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The article seems full of hatred against "white men". A group of people, for some reason, has found it worth its time to do some activity. This group then train

by guylhem 14y ago

The article seems full of hatred against "white men". A group of people, for some reason, has found it worth its time to do some activity. This group then trains more, invest more time, and compounding interests makes them better. Other groups see their success and feel like they don't belong. It's human - nothing mean in it. Why is Christophe Lemaitre one of the only decent white sprinters? Because. Why are boys dropping out more and more while girls study? Because. Why are there mostly asian in advanced classes, so much that some university (by their own words) do now discriminate against them in admissions? Because. Why are there mostly white men in the IT industry? Well - I guess you can now answer yourself. There is no conspiracy (except maybe for the universities preferring people from some ethnicities while other people are more qualified) - it's just a bunch of self maintaining tendency. Something interesting - look at the posts on 9gag to try to get the current untold opinions - apparently some white people are developing an inferiority complex on math and sciences when they have asian classmates. Self exclusion, once again. So drop the hatred and see the meritocracy. It's all around us. For the first time in history, with a very low amount of capital and education, a human being can create a profitable company. You should be celebrating such an achievement, not bashing meritocracy. EDIT: Downvote as much as you want, but I'd be interested to know for which reason exactly Occam razor is not being applied here

roguecoder 14y ago
"Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that." All of those social dynamics are explainable. Why are sprinters seldom White? Because fast people in Western cultures participate in the more-lucrative and high-status team sports instead. Why are boys dropping out? Well, African-American boys are punished more harshly for the same behavior, more likely to be diagnosed as learning-disabled and tracked out of regular classrooms, less likely to have their father at home due in large part to racist enforcement and prison terms. White boys aren't dropping out: they are under-performing because they don't have to work as hard to succeed as girls. Why are there mostly white men in the IT industry? I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Computer-Boys-Take-Over/dp/0262050935 http://www.amazon.com/The-Computer-Boys-Take-Over/dp/0262050... It answers your question and it has nothing to do with who the best programmers are. If you can't explain something, maybe you should do more research.
- guylhem 14y ago
  The social angle for the IT industry is interesting. There is a dynamic of power happening- but it's not the whole picture. The racism based explanation doesn't seems to work - just like for fast people, where you gave a great example: they self select more lucrative and higher status alternatives. Under performing pupils also self select, for failure, but the reason is different : it's based on their own prejudice and a cultural norm saying XX people should do YY. Anyway, in the end people self select in or out - and that's a self perpetrating tendency based on an initial trend for whatever reason. "racist" enforcement and society couldn't do that much damage by themselves. However, cultural norms most certainly could - especially when people believe them. IMHO, the simplest explain is the better.

by guylhem 14y ago

roguecoder 14y ago

"Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that." All of those social dynamics are explainable. Why are sprinters seldom White? Because fast people in Western cultures participate in the more-lucrative and high-status team sports instead. Why are boys dropping out? Well, African-American boys are punished more harshly for the same behavior, more likely to be diagnosed as learning-disabled and tracked out of regular classrooms, less likely to have their father at home due in large part to racist enforcement and prison terms. White boys aren't dropping out: they are under-performing because they don't have to work as hard to succeed as girls. Why are there mostly white men in the IT industry? I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Computer-Boys-Take-Over/dp/0262050935 http://www.amazon.com/The-Computer-Boys-Take-Over/dp/0262050... It answers your question and it has nothing to do with who the best programmers are. If you can't explain something, maybe you should do more research.

guylhem 14y ago
The social angle for the IT industry is interesting. There is a dynamic of power happening- but it's not the whole picture. The racism based explanation doesn't seems to work - just like for fast people, where you gave a great example: they self select more lucrative and higher status alternatives. Under performing pupils also self select, for failure, but the reason is different : it's based on their own prejudice and a cultural norm saying XX people should do YY. Anyway, in the end people self select in or out - and that's a self perpetrating tendency based on an initial trend for whatever reason. "racist" enforcement and society couldn't do that much damage by themselves. However, cultural norms most certainly could - especially when people believe them. IMHO, the simplest explain is the better.