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Diversity and Startups

blog.ycombinator.com

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101–110 of 218 posts

Re: Diversity and Startups

#101

Post by lzecon »

throwaway420 wrote: post #97

> We’re encouraging our startups to get HR infrastructure in place earlier. If there's one thing that a fast and nimble startup DOES NOT NEED, it's HR drones trying to assert themselves into the startup. This is great news for us that compete with YC companies because it means that you're going to be handcuffing yourselves and bogging yourselves down employees who are literally a negative to the bottom line. > Specif…

HR for startups wouldn't and shouldn't be like HR for big companies. It doesn't have to slow a company down at all, and it's definitely a function that can enhance a company culture in really positive ways without dampening it.

However, if you think sexual harassment doesn't happen in small startups, you're not paying attention. At the end of the day, HR is a mediator for the company to protect it from lawsuits. HR can stop a little issue from turning into a big, expensive issue, which is positive for both the company and employees.

Re: Diversity and Startups

#103

Post by mmodahl »

throwaway420 wrote: post #97

> We’re encouraging our startups to get HR infrastructure in place earlier. If there's one thing that a fast and nimble startup DOES NOT NEED, it's HR drones trying to assert themselves into the startup. This is great news for us that compete with YC companies because it means that you're going to be handcuffing yourselves and bogging yourselves down employees who are literally a negative to the bottom line. > Specif…

> In other words, you want to address diversity by stamping out any ideas that are contrary to the modern politically correct BS that most people here are dulled into believing.

My natural reaction to this comment is Plonk.

But I realize that is only perpetuating the problem. I have the luxury of ignoring you. I have the luxury of ignoring whoever I want to. Many people don't.

And maybe that is exactly what you are trying to point out: if we try to solve this by using group consensus to ignore/block/killfile idiots/fools/bigots, what happens 1-on-1.

So in response: I also have experienced situations where HR doesn't really add anything, but maybe someone can come up with a way to do HR.

I don't think it is just politically correct BS.

Re: Diversity and Startups

#104

Post by spindritf »

king_jester wrote: post #73
jfc wrote: post #30

On some level, the tech world isn't living up to its own principles, as it relates to diversity and inclusion (D&I). Many seem to view D&I as being somewhat external to the tech space--it's an issue that other industries have been discussing and is becoming more prominent in tech. I would posit that the underlying principles of the tech world share a number of core values with D&I. Think about the open source softwar…

> Think about the open source software movement (OSS). One crucial perspective that the OSS shares with D&I is that both view discrimination as an impediment to progress. OSS licenses include several non-discrimination clauses (economic, field of endeavor, other restrictions). The licenses go to great lengths to ensure the technology is available to everyone. While licenses may have clauses that deal with some kinds…

OSS communities are not inclusive

Community or inclusion aspect is a red herring imho. I use opensource software all day every day and barely ever even communicate with its authors.

I'm willing to bet that majority of open source code is just some dude banging it out in his free time with maybe an occasional question or a patch if he's really lucky. No community at all, just a repo, a package, and a few stars on GitHub.

Re: Diversity and Startups

#105

Post by thrownaway999 »

minimaxir wrote: post #2

> Specifically, we’d like the community to help by downvoting comments that make HN an unwelcoming place to anyone. That's only a solution for half of the problem on Hacker News. The other half is that most submissions about gender/diversity get flagged to death very consistently, which make it difficult to have any meaningful discussion about these topics.

Do you really want a meaningful discussion, or a discussion where PC opinions are upvoted and critical voices are downvoted/banned by dang?

There are a lot of us who think that the code you write matters more than the gonads you carry or the color of your skin. We're quickly becoming pariahs as our workplaces become more politicized.

I don't know why more people don't understand that equality of opportunity is perfectly compatible with inequality of outcomes. Does nobody read Harrison Bergeron anymore?

