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Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

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Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#81

Post by freefrancisco »

pg wrote: post #50

The same arguments would prove that math isn't a meritocracy. Which it presumably isn't, entirely, but only because nothing is entirely. And if SV is only as much of a meritocracy as math, that's pretty good. Indeed, that's what the word means in ordinary usage.

That's an interesting question, is there an institution or subculture in the world that is more meritocratic than Silicon Valley? If there is, then the author's argument has some merit. If there isn't, then the author is wasting time attacking the one institution that comes the closest to embodying the meritocracy ideal. To what end?

Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#82

Post by SilasX »

mtrimpe wrote: post #58
pg wrote: post #50

The same arguments would prove that math isn't a meritocracy. Which it presumably isn't, entirely, but only because nothing is entirely. And if SV is only as much of a meritocracy as math, that's pretty good. Indeed, that's what the word means in ordinary usage.

Way to miss the point and exemplify it in the same breath. The article is about how SV thinks it's more meritocratic than it actually is and how this false pride is a problem in and of it's own. P.S. P.G. When this thread started I was almost tempted to make a snide comment saying "3.. 2.. 1.. Flagged off the front page." It actually took a bit over an hour but it's now indeed been flagged off of the front page despi…

"SV thinks it's extremely meritocratic. It's only very meritocratic. This is a big problem."

Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#83

Post by ForHackernews »

crusso wrote: post #78
ForHackernews wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if there really are a bunch of young white males with the right "pedigree" who are getting money thrown at them without having demonstrated any real merit, then I withdraw my objection That's exactly what happens. You are much, much more likely to get funded if you're a young white (or perhaps asian) guy doing an undergrad at Stanford than if you're a black woman studying at Berkeley. Now, you can hand-wave about c…

So where is your data showing that?

http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/venture-capital/venture-capit...

According to that report, 87% of funded founders are white; 92% of funded founders are male.

Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#84

Post by 21echoes »

pg wrote: post #50

The same arguments would prove that math isn't a meritocracy. Which it presumably isn't, entirely, but only because nothing is entirely. And if SV is only as much of a meritocracy as math, that's pretty good. Indeed, that's what the word means in ordinary usage.

Math is a field famously overrun with white men. Probably not the best comparison to make if you really want to talk about what a "meritocracy" should look like. Unless, of course, you think white men naturally have more merit than everyone else..

Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#85

Post by newnewnew »

ForHackernews wrote: post #62
jraines wrote: post #53

The war on the word "meritocracy" is just weird. You can just watch it bubble up through twitter to large blogs, to wired. The weird thing about it is the people who hate the word are arguing not against the actual usage -- "people who demonstrate their merit get ahead" -- but against the illiberal definition they've assigned to it: "people who have inherent merit get ahead". Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with the val…

> if there really are a bunch of young white males with the right "pedigree" who are getting money thrown at them without having demonstrated any real merit, then I withdraw my objection That's exactly what happens. You are much, much more likely to get funded if you're a young white (or perhaps asian) guy doing an undergrad at Stanford than if you're a black woman studying at Berkeley. Now, you can hand-wave about c…

What percentage of black female CS grads from Berkeley can't get their startups funded? It would surprise me to hear there were many, because the CS grads I've known from Berkeley are very good

Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#86

Post by 21echoes »

SilasX wrote: post #82
mtrimpe wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way to miss the point and exemplify it in the same breath. The article is about how SV thinks it's more meritocratic than it actually is and how this false pride is a problem in and of it's own. P.S. P.G. When this thread started I was almost tempted to make a snide comment saying "3.. 2.. 1.. Flagged off the front page." It actually took a bit over an hour but it's now indeed been flagged off of the front page despi…

"SV thinks it's extremely meritocratic. It's only very meritocratic. This is a big problem."

I would in no way say that SV is even very meritocratic. Compare start-up demographics numbers to population-at-large numbers... The fact that commenters like you would read this article, hopefully think for half a second, and then still insist that SV is "very meritocratic" is exactly the problem.

Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#87

Post by hacker789 »

mtrimpe wrote: post #58
pg wrote: post #50

The same arguments would prove that math isn't a meritocracy. Which it presumably isn't, entirely, but only because nothing is entirely. And if SV is only as much of a meritocracy as math, that's pretty good. Indeed, that's what the word means in ordinary usage.

Way to miss the point and exemplify it in the same breath. The article is about how SV thinks it's more meritocratic than it actually is and how this false pride is a problem in and of it's own. P.S. P.G. When this thread started I was almost tempted to make a snide comment saying "3.. 2.. 1.. Flagged off the front page." It actually took a bit over an hour but it's now indeed been flagged off of the front page despi…

In your mind, is it possible for someone to disagree with the article without "exemplifying the problem"?

That's the issue with first-world "social-justice warriors", like the author of the linked opinion piece. If you disagree with their premises on factual grounds, you're labeled as part of the problem. It makes honest discussion impossible.

For example, you completely ignored the point that PG made. You didn't even attempt to address it. You just labeled him as the enemy and went on to make your own point.

He made a good point, but in my mind, he didn't go far enough. Both (American) mathematics and SV are disproportionately dominated by east-Asians and Indians relative to their respective population sizes. Why does everyone ignore this?

Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#88

Post by newnewnew »

21echoes wrote: post #84
pg wrote: post #50

The same arguments would prove that math isn't a meritocracy. Which it presumably isn't, entirely, but only because nothing is entirely. And if SV is only as much of a meritocracy as math, that's pretty good. Indeed, that's what the word means in ordinary usage.

Math is a field famously overrun with white men. Probably not the best comparison to make if you really want to talk about what a "meritocracy" should look like. Unless, of course, you think white men naturally have more merit than everyone else..

I never thought I'd live to see Marxists attack Math with their class war nonsense, but there you go. Shameless.

Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#89

Post by eliteraspberrie »

Crito wrote: post #68
pg wrote: post #50

The same arguments would prove that math isn't a meritocracy. Which it presumably isn't, entirely, but only because nothing is entirely. And if SV is only as much of a meritocracy as math, that's pretty good. Indeed, that's what the word means in ordinary usage.

Interesting example, both math and entrepreneurship are abound in examples of people making a big splash after going off on their own. From mathematics, people like Srinivasa Ramanujan and Gottfried Leibniz made an impact despite lacking formal mathematics educations. Their results spoke for them, not their credentials. Edit: Nash apparently did study mathematics, not sure what I was remembering...

Better examples of autodidact mathematicians are Galois and George Green.

Re: Silicon Valley Isn’t a Meritocracy

#90

Post by yummyfajitas »

21echoes wrote: post #84
pg wrote: post #50

The same arguments would prove that math isn't a meritocracy. Which it presumably isn't, entirely, but only because nothing is entirely. And if SV is only as much of a meritocracy as math, that's pretty good. Indeed, that's what the word means in ordinary usage.

Math is a field famously overrun with white men. Probably not the best comparison to make if you really want to talk about what a "meritocracy" should look like. Unless, of course, you think white men naturally have more merit than everyone else..

Do you believe there are a large number of people in {white/asian men}^C who are good at math but unable to progress in the world of math?
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