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too many sharp edges, being too mean, etc. That's all true<br />

but not without purpose.<br />

[4] You're also constantly looking to other women for someone<br />

to model yourself after. Because the set of available<br />

candidates is so limited, it's really hard to find someone<br />

you feel comfortable with having as a guidepost. So, you<br />

basically either choose a man to model after or cobble<br />

something together from fragments of women. A frankinmodel<br />

is usually always bad because the traits that make a<br />

product or professional manager successful are different<br />

from those that make a technical founder successful.<br />

[5] The worst part for me personally was a stage where<br />

I was behind. I didn't touch a computer until I was<br />

in college. My male counterparts, however, had been<br />

programming actively for years before I even navigated<br />

the filesystem. But there is something far more<br />

treacherous than losing from being behind: it's not being<br />

considered a competitor. When you are strapped<br />

with low expectations, it's easy for you to start believing<br />

those are true. People are also sometimes quick to<br />

validate your low expectations and even performance.<br />

In college, I had this racquetball class. The first thing<br />

the coach did was divide the group into boys and girls. The<br />

boys played against other boys and girls played against<br />

other girls. After a few weeks of this arrangement, I<br />

was destroying the other girls. eventually, the coach allowed<br />

me to play against the guys and even the worst guy<br />

promptly destroyed me. They hit the ball way harder than<br />

the girls and the play was very physical and intimidating.<br />

on the final day of class in the final match, I lost by only<br />

a couple points. By that time, I had finally started to hone<br />

a new strategy: I couldn't compete on speed or power, so I<br />

competed on finesse. That meant skating the ball along a<br />

wall and giving the guys less of an opportunity to hit the<br />

ball with any amount of power. I felt pretty good about<br />

getting to that point, but upset that I didn't have an entire<br />

term of play at the guy's level. Had I started earlier and<br />

had my competition been tougher, I bet I would have won<br />

a few.<br />

345

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