technical, short course, like streets of willow, for instance, you want a wildly different powerband, and probably car, than you would if you had to run down the back straight at big willow.
  
  For streets you’ll want power in the low to mid rev range. You don’t need top end, because, unless you’re dumb like me, and drive an 89whp RX7 with like 3 ft-lb of torque, you aren’t likely to be anywhere near top speed, or the top gears. But, because there are tighter, more technically corners (which you’ll slow down more for), you’ll want some lower end power to get you back out of them fast.
  
  If you’re on a much more open, and longer track, where you may reach top speed on a straight, but don’t need to pull the car out of tight corners often, you’ll probably want power in the mid to high rev range. Using my RX7 as an example, I’d run out of power long before I ran out of straight away on the back straight. Not the right car for the job.
  
  For land speed racing, it’s far more important to have top end power, since it’s going to be closer to wide open throttle (mostly), and probably at the end of gearing, all the time. Once you get the car off the line, you aren’t going to slow down until the run is done. In fact, there are a lot of the vehicles there that get bump started off the line with a truck. So because we wanted as much power, at the top of the rev range, we chose a turbo that would be at peak power where we wanted it, which meant it seriously made like 50ft-lb until it didn’t.
  
  The surface is wildly varied and racing gets cancelled often because of the surface conditions. The ever hating shoe person that I am, I had my feet in the ~~sand~~ salt as much as I could. The end and outside edges of the track are where the “crunchies” are. Imagine if salt built itself up naturally to be little peaks and valleys. Stepping on it collapse it to flat. The flattened edge of the racing surface is wet enough to make little snow men out of. I know, I got bored waiting for cars. lol. But it’s relatively thick (disclaimer it’s been losing salt for many years, and there are people trying to bring awareness to restore it. Don’t go out and do dumb shit to it. People have gone out and damaged it more than once. Article here ) actual track surface is pretty well packed. It’s surprisingly cold to the touch too. It’s really weird. If it’s submerged, I actually didn’t walk in that so I can’t for sure but driving on it, it was pretty stable. More like driving on hard packed dirt than loose sand.
  
  Dropping knowledge bombs. Saltmen, who woulda thought lol

I’m checking off all the abnormal demographics here.

Well, actually women doing extremely cool technical work are in perception more normal than women doing more usual technical work. =\

Ohhh what kind of racecar? I'm actually going after work to the shop to go scale our car. Cross is a bit off keeps getting a little loose at the corner exit.

Also a woman btw

Edit, just saw your other comment were racing very different cars but that's awesome!

Thanks! Yeah, we do all kinds of stuff.

Username is great!

Thanks!

That’s freakin’ awesome.

I’m sure you have a bajillion replies, but I would love to see some of the race cars y’all build.

I already linked the land speed car we built in another reply (should be easy to find under my original reply). If not lmk.

I was looking for a link to another car and stumbled on something one of our customers did.

YouTube video on the “Hakobird” build

So funny story, I guess. Not so funny for the poor person, ME, who covered themself in fiberglass for weeks for it to be completely ruined by someone else. The part where he shows the wide body kit installed and perfectly aligned and pretty? Yeah. It left our possession to go to paint like that. I spent weeks making it perfect, and I had to re-engineer A LOT of the kit because their mold was off by about 20-30* to the right, so nothing fit. At all. Then the painter ruined it.

The car has a built SR20DET in it. It did 350whp first day we had it on the dyno, with plenty more room.
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/m1t0rdqMCrY
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
- That is just SO doap.
  
  The 510 is one of my all time favorite cars ever.
  
  And the 510 with that front end and that bad ass wide body kit? Absolute perfection.
  
  SR20DET is just the icing on the cake. Usually you see those KA’s in the 510s, which are great engines and perfect upgrade for auto crossing and stuff. That SR20DET just turns it into another beast.
  
  Friggin’ blows having the painter ruin all your hard work. You can tell from those shots a lot of care went into it.
  
  Badass build. Y’all should be proud.
  
  Thanks!!!
  
  Funny enough. We just built two SR20VET engines. And even funnier, they were both going into roadsters. Neither guy knows each other, we didn’t suggest the combo. Just a coincidence.
  
  We’ve done a few 510s with SR20DE/DET engines now. We actually do a lot of SR engines, both VE/VET and DE/DET.
  
  We’ve done L series too, but I can’t think of a KA we’ve done that ended up in a 510. Usually they stay in an S chassis.
  
  We also built an SR20 that ended up in a 300XZ. Yeah….. I still question the thought process behind that one.
  
  Unrelated, we also built a VQ35 for Dai Yoshihara in 3 days. Moto-IQ did an article about that one too.
  
  @potato