3 ms·
I know politically incorrect opinions are unpopular and this will be downvoted like crazy, or at least some activist on Twitter will cite this as an example of
by cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
I know politically incorrect opinions are unpopular and this will be downvoted like crazy, or at least some activist on Twitter will cite this as an example of how "clueless" HN readers are, but here I go:
She says "We see Uber & Tesla, the companies who survived DESPITE their initial homogeneity. We don't see all the companies who failed because of it."
Let me ask you this: "Then tell me the companies that succeeded BECAUSE of diversity".
I have attended one of those "unconscious bias" trainings. They always mention some research result to "prove" that their theory is correct. But do you really think just because some extremely constrained experiment came up with that result, it suddenly applies to the real world? Like I said, I have yet to see any success from a company that focused on "creating a diverse team" from when they were 3 people working out of their apartment.
If you look around, the world is full of companies that started out very homogenous.
And even if let's say we've found some "diverse" company that's successful. How do you prove that the success is due to diversity? The thing is you never know what causes success. Diversity is just one small part of the picture.
Let me be clear. I do not believe homogenous culture is good in the long term. For example, if you're Starbucks, you have much more to gain by being diverse than being homogenous. I also am against racism and sexism. I understand the problems.
But personally I think all these "even a 5 person startup needs to be diverse" is full of shit. These consultants who have no idea what they are talking about other than basing their hypotheses on some experiments mentioned in pop science books should know that their words actually hurt naive entrepreneurs into thinking that's what they need to focus on. And the naive entrepreneurs thinking this is what they should be doing should know that these people say these things because that's perfectly in line with their own interest, not yours.
When you are a 5 person startup, the question is NOT about whether "should we create a diverse culture or not?". The only question you should be thinking about from the moment you wake up till you go to sleep is: "How do I get customers/users/or whatever metric that matters for the company?"
These "diversity" stuff is really a distraction when you need to be focused on the product.