Earlier quoted context omitted.
(approximate) ages on my team at Google: 26, 32 (me), 35, ~55, ~60, ~70.
Wow, a 70 year old engineer?!
Ken Thompson is 71: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson and he still has quite a go at programming.
Getting to work on diversity at Google
151–160 of 252 posts
Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a Google employee, the reason I'd like to improve the diversity of my work place is so I can work with more than just a bunch of white dudes. I mean, white dudes are great and all, but I really value diversity of opinion and experience in my life.
Of all the places to force new perspective onto yourself the workplace just seems like an odd choice to me. If I want to experience different cultures a corporate office is probably the absolute worst place I can think of to do so.
Uhhh I don't want to "experience different cultures". People of other races and genders are not weird aliens that are going to challenge me. It's not like I'm asking to import some Ugandan field workers as colleagues. I just want to engage with more, different kinds of people from my own society. There are a lot of them out there.
Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
My response was flippant, which is probably why some people have been downvoting it, but I'm legitimately glad if they're working to make their hiring pool more representative of the population. But at the same time, it's hardly their fault or responsibility to "fix" it if universities just aren't graduating people in those proportions. This came right after I'd read a PBS article that claimed "Google finally disclos…
> I'm legitimately glad if they're working to make their hiring pool more representative of the population What is the benefit of this?
because programming is the new reading. The sooner we get everyone on board with that the faster we can start automating things and changing the world.
Also because I for one am very sick of dealing with all the brogrammers in SF :/
Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Between the lines they are indeed hinting towards "soft quotas". No, they're not. They're talking about increasing the number of qualified candidates in the recruiting pipeline. I've said it before in this thread and I'll repeat it here: Google wants to hire _as many qualified candidates as possible_. We've got a huge pile of money but not enough people!
[deleted]
You should be sorry for having such a persecution complex. How you can read the original article as an attack on white people is astonishing.
It is beyond question (although I'm sure you question it) that white people are by far the most privileged group of people around today. To see yourself is a victim because of your race and gender is simply an excuse for whatever insecurities you might have.
Most people in this world are born with a tremendous handicap. You had an advantage* . If you still feel threatened, then I'm sorry for you.
( * You may have been disadvantaged in other ways, but by being white you do have an advantage, whether you like it or not.)
Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google
#155Ah, the US, where blatantly racist categorization of humans is used to prove your not racist.
Seriously, how many other countries divide people in "black" and "white"? Or is it even legal to do so?
Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure I would want to take this to its logical conclusion. Imagine if it was mandated that every female engineer had to participate in university events. Now the job responsibilities are different between the genders, and you've made the problem worse on a different axis (equality of job responsibilities). Think about all the articles and blog posts written by female engineers who attend conferences and are in…
Do you seriously think they don't have a surfeit of volunteers? C'mon.
Probably not. It's usually difficult to get an engineer to waste an entire day or two visiting a university for recruiting.
Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it's not Google's job, but Google is in a good position to fix upstream. One of the things you repeatedly hear from girls/young women considering CS is that there are no role models. Sending female engineers to university events is a small step, but it can have huge impact. In a nutshell, it's playing the long game :)
I'm not sure I would want to take this to its logical conclusion. Imagine if it was mandated that every female engineer had to participate in university events. Now the job responsibilities are different between the genders, and you've made the problem worse on a different axis (equality of job responsibilities). Think about all the articles and blog posts written by female engineers who attend conferences and are in…
Don't mandate it then? There are other ways of convincing people besides bossing them around.
Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it is their responsibility to fix it. This seems to contain two embedded and unexamined assumptions. 1. That this is a problem. If women prefer not to go into sciency fields (other than biology) why is that inherently a problem? Do you think women are too dumb to make their own choices? 2. That it can reasonably be "fixed". Spending more money on education must be the most commonly employed and most universally fai…
#1 was not an "embedded an unexamined assumption", it was the explicit condition of the stated conditional. ("If they have reasons to prefer a diverse workforce...") #2 is, insofar as it appears to be an "embedded and unexamined assumption", simply a result of brevity in omitting "...insofar as doing so is practical without costs that make it a net loss" at the end. Obvious qualification is obvious. > I would also qu…
>Obvious qualification is obvious.
Don't form arguments this way. Dumping tautologies into an argument sounds childish.
Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm legitimately glad if they're working to make their hiring pool more representative of the population What is the benefit of this?
because programming is the new reading. The sooner we get everyone on board with that the faster we can start automating things and changing the world. Also because I for one am very sick of dealing with all the brogrammers in SF :/
I don't understand this sentiment. Once something is automated by one person, that same work can apply to everyone. There is no reason everyone needs the skills to do that. It's the same with any other skill.
"statistical analysis is the new reading. the sooner we get everyone on board with that the faster we can start new scientific experiments and change the world."
Reading is special because it's required to take in new knowledge and communicate quickly.
Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
because programming is the new reading. The sooner we get everyone on board with that the faster we can start automating things and changing the world. Also because I for one am very sick of dealing with all the brogrammers in SF :/
I don't understand this sentiment. Once something is automated by one person, that same work can apply to everyone. There is no reason everyone needs the skills to do that. It's the same with any other skill. "statistical analysis is the new reading. the sooner we get everyone on board with that the faster we can start new scientific experiments and change the world." Reading is special because it's required to take…
Automated processes can be customized.