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100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

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Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#61

Post by smanuel »

onion2k wrote: post #52
smanuel wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we need to break the 'privileged white male' echo chamber that keeps coming up with the same dull ideas Can you elaborate on the definition of "privileged white male"?

I'm going to assume you understand the 'white male' aspect. 'Privileged' in the sense that they came from a middle-income home where they had access to things like a computer and books, were fortunate to attend schools that were reasonably well funded, had the opportunity to attend college and university, didn't live in fear of crime throughout their childhood, had outdoor space to play in, had good access to healthc…

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure you don't put all white people in one basket, labeled privileged.

So, by your definition there should be "white non-privileged people" as well, right? This means we shouldn't talk about black, white, etc. people but we should talk about having more non-privileged people in tech?

I like this thinking but I don't understand what should be the mechanisms for making it happen. The only universal (both for privileged and non-privileged) unit of measurement I can think of is talent. Which brings us back to square one - we need more talented people in tech. Which means that people who are responsible for hiring other people should not only look at prior experience, education, etc. but should also be able to discover talent. Which is hard but I think that's the right direction.

Am I right?

Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#62

Post by dudul »

"why pay all that money for college when you can go to coding school for a fraction of the price, make over six figures, and get equity in a company?"

You realize that most engineers do have a college degree right? You realize that most engineers are not dumb script kiddies who went through 10 PHP tutorials to learn how to code?

"I definitely feel like my high school guidance counselor dropped the ball on that one."

Yeah, cause please don't take any responsibility for not doing the work of thinking and planning your own future.

Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#63

Post by yummyfajitas »

onion2k wrote: post #55
yummyfajitas wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets be concrete. I'm streaming realtime events and then running statistical models on the datastream in order to manipulate user behavior. What "different perspectives" are offered by women, non-Asian minorities or LGBQT+? Is there a secret prediction method that whites/asians don't know about? A special LGBQT+ streaming architecture? On several occasions I've joined a company and been the only diversity carrier. I…

I'm streaming realtime events and then running statistical models on the datastream in order to manipulate user behavior. Having a more diverse team that includes someone with a more emotionally-driven perspective could lead to someone asking the question "Is the way we're manipulating user behavior actually ethical?" This isn't about finding different technical solutions to problems; it's about finding different pro…

The idea of an emotionally driven person making ethical decisions scares the crap out of me. For example, empathy (a popular mode of emotional decisionmaking in ethics) is known to be racist:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3108582/

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

And most emotionally driven ethical discussions on HN lean towards popularity contests - compare the outcry against online harassment of that gamergate girl to the online harassment of Charles Carreon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Carreon), for example.

But even if you are right, what does diversity in the traditional sense of your post above have to do with it? Are you suggesting that women/LGBTQ+ people are more emotional and less rational?

Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#64

Post by blackThrowaway »

yardie wrote: post #19
punkbit wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't need more women, black, latino, white, red, green people in tech, we need talented people, regardless of how they look like. We need less bullshit, people who produce sane code and go home early to work on what matters about us, our communities, our families, our education! I'm full stack dev living in London, I'm black, huge afro, piercings, english is not my first language, skateboarder, into punk music, e…

Yes, we do need more black people in tech. And you get more black people in tech by having black people in tech. Going out to recruit, mentor, and support black tech candidates and workers. Seriously, the latest black YC candidate was a prison messaging service. More power to them but for a lot of blacks in the US the 2 paths that earn the most publicity are sports and criminal activity. Even when I was a teenager an…

I'm am assuming that you are black, right? I am also black and your post causes me to frown. How does being less wealthy get tangled up in your race?

What your anecdote appears to describe is economic inequality, not race inequality.

Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#65

Post by rickyc091 »

collyw wrote: post #4

Interestingly I see a lot of comments saying we need more women in tech, but none saying we need more black people in tech. I have worked with a number of women, and only ever seen one consultant come in who was black. Are we more racist than sexist? (I see plenty of Indians however, maybe a disproportionate amount compared to the general population?). I am based in Europe, and I do think there is less of a cultural…

I work in the education system and the primary reason there's been a lot of push for women in tech is due to the negativity around technology / computers. Girl enjoy the use of technology, but they would never pursue it as a career since it's not the "cool" thing to do. You get labeled as a geek, a nerd, etc. You basically become an outsider. When you're young, it's all about reputation. This is why people are trying to get girls interested in technology at an early age and change their mindset.

Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#66

Post by FLUX-YOU »

dudul wrote: post #62

"why pay all that money for college when you can go to coding school for a fraction of the price, make over six figures, and get equity in a company?" You realize that most engineers do have a college degree right? You realize that most engineers are not dumb script kiddies who went through 10 PHP tutorials to learn how to code? "I definitely feel like my high school guidance counselor dropped the ball on that one."…

>You realize that most engineers do have a college degree right? You realize that most engineers are not dumb script kiddies who went through 10 PHP tutorials to learn how to code?

This doesn't match the dialogue I see here and other places about college graduates and/or job candidates who can't fizzbuzz or have no other skills required in the industry. Although I think it would be nice if we simultaneously had a steady supply of skilled engineers, constantly increasing salaries, and constantly increasing demand.

Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#67

Post by nailer »

lsiebert wrote: post #14
nailer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says that he's still in San Francisco in his bio. Which is good because: a) he's on the front page of HN b) he's available for tech legal roles c) he seems like a pretty capable guy

He left atlanta is I think the point.

Oh you're right! I was reading off a tiny screen and evidently misread - sorry rjbwork!

Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#68

Post by benihana »

santaclaus wrote: post #9
mindcrime wrote: post #3

The comment about bias against going to school in the South really resonates. I mean, in one sense it's hilarious to think that there are people who don't realize that schools like UNC-CH, Georgia Tech, Clemson, NCSU, Campbell, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Virginia Tech, William & Mary, etc. are great schools. But in another sense it's very, very sad. And I almost find it weirder to hear that about…

Is there really a bias against schools south of the Mason-Dixon? I feel like most of NYC went to Duke. Tim Cook also seems to be doing alright.

I graduated from Florida State University on the cheap a decade ago and now live in New York City. I don't think it's a bias as much as it's NYC is really up its own ass. If you didn't go to an expensive private college they're aware of they don't care and assume that since they haven't heard of it, it sucks. Which seems true about any subject and New Yorkers.

Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#69

Post by gone35 »

onion2k wrote: post #55
yummyfajitas wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets be concrete. I'm streaming realtime events and then running statistical models on the datastream in order to manipulate user behavior. What "different perspectives" are offered by women, non-Asian minorities or LGBQT+? Is there a secret prediction method that whites/asians don't know about? A special LGBQT+ streaming architecture? On several occasions I've joined a company and been the only diversity carrier. I…

I'm streaming realtime events and then running statistical models on the datastream in order to manipulate user behavior. Having a more diverse team that includes someone with a more emotionally-driven perspective could lead to someone asking the question "Is the way we're manipulating user behavior actually ethical?" This isn't about finding different technical solutions to problems; it's about finding different pro…

"Having a more diverse team that includes someone with a more emotionally-driven perspective could lead to someone asking the question "Is the way we're manipulating user behavior actually ethical?" [Emphasis added]

Geez, I really hope that that was just an unfortunate turn of phrase. You can't possibly mean that non-(white-males) have a quote "more emotionally-driven perspective", do you?

Re: 100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

#70

Post by nailer »

smanuel wrote: post #61
onion2k wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to assume you understand the 'white male' aspect. 'Privileged' in the sense that they came from a middle-income home where they had access to things like a computer and books, were fortunate to attend schools that were reasonably well funded, had the opportunity to attend college and university, didn't live in fear of crime throughout their childhood, had outdoor space to play in, had good access to healthc…

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure you don't put all white people in one basket, labeled privileged . So, by your definition there should be "white non-privileged people" as well, right? This means we shouldn't talk about black, white, etc. people but we should talk about having more non-privileged people in tech? I like this thinking but I don't understand what should be the mechanisms for making it happen. The only…

+1. We need to be giving a leg up to the poor Ukrainian kid whose mother is a cleaner rather than giving it to a middle class kid just because the latter is black.

Many SF authoritarians would rather support the latter, even if they don't need help, simply based on skin colour, and a limited life experience that equates 'white' to 'middle class American'.

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