Computer Science Education

People often forget, but educating the masses is a challenge that was discussed in length by the Founding Fathers of America as being a cornerstone of a successful democracy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers

Education of the masses was believed to be instrumental to avoiding tyranny of the majority which was a very real concern (especially since so many Founding Fathers came to America escaping religious prosecution as the minority faith). It's my personal belief that the difficulty in achieving "sufficient" widespread education ultimately shaped the decision to model America's self-governance after a Republic with non-elected checks and balances (included non-elected ones e.g. Judicial) rather than a more direct/representative democracy.

The pseudo-perversion of the Electoral College leading to highly correlated Executive Branch elections with the popular vote I think undermines this system and heightens the education requirement of the average citizen.

Also, on a side note, the lack of perfect information has significant effects on Economic systems leading to market externalities.

> > I have yet to see a woman studying a STEM subject who is very skilled at it and made such complaint.

> Seriously, you should actually talk to some of these women about their experiences.

I have.

> Antinatalism for the win.

Although I couldn't disagree more with your philosophy, I strongly encourage you to continue pursuing it in your personal life.

In the name of mankind: thank you for not having children.

> It's a wrong assumption that diversity of demographics is the same as diversity of thought. It's also wrong to assume that a lack of diversity in demographics automatically equates to a lack of diversity in thought. > A competitive advantage would be gained through diversity of thought. Making gender, skin color or any other superficial characteristic into a numbers game in order to look diverse is in no way a competitive advantage.

Well, not really. I mean, not at all. I appreciate you took your time to tell me I'm wrong, but you might want to support it with something more solid. Diversity of thought is not just what happens when you get two people together. If those people have a very similar upbringing, chances are they think in a similar way. They might reach different conclusions and one of them might reach the right one, but they might be missing points of view that could increase their accuracy when making decisions.

Your upbringing shapes how you think, what you fear, what you wish. Of course even inside the same communities very similar people might have completely different trains of thought, but what you call "superficial characteristics" as gender or skin colour it is (unfortunately) not superficial in many places. Many men can't even imagine the things a woman has to endure at the workplace, or your skin colour when you're a minority.

Even things like being a native speaker of a foreign tongue shapes how you think. The culture of your hometown, province, region, country defines you, too.

If you've lived a different life because of your gender, ethnicity, passport, disability, country of birth or even family wealth chances are you can bring quite different points of view than people with different gender, ethnicity, passport, disability, country of birth or even family wealth.

There are studies that show correlation between higher diversity and better performance (Forbes, McKinsey).

P.S.: I suspect you're the one that downvoted me (just above 500 karma, only reply to my comment). I appreciate you followed up with a comment, but downvotes are not "I disagree" signals. Please learn to be a bit more tolerant with people that does not think like you, instead of trying to shut their voice down.

It's quite interesting how manipulative and abusive this whole conversation about CS education, employment, and immigration is. The core driver and source of America's problems in this field go back many years. If immigration were not a lucrative opportunity for companies to exploit with manipulations about how there is just not enough American talent and they had actually supported and pushed for quality education back in the 70s and 80s even, the education system would have been reformed and retuned to support the new digital economy and opened opportunities to the working and black communities of America.

At the core of the CS and immigration issue is the fact that corporations, especially Google, MS, etc. back then, manipulated the government and policies and sold out society and America in order to make quick profits by devising those destructive H1B visas and outsourcing their development to foreign countries in order to convert wage and salary deltas into short term profits. We act as though the tech industry/sector is some magnanimous and benevolent force, when in reality they have been corroding society and avoiding their responsibly for decades now to the point where even the CEOs are now foreign nationals with all the interests one would expect of foreign national that are not American.

When the CEOs object to the travel ban that doesn't even affect them, or the restrictions on H1B, and the risk of being held to account for selling out the USA by outsourcing their costs to foreign nations while basking in the benefits the USA bestows upon them, they are not interested in the USA or its people, the society that made their very corporation's existence and human advancement through the technology that was developed possible. It is the purest definition of exploitation and abuse. The duplicitous, abusive, and ulterior agendas and motivations that drive these companies, especially since so much good will and magnanimity is ascribed to them.