Comment by fmitchell0 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fmitchell0 | Hacker News Reader

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I didn't realize the links had expired.

Here is a page linked to the research and modeling I ascribe in my talk: http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/scottepage/research-2/diversity-r...

Specifically:

http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/scottepage/wp-content/uploads/sit...

http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/scottepage/wp-content/uploads/sit...

http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/scottepage/wp-content/uploads/sit...

> it speaks of diversity in knowledge and problem solving approaches, rather than race, gender, age and other identifying features

The key piece is how you connect that statement to your next statement of what defines 'top' and 'very good'. Your heuristic is coding output. Code and programming has context. In most cases, it's a business context.

The point is value can be derived from experiences uniquely tied to race and gender, especially given how we're taught race and gender. It often doesn't coincide with reality.

That intrinsic value, of lived experience, shapes thought. It shapes how people approach problems. That value has to be tapped. Those evaluating talent (and its potential) often cannot 'see' why it should be a factor.

This is a limitation of the evaluators' local optima (referenced in the research).

"The point is value can be derived from experiences uniquely tied to race and gender, especially given how we're taught race and gender. It often doesn't coincide with reality."

I can barely understand what you are saying (what does "coincide with reality" mean? What use is it for a company if it doesn't coincide with reality?), but perhaps you could clarify it with a couple of examples?

Also, isn't that argument a bit treacherous in that it implies that "diverse" people are different after all, meaning if they don't get ahead in some environments it might actually be because of their different ways of thinking, and not because of bias they face?

Edit: I was asked once in a tech interview to prove the theorem of Pythagoras. Yesterday I was in a museum for kids that also featured that theorem, so I feel inspired to use this classical problem:

Could you provide an example on how a woman, a woman of color, a white man, a black man, a latino, a gay person (or any other "diverse" person you can think of) would prove that theorem in different ways, unique to their race and gender?

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