#and still we're carefully sidestepping any mention of people who don't do higher ed

[sawthatmountainburn]

Yeah, this, plus I think the brackets stuff only applies to subjects where programming is important, which is only applicable to some STEM subjects. I don't think chemists have such in-depth focus on where to put brackets, even if they might require some programming or computer know-how. But like, I don't really know, because I mostly talk to other CS majors and everyone else I know is in a creative field.

Also, IME you don't go into STEM and become the type of guy who thinks everything can be approached like a science problem, but rather if your way of thinking is more suited to a STEM interest, you're more likely to gravitate towards said interest in your academic life. And it's not necessarily the same type of thinking for different subjects! I'm a CS major and I had teachers in high school comment positively on my logic skills, encouraging me to get into programming, while in physics a lot of things just seemed arbitrary, so I didn't give it much thought and didn't receive encouragement to pursue it further unlike another student in my class who was very much into the subject and went to academic competitions for it. My point is, you notice people's interests early on in their development and only then start to see some cultivation of those interests, rather than everyone thinking the same way, but changing once they pursue a higher education or get a job.

That said, this is purely anecdotal and based on my personal experience getting into STEM + observations of others. I haven't looked up if it's backed by anything! For all I know, there's studies out there that show the most significant factor is what sort of interests your parents had vaguely in the background of your life, even if they didn't necessarily encourage you to do the same. I don't know for sure what OP is basing their assertions on, but they seem very vibes based, rather than looking into the expertise of the very people they're supposedly defending! Like, I dunno, I think linguists would have some things to say about your mother language influencing your thinking. And it's a social science, not a humanity, but developmental psychology also might have some things to say about the correlation between one's type of thinking and which subject one pursues in higher education (or in the workfield, or as a hobby, since not everyone can get higher ed). Everyone can have theie own idea about how things work, sure, but if one is going to condescendingly assert their version as true and anyone who doesn't already agree as being an ignorant rube, it behooves them to back their assertion up in some way. Especially if they're defending the value of the exact people that might back them up!

tech people drive me batty. okay you cannot tell me that you operate in an environment day in and day out where a bracket in the wrong place can fuck the whole thing up and not adopt a certain level of rigidity in the way you interpret things. like. the total lack of awareness that that is a part of your perspective is the whole thing