Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest • Hacker News Board

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#11

Post by BhavdeepSethi » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:40 PM UTC

infosample wrote: post #7

BhavdeepSethi wrote: post #5

Isn't this wrong at some level? I support the idea of promoting programs like Women In Engg., but hiring based on race/gender is so wrong. Do you lower your hiring bar to get the numbers you've aimed for? And assuming some of these employees turn out to be under-performing, how do you deal with the appraisal process? I'm not sure if Pinterest posted this article with some other intent (like having more support progra…

Assuming a different race/gender is under the bar or will under-perform seems discriminatory.

I never said that they will. I'm just wondering how are they gonna do things differently to meet those numbers. I'm sure their current hiring process isn't biased towards a particular race/gender. To make it more balanced, are they planning to have a different hiring bar?

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#12

Post by Nadya » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:43 PM UTC

comrh wrote: post #9

BhavdeepSethi wrote: post #5

Isn't this wrong at some level? I support the idea of promoting programs like Women In Engg., but hiring based on race/gender is so wrong. Do you lower your hiring bar to get the numbers you've aimed for? And assuming some of these employees turn out to be under-performing, how do you deal with the appraisal process? I'm not sure if Pinterest posted this article with some other intent (like having more support progra…

If you have 9 men who apply and 1 woman and they're all of equal skill, chances are a man will get it purely on probability.

And it would be discriminatory to give the job to the women purely based on her gonads in such a scenario. Benevolent sexism is still sexism, but it seems people only care about it when it comes to holding doors rather than holding jobs.

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#13

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:44 PM UTC

rheydrichSS wrote: post #10

BhavdeepSethi wrote: post #5

Isn't this wrong at some level? I support the idea of promoting programs like Women In Engg., but hiring based on race/gender is so wrong. Do you lower your hiring bar to get the numbers you've aimed for? And assuming some of these employees turn out to be under-performing, how do you deal with the appraisal process? I'm not sure if Pinterest posted this article with some other intent (like having more support progra…

For a site whose chief technical accomplishment is to allow women to pin and share cutesy images, I'm not sure having top talent really matters that much.

Congratulations on illustrating the problem of sexism in tech so well.

Your interest in the content they host has zero relevance to the technical challenges they face as a platform and heavily trafficked website.

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#14

Post by netfire » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:48 PM UTC

rheydrichSS wrote: post #10

BhavdeepSethi wrote: post #5

Isn't this wrong at some level? I support the idea of promoting programs like Women In Engg., but hiring based on race/gender is so wrong. Do you lower your hiring bar to get the numbers you've aimed for? And assuming some of these employees turn out to be under-performing, how do you deal with the appraisal process? I'm not sure if Pinterest posted this article with some other intent (like having more support progra…

For a site whose chief technical accomplishment is to allow women to pin and share cutesy images, I'm not sure having top talent really matters that much.

Really? Pinterest is ranked #16 by Alexa in the US for internet traffic[1]. Do you really think running such a site with that much traffic doesn't require top talent?

[1] http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#15

Post by rheydrichSS » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:50 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #13

rheydrichSS wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a site whose chief technical accomplishment is to allow women to pin and share cutesy images, I'm not sure having top talent really matters that much.

Congratulations on illustrating the problem of sexism in tech so well. Your interest in the content they host has zero relevance to the technical challenges they face as a platform and heavily trafficked website.

I'd rather see more top women doctors, scientists, lawyers, civi, biomedical and chemical engineers. Not sure what having more women sit in front of a computer screen writing CRUD apps all day does for equality.

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#16

Post by cryowaffle » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:50 PM UTC

Bar charts should be sorted with the biggest ones at the top. It looks wierd the way it is. And why do all of the Latino parts have a "@" next to them when a "*" is used to reference?

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#17

Post by xanderstrike » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:51 PM UTC

infosample wrote: post #7

BhavdeepSethi wrote: post #5

Isn't this wrong at some level? I support the idea of promoting programs like Women In Engg., but hiring based on race/gender is so wrong. Do you lower your hiring bar to get the numbers you've aimed for? And assuming some of these employees turn out to be under-performing, how do you deal with the appraisal process? I'm not sure if Pinterest posted this article with some other intent (like having more support progra…

Assuming a different race/gender is under the bar or will under-perform seems discriminatory.

This is why the discussion can't even happen, and why companies and universities still enforce percentages for underprivileged groups even though it is obvious discrimination (but it's "good" discrimination! Give me a break).

Person 1 says that enforcing a 50 people of type A and 50 people of type B when the number of qualified candidates is 20 and 80 will result in either hiring significantly fewer people in general, or hiring under qualified people of type A. People of type B are being passed over because of their race/gender/ethnicity. This is discrimination.

Person 2 says that implying that anyone of type A could be under qualified is itself discrimination, and this possibility should not be addressed or considered. Nothing can change because the issue cannot be discussed.

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#18

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:51 PM UTC

rheydrichSS wrote: post #15

ceejayoz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congratulations on illustrating the problem of sexism in tech so well. Your interest in the content they host has zero relevance to the technical challenges they face as a platform and heavily trafficked website.

I'd rather see more top women doctors, scientists, lawyers, civi, biomedical and chemical engineers. Not sure what having more women sit in front of a computer screen writing CRUD apps all day does for equality.

I'm really having a hard time imagining you're concerned about equality given the username.

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#19

Post by mizzack » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:53 PM UTC

Not enforcing the same hiring quotas on leadership positions, I see.

Re: Our plan for a more diverse Pinterest

#20

Post by thadd » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 7:54 PM UTC

This seems like it's pursuing skin-deep diversity. Diversity of thought is much more interesting to me, and probably much more apt to drive profits than this.