Live data from Hacker News

Google’s War Over the Sexes

nytimes.com

1–10 of 91 posts

Re: Google’s War Over the Sexes

#3
Maybe this isn't the public perception of tech jobs, but as a software engineer at my current company I collaborate far more than I did in my previous career as a consultant, have more opportunities to be creative, and get an extremely flexible schedule.

Even if you accept that there are biological differences between the sexes, the hypothesis that stereotypically female attributes/desires are not as compatible with tech jobs strikes me as very wrong.

Re: Google’s War Over the Sexes

#5
Compromise is useful and this was on point in that regard. A good counterpoint to Wojcicki's response. That said, compromise in this case may not be technically correct and talk of brogrammers won't get much traction with centrists like the original memos author who appears to be a follower of Haidt's line of thinking. Douthat makes a good point about the precariousness of walking this line.

Re: Google’s War Over the Sexes

#6
> But since the usual way to reintegrate the sexes is to have them marry one another and raise kids, what Silicon Valley probably needs right now more than either workplace anti-microaggression training or an alt-right underground is a basic friendliness to family, pregnancy and child rearing.

Prediction: this will be viciously misinterpreted on twitter as Douthat calling for women to stay at home and raise babies.

Re: Google’s War Over the Sexes

#7
post #2

Wow. A balanced mainstream story on the topic.

I'm impressed, too. Apart from the fact that it links to the crippled Gizmodo version of the memo (they still have the guts to call it 'full' in the title) instead of the real one https://diversitymemo.com/.

The references make the whole difference.

Re: Google’s War Over the Sexes

#8
The most troubling thing about this whole issue for me is the weird fetish about "biology" on both sides of the debate.

As Mr. Hume told us a few hundred years ago, nature simply is, and doesn't tell us what ought to be. As such I have trouble understanding why we are approaching the issue from this angle.

Instead of obsessing about biology, we should care about how we want our workplaces to look. And I would welcome a diverse workplace instead of male or female monoculture. We can shape how our society works, we're not slaves to nature.

I find this discussion funny in the context of say Israel having countless women serve in the army for decades now. Someone must have forgotten to tell them about their biological limitations. Having worked in China for a while, where as a result of the one child policy pretty much everybody is expected to start a fruitful career, women just worked and had children at the same time. Someone must have forgotten to tell them that this is impossible.

Re: Google’s War Over the Sexes

#9
At last a balanced story on the topic. The discussions online on this topic have been mind numbing - quoting out of context, ad hominem attacks, every bad form of arguments listed in PG's essay[1]. Twitter is the worst.

Almost makes me want to build a better debating platform.

[1] - http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html

Re: Google’s War Over the Sexes

#10
post #6

> But since the usual way to reintegrate the sexes is to have them marry one another and raise kids, what Silicon Valley probably needs right now more than either workplace anti-microaggression training or an alt-right underground is a basic friendliness to family, pregnancy and child rearing. Prediction: this will be viciously misinterpreted on twitter as Douthat calling for women to stay at home and raise babies.

He's calling for a reintegration of the sexes through marriage and children. While I wouldn't put words in his mouth as to "stay at home", he is for sure calling on women to raise babies. His repeated references to women as childbearers in the following paragraph don't help. The author appears to be stating that the solution to sexism is to have women marry the sexists and have their babies.
Post reply on HN