4 ms·

That's great, but you're still making assumptions. And that's the whole problem with diversity and anti-diversity both.

retrac 4y ago
It's not an assumption that sports is associated with general success and intelligence. I felt it was well-established enough of a fact, that there's no need to link to studies showing that. It's even the basis for public policy in my country; we do sports-based interventions for troubled youth; such programs are one of the few things that seem to actually work to keep young men going to school and improve academics. Now if you mean I'm making an assumption about a candidate, based on nothing more than one weak indicator, well yes. That was the point of my thought experiment. If you only knew whether they played sports, while not a very good indicator, it's better than flipping a coin. Ultimately, that's what hiring is. You have some indicators like education and previous work experience, and you make an assumption based on those facts, none of which align 100% with how they're going to perform at the job you're hiring them for.
- BlargMcLarg 4y ago
  >Now if you mean I'm making an assumption about a candidate That was even more obvious than the sports and cognition fact. Here's the thing: you're doing the exact thing that caused the problem in the first place. Creating thought experiments and narrating them at length regarding scenarios which are a rarity, given a problem which occurs frequently, in an environment with thousands of other variables. In a world where we do in fact have better indicators which are still not used, despite being well researched. We have plenty of options remaining before we need to be this nitpicky.
  - retrac 4y ago
    It's hard to imagine an indicator that wouldn't be closely correlated with family wealth and social status. Wealth and social status are the primary means to access the things that make a person more likely to be successful! Almost any indicator you pick will end up being a proxy for those, to some degree.
    - wegfawefgawefg 4y ago
      wealth and social status could be considered proxies for iq (g)
- lelanthran 4y ago
  > It's not an assumption that sports is associated with general success and intelligence. No, it isn't. The "dumb jock" trope is widely known for a reason. Healthy body is associated with intelligence, and for good reason.

It's not an assumption that sports is associated with general success and intelligence. I felt it was well-established enough of a fact, that there's no need to link to studies showing that. It's even the basis for public policy in my country; we do sports-based interventions for troubled youth; such programs are one of the few things that seem to actually work to keep young men going to school and improve academics. Now if you mean I'm making an assumption about a candidate, based on nothing more than one weak indicator, well yes. That was the point of my thought experiment. If you only knew whether they played sports, while not a very good indicator, it's better than flipping a coin. Ultimately, that's what hiring is. You have some indicators like education and previous work experience, and you make an assumption based on those facts, none of which align 100% with how they're going to perform at the job you're hiring them for.

BlargMcLarg 4y ago
>Now if you mean I'm making an assumption about a candidate That was even more obvious than the sports and cognition fact. Here's the thing: you're doing the exact thing that caused the problem in the first place. Creating thought experiments and narrating them at length regarding scenarios which are a rarity, given a problem which occurs frequently, in an environment with thousands of other variables. In a world where we do in fact have better indicators which are still not used, despite being well researched. We have plenty of options remaining before we need to be this nitpicky.
- retrac 4y ago
  It's hard to imagine an indicator that wouldn't be closely correlated with family wealth and social status. Wealth and social status are the primary means to access the things that make a person more likely to be successful! Almost any indicator you pick will end up being a proxy for those, to some degree.
  - wegfawefgawefg 4y ago
    wealth and social status could be considered proxies for iq (g)
lelanthran 4y ago
> It's not an assumption that sports is associated with general success and intelligence. No, it isn't. The "dumb jock" trope is widely known for a reason. Healthy body is associated with intelligence, and for good reason.