Re: Diversity and Startups

#106

Post by thomasfromcdnjs »

king_jester wrote: post #87
thomasfromcdnjs wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just hi-hacking this comment to talk about the same line. Everybody needs to stop with this "white-male" nonsense, which is inherently racist. There is much cultural diversity among what is considered "white" and that is painfully obvious. The "black" American guy and "white" American gal might have more in common with each other than the "white" Italian working in the cubicle next door. This also applies to the vast…

> Everybody needs to stop with this "white-male" nonsense, which is inherently racist. There is much cultural diversity among what is considered "white" and that is painfully obvious. The "black" American guy and "white" American gal might have more in common with each other than the "white" Italian working in the cubicle next door. This also applies to the vast spectrum of "Asians" whose cultures differ significantl…

I was just adding a point that is left out of these discussions more often than not. The point is that "white" people aren't unified because of their skin pigment. Europe is a major example and of course the never ending protestant and catholic wars around the globe.

> Talking about white people or even generalizing about white people is not racist. There is no institutional and systemic power backing discrimination against white people based on their skin color.

Unfortunately generalizing about white people is racist. And saying that it isn't, is a "systemic power backing discrimination" based on their skin color.

> On the basis of being white, you do not suffer increased chances of incarceration, lack of access to education, worse job opportunities, and so on.

This supports my original post, I think we should move away from skin pigment based judgements. Also I don't have any references at hand but I recall these statistics being heavily influenced by your socio-economic status. You could replace "white" with "middle to upper class".

> White identity is not the same as Asian identity and the issues facing Asian people do relate to racism. It is a false equivalence to compare whiteness to being Asian

I'm not sure what you meant by this point. But what I meant is that Italian's, Greek's, Irish, American' and Australian's don't fit neatly under the "white" banner and nor do Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian's and Korean's fit neatly under the "asian" banner.

> There is nothing wrong with a little self awareness of being a member of the dominant social group in tech.

"white" is not the master social group of tech nor do people walk around consciously identifying with the "white" group. The Tabs vs Spaces debate does not give a shit if your black or white, extend this to TDD debates, functional vs OOP etc.

Yes, I know racism exist.

Re: Diversity and Startups

#107

Post by [deleted] »

staunch wrote: post #41

What about class? Ivy League Parents -> Private School -> SAT tutoring -> Ivy League College -> Investment by Ivy League VC -> Acquired by Ivy League Tech Company vs Poor parents -> Shitty Public School -> High School Drop Out -> Programmer at Ivy League Tech Company (maybe) There's a reason most of the big tech companies are from Ivy League graduates. And you can't ignore how many successful startups only happened b…

[deleted]

Re: Diversity and Startups

#108

Post by mrkurt »

_pius wrote: post #4

Glad the issue's being addressed, but sad that it dodges race almost completely. Making diversity all about gender is effectively playing the topic on "easy mode." Kinda lame, honestly.

You can't tackle, or even really talk about, all diversity problems in tech startups at once. The reality is that it's currently a "whitelist" (no pun intended) problem, not targeted exclusion.

Attractive, white, young, well connected males who can afford to live in the Bay Area get a disproportionate amount of startup funding. Diversity is an enormous problem on many different axes.

You use "easy mode" as a pejorative, but YC should be tackling an enormous problem narrowly. There's no other way to make much progress.

Re: Diversity and Startups

#109

Post by thrownaway999 »

Could someone convince me why I should care about the gonads and skin color of the people writing code for me? Does anybody really think YC's performance would be better if their founder classes looked like a diversity picture from a college recruiting brochure?

Re: Diversity and Startups

#110

Post by adamzerner »

adamzerner wrote: post #67

1) I suspect that the bias against girls is "I don't think she'll be effective" rather than "I am sexist and don't want girls to succeed". 2) The bias doesn't seem to be that strong to me. This is a simplification, but I'd guess that girls start with about a 10% handicap. Meaning that in close cases, girls lose out. But in the cases of girls who clearly have ability, I don't see the bias against them as something tha…

Sorry, but I think you guys are taking the downvoting a little too far. There's a difference between being unwelcoming and being critical.
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