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Higher level management, yes, they are. But it's fairly common to track women into middle management roles because they're "good with people" - and then write t

by Fomite 12y ago

Higher level management, yes, they are. But it's fairly common to track women into middle management roles because they're "good with people" - and then write them off as not being engineers. There have been posts about that on HN not all that infrequently. And hell, even if you don't want to consider that, it's not a blatant twisting of his words. She's the CEO of Yahoo. That's not a "waste of a good brain".

scotty79 12y ago
> She's the CEO of Yahoo. That's not a "waste of a good brain". How can you be sure? What a CEO of Yahoo can do? Hire some people, fire some people? Pick some project to develop and some to abandon? You could say that this has some value but you can't predict which project will turn out worthwhile. "Predictions are hard especially about the future." What's sure that there is one smart person less actually working on those projects.
- Fomite 12y ago
  This logic is also applicable to engineers. Everything an engineer could potentially do has value, but you can't predict which project will turn out to be worthwhile. And without someone smart managing them, I'd assert there's a higher probability of that, which wastes everyone's potential.
georgiapeach 12y ago
It's the waste of a good engineering/programming brain on management. That's what he said. You are twisting his words because you have no legitimate argument.
wutbrodo 12y ago
It is very much twisting his words. There's no argument that he seems rather anti-management, but your claim is that an anti-management bias is an insidious proxy for minimizing fields favored by women . I'm familiar with this argument and it's not invalid per se (usually you see it targeting things like literature majors in college or whatever), but claiming that he's using management as a proxy for "soft skills more associated with women" is ludicrous. He's saying mayer's position is a waste of a good brain because she's a manager, not because she's a woman.

by Fomite 12y ago

scotty79 12y ago

> She's the CEO of Yahoo. That's not a "waste of a good brain". How can you be sure? What a CEO of Yahoo can do? Hire some people, fire some people? Pick some project to develop and some to abandon? You could say that this has some value but you can't predict which project will turn out worthwhile. "Predictions are hard especially about the future." What's sure that there is one smart person less actually working on those projects.

Fomite 12y ago
This logic is also applicable to engineers. Everything an engineer could potentially do has value, but you can't predict which project will turn out to be worthwhile. And without someone smart managing them, I'd assert there's a higher probability of that, which wastes everyone's potential.

georgiapeach 12y ago

It's the waste of a good engineering/programming brain on management. That's what he said. You are twisting his words because you have no legitimate argument.

wutbrodo 12y ago

It is very much twisting his words. There's no argument that he seems rather anti-management, but your claim is that an anti-management bias is an insidious proxy for minimizing fields favored by women . I'm familiar with this argument and it's not invalid per se (usually you see it targeting things like literature majors in college or whatever), but claiming that he's using management as a proxy for "soft skills more associated with women" is ludicrous. He's saying mayer's position is a waste of a good brain because she's a manager, not because she's a woman.