punk is as punk does

On the surface, I don't meet anyone's definition of "punk." I've always looked more like I'm going to a Bible study than a protest, riot, or even a concert. It's usually only folks who get to know me who discover just how much I enjoy subverting things.

I got reminded of that again today when I mentioned to my mother and aunt (at church!) that I have successfully freed myself from Big Tech, and they remarked "maybe you should get a job coding!"

This isn't the first time they've told me to learn to code. This isn't the first time anyone has told me to learn to code. If I had a nickel for every person who has told me to learn to code, I wouldn't need to learn to code, because I'd be independently wealthy.

Every single time someone has said this to me, I've dug my heels in - ever since I was a teenager. No, I absolutely will not "learn to code." Not the way you mean, anyway. Not to have a "marketable skill" I can use to get a "good job" and "make lots of money" so I'll "be respected" at "family Thanksgiving."

Also, I wrote my first program when I was ten. Back then y'all didn't call it "learning to code." You called it "get off the computer now or you're grounded!" So thank you and fuck off.

I've been tech-adjacent, as a writer, for over twenty years. I'm not sure how that career would have gone any other way. For one thing, tech has been THE thing the last 20+ years. For another, I'm actually good at writing about it in a way non-tech people can understand.

But no, I did not learn to code - on purpose. My coding skills stayed stuck in BASIC - on purpose. Because fuck your walls and fuck your borders, Molly won't follow your fuckin' orders.

...Until last week, when I realized that here in 2025, learning to code can be used to write programs I actually want, that just work, that don't spy on me, and that can be given to all my friends so they can have programs they actually want that just work and don't spy on them.

I can write things that will say Fuck You to Oligarch Tech.

NOW I'm in.

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(Banner ad: I started a lil HTML journal for reflecting on my divorce from Oligarch Tech. You can read it here:

https://drmollytov.neocities.org/slash/journal

)