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Comment by digikazi | Hacker News Reader

I found this article absolutely fascinating - I didn't even know such a job existed!

Many years ago, when I was young and foolish, I thought being a crop duster pilot was the bees knees; also easier to get into with low hours, and who knows, maybe after spraying enough potato, a coveted airline job. Little did I know! It turns out the level of skill required to do the job is very high, the lifestyle not so great when you get older, and no, it's not necessarily easier to get into.

Ultimately I didn't become a pilot, but an engineer. Looking back, I'm happy with my choice and my life as it is now. Only occasionally do I watch aviation videos on YouTube and wonder "what if".

Thank you for a really cool article - and kudos to the guy drying cherries with his little Robinson!

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It's never too late to become a pilot as a hobby.

https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/learn-to-fly

Think both-and, not either-or! (M.S. CS, instrument rated, and working on my commercial ticket)

Her little Robinson.

I do believe it probably says something about preconceived notions that, of the mere half dozen comments accumulated so far, this mistake has been made twice already.

About 93% of pilots are men.

https://www.wai.org/resources/waistats

There's nothing sinister about me getting her gender wrong.

I read the article very quickly at work, on my phone, so I missed certain parts. I have saved it though, so I can enjoy it later in peace and quiet.

I don't tend to look up the author's name.

And finally, English isn't my first language. When the gender isn't immediately obvious I default to my own.

That's funny- as I read it, I was definitely thinking the author was female. Not sure what that means, if anything, but I didn't even check the author's name until after noticing a bunch of people saying "he".

Humans are.

It says nothing more than English is a male language. And ambiguous titling defaults to he (or they).

A "male language"? What does that mean?

And there was no ambiguity - the author's name, "Maria", was at the top of the article.

I don't tend to read the name of the author of an article, because there is essentially zero chance that I'll remember the name and frankly I don't care who they are.

I suspect that most people tend to read in their own gender in absence of other cues? I have a strong memory of going through the first chapter of a book completely misgendering the protaganist. Fortunately it wasn't a "doctor -> man" bias situation, just "person walking through park describing view/situation", otherwise I'd have been super angry at myself.

I was taking the HN preferred side of giving the poster the benefit of the best possible interpretation, which in this case means in the condition of proper pronoun usage, English defaults to male pronouns for the unknown, or sometimes an ambiguous they. I don't read names in the modern age because I have no clue what foreign names are male or female. Nor would I be so bold as to assume.

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