We all know men hate to ask for directions. Apparently they loathe putting directions in computer code, too.

Emma McGrattan, the senior vice-president of engineering for computer-database company Ingres–and one of Silicon Valley’s highest-ranking female programmers–insists that men and women write code differently. Women are more touchy-feely and considerate of those who will use the code later, she says. They’ll intersperse their code–those strings of instructions that result in nifty applications and programs–with helpful comments and directions, explaining why they wrote the lines the way they did and exactly how they did it.

The code becomes a type of “roadmap” for others who might want to alter it or add to it later, says McGrattan, a native of Ireland who has been with Ingres since 1992.

Men, on the other hand, have no such pretenses.

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“Here Comes Another Bubble,” a video lampooning Silicon Valley’s tech frothiness, has generated buzz in office cubicles around the region since it was released on YouTube last month. But ever wonder why the ditty was so spot-on in its spoofing of new tech buzzwords and lemming-like venture capitalists?

Turns out the song’s author knows plenty about the business of technology.

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