4 ms·
Who cares.
by rufius 17y ago
Who cares.
- noaharc 17y agoI take it you don't. Is it because you think there are no meaningful differences across sexes? Really, give this a shot: http://denisdutton.com/baumeister.htm http://denisdutton.com/baumeister.htm.
- biotech 17y ago"Is it because you think there are no meaningful differences across sexes?" I agree with the GP, but not with this comment. Obviously there are meaningful differences between the sexes. But there are other ways to group people, as well: - Gender (already covered, here) - Age - Nationality - Ethnicity - Sexual Orientation - Political Orientation - Religious Orientation - Number of Older Siblings - ... the list goes on All of these factors are significant in the sense that they help to establish our unique identity, and there are meaningful differences in each category. Should we poll for each factor? At some point..... well, I can't say it more succinctly than the GP: "Who cares?"
- whughes 17y agoCertainly, we've had polls for some of these (I remember age specifically) in the past, and we'll probably have them again as the user base changes. With the context of an increasing number of gender-related articles, I think this information is valuable.
- rokhayakebe 17y agoWe should care. We like to believe that all our differences do not make a difference, but fortunately and unfortunately they do. For example if YC funds more startups with women you will not see the impact in the next 2 years. But 10 years from now those veterans would have encouraged several younger women to get into technical fields. Everyone will benefit from that. I have had the chance to meet and work with a couple of female programmers, and although I am not a coder I was most certainly thrilled.
- jlees 17y agoAh, but should YC make a concerted effort to fund startups with women because 'everyone will benefit eventually'? That's hardly fair.
- SwellJoe 17y agoYC may consider diversity in their portfolio a positive trait. They may also consider the PR value of female startup founders (which is worth considering...it is quite high). And, they may consider their reputation as a forward-thinking, out on the edge of progress, sort of investor. Maybe it's a trend, and maybe they want to be ahead of it. I don't think one needs to look at what good could come of it in the future to consider investing in female-led startups a good idea.
- jlees 17y agoWell, quite frankly, I'm glad YC look at other criteria. Positive discrimination is a terrible thing. Imagine being a woman funded by an investor making an effort to focus on female-led startups. The world knows you were only funded because of your chromosomes. Self-esteem is a big enough problem as it is!
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- rokhayakebe 17y agoI think a venture firm that privileges woman ran startups with a focus on women-markets would be great. After all who does most of the spending in a household? Remember that web apps represents only a tiny tiny fraction of consumers' expenditures.
- jlees 17y agoIf we're playing the household card, then there are plenty of women-led kitchen table startups that will never see, nor need, venture funding. There are also plenty of women-led startups that don't focus on female markets, and male-led startups that do, inadvertently or otherwise (time for a quote about how most car purchases are down to the woman in the household).
- mkyc 17y agoI agree that if the data can't be applied, then we're satisfying only trivial curiosities. Like if I asked about your gender - who cares? But this data can be applied. Here we're testing the hypothesis of the above-linked essay. It's a poor test, though I think that HN users are better behaved in voluntary online polls. More importantly, it lets us know how our community stacks up. Genetically-encoded risk-taking aside, many of us want to see equal proportions in this poll, or would like to imagine that this poll would come out more equal than not. Yet it currently comes out 20:1, and this matters to me. (As a consequence, I'm probably going to make an effort to recommend this site or its discussions more often to women that I know.)
- axod 17y ago>> "many of us would like to see equal proportions in such a poll" Good luck with adjusting the internal structure of female brains.
- mkyc 17y agoI said that I would recommend this site, not that I would attempt genetic modification. The linked article is descriptive, not normative. If women might, due to genetic differences, be missing out on a lot of great information because of a 'male' or risky (startups?) or socially transient (discussions only last one day?) climate, then we should try to remedy this.
- axod 17y agoSure, I'd definitely recommend it to women who are into hacking, but the number of women who are into hacking is low. Success rate is probably going to be similar to women recommending a site about fashion to male friends. I agree with making sure people are aware what they can do, what is possible etc, but trying to make everything a 50/50 split between sexes is an unachievable waste of time IMHO. Lets embrace and celebrate the differences between the sexes rather than pretend they don't exist.
- tptacek 17y ago
- philwelch 17y agoIf we're talking about Erlang, no one. If we're talking about gender, though, it's pretty important.
- dschoon 17y agoI am offended by your disrespect for Erlang.
- philwelch 17y agoI like Erlang fine, I just don't think it has anything to do with gender. And if I'd seen Erlang articles in recent days instead of articles about gender, I would find this poll rather odd myself. As it stands, I think the question is apropos.
- noamsml 17y agoIt's a measure of our progress.
- pg 17y agoI do. People often ask about the number of female founders we fund. It would be interesting to know whether it's low because of something about startups, or just a reflection of the larger pool from which they're drawn.
- axod 17y agoOut of interest, how many female founders applied in the last round? That seems like far more useful+reliable data than this poll. >> "People often ask about the number of female founders we fund." Do they ask how many black people get funding? How many Christians? How many blind people? Asking such questions seems a bit irrelevant at best, and accusatory at worst to me.
- pg 17y agoI don't know. We don't ask.
- catherinej 17y agoActually, when a magazine interviewer asked Jessica about the percent of women among ycombinator-funded founders, I was very interested in her answer. Not because I suspected YC of bias - I didn't - but rather because I thought this percent would say something about the risks and rewards of small technical startups as perceived by women. Being a technical woman working on a startup idea, this information seemed useful to me: a possible glimpse into my personal future.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- diN0bot 17y agoi believe tolerance and respect require concerted attention to counteract cultural ignorance and bias. treating differences with equality is not about not caring or not thinking about differences--many racial and gender prejudices result from not questioning or investigating preconceived notions. it takes work to sufficiently care about ones interactions with others and thus conscientiously react to and surmount differences. it may be that you know as many or more female hackers, founders and entrepreneurs as male, and that your cultural norm is completely surprised by the notion of gender inequality in this context. in that case: cool. your experience validates the irrelevance of gender in these roles. or it may be that you are ignorant to inequality. whenever i want to blurt out "who cares" or "why do people care", i try to stop and think about other people's perspectives. i guess the short answer is: equality is often useful.
- csbartus 17y agowomen are welcome, or even more