4 ms·

Honestly it was probably the best conference I've ever seen (I'm a male and I watched online). What was really special is that people there were actually givin

by zmitri 13y ago

Honestly it was probably the best conference I've ever seen (I'm a male and I watched online). What was really special is that people there were actually giving useful, practical advice instead of just telling the story of their company. There was no bravado, no bullshit, and it sounded like the speakers actually wanted to help people in the audience and pass on advice instead of promoting their companies. Oh and the segment on fundraising was probably the most useful and forward talk on fundraising I have ever listened to in terms of practical advice. There's a statistic - Ben Horowitz used it in a talk once - that on average an educated woman will educate at least 4 other people in their lifetime, whereas you're lucky if a man educates one. I felt like this really rung through as I was watching this. You should watch the stream of the conference if you haven't.

astrange 13y ago
> There's a statistic - Ben Horowitz used it in a talk once - that on average an educated woman will educate at least 4 other people in their lifetime, whereas you're lucky if a man educates one. How was that defined and measured? Or in other words, [citation needed]. Luckily, I've educated many people with nit-picky anonymous and pseudonymous internet comments, so I must have great karma.
- zmitri 13y ago
  Hey - I'm so sorry I didn't link the video for you! Here's it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQnDDKDiSy8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQnDDKDiSy8 It's 6 minutes in: "If you educated a girl in the developing world, you educate 5 people, because if you educate one girl, on average, she'll educate at least 4 other people through the course of her life." I feel really bad for not linking it. Thank you so much for the reminder.
  - NotOscarWilde 13y ago
    > "If you educated a girl in the developing world, you educate 5 people, because if you educate one girl, on average, she'll educate at least 4 other people through the course of her life." I believe the [citation needed] is meant to ask for the source of this fact, i.e. whoever investigated this phenomenon and measured it. To me, the statement is rather dubious because even the thesis is (in general use of the word educate) loosely defined -- Does a mother educate the children, is it the teacher who educates them, or do we count both? How often do we count the father as well? What about when a foreman teaches a fresh employee, is that education also? Unless we exactly specify what is meant by education, this statement seems "purely inspirational" to me, i.e. rather meaningless.
    - zmitri 13y ago
      You should ask Ben then! He's a really smart and accomplished guy and I'm sure would be very happy to share that with you.
      - Dewie 13y ago
        This is how myths get started. He said it and then I 'passed it on', because if it came from him so I assumed it to be true, 'cause he's a pretty swell guy, rinse and repeat.
        elohesra 13y ago
        In other words, it's an argument-to-authority (discarding the Latin here). Claiming "some famous guy said it!" is no more a proof than claiming "crazy, homeless Bill said it!": a convincing argument should be able to stand on its own weight, without being stated by a credible source. If the hypothetical 'crazy, homeless Bill' said that the sun were bright, he'd be correct regardless of the fact that it came from 'crazy, homeless Bill'. If Ben Horowitz stated that 1 = 2, then he'd be wrong, regardless of the fact that he's 'Ben Horowitz'.
        jamesaguilar 13y ago
        Argument from authority is a formal fallacy, but in terms of practical reasoning it's a valuable tool. If you find that someone has been reliable in their claims in the past, you would be a fool to not give some weight to future claims. Of course, that has to be modulated by your priors for each claim. But it is perfectly reasonable to form a weak belief on a respected person's say-so.
    - kanamekun 13y ago
      I don't know the source of Ben's quote, but there's a well-known "ripple effect" from educating a girl. It's largely because educated women tend to stay within their local community where they reinvest in their family and community, whereas educated men are more likely to move away to seek opportunity. "According to Camfed, when you educate a girl she will earn up to 25 percent more and reinvest 90 percent of her income in her family." http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/lessons_plans/important-educate-girls/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/lessons_plans/important-ed... I couldn't find the original research cited, but my family lives in a remove village in the developing world... and you can definitely see the educated boys move to the capital city and the educated girls stay in the local community.
nahname 13y ago
How many teachers are male vs female? I feel like this is simply a statistic resulting from what each sex does more of professionally. It would be like saying, "on average an educated man will write at least 8 applications during his lifetime, whereas you're lucky if a woman writes one". Completely ignoring the real problem, men outnumber women 9 to 1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10475740/Just-a-fifth-of-new-primary-school-teachers-are-men.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10475740/...
- collyw 13y ago
  Probably partly due to the media induced paedophilia paranoia in the UK. (I know a male primary teacher and I heard he had to go through the crap of a girl accusing him of something inappropriate.) I doubt that happens to women often if at all.

