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Technically speaking, the word 'these' as used by PG doesn't refer to anyone, as the group he's referring to (non-programming women) isn't specifically mentione

Technically speaking, the word 'these' as used by PG doesn't refer to anyone, as the group he's referring to (non-programming women) isn't specifically mentioned by him or the interviewer previously. So it is indeed ambiguous, and it would make sense to clean up, in a vacuum. Valleywag was clearly out for blood, and it sucks they don't care what PG meant, and PG very clearly didn't say women aren't hackers, even without the 'these'. The tone is absurdly clear. The Information wasn't wrong to remove it from a grammatical standpoint, but hopefully their editors will walk away with a better understanding of how precise language can be. Frankly, I doubt PG or The Information saw this coming. Why this has been a newsworthy event baffles me, but here we are.

jeswin 13y ago
Not true. PG used 'these' with context. The interviewer was specifically asking about admitting women by 'lowering standards' or recruiting. And PG is saying that those ideas won't work, because the applicants won't have the experience. Eric: "If there was just the pro-activity line of attack, if it was like, “OK, yes, women aren’t set up to be startup founders at the level we want.” What would be lost if Y Combinator was more proactive about it? About lowering standards or something like that? Or recruiting women or something, like any of those options?" Paul: "No, the problem is these women are not by the time get to 23…"
trothoun 13y ago
> So it is indeed ambiguous, and it would make sense to clean up, in a vacuum. hmm... that seems analogous to saying that it's proper behavior for a compiler to silently delete references to uninitialized variables.