Hacker News Reader

Comment by galkk | Hacker News Reader

I do think that you should change your attitude first, and try to expect best from people, not the worst.

I worked in 3 of big4 (Google/Microsoft/Amazon) and you need to try hard to find any harassing environment. Usually, if it's bad, it's bad for everyone, due to project/managerial conditions. All companies have trainings that teach you to prevent harrasment and give ways to report it.

Especially now, when woman can tweet picture of 2 dudes with remark on a convefence and they will have hard time, even if they're guilty in nothing.

After further thought, I think that you're just troll. At least in the places/teams where I've worked, white dudes aren't majority. Wast majority were chinese/indian folks. Also, don't expect to hear anything on non-work related stuff from interviewers - their goal is to evaluate your skills, not your sexual orientation, that doesn't matter in workplace.

View on HN

But yeah, original poster, totally don't worry that the culture you're considering moving into might be hostile to your presence.

Being concerned is not the same thing as acting from the assumption that everywhere is fucked and finding non-toxic culture is like a needle in a haystack.

My point, which I made a little snarkily, is that these aggressive responses to the concern, which judge the concerned person simply for asking the question, are part of what creates the perception that SFBA is hostile.

Hrm, I don't see it quite the same. OP is not from SF. I am also not from SF and find the OP's slant on the issue to be characteristic of a victim trope which doesn't reflect reality (through my subjective experience). I don't know the OP from anyone, so would not expend energy attacking the OP (as others have done in this thread), but that doesn't mean the slant itself isn't worth calling out.

In my experience working with both men and women, those that find the most problems and find the most toxic environments are themselves the truly toxic ones; conflating personality conflicts with outright bigotry or special treatment as equality.

Again, I am not claiming this is what hte OP is doing here, and I don't see a point in accusing her of it; but the language and air of the post definitely suggests to me there is a real possibility that is what is going on.

It's a real trigger issue for many men who are sick of being told they are the problem; which doesn't excuse the overly-aggressive responses, but to me, does explain them.

I don't know what to tell you. My response to someone being concerned about tech culture being inhospitable to women and people of color is sympathy. I have no trouble with this despite being a "white man in tech". If your response is to be triggered by it, all I can tell you is, that's part of what creates the perception that this is such an endemic problem.

Thus proving that they actually are the problem after all; amazing how that works!

There are plenty of studies demonstrating the reality of sexism, if dudes are unwilling to believe what women tell them. Ongoing willful denial of this reality contributes to a hostile atmosphere where women are intimidated into silence about their experiences, which in turn lets men pretend they have no idea that there could ever be gambling in this es... I mean, sexism in tech.

Of course sexism exists. The overall ubiquity of it is what I am somewhat skeptical of.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com