by zmitri 13y ago

astrange 13y ago

> There's a statistic - Ben Horowitz used it in a talk once - that on average an educated woman will educate at least 4 other people in their lifetime, whereas you're lucky if a man educates one. How was that defined and measured? Or in other words, [citation needed]. Luckily, I've educated many people with nit-picky anonymous and pseudonymous internet comments, so I must have great karma.

zmitri 13y ago
Hey - I'm so sorry I didn't link the video for you! Here's it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQnDDKDiSy8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQnDDKDiSy8 It's 6 minutes in: "If you educated a girl in the developing world, you educate 5 people, because if you educate one girl, on average, she'll educate at least 4 other people through the course of her life." I feel really bad for not linking it. Thank you so much for the reminder.
- NotOscarWilde 13y ago
  > "If you educated a girl in the developing world, you educate 5 people, because if you educate one girl, on average, she'll educate at least 4 other people through the course of her life." I believe the [citation needed] is meant to ask for the source of this fact, i.e. whoever investigated this phenomenon and measured it. To me, the statement is rather dubious because even the thesis is (in general use of the word educate) loosely defined -- Does a mother educate the children, is it the teacher who educates them, or do we count both? How often do we count the father as well? What about when a foreman teaches a fresh employee, is that education also? Unless we exactly specify what is meant by education, this statement seems "purely inspirational" to me, i.e. rather meaningless.
  - zmitri 13y ago
    You should ask Ben then! He's a really smart and accomplished guy and I'm sure would be very happy to share that with you.
    - Dewie 13y ago
      This is how myths get started. He said it and then I 'passed it on', because if it came from him so I assumed it to be true, 'cause he's a pretty swell guy, rinse and repeat.
      - elohesra 13y ago
        In other words, it's an argument-to-authority (discarding the Latin here). Claiming "some famous guy said it!" is no more a proof than claiming "crazy, homeless Bill said it!": a convincing argument should be able to stand on its own weight, without being stated by a credible source. If the hypothetical 'crazy, homeless Bill' said that the sun were bright, he'd be correct regardless of the fact that it came from 'crazy, homeless Bill'. If Ben Horowitz stated that 1 = 2, then he'd be wrong, regardless of the fact that he's 'Ben Horowitz'.
        jamesaguilar 13y ago
        Argument from authority is a formal fallacy, but in terms of practical reasoning it's a valuable tool. If you find that someone has been reliable in their claims in the past, you would be a fool to not give some weight to future claims. Of course, that has to be modulated by your priors for each claim. But it is perfectly reasonable to form a weak belief on a respected person's say-so.
  - kanamekun 13y ago
    I don't know the source of Ben's quote, but there's a well-known "ripple effect" from educating a girl. It's largely because educated women tend to stay within their local community where they reinvest in their family and community, whereas educated men are more likely to move away to seek opportunity. "According to Camfed, when you educate a girl she will earn up to 25 percent more and reinvest 90 percent of her income in her family." http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/lessons_plans/important-educate-girls/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/lessons_plans/important-ed... I couldn't find the original research cited, but my family lives in a remove village in the developing world... and you can definitely see the educated boys move to the capital city and the educated girls stay in the local community.

nahname 13y ago

How many teachers are male vs female? I feel like this is simply a statistic resulting from what each sex does more of professionally. It would be like saying, "on average an educated man will write at least 8 applications during his lifetime, whereas you're lucky if a woman writes one". Completely ignoring the real problem, men outnumber women 9 to 1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10475740/Just-a-fifth-of-new-primary-school-teachers-are-men.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10475740/...

collyw 13y ago
Probably partly due to the media induced paedophilia paranoia in the UK. (I know a male primary teacher and I heard he had to go through the crap of a girl accusing him of something inappropriate.) I doubt that happens to women often if at all.