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Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

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Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#71

Post by nickbauman »

There's a strong thread of meritocracy in the tech community, but there is no such thing. When you choose the clearly better developer over the other, you're often choosing the one who had better resources growing up, not just natural ability. The poorer developer may have had a natural advantage over the other one, but didn't have the money to develop it as much. So you're really just selecting for wealth all over again.

This is what's behind the achievement gap anxiety: Wise rich people don't want to perpetuate a world where only money selects success. It's wasteful and ultimately unsustainable.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#72

Post by outworlder »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #34
Xyik wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Yet this OP disproved this. So I don't get what the point is." From the blog: "David and I are living proof that if we can upgrade and improve the way we think, and overcome our mindset inequality, then maybe we can help others do the same" Yes the blog clearly states that its not impossible, the OP is simply sharing how he overcame hurdles despite the challenges he faced being poor. It's meant to help others do the…

The title of the post is Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley. But the post proves that there isn't. So at best, the title is terrible.

Nope. The poster proved that you CAN overcome the handicap. The fact that you can overcome some limitation doesn't mean that the limitation wasn't there to begin with.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#73

Post by AlexWest »

flubert wrote: post #19
Frondo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, one thing you can do is retrain yourself to be un-allergic to words like "privilege", and see their use as the consequence of a lot of people's suffering systemic unfairness and injustice. When I see that word, "privilege," especially tied to attacks on white/male/hetero/whatever, my response isn't "oh jeez, not that again".....it's "yeah, that is a problem, and I really wish the other white male hetero…

I wonder what the value is for various types of "privilege"? As in, if you could pay so much and reap the benefits, how much should someone be willing to pay? $1,000? $10,000? $100,000? $1,000,000?

It's relatively easy to quantify pay discrimination against various groups. Emotional pain and civil rights deprivation are harder to quantify, though.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#74

Post by mc32 »

nickbauman wrote: post #71

There's a strong thread of meritocracy in the tech community, but there is no such thing. When you choose the clearly better developer over the other, you're often choosing the one who had better resources growing up, not just natural ability. The poorer developer may have had a natural advantage over the other one, but didn't have the money to develop it as much. So you're really just selecting for wealth all over a…

The thing is "merit" an be any number of things. You can say the student most in debt merits the job the most, or the person with the most experience, or the person exhibiting most ability, or the person who had to overcome obstacle.

But when people invoke merit they typically mean they're avoiding favoritism, nepotism, and are looking for someone who given what they know or learn about the person would best fit into the job to execute it.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#75

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

tn13 wrote: post #47

As an Indian immigrant when I see people complaining about Privilege and Inequality in SV (and in America) I feel like laughing. I lived in a society where everyone was almost the same, similar economic status, similar privilege etc. etc. Life sucked. I decided to move out to be among the top 10% instead of one of the 100%. I eventually ended up in SV. This place is awesome and the very reason I am here is because I…

> As an Indian immigrant ...I lived in a society where everyone was almost the same, similar economic status, similar privilege etc. etc. Life sucked.

That is certainly not a truth universally acknowledged (http://idsn.org/caste-discrimination/ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Dalit-tonsu...)

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#76

Post by sly_foxx »

To all those whining about being poor - nobody owes you anything. Money, women etc. You are not entitled to any of that because you happen to be recognized as a homo sapiens.

If you think you are, then please point to where it says so objectively. Is it written in the fabric of the universe that humans(or any other cluster of regular matter) are entitled to anything? Is the entitlement included somewhere in equations of general theory of relativity? Is it placed somewhere at the subatomic level - kinda like paper in fortune cookies - when you look deeper into protons/quarks, maybe there you will find "All members of homo sapiens are entitled to get free stuff from governments". What is the objective source of any of these human privileges(i.e. rights)?

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#77

Post by haberman »

namenotrequired wrote: post #63

Finally someone who talks about the consequences of economic inequality. PG seemed to think all that mattered is the causes.

It's frustrating, not a single critique I've seen of PG's essay (including this one) seem to understand what he is actually saying.

This essay supports PG's point, it doesn't contradict it. PG's essay calls out "kids with no chance of reaching their potential" as "very bad" aspect of inequality in the fourth paragraph!

What essay did you read?

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#78

Post by AlexWest »

TrevorJ wrote: post #21
Frondo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, one thing you can do is retrain yourself to be un-allergic to words like "privilege", and see their use as the consequence of a lot of people's suffering systemic unfairness and injustice. When I see that word, "privilege," especially tied to attacks on white/male/hetero/whatever, my response isn't "oh jeez, not that again".....it's "yeah, that is a problem, and I really wish the other white male hetero…

It is not ok to look at someone's gender, age & race and make assumptions about there life, full stop. Applying a term like 'privileged' to an entire group of people based on a single characteristic is stereotyping at it's worst. This isn't to say that trends don't exist, but it is not ok to assume something about an individual simply because it's true, as a general rule for the group they belong to. Like it or not,…

But that's really the whole point of privilege - belonging to the group is enough to grant you the advantages of it. Period. It doesn't mean your life is great, it doesn't mean you don't have problems, but the members of a privileged class absolutely possess those privileges - that's how it works.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#79

Post by toomanybeersies »

nickbauman wrote: post #71

There's a strong thread of meritocracy in the tech community, but there is no such thing. When you choose the clearly better developer over the other, you're often choosing the one who had better resources growing up, not just natural ability. The poorer developer may have had a natural advantage over the other one, but didn't have the money to develop it as much. So you're really just selecting for wealth all over a…

A good way to partially mitigate this is to stop with specific code interviews, where you ask someone how do implement X in Y language.

Instead, ask them about problems they've encountered and how they solved them. Doesn't even need to be programming problems. Get an idea for their problem solving process and ability. That's what you should be hiring people for.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#80

Post by AndrewKemendo »

WalterBright wrote: post #65
ryandrake wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what's weird and uncomfortable sometimes? Going to lunch with your co-workers and listening to them talk about the awful problems of their lives, like how they wish their maids could come twice a week instead of every two weeks, and how difficult it is that they have to pay [my salary * 0.5] for their kid's private school. How worried they are about things like the stock market and how high the property taxe…

My dad returned from combat in WW2 where 80% of his group were casualties and he expected to die in combat. He said he was amused at the triviality of everyday concerns. "What's your problem, you're not going to die tomorrow!" And really, if you're able-bodied and able-minded and nobody is trying to kill/maim/imprison you, then life is good. I went to retrieve the mail this morning, and was greeted with a bright blue…

There are a lot of us out there with similar backgrounds, yet when you tell people that any day that you aren't being shot at, or blown up or starving is a good day, they look at you like you are crazy.
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