Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

dot.la

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 118 posts

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#31

Post by tmpz22 »

karpierz wrote: post #24
tmpz22 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember several comments in the Iowa Caucus app debacle threads calling out the ex-googler who led the project as an affirmative action hire. Irregardless of morality or righteousness the more affirmative action permeates our culture the more resentment is going to build up in groups that feel cheated by such a system.

> like it or not it is not a natural human sentiment to stop and go "well one hundred years ago my great grandfather benefited unfairly...". It's not a hundred years ago, it's this year, right now. And I think if you're going to bend to "natural human sentiment", then you might as well give up on trying to get people to change at all. Why try to get people to exercise or learn if "natural human sentiment" is to sit o…

I removed that portion of my comment before I saw your response because it was a poorly developed thought that detracted from the substance of my original comment.

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#32

Post by bitcurious »

lbj wrote: post #17

I still don't see the value in diversity for diversities sake. Having read much from Thomas Sowell on the matter I think most of these terms will lead to much worse outcomes than what we have present day.

Diversity of viewpoints is essential for long term prosperity - it allows for a marketplace of ideas and limits blind spots.

The first time this really clicked for me was when I dived deeply into the history of the First World War. If I could restate the root cause, it was complete failure by both the British and especially the Germans to envision a point of view different from their own. They each operated like they were sparring with themselves, and shit got out of control. The problem is that it’s now vogue to assume what point of view a person holds bases entirely on their race/gender/etc.

P.S. If WWI sounds interesting, I very much recommend the podcast “When Diplomacy Fails.”

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#33

Post by charlescearl »

tuna-piano wrote: post #9

What person from an underrepresented group wants to be chosen just because of their group status? Isn't that highly patronizing for someone who likely had worked hard to get to where they got? Do you want to be "pretty great for a xxxxx person!" or just "one of the best". Is this a lesson that people want their kids to learn? Doesn't this also lead discrimination actually being a rational (and maybe ethical) thing to…

We just want justice. We need to ask how and why people found themselves in “underrepresented” and “marginalized” categories in first place. Piketty [1], Katznelson [2] (white people are happy to go along with set asides and actions to address class inequity, as long as no Black or Brown folk are involved) might be worth pondering. I hope that everyone is using the opportunity to understand the processes that got us to mass uprisings in most U.S. cities.

Funny, I had to have drawn out argument with a white surgeon — day after day a few months back. He didn’t think my mother’s Black life was worth much.

[1] http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2020SlidesLongVersion... [2] http://origins.osu.edu/review/when-affirmative-action-was-wh...

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#34

Post by jandrewrogers »

JPKab wrote: post #3

"At this moment of heightened public awareness, forcing big public pension funds to commit to putting more of their dollars in funds controlled by minorities could have a major impact. These public institutions, unlike their corporate kin, represent a wide and diverse swath of the country, making investment decisions for public servants like teachers, firefighters and municipal workers." While I think this is a pheno…

I'm not sure why this is being downvoted. It describes common practice for US Federal government business in response to the creation of minority business preferences in contracting.

Many companies that are not actually minority-owned essentially rent minority-owned shell companies to clear the qualification hurdle for contract preferences, it is de rigueur unless you have unique capabilities that make it likely you'll get a contract award regardless. The obvious consequence is that once every company is "minority owned" no company is and you are back to where you started, just with some middlemen.

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#35

Post by PeeInTheData »

mullingitover wrote: post #18
TheGrim999 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't noticed, that's been the goal for a long time now. People get accepted to college because of the color of their skin. People get better SAT scores now because of the color of their skin. Every major company has diversity boards which make sure to hire people based in the color of their skin. Hollywood and big business choose who to be in ads, movies, and other customer facing media because of the color…

> It's really so interesting that these groups of politically motivated people think they're ending what they perceive as racism ... by being as racist as it's possible to be. The existing system is already very biased against them, I don't have a problem with some corrective action. "In fact, companies are more than twice as likely to call minority applicants for interviews if they submit whitened resumes than candi…

> she weighed whether to include her involvement in a black student organization

I suspect the same bias would hold true if someone applied for a job bragging about being in a white student organization.

Would you hire someone was a member of the Society of White Engineers? Probably not.

