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Ageism is an irrational pox on an industry that prides itself on being rational.

by gilrain 11y ago

themagician 11y ago
It makes sense though in an industry full of irrational and ephemeral products and services. If you are trying to get in and get out you don't want experienced people who are going to ask a lot of questions. You want young, naive people who are willing to play the lottery.
- ben_jones 11y ago
  My personal experience has been simply that hiring is hard, so young founders naturally lean towards hiring people they can relate with which of course happens to be fellow young people. It's laziness and ego disguised as pragmatism. I don't attribute to malice what could equally be explained by ignorance. It's not deliberate ageism, it's the path of least resistance. I would agree that that path is a bad thing overall.
kristopolous 11y ago
Younger people work longer hours for less pay. You can burn them out and cut them out of their fair share without mercy. If you think it's about anything more than this, you don't know capitalism. I get paid ~4 times as much but only work ~1/4th as much as I did 15 years ago primarily because I'm not foolish and 19 ... I'm unlikely to actually be 16 times more productive for being 16 times more expensive.
- DominikR 11y ago
  There is no such thing as a "fair share", you get what you negotiate. You are free to not accept any such contract if you are not content with it. Or is anybody forcing you to accept this or that kind of work?
  - auxym 11y ago
    I think his point is that 19 year olds are much poorer negotiators, and that gets taken advantage of.
    - DominikR 11y ago
      Who cares? They have the chance to learn to be better negotiators, which they'll hopefully be some day. Do we need to handicap more experienced negotiators so that 19 year olds do better?
      - kristopolous 11y ago
        huh? how did I offend your unrealistic neoliberalist fantasies here? oh right! reality.
erikpukinskis 11y ago
Tech people, scientists, atheists, libertarians, and the like are not actually more rational than other groups. These are just groups who have a practice of suppressing divergent epistemologies (ways of knowing). Think about it, each one of these groups is primarily about not accepting divergent viewpoints: Tech is about intelligent machines that can't empathize with anyone. Science is about having one very strict epistemology (the scientific method) and pretending no other ways of knowing are used in the lab. Atheism is about deciding all god beliefs are wrong even the ones you haven't heard about yet. Libertarianism is about removing all forms of structural social coordination except contracts. These are groups who have set up walls that help them ignore other people. Any sensation of "rationality" you get in these places is just calcification of ideology due to a strong program of stifling dissent. If you want true rationality go look for communities where dissent is celebrated.

Ageism is an irrational pox on an industry that prides itself on being rational.

by gilrain 11y ago

Ageism is an irrational pox on an industry that prides itself on being rational.

It makes sense though in an industry full of irrational and ephemeral products and services. If you are trying to get in and get out you don't want experienced people who are going to ask a lot of questions. You want young, naive people who are willing to play the lottery.

ben_jones 11y ago
My personal experience has been simply that hiring is hard, so young founders naturally lean towards hiring people they can relate with which of course happens to be fellow young people. It's laziness and ego disguised as pragmatism. I don't attribute to malice what could equally be explained by ignorance. It's not deliberate ageism, it's the path of least resistance. I would agree that that path is a bad thing overall.

kristopolous 11y ago

Younger people work longer hours for less pay. You can burn them out and cut them out of their fair share without mercy. If you think it's about anything more than this, you don't know capitalism. I get paid ~4 times as much but only work ~1/4th as much as I did 15 years ago primarily because I'm not foolish and 19 ... I'm unlikely to actually be 16 times more productive for being 16 times more expensive.

DominikR 11y ago
There is no such thing as a "fair share", you get what you negotiate. You are free to not accept any such contract if you are not content with it. Or is anybody forcing you to accept this or that kind of work?
- auxym 11y ago
  I think his point is that 19 year olds are much poorer negotiators, and that gets taken advantage of.
  - DominikR 11y ago
    Who cares? They have the chance to learn to be better negotiators, which they'll hopefully be some day. Do we need to handicap more experienced negotiators so that 19 year olds do better?
    - kristopolous 11y ago
      huh? how did I offend your unrealistic neoliberalist fantasies here? oh right! reality.

erikpukinskis 11y ago

Tech people, scientists, atheists, libertarians, and the like are not actually more rational than other groups. These are just groups who have a practice of suppressing divergent epistemologies (ways of knowing). Think about it, each one of these groups is primarily about not accepting divergent viewpoints: Tech is about intelligent machines that can't empathize with anyone. Science is about having one very strict epistemology (the scientific method) and pretending no other ways of knowing are used in the lab. Atheism is about deciding all god beliefs are wrong even the ones you haven't heard about yet. Libertarianism is about removing all forms of structural social coordination except contracts. These are groups who have set up walls that help them ignore other people. Any sensation of "rationality" you get in these places is just calcification of ideology due to a strong program of stifling dissent. If you want true rationality go look for communities where dissent is celebrated.