5 ms·
I once heard that if you walk into any Big Tech company and want to figure out who the manager is, just look for the tallest, best-dressed man and you'll be rig
by jmyeet 4y ago
I once heard that if you walk into any Big Tech company and want to figure out who the manager is, just look for the tallest, best-dressed man and you'll be right 90% of the time. This is, of course, apocryphal but I imagine there's some truth to it.
This is life in general. There is an awful lot of privilege associated for completely arbitrary characteristics over which individuals have absolutely no control. Work, dating, whatever. This applies to both men and women
.
The article doesn't really go into why people are seeking this procedure. It would be illuminating to see quantitatve data on this. Is it because of dating opportunities? Work? Something else?
Hiring practices are notoriously superficial. Ageism, sexism, racism (eg [1]), etc. Often these things are masked as "culture fit". HR will put lots of processes in place ostensibly to counteract bias but the net effect is really to shield the company with plausible deniability when it comes to bias against protected classes from individual interviewers and hiring managers.
It would be interesting to see how height fits into this. Height seems to be a mixed blessing in acting, for example. There are certainly some very successful shorter actors (eg Tom Cruise is 5'7").
I imagine there is some of in software engineering too. Height goes to confidence and confidence will sway interviewers more than any technical competence will.
[1]: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/08/18/name-discrimination-jobs https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/08/18/name-discriminati...
- hooloovoo_zoo 4y agoBezos is short, Zuckerberg is short, Gates is short…. Not the most effective rule lol
- pcthrowaway 4y agoNeither of them are short enough that I'd call them 'short'. Right around average height for all genders. A little below average for U.S. men, but in lots of other countries they'd be above average (racism is possibly an ingredient in this discrimination and subconscious bias enchilada)
- hooloovoo_zoo 4y agoThey are 4, 4, and 1 inch below average for white males in the U.S. respectively. I guess one could call Gates average.
- robocat 4y agoAverage heights can depend on age - perhaps an inch or so (people are getting taller on average in many countries).
- pcthrowaway 4y agoAre you suggesting a man being below average for white males in the U.S. makes them "short"?
- hooloovoo_zoo 4y agoBeing significantly shorter, yes, but only because that's what short means. Any comparison of size is relative.
- pcthrowaway 4y agoI'd argue that "short" is subjective, and comparing them to the average height of white men only, when the original claim wasn't that they were "short for white, American men" is a symptom of a culture which considers whiteness, maleness, and American-ness, the defaults, and is worth critical examination.
- hooloovoo_zoo 4y agoI think there's no question it's subjective! But the quote was 'if you walk into any Big Tech company and want to figure out who the manager is, just look for the tallest, best-dressed man and you'll be right 90% of the time.' whereas 'the managers' of some of the most successful big tech companies are short relative to people of similar backgrounds, let alone the tallest.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoA few exceptional founders is not a representative sample set. A better example would be all of the department heads under them. Not to mention that Gates and Zuckerberg are not short.
- jjeaff 4y agoNone of those people were "hired".
- hooloovoo_zoo 4y agoBut they're all managers and poorly dressed :)
- lotsofpulp 4y agoI think they are dressed appropriately, like someone who does not need to care about what others think.
- bombcar 4y agoThis works for middle management, in my experience. C-suite and owners is a much more mixed bag. Buffet and Gates are both 5’ 10”. (Musk is 6’ 1.5” which is hilarious as I’d have pegged him as shorter than Gates for some reason)
- lotsofpulp 4y ago> There are certainly some very successful shorter actors (eg Tom Cruise is 5'7"). I doubt we will see another lead “hero” actor of Tom Cruise’s height.
- BurningFrog 4y agoActors can be quite short (or tall!) because you rarely see their whole body on screen. Many legendary scenes in cinematic history has been filmed with actors standing on platforms.