Well, if we are going to talk about empirical facts here, just how do we figure out who is better at coding than other people? I am a man, but I rather suspect

Well, if we are going to talk about empirical facts here, just how do we figure out who is better at coding than other people? I am a man, but I rather suspect that most women who participate on Hacker News are far better at coding than I am. (I came to the discussions here after reading several Paul Graham essays on education policy issues. I don't consider myself a good coder at all, but I'm responding to this topic because it is, really, a topic related to education policy.) Until most companies are hiring on the basis of work-sample tests, which research says is a very good idea, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5227923 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5227923 it may be that a lot of companies are hiring on the simple basis of irrational rules of thumb, which just might include societal prejudice against disfavored groups. That too is an empirical question, and that question is even harder to get an honest answer for, but we would have to consider that question along with the question of how we figure out who is a good coder to have an intellectually honest discussion here. What do the other participants here think? What other issues do we need to consider to be intellectually honest while discussing this topic? "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool." Richard Feynman.