Hacker News Reader

Comment by AlexB138 | Hacker News Reader

> Why "rather than their ability"?

Because that is literally what the article is about. Unless you're under the impression that they previously hired candidates based on something other than ability, I don't see how else you could read this. Companies typically try to hire the most skilled person they can afford for a position. MS is now incentivizing leaders to favor women and certain racial groups because their previous hiring methods didn't result in the desired number of them being hired.

> Are you suggesting that hiring diverse candidates makes it impossible to hire skilled workers? Why would that be so?

You're intentionally twisting words.

View on HN

Why does including race or gender as a factor in the evaluation of a candidate exclude ability? All hiring is based on a variety of factors, not just 'ability'.

Availability for the position, quantity of experience, leadership skill, willingness to learn, familiarity with the problem space, quality of personal references, interpersonal skills... all that along with 'how good are you at writing code'. What is the huge negative impact of adding 'diversity' to that set of evaluation factors? Are you arguing that adding diversity would actually push the most qualified candidates to the bottom of the pile somehow? If all things are truly equal, adding diversity to the sort has no impact on the ability of qualified candidates to get hired.

Reasonable hiring is based on solely upon whether the candidate is both willing and able to fill the role.

All the factors you listed are equivalent to or surrogates of that fundamental requirement. Or, in the case of leadership skill, are excess to requirements unless the role involves leadership.

All races and sexes being equal on average does not mean that all candidates are equal on average. If they were, we wouldn't have interviews.

Almost always, one candidate will be better. Necessary, that candidate will be a member of one race or sex. If any of the other candidates is a member of another race or sex, and that race or sex is one which the hirer is incentivized to hire people for, a less-suitable candidate will be hired if the hirer follows his incentives.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com