Over the past few weeks, I've received laptop stickers from multiple sources. First came a batch of stickers along with the t-shirt for participating in Hacktoberfest 2022. Then, there were a couple in with my membership to FSF. And most recently, a bunch of stickers from DEV as a thank you for volunteering as a Tag Moderator / Trusted User (thank you DEV for the thank you stickers).
All of these stickers made me wonder: Which group of people collectively like stickers more? Software developers/computing professionals, or five-year-olds? Little kids like stickers so much that it is not uncommon for parents and teachers to use sticker charts as a form of operant conditioning to shape their behavior. Are the laptops of computing professionals just expensive sticker charts? Or, are computing professionals somehow more likely to find childlike enjoyment out of simple things like stickers than those in other fields?
Go to the comments section to discuss: Why do you like stickers? Why do you think software developers collectively like stickers? Feel free to also include pictures of your stickers, such as on your laptops, etc.
Anyway, here's a few photos.... of just the stickers (I don't actually have any on my current laptop).
From DEV (Thanks DEV):
From FSF:
From Hacktoberfest:
Top comments (20)
First off, that's the best dang title I've seen in a long while!
And to answer the question, software developer hands down like stickers more than 5 year olds, haha!
This reminds me, musicians also dig stickers. I'm
building myselfgetting help from my neighbor to build a guitar pedal board into an old suitcase. I ripped out the old fabric from the suitcase and have started sticker collage with all my music stickers. Shoot, I might as well put some DEV stickers in there too. πHere are my suitcase pedalboard stickers:
Wow! That will be a really cool pedal board when you're finished. You should definitely include some DEV stickers in there. I think I agree that software developers (and musicians) probably like stickers more than 5 year olds.
Thanks a bunch! And haha, it's decided, I'm gonna add DEV stickers... I'll update ya wen I do. Glad you agree, I didn't wanna get into a heated debate with ya. π
That would be so ironic if a post about stickers led to a heated debate.
@michaeltharrington the "brace yourself" sticker would be a good one if you want to discover who among your music connections also know code (e.g. if they ask you if it is a band they don't know)
Lol, Brace Yourself really does sound like a band name.
And woooa woooa are you suggesting that a post about stickers shouldn't lead to a heated debate? You are way off base my friend! π
I've definitely seen far sillier heated debates. So I guess why not one about stickers? π
I was once alerted to a heated multipage thread where people were arguing over how many days there were in a week - it started with a fairly innocent question from someone asking how many workouts they should do per week.
What's there to argue about on days in a week? That's an easy one. 7.024 days per week (365.25 days per year / 52 weeks per year). π
You would think so - applying integer logic even rounds it down to 7, which corresponds with most calendars.
That's not exactly how it was calculated here though:
forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread....
That thread is insane. There are 129 comments that get progessively worse.
I generally throw stickers away if I receive them. However, I do have one tiny BeamNG.drive sticker on one of my laptops to mark it as my work laptop.
That's a cool logo. If you hadn't said what it's for, I would have guessed for some graph library.
Trick question.
It's five-year-old software developers.
π That must be the answer.
I put an XFCE sticker on my laptop and now I feel like I can't switch desktop environments.
π I guess that is a benefit for XFCE and others giving stickers away. Encouraging "brand loyalty", even for open source.
Personally, I think 5 year olds like stickers more.
Typically a 5 year old is learning and engaging with the world and is fascinated by all things shiny and brightly coloured. The fun nature of stickers targeted at that age group are designed (maybe with vivid colours and friendly looking anthropomorphic characters) to make them happy, or to give them a sense of adventure.
In contrast, I might argue that software developers use stickers to express their preferences and/or skills, rather than for their aesthetic quality. The Octocat may be friendly looking, but I don't think a typical software developer would stick one to their laptop because it makes them happy when looking at it. I think it'd be fairly rare for a software developer to stick a giant Octocat (or Docker whale, or other) poster up in their room; whereas it'd be fairly typical for a 5 year old to stick up a poster of their favourite cartoon character.
In summary, I think the two groups like stickers for different reasons, but I would argue that the 5 year olds enjoy the stickers more.
Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful comments.
So it's more that 5 year olds like the stickers, while software developers like what the stickers represent. And possibly also a bit of 5 year olds enjoying stickers for themselves, while software developers might also be using them as signals to others.
5 year old: "Hey, this is a cool puppy sticker."
Software developer: "I like [insert favorite tech here]. And I want you to know."
Now that you mention it, I'm thinking that some new tech is going to choose a puppy as their mascot :)