2 ms·
So provide me with an interpretation of "just hire the best" -- as a response to critiques of the lack of diversity in tech -- which does not imply or require a
by ubernostrum 10y ago
So provide me with an interpretation of "just hire the best" -- as a response to critiques of the lack of diversity in tech -- which does not imply or require an assumption that currently-underrepresented groups are, by the nature of the people in those groups, less qualified and thus less likely to be "the best".
Because you can't provide that. "Just hire the best" is an excuse for biased interviewing and hiring processes which self-reinforce; you claim to "hire the best" and then actually hire based on your biases and claim those are "the best".
It turns out not to work:
http://danluu.com/programmer-moneyball/ http://danluu.com/programmer-moneyball/
http://danluu.com/tech-discrimination/ http://danluu.com/tech-discrimination/
- palunon 10y agoThere are less of them in tech, so if you hire the best, you've got more chances to hire a white male. It's a numbers game really.
- ubernostrum 10y agoThe point is to question why that is -- other fields have stubbornly insisted they were purely merit-based, that women and various other minorities simply were predisposed not to like or be good at what the field was about, etc. etc. And pretty much every time that's been shown wrong.