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#36

Post by mtgp1000 »

"diversity and inclusion" initiatives are coming up on a long overdue reckoning. The premise is to allege discrimination, based solely on "evidence" in the form of inequality of outcome, and then use that unilateral accusation as justification for the accusing party to practice the discrimination they claim to oppose. Bonus: you are liable to lose your job for criticising these practices.

The comments ITT suggest that perhaps the taboo surrounding criticism of diversity initiatives is finally lifting, and rightly so.

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#37

Post by mullingitover »

john_moscow wrote: post #29
mullingitover wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's really so interesting that these groups of politically motivated people think they're ending what they perceive as racism ... by being as racist as it's possible to be. The existing system is already very biased against them, I don't have a problem with some corrective action. "In fact, companies are more than twice as likely to call minority applicants for interviews if they submit whitened resumes than candi…

I would actually blame the corrective action for it. Companies are not personal, they are purely about managing business and risks. When you hire a person, you care for 2 things: 1. How likely will they perform their duties in a way that is profitable to the company? 2. How much will it cost to the company to fire them, if they turn out to generate loss. Some people may have a stereotype that people of certain backgr…

> Companies are not personal, they are purely about managing business and risks.

Let's completely refute this notion:

"Companies with more culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to see better-than-average profits. In McKinsey’s previous study—conducted with 2014 numbers—that increase had been 35%. At the board of directors level, more ethnically and cultural diverse companies were 43% more likely to see above-average profits, showing a significant correlation between diversity and performance."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2018/01/25/more-...

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#38

Post by malandrew »

mullingitover wrote: post #18
TheGrim999 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't noticed, that's been the goal for a long time now. People get accepted to college because of the color of their skin. People get better SAT scores now because of the color of their skin. Every major company has diversity boards which make sure to hire people based in the color of their skin. Hollywood and big business choose who to be in ads, movies, and other customer facing media because of the color…

> It's really so interesting that these groups of politically motivated people think they're ending what they perceive as racism ... by being as racist as it's possible to be. The existing system is already very biased against them, I don't have a problem with some corrective action. "In fact, companies are more than twice as likely to call minority applicants for interviews if they submit whitened resumes than candi…

> I don't have a problem with some corrective action.

What you're arguing in favor of is addressing problems from technical debt by adding more technical debt on top.

The corrective action is to perform a root cause analysis and fix things at the root.

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#39

Post by MattGaiser »

blululu wrote: post #27
tuna-piano wrote: post #9

What person from an underrepresented group wants to be chosen just because of their group status? Isn't that highly patronizing for someone who likely had worked hard to get to where they got? Do you want to be "pretty great for a xxxxx person!" or just "one of the best". Is this a lesson that people want their kids to learn? Doesn't this also lead discrimination actually being a rational (and maybe ethical) thing to…

>>What person from an underrepresented group wants to be chosen just because of their group status? Isn't that highly patronizing for someone who likely had worked hard to get to where they got? Do you want to be "pretty great for a xxxxx person!" or just "one of the best". For comparison, consider the case of people who get their jobs via nepotism. The people who are hired for nepotism are seldom concerned with the…

> The people who are hired for nepotism are seldom concerned with the fact that they were chosen because of who their parents were.

Nepotism is personal and hidden. It isn't a rule everyone knows about, but something done on an individual level. If people could spot nepotism as easily as they could spot race and knew about confirmed corporate nepotism as easily as they knew about diversity initiatives, it would carry a greater stigma.

People see the race question on the job application. I have never seen a form ask about family members.

Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds

#40

Post by dx87 »

tuna-piano wrote: post #9

What person from an underrepresented group wants to be chosen just because of their group status? Isn't that highly patronizing for someone who likely had worked hard to get to where they got? Do you want to be "pretty great for a xxxxx person!" or just "one of the best". Is this a lesson that people want their kids to learn? Doesn't this also lead discrimination actually being a rational (and maybe ethical) thing to…

If the people in underrepresented groups are anything like the females I knew in the military, most of them will hate that they were treated differently. The females had lower physical fitness standards, but competed for the same promotion slots as males. Most females I knew resented the fact that they were put in a position where their male subordinates would always question whether they were actually qualified to be in charge, or if they just happened to get promoted earlier because it was easier for them to get high physical fitness scores.
Post reply on HN