I'm going to sound like a dick here, but my karma is already low, so fuck it. You're falling into the common trap of the technologically skilled, rational, int

I'm going to sound like a dick here, but my karma is already low, so fuck it. You're falling into the common trap of the technologically skilled, rational, intelligent, male. You see yourself as a meritocratic person and you believe that people should be judged based on their merits. Fair enough. It would be nice if the world worked that way. Unbiased meritocratic decision is impossible when the subject in question is to known to their interviewer by anything but their merits. As far as we know, it's simply not possible to make meritocratic decisions when you know anything other than the subject's merits. It doesn't matter if you're racist or sexist, everyone inevitably makes assumptions about other races and other genders. Not being racist and sexist is about realizing those assumptions are incorrect and suppressing them. Take the case of professional orchestras for example. Before the 1970s and 80s, most professional orchestras were 5% women. In the 70s and 80s when blind auditions became the standard, that number rose to 25%. You don't need to tell me that correlation doesn't imply causation but if the data doesn't say that to you I'm not sure what can. People are awesome solely based on their merits, but acting like you have the capability to thusly judge them in such a perfect manner is silly. It's simply not possible.