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What do Silicon Valley startups have in common with fraternities? A lot, it turns out, based on recent reports about the rise of the "brogrammer"— a would-be tech superstar whose approach to business and life owes as much to Animal House as it does Revenge of the Nerds. How exactly do two seemingly different worlds (dingy frat houses and tech incubators) breed the same type of human? Well, creating bros only takes a certain environment that both Silicon Valley and college fraternity houses share. Bro-dom is not about IQ or one's ability to win drinking games. All it really takes is giving a once overlooked guy some power. Then he turns into a sexist, self-obsessed, egotistical bro. Not all fraternity brothers are bros, not all programmers are brogrammers, not all bros come from frats. But fraternities and Silicon Valley have both birthed this culture. And it's no accident.
Though frat bros have been in the American conscience since at least Animal House, the brogrammer is a phenomenon that came to our attention in the last few months via Bloomberg BusinessWeek and now a much lengthier look from Mother Jones' Tasneem Raja. The term brogrammer refers to a bro that programs. This *satirical Quora thread, where we got this photo of a bona-fide brogrammer, does a thorough job describing the characteristic of these men. They "write code between pushups," they love beer and partying, they have the classic frat-bro aesthetic -- spiky hair, sunglasses (usually aviators) inside (while coding), polo shirts and hoodies -- and they employ bro-speak, throwing terms like "dude" around all over the place They're also sexist, as Raja details for us quite nicely in her piece. They advertise bikini clad women as perks, use beer-serving women as draws at events, and alienate women from the club advertising jobs thusly: "Want to bro down and crush code? Klout is hiring."