5 ms·

I’m sorry, I support a thought experiment but 50% is not a realistic heuristic at all. I’d be surprised if even 10% of comments here were from women. Don’t shoo

I’m sorry, I support a thought experiment but 50% is not a realistic heuristic at all. I’d be surprised if even 10% of comments here were from women. Don’t shoot the messenger that’s just been my experience when it comes to tech forums.

telesilla 8y ago
That was my point, my apologies for not clarifying: even though I know this site is heavily male-dominated I read each comment from a lens of gender-ambiguity. I do this to preserve my sanity. We also don't know how many here are gay, bi-, gender-fluid, non-cis.. It makes me happy to imagine there is a greater number out there who are not making themselves known because honestly, it's exasperating knowing that I am embedded in a system where a minority has the power to create the technology that powers our diverse world.
- CuriouslyC 8y ago
  "Progressives" rail against stereotypes, but they're useful and we naturally form them for a reason - they help us survive. The problem is with people applying stereotypes formed in one environment to another environment where they're not applicable. Just keep that in mind when you're trying to be "woke." As for your exasperation at the lack of women in tech, most men I know would like it if this wasn't the case. I've personally given the nod to women candidates during hiring a couple of times when they were competitively qualified. Unfortunately there's a bit of a chicken and egg problem here - a lot of women are turned off by the masculine culture of tech, and changing a culture to accommodate a very small minority is a hard sell (a fair number of guys in tech wouldn't know how to act at any rate). I suspect women need to establish a bigger beachhead before they're going to be able to make any significant inroads in tech culture, and unfortunately that involves sucking it up in the meantime. Complaining from the sidelines isn't going to accomplish much.
  - telesilla 8y ago
    Yes, it's possible to be critical and proactive at the same time.
  - krapp 8y ago
    >"Progressives" rail against stereotypes, but they're useful and we naturally form them for a reason - they help us survive. The problem is with people applying stereotypes formed in one environment to another environment where they're not applicable. Just keep that in mind when you're trying to be "woke." Even if stereotypes acted as a survival mechanism in the past by providing a quick and dirty filter to judge threats through naive correlation and pattern matching, I don't believe they remain useful in the modern world. Modern stereotypes tend to be politically and culturally derived, rather than being the result of natural selection pressure, and so don't actually affect human survival so much as effect the survival of regressive human ideologies.
    - veryworried 8y ago
      Taking a walk alone down a dark alley in a city at night where a rough looking person in a hoody is approaching you from the opposite direction with their hands in their pockets and happens to be a member of the race that is responsible for 90% of the homicides in that city may be enough to change your mind about stereotypes in the modern world...
      - krapp 8y ago
        >Taking a walk alone down a dark alley in a city at night where a rough looking person in a hoody is approaching you from the opposite direction with their hands in their pockets and happens to be a member of the race that is responsible for 90% of the homicides in that city may be enough to change your mind about stereotypes in the modern world... Well. That's one of the more overtly bigoted comments I've seen here in a while. It wouldn't change my mind. The assumption one would assume you would expect to be drawn from "the race that is responsible for 90% of the homicides in that city" to "all else being equal, members of that race are likely to be homicidal," is not at all reasonable, or even mathematically justifiable. Anyone approaching you in a dark alley at night could be a threat, and still, on average, most likely isn't, regardless of race. If this is the best you can do to justify stereotyping as reasonable then I stand by my comment.
        8y ago
  - CuriouslyC 8y ago
    To the people responding with downvotes instead of counter-arguments: If you can't make an intellectual counter argument to something you disagree with you're responding with emotion and you need to reassess your position.
YUMad 8y ago
I identify as a woman, you insensitive clod!

telesilla 8y ago

That was my point, my apologies for not clarifying: even though I know this site is heavily male-dominated I read each comment from a lens of gender-ambiguity. I do this to preserve my sanity. We also don't know how many here are gay, bi-, gender-fluid, non-cis.. It makes me happy to imagine there is a greater number out there who are not making themselves known because honestly, it's exasperating knowing that I am embedded in a system where a minority has the power to create the technology that powers our diverse world.

CuriouslyC 8y ago
"Progressives" rail against stereotypes, but they're useful and we naturally form them for a reason - they help us survive. The problem is with people applying stereotypes formed in one environment to another environment where they're not applicable. Just keep that in mind when you're trying to be "woke." As for your exasperation at the lack of women in tech, most men I know would like it if this wasn't the case. I've personally given the nod to women candidates during hiring a couple of times when they were competitively qualified. Unfortunately there's a bit of a chicken and egg problem here - a lot of women are turned off by the masculine culture of tech, and changing a culture to accommodate a very small minority is a hard sell (a fair number of guys in tech wouldn't know how to act at any rate). I suspect women need to establish a bigger beachhead before they're going to be able to make any significant inroads in tech culture, and unfortunately that involves sucking it up in the meantime. Complaining from the sidelines isn't going to accomplish much.
- telesilla 8y ago
  Yes, it's possible to be critical and proactive at the same time.
- krapp 8y ago
  >"Progressives" rail against stereotypes, but they're useful and we naturally form them for a reason - they help us survive. The problem is with people applying stereotypes formed in one environment to another environment where they're not applicable. Just keep that in mind when you're trying to be "woke." Even if stereotypes acted as a survival mechanism in the past by providing a quick and dirty filter to judge threats through naive correlation and pattern matching, I don't believe they remain useful in the modern world. Modern stereotypes tend to be politically and culturally derived, rather than being the result of natural selection pressure, and so don't actually affect human survival so much as effect the survival of regressive human ideologies.
  - veryworried 8y ago
    Taking a walk alone down a dark alley in a city at night where a rough looking person in a hoody is approaching you from the opposite direction with their hands in their pockets and happens to be a member of the race that is responsible for 90% of the homicides in that city may be enough to change your mind about stereotypes in the modern world...
    - krapp 8y ago
      >Taking a walk alone down a dark alley in a city at night where a rough looking person in a hoody is approaching you from the opposite direction with their hands in their pockets and happens to be a member of the race that is responsible for 90% of the homicides in that city may be enough to change your mind about stereotypes in the modern world... Well. That's one of the more overtly bigoted comments I've seen here in a while. It wouldn't change my mind. The assumption one would assume you would expect to be drawn from "the race that is responsible for 90% of the homicides in that city" to "all else being equal, members of that race are likely to be homicidal," is not at all reasonable, or even mathematically justifiable. Anyone approaching you in a dark alley at night could be a threat, and still, on average, most likely isn't, regardless of race. If this is the best you can do to justify stereotyping as reasonable then I stand by my comment.
      - 8y ago
- CuriouslyC 8y ago
  To the people responding with downvotes instead of counter-arguments: If you can't make an intellectual counter argument to something you disagree with you're responding with emotion and you need to reassess your position.

YUMad 8y ago

I identify as a woman, you insensitive clod!