Female Founders • Hacker News Board

Re: Female Founders

#341

Post by ivansavz » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:17 AM UTC

I've been conducting an informal survey amongst coder friends testing the hypothesis:

   Childhood experience playing with LEGO blocks is a predictor
   of a person's affinity towards programming as an adult.

I think "building things with code" is very similar to "building things with LEGOs" so I wonder to what extent other people see programming the same way and whether "LEGO experience" could be a factor in the developer gender gap.

Perhaps some of the female coders on HN could comment. Did you grow up playing LEGO?

Re: Female Founders

#342

Post by pbhjpbhj » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:22 AM UTC

smtddr wrote: post #337

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside: I've looked at that BlackGirlsCode link a bit more and I'm quite shocked that such segregation is encouraged, lauded even. Now there's some argument to support educating the sexes separately but if you're an asian girl living in Brooklyn (say) you can't go? Just because you're Asian ... ??? Really? What if you're half-Asian+half-African, how about your skins black but you're South American. Damn. Do people rea…

Every time... Theory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6441795 Potential examples: 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6885123 - Homeless coder starts app 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6365495 - Africans genetically more corrupt? 3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6448409 - Rick Ross's history 4. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6857739 - Nelson Mandela dies 5. https://news.ycombinator.com/…

That's the amazing thing about threading. One can comment on a specific issue without derailing a main thread. I noted it was an aside (OT if you prefer) - I don't see how allowing the promotion of racism helps the thread any more than my your injunction to others to ignore it. If you don't want to comment, don't. It's an affront to the community here IMO for you to tell us what we may or may not discuss.

Edit: I think you edit-bombed me? The person running blackgirlscode and the other volunteers seem to be doing a fantastic job. The girls attending seem to be enjoying, getting encourage, learning. I don't know the community it's based in. Racial segregation is not the way.

Re: Female Founders

#343

Post by argonaut » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:22 AM UTC

eaurouge wrote: post #248

pg wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The second paragraph amounts to a sexist version of "I'm not racist! I have black friends!" Actually by pointing out the degree to which women run things at YC it's closer to saying "I'm not racist! I'm black." And while it's possible for women to be sexist too, if you think Jessica, Kirsty, and Carolynn are sexist, I'd like to see you say it to their faces. And I do know something about groups working on getting gir…

I may be the public face of the company, but it's impossible to imagine YC doing something that Jessica, Kirsty, and Carolynn were against. So effectively they have veto powers. This sounds a bit like "my wife runs the house, I'm only allowed to do what she lets me do." I know that's not what you mean, but you come off sounding too defensive in most of the essay. Stop playing defense with words, let your actions (or…

My guess is that any full-time partner at YC has veto power.

Re: Female Founders

#344

Post by rhizome » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:23 AM UTC

eatitraw wrote: post #339

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside: I've looked at that BlackGirlsCode link a bit more and I'm quite shocked that such segregation is encouraged, lauded even. Now there's some argument to support educating the sexes separately but if you're an asian girl living in Brooklyn (say) you can't go? Just because you're Asian ... ??? Really? What if you're half-Asian+half-African, how about your skins black but you're South American. Damn. Do people rea…

Why the fuck is this being downvoted? The comment isn't stupid: such gender/race discrimination _may_ backfire(for example, if your message is read not as "black girls have the same abilities but may need extra help" but as "black girls need extra help because they are black & girls -- inherently less smart and talented". Now, I'm not saying that it _will_ backfire(I guess it probably won't) but it _may_. Also, the a…

Come back when black women run the Federal Reserve and have corrupted it to their own benefit. Then, maybe, we can talk about "backfiring."

Re: Female Founders

#345

Post by pbhjpbhj » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:23 AM UTC

prayag wrote: post #340

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside: I've looked at that BlackGirlsCode link a bit more and I'm quite shocked that such segregation is encouraged, lauded even. Now there's some argument to support educating the sexes separately but if you're an asian girl living in Brooklyn (say) you can't go? Just because you're Asian ... ??? Really? What if you're half-Asian+half-African, how about your skins black but you're South American. Damn. Do people rea…

The problem is that you don't understand what racism is. Racism isn't just treating someone differently because she belongs to a different race. Racism has more to do with power dynamics than with color of a person's skin. For example, just because a college has different standards of admission for different races to promote diversity is not racism but to give preferential treatment to the group of people who have mo…

It is racism. It's just that it's racism you appear to like.

