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> We believe that the entire world is quantifiable. Do you? In my experience, this belief causes many serious problems. I hope it's not considered rude to expr
by johnnybgoode 17y ago
> We believe that the entire world is quantifiable. Do you?
In my experience, this belief causes many serious problems. I hope it's not considered rude to express this here on HN, but I would suggest considering possible ethical issues before taking a job like this.
- frisco 17y agoCan you give me an example of an ethical issue arising from this view? Quantifying something doesn't impose a system of beliefs on its own.
- johnnybgoode 17y ago> Quantifying something doesn't impose a system of beliefs on its own. I suppose that is true, but in practice, quantifications are often used by a system that does impose certain beliefs. When this happens (and even when it doesn't) those beliefs are seen to carry an air of objectivity simply because there are now numbers behind them. It is extremely tempting to treat subjective views as objective truth when there are fancy algorithms and numbers behind them. This leads to a willingness to impose certain views on people who disagree, and that's where the ethical issues can arise. In the case of this particular product, there are related but separate issues having to do with encouraging the college admissions circus. Even if the intention is to improve it, the product would at best have the effect of propagating the myth that the college admissions process is fundamentally sound and can be perfected. In reality, adding more mathematical algorithms to the process will just give it a pretense of objectivity -- again, potentially harmful to millions of people.