Rock climbing is the new golf, and tech workers are the new big shots that have replaced stodgy investment bankers. I never mention that I'm a rock climber anymore. It brands you as a techfuck these days.
No evidence has been presented that woodworking is disproportionately popular among programmers. I bet if you go to some carpentry meetups you will not find a high number of programmers. Programmers are not special for having hobbies. If you talk to a non-programmer some day, you may find that they have hobbies as well, such as cooking, writing, music, and gardening. Most people have hobbies.
If there's something to be embarrassed about that's coincidentally associated with code and climbing (like, idk, so few scruples that were willing to work against the interests of our users) maybe we should address that head on rather than being ashamed of enjoying both code and climbing.
"Rock climbing is the new golf": I never thought about it in this way, but it makes a lot of sense. In both sports, most of the time is spent waiting/resting. This makes golf clubs and climbing gyms as much places for social contact as places where you go to train.
Meh, you can play golf while being completely out of shape, climbing is much more demanding at least, it's much more diverse than golf and a lot of other sports too
Rock climbing isn't the new golf. There's no country club, it involves problem solving, there's nobody coming up to you to offer you drinks and snacks during the activity, you don't weight train for golf, CEOs don't take each other to a rad whipper to discuss a merger, there's no insane conspicuous wealth on display.
Tech douchebags will be tech douchebags no matter what sport they play. If you don't want to be branded a "techfuck", maybe move out of the bay area to where people don't care what you do for fun? Or stop caring if someone thinks you're a techfuck? Be yourself and let the people who don't understand you go away.
No evidence has been presented that woodworking is disproportionately popular among programmers. I bet if you go to some carpentry meetups you will not find a high number of programmers. Programmers are not special for having hobbies. If you talk to a non-programmer some day, you may find that they have hobbies as well, such as cooking, writing, music, and gardening. Most people have hobbies.