Re: Female Founders

#346

Post by hnriot » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:25 AM UTC

prayag wrote: post #340

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside: I've looked at that BlackGirlsCode link a bit more and I'm quite shocked that such segregation is encouraged, lauded even. Now there's some argument to support educating the sexes separately but if you're an asian girl living in Brooklyn (say) you can't go? Just because you're Asian ... ??? Really? What if you're half-Asian+half-African, how about your skins black but you're South American. Damn. Do people rea…

The problem is that you don't understand what racism is. Racism isn't just treating someone differently because she belongs to a different race. Racism has more to do with power dynamics than with color of a person's skin. For example, just because a college has different standards of admission for different races to promote diversity is not racism but to give preferential treatment to the group of people who have mo…

While that's an interesting view, it's also wrong. It might make for a good way of justifying things in your mind, you should really take a look at the more common definitions of racism to understand why this point of view you have in one held by a minority of people.

Re: Female Founders

#347

Post by rhizome » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:26 AM UTC

crassus wrote: post #270

mikeleeorg wrote: post #213

My main takeaway from reading this article and the comments here is: The awareness of this problem is still very nascent and more & more solutions are emerging, as are criticisms of people who are beginning to acknowledge this problem. To hopefully steer this in another direction, and because I have a little girl, what are some resources you all have seen that can help girls become interested and go into technical di…

And what are you going to do if your daughter wants to be a veterinarian? Is that a problem?

Do you not know that Veterinary Medicine is heavily populated with women?

Re: Female Founders

#348

Post by mcantelon » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:28 AM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #315

nether wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, but that's just one quote of his (he's still alive btw). Here's another: > The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can’t make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects…

Mm. But notice the difference in delivery of those two quotes. This one concerns itself with a straight true statement (progress is at odds with tradition). The worst you can say here is that he says conservatives "whine". Much unlike the other one which implies that leftists are all about power as opposed to what they say they are.

If he's an example of tribalism, as you claimed earlier, then he should be aligned with a tribe. "The conservatives are fools" is a fairly unambiguous denunciation of that tribe. Regardless of whether you feel he favors one over the other, he clearly rejects both.

Re: Female Founders

#349

Post by wanda » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:30 AM UTC

stephp wrote: post #300

mikeleeorg wrote: post #213

My main takeaway from reading this article and the comments here is: The awareness of this problem is still very nascent and more & more solutions are emerging, as are criticisms of people who are beginning to acknowledge this problem. To hopefully steer this in another direction, and because I have a little girl, what are some resources you all have seen that can help girls become interested and go into technical di…

To add my own experiential insight as a female who started coding at 11 (without the aid or encouragment of a parent like you!)... Reflecting on my thought processes at that age, I remember it being entirely about 2 things: 1. Expression. Nothing could have sounded more dull than building aimlessly-- I wanted to DESIGN. (My definition of this being "carrying out a specific communicative purpose through look and funct…

>"expression" >"design" >"communicative purpose" >"social dynamics" >"affect people with what I was making" >"impressing friends/boyfriends"

>"coding" >websites

No need to declare that you're a blogger. It's obvious.

Re: Female Founders

#350

Post by SamBoogie » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 12:30 AM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #303

mikeleeorg wrote: post #213

My main takeaway from reading this article and the comments here is: The awareness of this problem is still very nascent and more & more solutions are emerging, as are criticisms of people who are beginning to acknowledge this problem. To hopefully steer this in another direction, and because I have a little girl, what are some resources you all have seen that can help girls become interested and go into technical di…

Aside: I've looked at that BlackGirlsCode link a bit more and I'm quite shocked that such segregation is encouraged, lauded even. Now there's some argument to support educating the sexes separately but if you're an asian girl living in Brooklyn (say) you can't go? Just because you're Asian ... ??? Really? What if you're half-Asian+half-African, how about your skins black but you're South American. Damn. Do people rea…

Hey I'm a white dude and I've worked with Black Girls Code on a few workshops. Just FYI girls of any race are allowed, it's just that this particular group caters primarily to black girls.

I'd say from the outside looking in it is a thorny subject, but in my observance BGC are good people who care about their community and are giving back to it through the knowledge and resources they've accrued.