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Do we really need diversity though? I would be perfectly fine if a development of a project would be done by strangers behind incognito aliases. I don't care i

Do we really need diversity though? I would be perfectly fine if a development of a project would be done by strangers behind incognito aliases. I don't care if the contributed code comes from Black woman or Caucasian man or some cat who had learned to code. I believe that it is absolutely irrelevant topic that is forced on the industry by whatever reasons. If is not like the barrier to entry is too high: anyone who can afford a $500 PC and internet can have access to all the learning materials in the world.

brnt 6y ago
Two things: 1. The meaning of $500 varies wildly across earth. It's not much work to figure that out. 2. It depends on the kind of project. If you want a community project, a project that lives and breathes, you don't just need to put out code, but also inspire use and new contributors. For that, a pleasant atmosphere helps, and have existing contributors seem approachable. For that, you need to project not being a tiny club of likeminded, or worse, outright similar, people. This tends to discouraged interest and participation. It also tends towards a particular internal culture having way too much overlap with a particular culture is my experience. Teams consisting of 30 year old male computer scientists will have a particular kind of banter/small talk utterly incompatible with many other backgrounds. Not having too much of one kind of team member protects you from this, making on boarding easier.
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
  > The meaning of $500 varies wildly across earth. Oh, come on! This argument appears so often, but it is absolutely irrelevant: a person without a computer is unlikely to participate in the Free Software movement, with rms at the helm or without. And living and breathing projects: all projects would be more healthy if they were all strict to business. No activism of any kind, but the one aimed at improving the product. You don't need to fight for gender equality if you don't care about the sex of the contributor! If sex means zero to you, then both sexes are truly equal, because 0 equals 0.
  - brnt 6y ago
    It's up to you to ignore perfectly clear social science and facts on the ground, but don't expect others to believe your particular brand of opinion without any supporting evidence of it working. (And before you reach back to the 90ies or earlier: you're missing something!)
BiteCode_dev 6y ago
Diversity is like any characteristic, it has pros and cons. It makes optimizing harder, add friction and augment costs. But it also force evolution, and make a system more adapted and resiliant, healthier on the long run. As usual, it depends, and intensity matters. Those questions don't have a definitive anwser, even cute ones like "just be nice to each others". But regardless or whether we do need diveristy, it is promoted currently as the progressive point of view. If you go on social media and claim we don't want diversity, you will have a serious backslash. From the same persons that will ask autistic persons to behave like an average person. Hence my point on the dissonance.

brnt 6y ago

Two things: 1. The meaning of $500 varies wildly across earth. It's not much work to figure that out. 2. It depends on the kind of project. If you want a community project, a project that lives and breathes, you don't just need to put out code, but also inspire use and new contributors. For that, a pleasant atmosphere helps, and have existing contributors seem approachable. For that, you need to project not being a tiny club of likeminded, or worse, outright similar, people. This tends to discouraged interest and participation. It also tends towards a particular internal culture having way too much overlap with a particular culture is my experience. Teams consisting of 30 year old male computer scientists will have a particular kind of banter/small talk utterly incompatible with many other backgrounds. Not having too much of one kind of team member protects you from this, making on boarding easier.

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
> The meaning of $500 varies wildly across earth. Oh, come on! This argument appears so often, but it is absolutely irrelevant: a person without a computer is unlikely to participate in the Free Software movement, with rms at the helm or without. And living and breathing projects: all projects would be more healthy if they were all strict to business. No activism of any kind, but the one aimed at improving the product. You don't need to fight for gender equality if you don't care about the sex of the contributor! If sex means zero to you, then both sexes are truly equal, because 0 equals 0.
- brnt 6y ago
  It's up to you to ignore perfectly clear social science and facts on the ground, but don't expect others to believe your particular brand of opinion without any supporting evidence of it working. (And before you reach back to the 90ies or earlier: you're missing something!)

BiteCode_dev 6y ago

Diversity is like any characteristic, it has pros and cons. It makes optimizing harder, add friction and augment costs. But it also force evolution, and make a system more adapted and resiliant, healthier on the long run. As usual, it depends, and intensity matters. Those questions don't have a definitive anwser, even cute ones like "just be nice to each others". But regardless or whether we do need diveristy, it is promoted currently as the progressive point of view. If you go on social media and claim we don't want diversity, you will have a serious backslash. From the same persons that will ask autistic persons to behave like an average person. Hence my point on the dissonance.