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>if there is proof that diverse companies perform better then his reasoning about how diversity initiatives are wasteful must be incorrect. Absolutely not true

>if there is proof that diverse companies perform better then his reasoning about how diversity initiatives are wasteful must be incorrect. Absolutely not true. There are many other possible reasons for such a correlation. A few examples: It's possible better-performing companies could attract more non-white applicants. Or, that better-performing companies could be have extra resources, which they then spend on diversity initiatives, where poor-performing companies are desperate to survive. Or the independent variable: Being in the Valley makes companies perform better, and also makes them want to hire more non-whites, but these are both independent outcomes simply caused by being in the Valley. In this scenario, it's even possible that diversity harms performance, but the effect is more than compensated for by being in the Valley. Or, it could be random chance; outcomes are dominated by a few high-performing companies, which just happen to be genetically diverse. Or any of many other possible connections and confounders. This is really basic stuff.

cthulha 9y ago
Thanks for expanding on that aspect! This is exactly the sort of things people should have brought up. I feel like the suspicious thing is that people didn't react in this way. Why was this not a glaring problem that his supporters rushed in to answer? If I told you I had an elegant model for some chemical reactions and could predict, say, the thermal energy released in an experiment, you might look at the model and think it's great. If it doesn't match what is measured in the real world, then it's possible the model is correct: could be an environmental factor or a problem with the apparatus etc. But I need to answer questions around the gap between prediction and reality, rather than to rely on my perceptions of the elegance of the model. That's where I think this veers off into identity politics.

cthulha 9y ago

Thanks for expanding on that aspect! This is exactly the sort of things people should have brought up. I feel like the suspicious thing is that people didn't react in this way. Why was this not a glaring problem that his supporters rushed in to answer? If I told you I had an elegant model for some chemical reactions and could predict, say, the thermal energy released in an experiment, you might look at the model and think it's great. If it doesn't match what is measured in the real world, then it's possible the model is correct: could be an environmental factor or a problem with the apparatus etc. But I need to answer questions around the gap between prediction and reality, rather than to rely on my perceptions of the elegance of the model. That's where I think this veers off into identity politics.