how old? 60+? 50+? 40+? 30+? 20+? (I'm serious, sometimes even 25 year old devs feel old).
How do 25 year old devs "feel old"?
Don't ask me. They're exaggerating ofc but I sometimes hear that somebody in his twenties feels old.
Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
21–30 of 76 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
#22Probably not as old (white?) male. But there is a simple way to increase your diversity.
You could start identifying as a woman, it is just a verbal identification, no other changes are required. This way you would also become lesbian.
In some countries you can legally change your race, by religious conversion (Sikht in UK). Again, religion is just a verbal identification.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
#23Probably not as old (white?) male. But there is a simple way to increase your diversity. You could start identifying as a woman, it is just a verbal identification, no other changes are required. This way you would also become lesbian. In some countries you can legally change your race, by religious conversion (Sikht in UK). Again, religion is just a verbal identification.
In the United States age is a protected class over 40 years old.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
#24Serious question: are you trolling? I hire programmers for a startup. When I do, we do not care at all how old you are. We care about attitude, skills, and aptitude.
Let me guess, you hire with the same managment pattern as everybody else:
If of all software-neuroses s/he/it is a controll-freak and thus impresses customers and is easy to handle, he is a good employee.
If s/he/it constantly nags about how, the whole company could be reduced to a box with the controll-freaks daily routine as algorithm running inside, you are a chaotic firehead who should have avoid hiring?
Attitude and aptitude, sure.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
#25Serious question: are you trolling? I hire programmers for a startup. When I do, we do not care at all how old you are. We care about attitude, skills, and aptitude.
Let me guess, you hire with the same managment pattern as everybody else: If of all software-neuroses s/he/it is a controll-freak and thus impresses customers and is easy to handle, he is a good employee. If s/he/it constantly nags about how, the whole company could be reduced to a box with the controll-freaks daily routine as algorithm running inside, you are a chaotic firehead who should have avoid hiring? Attitude…
You guessed wrong. Are you okay? Cheer up!
Re: Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
#26Maybe? The type of diversity that companies care about (to contrast with the many strawmen out there) happens to be good for the bottom line. That is, a team with 5 men and 5 women is likelier to perform better than one with 10 men [1]. Some explanations I have heard are that diversity brings perspective that wouldn't be present in a monoculture, and that it improves psychological safety which is a huge determiner of…
The sources you linked are rather weak evidence for your claims. This type of observational research is difficult, and in the social sciences, especially about political topics, you should be very skeptical. The majority of published papers in this field are wrong. Diversity may or may not be good for companies bottom lines, but there is no conclusive evidence (at least from what you linked) - and it also matters the magnitude of the effect.
Some of these articles are implying a size of an effect that is completely ridiculous, there is just no way that diversity "could increase revenue by 41%" - we'd see way more diversity in work places if this was true. Here is an article with a different conclusion - and here the "educational diversity" only had a more reasonable 2% effect, while "demographic diversity" is allegedly harmful [1]. But you have to be careful, all of these studies appear to suffer from testing multiple hypothesis - breaking diversity down into sub-categories and looking at each one independently should decrease confidence in the conclusions of these studies.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
#27Probably not as old (white?) male. But there is a simple way to increase your diversity. You could start identifying as a woman, it is just a verbal identification, no other changes are required. This way you would also become lesbian. In some countries you can legally change your race, by religious conversion (Sikht in UK). Again, religion is just a verbal identification.
In the United States age is a protected class over 40 years old.
Question from overseas: what's a "protected class"?
Re: Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do 25 year old devs "feel old"?
Don't ask me. They're exaggerating ofc but I sometimes hear that somebody in his twenties feels old.
At every moment in your life, you are older than you have ever been before. If you compare your life when you are 19 to 25, that is a much greater difference than your life from 50 to 56.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
#29Yes.
Re: Ask HN: I'm an old programmer, do I qualify for diversity consideration?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let me guess, you hire with the same managment pattern as everybody else: If of all software-neuroses s/he/it is a controll-freak and thus impresses customers and is easy to handle, he is a good employee. If s/he/it constantly nags about how, the whole company could be reduced to a box with the controll-freaks daily routine as algorithm running inside, you are a chaotic firehead who should have avoid hiring? Attitude…
You guessed wrong. Are you okay? Cheer up!
Sorry, your hiring speech short-circuited some of my wires regarding something else. Yes, im okay. Have a nice day.