3 ms·

Note that as far as I know, all the founders of FAANG were white guys. As for why many Asian people work there, I think there is a strong bias toward engineerin

by entee 6y ago

Note that as far as I know, all the founders of FAANG were white guys. As for why many Asian people work there, I think there is a strong bias toward engineering/medicine among many immigrant communities that came from a relatively educated background in their home countries (I count myself in that cohort, though I’m not Asian). Crucially though, once they got into the community they were more likely to blend into the group at every stage. It’s hard to be the only one in a class/company/group that looks like you. That’s a big obstacle and we should be more supportive of those who overcome it. Also, while Asians make up a large portion of line engineer positions, they make up a smaller fraction of leadership positions. That’s troubling to me as well.

robin21 6y ago
https://kstatic.googleusercontent.com/files/25badfc6b6d1b33f3b87372ff7545d79261520d821e6ee9a82c4ab2de42a01216be2156bc5a60ae3337ffe7176d90b8b2b3000891ac6e516a650ecebf0e3f866 https://kstatic.googleusercontent.com/files/25badfc6b6d1b33f... See leadership. 30% Asian (6% us pop) 60% white (65% us pop) Asians widely over represented. Should we give less jobs to Asians and more to blacks and Hispanics? This kind of points to socioeconomic and educational opportunities in early life. Blacks come from poorer backgrounds etc. But why bring race into it? Why not lift up people from poorer backgrounds of all races, instead of racist affirmative action policies. These diversity reports are basically saying: we need to make our employees less racist and sexist when hiring.
- sokoloff 6y ago
  That leaves the critical question: "lift up how and when?" Lift up by better primary education? Lift up by more outreach to get more poorer people into computing as young adults? Or lift up by having hiring quotas for people whose family income was provably bottom quartile for at least 5 years in their childhood?
  - robin21 6y ago
    The goal should be to have the same academic achievement as their peers at the company they are working for. It’s unfair for smart blacks to be thought of us diversity hires. I can think of nothing worse than having your intelligence questioned your entire career. Surely someone has studied this though. “Why did you not choose comp sci major?” All the answers are there. The fact we don’t hear about it is probably because it doesn’t fit the narrative that intersectionalism wants to tell. Last time I went to research the history of why women were dominant in tech and then then minority, it was nothing to do with sexism surprise, surprise. Exposure to computers at a young age is everything. I will do some more research though and come back <- the best part about HN conversations for me.

by entee 6y ago

robin21 6y ago

https://kstatic.googleusercontent.com/files/25badfc6b6d1b33f3b87372ff7545d79261520d821e6ee9a82c4ab2de42a01216be2156bc5a60ae3337ffe7176d90b8b2b3000891ac6e516a650ecebf0e3f866 https://kstatic.googleusercontent.com/files/25badfc6b6d1b33f... See leadership. 30% Asian (6% us pop) 60% white (65% us pop) Asians widely over represented. Should we give less jobs to Asians and more to blacks and Hispanics? This kind of points to socioeconomic and educational opportunities in early life. Blacks come from poorer backgrounds etc. But why bring race into it? Why not lift up people from poorer backgrounds of all races, instead of racist affirmative action policies. These diversity reports are basically saying: we need to make our employees less racist and sexist when hiring.

sokoloff 6y ago
That leaves the critical question: "lift up how and when?" Lift up by better primary education? Lift up by more outreach to get more poorer people into computing as young adults? Or lift up by having hiring quotas for people whose family income was provably bottom quartile for at least 5 years in their childhood?
- robin21 6y ago
  The goal should be to have the same academic achievement as their peers at the company they are working for. It’s unfair for smart blacks to be thought of us diversity hires. I can think of nothing worse than having your intelligence questioned your entire career. Surely someone has studied this though. “Why did you not choose comp sci major?” All the answers are there. The fact we don’t hear about it is probably because it doesn’t fit the narrative that intersectionalism wants to tell. Last time I went to research the history of why women were dominant in tech and then then minority, it was nothing to do with sexism surprise, surprise. Exposure to computers at a young age is everything. I will do some more research though and come back <- the best part about HN conversations for me.