3 ms·

I would be interested to see a source for the "blind auditions" claim. Some reasons for skepticism about blind auditions making a difference in tech: 1. Githu

I would be interested to see a source for the "blind auditions" claim. Some reasons for skepticism about blind auditions making a difference in tech: 1. Github provides a potential blind audition scenario - don't mention your race or age or gender or weight or anything else. Just submit code and prove yourself. Yet, diversity advocates generally see this as not helping minorities in tech. 2. Tech companies constantly publish their diversity stats. They are trying to hire more women and minorities, and are motivated to do so. Blind auditions tend to help in industries where the opposite is true. Still, I'd love to see a source for your claim, and I'd be happy to be convinced otherwise. Regarding the one link you do provide: The headline figure is meaningless without some more data on the survey - such as how was the survey conducted, and is it random. If it's not random, then it's very hard to judge how valid it is.

malandrew 11y ago
I too want to see citations for the above poster's assertions. I'm also curious to see a citation for this statement, "Just submit code and prove yourself. Yet, diversity advocates generally see this as not helping minorities in tech.", since I'm curious to read their reasoning. I actually would expect and hope that such a process doesn't help minorities. I also would expect and hope that it also doesn't help those that are not minorities. After all, isn't a fair, blind process the most just approach we can hope for? However, I think this is where there is a big, largely unrecognized schism, and that is the schism between those that advocate for equality and those that advocate for equity. Those two unfortunately are not the same. I personally am an advocate for equality. +1 for understanding study methodology and what biases may be present. AFAIK, the study is this one here, http://elephantinthevalley.com/ http://elephantinthevalley.com/ They state the criteria for including a respondent in the survey, but I didn't find out if the 200+ women included in the study were randomly sampled from all women they "found" who met the criteria or if this represented the entire population of all the women they "found" who met that criteria. An explanation of how they were "found" was also absent. The final sentence in the introductory block "We encourage you to read, discuss, and add your anonymous stories to this initiative." suggests that self selection bias may influence these figures. I submitted the following comment on the site: "Could you please add a section on your site describing in detail the study/survey methodologies used? I'm particularly interested in knowing more about how survey participants were selected.". I wish all studies and surveys like this voluntarily shared their methodology along with their results. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-selection_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-selection_bias
nickpsecurity 11y ago
Comment was too long lol. Replied here then: http://pastebin.com/8nacUX06 http://pastebin.com/8nacUX06

malandrew 11y ago

I too want to see citations for the above poster's assertions. I'm also curious to see a citation for this statement, "Just submit code and prove yourself. Yet, diversity advocates generally see this as not helping minorities in tech.", since I'm curious to read their reasoning. I actually would expect and hope that such a process doesn't help minorities. I also would expect and hope that it also doesn't help those that are not minorities. After all, isn't a fair, blind process the most just approach we can hope for? However, I think this is where there is a big, largely unrecognized schism, and that is the schism between those that advocate for equality and those that advocate for equity. Those two unfortunately are not the same. I personally am an advocate for equality. +1 for understanding study methodology and what biases may be present. AFAIK, the study is this one here, http://elephantinthevalley.com/ http://elephantinthevalley.com/ They state the criteria for including a respondent in the survey, but I didn't find out if the 200+ women included in the study were randomly sampled from all women they "found" who met the criteria or if this represented the entire population of all the women they "found" who met that criteria. An explanation of how they were "found" was also absent. The final sentence in the introductory block "We encourage you to read, discuss, and add your anonymous stories to this initiative." suggests that self selection bias may influence these figures. I submitted the following comment on the site: "Could you please add a section on your site describing in detail the study/survey methodologies used? I'm particularly interested in knowing more about how survey participants were selected.". I wish all studies and surveys like this voluntarily shared their methodology along with their results. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-selection_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-selection_bias

nickpsecurity 11y ago

Comment was too long lol. Replied here then: http://pastebin.com/8nacUX06 http://pastebin.com/8nacUX06