I'm 37, and honestly this has started to scare me over the past couple years.
Ditto (also 37)
Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
71–80 of 261 posts
Re: Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of things do narcissists do on the weekend that would be specifically limited by age?
Many SV startups are proxies for being a close knit frat. Hiring for "cultural fit" has gone way off the wacko deep end. (Did google start this? "Oh, you don't have a degree? We won't hire you. Oh, but you do make your own beer and wear funny shoes? Cultural fit! Hired!") Your job description skills matter, but only if you also are a functional alcoholic who is addicted to playing online games for 30+ hours a week in…
Huge fan of the Xbox, personally, but I'm inclined to agree with you.
Re: Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
#73Isn't this partly because SV is most interested in developing social apps for hip teenagers? It's probably difficult for a 40 something year old to know how to design an application for this crowd.
I am not convinced that there is something inherently special with the ways young people consume technology that only other young people have mystical insight towards. There are people in their fifties on HN, tweeting away before twitter was cool and avidly using Pinterest. I think it is more about what you find interesting rather than how old you are. After all, I would think that 80-90% of toys are designed by peop…
Well the canonical example would be facebook, designed by a young guy specifically for young people.
I'm not sure what the mean age of the early adopters of stuff like pinterest is but I'm guessing under 30.
Re: Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
#74I've had someone in a YC funded company flat-out tell me that it was going to be a problem for me. (43, and no, he wasn't in the process of hiring me.)
This is America. Get litigious! Things are illegal for a reason. They can't ask about your age or family status. When your CEO gets up and says "We don't hire anybody over 28 years old," a dozen lawsuits should be filed within a week. It's amazing people let other people get away with ruling the world this way. *edit: I had over/under switched in the CEO quote. Fixed.
What's "family status"? AFAIK there is no protected "family status". The typical protected classes are race, sex, religion, age, and in some places, sexual orientation.
Re: Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
#75Silicon Valley has got to be crawling with older, talented-as-hell developers. People (or at least some people) remain awesome with age. I'd hire 'em.
Re: Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
#76My first thought: narcissism . Narcissists hate being around older people because it reminds them that, some day, they'll be old and unable to do the sorts of things that narcissists tend to do on the weekend. I don't think that all founders are narcissists, but if you want to be able to hire narcissists (which 75% of execs are, let's be honest) then ageism becomes practical, sadly. Then again, I think some of it is…
What kind of things do narcissists do on the weekend that would be specifically limited by age?
Narcissism doesn't seem to me to be a life sentence sort of thing, although it can be. I think that the general point being made is that narcissists tend to be younger, and then many of us grow out of it. Whether it's the realization of my own mortality, being in a serious relationship, or (just even thinking about) having a child, I definitely can feel my perspective broadening as I get older, growing from the laser-like focus I used to have solely on myself, to now encompass the happiness and well-being of those around me.
So maybe it's not the narcissists are limited by age, but rather that age limits narcissism.
Re: Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
#77When you get older, several things work against you to jump into SV culture: - You are not as easily impressed by or eager to try new technologies. (many of which are new spins on old ideas you've seen before.) - You fail to see the appeal of the types of technology younger people are using. Or, you see the switching costs as too high to move away from what you are using now. - Your lack of ignorance leads you to (of…
> Engineers are naturally skeptical, but this skepticism can grow out of control.
You've hit on one of the most important quality filters here. If someone is really, deeply intelligent, one of their analysis tasks will include a diligent try at making your idea work. The weirder your idea, the more curious about it they will be.
Re: Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eventually, some enterprising law firm is going to make a bundle. The legal culture in SV (WSGR and their ilk) are not steeped in class-action suits, several folks are going to get their asses kicked from the legal defense, if nothing else.
This should have happened long ago, and from what I have heard, Y-Combinator would be the best place to start.
You're making serious accusations against an individual and a company based solely on things you have read about on the Internet or heard anecdotally.
Wake up. Discrimination is not cut and dry, law is not cut and dry, and reality is not cut and dry.
Re: Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
#79The thing is, Randy did get hired once he shaved his head and started dressing down. This isn't ageism, it's a filter against older people who are unable to adapt themselves to the changing environment. It's like classic cars: no-one is going to buy a neglected rust bucket that hasn't been serviced since the 1960s. Yet if the car is loved and cared for it can be worth millions ( http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/fer…
What I'm hearing from many posters in these comments is my level of fashion-conciousness indicates how innovative I am. I think it's a big mistake to judge a candidate's aptitude for the work by how hip they look. This is the last industry I thought we'd have to face this kind of thing in.
Well, wait. I've always said this too: it shouldn't matter how I dress. But the truth is that dress is very frequently an indicator of how aware one is. It's a social consciousness that is sometimes reflected in other things (like being able to adapt to a new technology).
Look at this comic: http://xkcd.com/1139/ - the playground jerks call the guy a loser because he isn't playing the social game. They are right that he is "losing" the social playground game. He doesn't care, but that's kind of what these startups are looking for.
Re: Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
#80I've had someone in a YC funded company flat-out tell me that it was going to be a problem for me. (43, and no, he wasn't in the process of hiring me.)
It's not clear from your comment if it was an interview situation, or if it was casual conversation. If the latter, you should call them out. I'm a fellow 43-year-old. I invest in early-stage startups, and that includes YC companies. I wouldn't invest in a company with that attitude for a very simple reason: they are handicapping themselves. I know what I'm capable of doing right now compared to when I was 25. Maybe…
It's not clear from your comment if it was an interview situation
It was not. Added one word to clarify.