6 ms·

"Selection biases filter out most women, underrepresented minorities, and those without connections" I get those without connections but women and minorities?

"Selection biases filter out most women, underrepresented minorities, and those without connections" I get those without connections but women and minorities? Give me a break. Asians absolutely killing it and there are simply far fewer women in the industry.

iteria 3y ago
Startups run on long hours and heroic efforts. That selects against women who are time sensitive due to caretaking duties. Even if a woman doesn't have a child, they're often still time constrained by other obligations to family. Minorities, though I have no idea. Unless they mean there's a bias towards prestige degrees? Then sure.
- api 3y ago
  It's interesting seeing a lot of people from tech culture recently freaking out over birth rates, led by characters like Elon Musk. Yet at the same time they insist on perpetuating an economy that is structurally hostile to reproduction, especially among high achievers (and not just women). They're complaining about a social phenomenon they're driving. If the economy is a contest to time compress things as much as possible and demand as many working hours from everyone as possible, things like raising children get sacrificed. This is the simplest explanation for the extraordinarily low birth rates in some countries like South Korea that have normalized insanely demanding work cultures.
  - EchoChamberMan 3y ago
    They want to have their cake, and eat it too.
- elektrontamer 3y ago
  > Even if a woman doesn't have a child, they're often still time constrained by other obligations to family. How is that the would-be investors problem? Can we say the industry is rife with misogyny like the author is implying here?
sealeck 3y ago
I think it's pretty hard to make the claim that people in startup-land aren't prejudiced against women. Just looking at empirical data on fundraising women attract a lot less funding (even weighted for the fact that there are fewer women in the industry). There's also a lot of casual sexism around, assumptions that women aren't technically competent by default, etc. Also when you say "Asians absolutely killing it" I mean, Asians are a really big group! Some Asians are "absolutely killing it" and others are not.
- 7speter 3y ago
  Also, “Asians” aren’t the only minorities out there. It’s appalling reading the comments on this site sometimes (really most, probably).
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
John23832 3y ago
> Asians absolutely killing it I applaud (East) Asians for getting it done, but that still leaves MANY others. Most of the success stories tend to be East Asians, where Southeast Asians are mistreated and seen as a cheap labor source. The point stands. > there are simply far fewer women in the industry. And why do you think that is good sir?
- elektrontamer 3y ago
  > And why do you think that is good sir? Because on average they're less likely to prefer working in tech. They don't like it, it's that simple.
  - John23832 3y ago
    > Because on average they're less likely to prefer working in tech. They don't like it, it's that simple. Again, why do you think that is? If you're saying women are less capable, be direct. Humans are social creatures and are designed to go where we're a part of the ingroup. That is the manifestation of the "preference" of working in tech. The tech sphere is often a bros club and exclusionary to women. There are many examples of talented women in our field being trampled out by the mob. Nobody, not even the godly You, wants be a part of a group that constantly hassles you.
    - elektrontamer 3y ago
      > If you're saying women are less capable, be direct This is an anonymous forum, if that's what I thought, I would say so. I have no reason to censor myself, could not care less about the points. > The tech sphere is often a bros club and exclusionary to women. There is no sphere or club, if the software you write provides value to some company or users you get paid for it. No one cares about your chromosomes. >There are many examples of talented women in our field being trampled out by the mob. What happened? Did paying customers suddenly boycott their favorite sofwtare upon finding out that a woman wrote the code for it? I'd love to hear some examples.
      - 3y ago
cratermoon 3y ago
The concept of "model minority" is still a racist point of view.
stormfather 3y ago
Its like chess. There are just far fewer women that get obsessed with it. If there was a woman who played chess as well as Magnus Carlsen there wouldn't be any possible "systemic barrier" to hide it. But chess performance can be gauged objectively. Software is subjective, so we can point fingers at imagined systemic barriers.

iteria 3y ago

Startups run on long hours and heroic efforts. That selects against women who are time sensitive due to caretaking duties. Even if a woman doesn't have a child, they're often still time constrained by other obligations to family. Minorities, though I have no idea. Unless they mean there's a bias towards prestige degrees? Then sure.

api 3y ago
It's interesting seeing a lot of people from tech culture recently freaking out over birth rates, led by characters like Elon Musk. Yet at the same time they insist on perpetuating an economy that is structurally hostile to reproduction, especially among high achievers (and not just women). They're complaining about a social phenomenon they're driving. If the economy is a contest to time compress things as much as possible and demand as many working hours from everyone as possible, things like raising children get sacrificed. This is the simplest explanation for the extraordinarily low birth rates in some countries like South Korea that have normalized insanely demanding work cultures.
- EchoChamberMan 3y ago
  They want to have their cake, and eat it too.
elektrontamer 3y ago
> Even if a woman doesn't have a child, they're often still time constrained by other obligations to family. How is that the would-be investors problem? Can we say the industry is rife with misogyny like the author is implying here?

sealeck 3y ago

I think it's pretty hard to make the claim that people in startup-land aren't prejudiced against women. Just looking at empirical data on fundraising women attract a lot less funding (even weighted for the fact that there are fewer women in the industry). There's also a lot of casual sexism around, assumptions that women aren't technically competent by default, etc. Also when you say "Asians absolutely killing it" I mean, Asians are a really big group! Some Asians are "absolutely killing it" and others are not.

7speter 3y ago
Also, “Asians” aren’t the only minorities out there. It’s appalling reading the comments on this site sometimes (really most, probably).

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

John23832 3y ago

> Asians absolutely killing it I applaud (East) Asians for getting it done, but that still leaves MANY others. Most of the success stories tend to be East Asians, where Southeast Asians are mistreated and seen as a cheap labor source. The point stands. > there are simply far fewer women in the industry. And why do you think that is good sir?

elektrontamer 3y ago
> And why do you think that is good sir? Because on average they're less likely to prefer working in tech. They don't like it, it's that simple.
- John23832 3y ago
  > Because on average they're less likely to prefer working in tech. They don't like it, it's that simple. Again, why do you think that is? If you're saying women are less capable, be direct. Humans are social creatures and are designed to go where we're a part of the ingroup. That is the manifestation of the "preference" of working in tech. The tech sphere is often a bros club and exclusionary to women. There are many examples of talented women in our field being trampled out by the mob. Nobody, not even the godly You, wants be a part of a group that constantly hassles you.
  - elektrontamer 3y ago
    > If you're saying women are less capable, be direct This is an anonymous forum, if that's what I thought, I would say so. I have no reason to censor myself, could not care less about the points. > The tech sphere is often a bros club and exclusionary to women. There is no sphere or club, if the software you write provides value to some company or users you get paid for it. No one cares about your chromosomes. >There are many examples of talented women in our field being trampled out by the mob. What happened? Did paying customers suddenly boycott their favorite sofwtare upon finding out that a woman wrote the code for it? I'd love to hear some examples.
    - 3y ago

cratermoon 3y ago

The concept of "model minority" is still a racist point of view.

stormfather 3y ago

Its like chess. There are just far fewer women that get obsessed with it. If there was a woman who played chess as well as Magnus Carlsen there wouldn't be any possible "systemic barrier" to hide it. But chess performance can be gauged objectively. Software is subjective, so we can point fingers at imagined systemic barriers.