"Which is a good thing" If this was a response to "generalizing about people on other attributes, like race or sex.", I have to disagree with you, since the c

"Which is a good thing" If this was a response to "generalizing about people on other attributes, like race or sex.", I have to disagree with you, since the context of discussion here is about selecting someone for a job. I have yet to see a valid generalization about sex or race providing an indicator about programming ability. "Never think that stereotyping or generalizing is bad -- it's the way your brain works," and unless overridden with logic, it is also the way prejudice (in this case racism and sexism ) operate. Just so we don't go round and round, my opinion on generalization from examples: generalization is neither good nor bad by itself - it depends on the quality of the data and the inference mechanism - it could lead to good or bad depending on what it results in. It is a facility of the brain certainly but being human means you are not blindly subject to your generalizations. All imho. Feel free to disgaree.