Live data from Hacker News

My life as a woman in tech, told in three beverages

medium.datadriveninvestor.com

91–98 of 98 posts

Re: My life as a woman in tech, told in three beverages

#92
post #28

I'll admit I didn't finish the article. I got as far as the author critising her colleagues clothes. If this was the other way round she would be pissed but because she is making fun of men itself okay to her. She also seems to think a receptionist or assistant is beneath her for some reason. I'm tired of pandering to the idea of all men bad all women good.

The reason she's pissed isn't because they think she's a secretary, it's because they apparently didn't consider it a possibility that she was anything else. The fact that she's a woman is likely the cause of that. I can't imagine that they considered that she might be the hiring manager or potential team member and then decided to go straight to asking them to do stuff instead of asking what their role is first. They also then go on to presume that she might not even be able to explain what the company does (which seems like it would be insulting to someone who is an actual receptionist).

I'm shocked people assume anyone's roles. It's not like it's uncommon to send down the hiring manager, first interviewer, potential teammate, etc to pick up interviewees.

Re: My life as a woman in tech, told in three beverages

#93
post #75

All 3 beverages caffeinated, of course... Wonder how that affects interpersonal transactions. Anybody on edge and slightly ahead of themselves? Everybody? Just want to recommend L-Theanine to smooth the jagged edges. Men and women both ought to notch it back as far as I can tell. EDIT: I thought it might be pertinent, but clearly the battle of the sexes is more interesting to all of you. Grow up.

Be brave. What's your actual problem with the above? Have I tacitly condoned a false equivalency? You're appalled at rude words, but cheering for physical violence? Is it the unscientific supplement recommendation? Gender war stories have a fixed plot?

There might be a better way.

Re: My life as a woman in tech, told in three beverages

#94
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand this logic. It doesn't matter how friendly someone is if they can't code, but even if someone is difficult to work with (as many smart computer programmers are) they can still be hugely important to a team's success. Obviously there are limits to both of these, but technical ability is the requirement and "being fun to work with" is the nice-to-have. I think highly socialized people tend to co…

A highly technically skilled but anti-social team member can easily have negative productivity as they bring down (or drive out) everyone else in the team. This doesn't even require them to be an asshole: just being bad at communicating can do it (I have had such a coworker: nice, very technically skilled, completely useless as part of a team).

>drive out) everyone else in the team [by] just being bad at communicating

Wow. What exactly did he do that literally made everyone else quit? Surely there was a lot more than just "being bad at communicating".

Re: My life as a woman in tech, told in three beverages

#95
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand this logic. It doesn't matter how friendly someone is if they can't code, but even if someone is difficult to work with (as many smart computer programmers are) they can still be hugely important to a team's success. Obviously there are limits to both of these, but technical ability is the requirement and "being fun to work with" is the nice-to-have. I think highly socialized people tend to co…

Sure, not having any hard skills at all disqualifies, but at some point you are good enough to do work and the social ability becomes the bottleneck. It is not about being fun to work with (this is a nice bonus, sure), but having the ability to communicate with and enable, mentor, help others or accept help and critique if necessary.

That's a good way of putting it. A lot of really smart people are held back by their inability to be pleasant enough to work with that people want to work with them, which is needed for teamwork, which is needed for large-scale projects to succeed.

Re: My life as a woman in tech, told in three beverages

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> focusing on the men-enabling-men problem will have the widest societal impact for women Eh, are you sure? I’ve never read an exposition of a dysfunctional abusive company that wasn’t full of women in powerful positions also enabling terrible behavior.

“It’s snowing, clearly global warming isn’t real.” California recently passed a law requiring a minimum diversity threshold for corporate boards, due to how few incorporated more than a single token non-man. I look forward to arriving at a society where men and women are, as you suggest, equally present in and complicit in executive leadership and failures thereof, but we certainly aren’t there yet . It’s also worth…

> You can take steps to stop bad men without being an executive.

You just spent the previous sentences explaining how women couldn’t possibly be complicit because they’re not on boards. But now anyone can be complicit?

Re: My life as a woman in tech, told in three beverages

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“It’s snowing, clearly global warming isn’t real.” California recently passed a law requiring a minimum diversity threshold for corporate boards, due to how few incorporated more than a single token non-man. I look forward to arriving at a society where men and women are, as you suggest, equally present in and complicit in executive leadership and failures thereof, but we certainly aren’t there yet . It’s also worth…

> You can take steps to stop bad men without being an executive. You just spent the previous sentences explaining how women couldn’t possibly be complicit because they’re not on boards. But now anyone can be complicit?

Women can absolutely be complicit, so I clearly misspoke. I apologize for my error.

Re: My life as a woman in tech, told in three beverages

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can take steps to stop bad men without being an executive. You just spent the previous sentences explaining how women couldn’t possibly be complicit because they’re not on boards. But now anyone can be complicit?

Women can absolutely be complicit, so I clearly misspoke. I apologize for my error.

Fair enough. Otherwise I think we're on the same page.
Post reply on HN