HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

UnGravitas

15 karma · joined November 19, 2013

submissionscomments
UnGravitas··on Fund Manager Ab Nicholas Has Been Beating S&P 500 for 40 Years
The argument isn't that anyone who beats the market is a lucky unicorn, it's that you can't tell if they're a lucky unicorn or not. Beliefs about beating the market aren't really relevant, the argument would be the same if we were evaluating a cancer treatment which only one person had taken.
UnGravitas··on Why schools are failing our boys
Replace "boy" or "son" with child and the only paragraph in the article which reads differently is this

>Statistically speaking, boys now lag behind girls on every single academic measure; they also get in trouble and drop out of school much more frequently than girls. There are fewer boys in college than girls, and far more lost 20-something boys than 20-something girls.

It certainly seems like schools are failing boys but I'm not sure that this particular failure has anything to do with it.

UnGravitas··on Sexism Isn't Simple (2013)
I always find this parody amusing and educational when discussing the "is a default gendered pronoun sexist?" thing. http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/purity.html
UnGravitas··on The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2012)
Thanks for highlighting this, it was an interesting read if a little long. For those without much time probably the most interesting part is "Massaging the Numbers: Pinker’s Non-Proofs of Long-Term Violence Reduction".
UnGravitas··on A Feminist Critique of Silicon Valley
Linked to directly from the article:

1. http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html#overall

2. http://www.ncwit.org/blog/did-you-know-demographics-technica...

UnGravitas··on A Feminist Critique of Silicon Valley
I'm not sure if we read the same article, there seem to be several critiques:

1. Silicon valley imagines itself to be a meritocracy which is a harmful belief as this is not actually the case.

2. The pipeline problem is not the entirety of the problem and overstating it risks ignoring problems which people in tech can solve more easily.

3. Power and money are disproportionately in the hands of white men

Engaging with her points rather than ad hominem attacks and responding to tone might result in an interesting discussion.