kamau's comments

Not a dig...but questions like this one. I get what you are asking, but I think that people outside of the discipline would be thinking, "You know what I mean. Why so pedantic?"

Often times it's not the worker that strangle themselves. I remember reading some years ago (can't remember where) about the struggles that male nurses have. Male patients often refuse male nurses as they don't want another male to see their bodies, and female patients will refuse male nurses out of modesty. And, according to the same source the problem only intensifies as the male nurse gets older.

Yes.

Would it have been easier if you had tried to make Django talk to SQL Server or Active Directory? In other words is this just the MS stack making things difficult for you or just a general impedance mismatch of tools that weren't designed with each other in mind?

He predicted you'd say that.

It's interesting that he says that a Computer Science degree isn't necessary. 15 years ago, he led the vanguard of companies promoting the idea that they only hire the top 1% of programmers - namely the smartest with a degree from a top school.

Good for you. I mean that sincerely. I've personally had my color be an issue at 2 different jobs. I left those jobs. The reason that I mention ratios is that I think that people (all people) behave better in more diverse environments. And that sometimes when ratios are skewed one way or another, those in the majority can be a bit tone deaf to others. Just an observation of human nature. If you think race is too hot of an issue, or one that you think could never be a possibility, imagine another line : gender, class, income, neighborhood, etc. I'm sure that eventually you'll see what I mean.

> I can't begin to understand how it is an issue, and I'm black (and European). I don't care about the color or the sex of my coworkers. What difference does it make? you can't relate to white people? No the main issue is networking and going out of one's own "sphere" or microcosm.

Read my comment later, where I mentioned that I have more white friends than black friends. I have no problem with white people. And no, I don't care about the color or sex of my coworkers. Instead, I was describing a very real phenomenom which may have been overlooked in the article.

> If they really like programming then they should worry about programming first and foremost, not how diverse is their environment. But maybe it's because of my upbringing, when I was the only black in a class of 30 students, I didn't have the time or any interest in worrying about the "blackness" of the classroom. I didn't have the time to worry about my tastes being "black" or white or whatever.

Not sure if you or I should say what those students should be worrying about. I think you may be missing my point. I made no mention about what those students should do. Instead, I talked about what they may be doing.

> Sure, people trust their kin more, and you talking about being "only black person in the room" is in my opinion the expression of that fact.

Actually that came from my personal experience (and that of many other POC) of trusting people who are not my kin, and then having race be brought up in a way that was detrimental to me.

I don't have to imagine. I've been the first or only Black person in more than one company. I'm already the change I want. I'm just waiting for the rest of y'all (not necessarily you) to catch up.

You are correct. My current place of employment is very Indian. In many ways, however, there is less tension in those situations. Often times whites tend to treat non whites in a certain manner that is less than... Now, I am not trying to paint all whites in tech with a broad brush (even if I sounds very much like I am). White people are cool with me, and if I'm to be honest, I have more white friends right now than I do black. So please, understand I am not trying to say "All white people...". I'm not angry. I am instead giving an honest assessment of my experience in tech for the last 15 years, and how it may relate to this story.

Interesting how many people here think that the problem rests solely with Black/Hispanic students. I am a black software engineer. As I see it, there are systemic problems, as you can imagine. But one reason that may be missed here is that sometimes people get weary of being the "only black person in the room". So some of the students may be opting out simply because they want a more diverse workplace, and tech is very very white. Just take a look at this thread, in which we have jimmywagner asserting that Black and Latino people are liabilities, and michaelbuddy asserting that systemic issues are "ghosts". They are of course entitled to their opinions (however much I may disagree with them), but honestly that type of hostility masked as objectivity gets old really quick.

I can expand later if anyone is interested in a real conversation.

It amazes me that people still use this. Or has it gotten better?

African American here. Many of us have not trusted the police for a very long time. We've known that these things happen since forever, but it's the advent of the cell phone and body camera that let's the rest of the country see it. I think that the loss of trust in police forces is a good thing, however. It's the first step in the country at large realizing that there is a real problem there, and that something needs to be done about it.

Not sure why there's such a sympathetic write up in this article. People who sell guns and drugs get ripped off, and worse, all the time. I get the Bitcoin angle, but still...

Release now. Once it hits customers, you'll get real world feedback that you can feed into your efforts for the ios, web versions.

You cant say that it is an empirically proven fact, anc then concede that it is a possibly flawed measurement. I'm all too familiar with racists, and you sir/mam look familiar.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/jason-richwine-race-iq...

Spare me. Statements such as those are almost always concerned with promoting and upholding white supremacy/racism. Would the statement been given any legitimacy if it was stated that '...the average white IQ is 85...'? I doubt it. The fact that a statements like these are made with no or dubious evidence is bad enough. Asserting that there is an empirical question here, when said dubious statement is refuted, is the icing on the cake.

P.S. I do understand that this is an empirical statement/question. But so is the assertion that there is a teapot on the moon.

>The average IQ among black Americans is 85, and the average testosterone level among black males is 20% higher than it is among whites. Both of these traits are strong predictors of violent behavior.<

The racists have come out to play.

1. How does the author know that his resume and accomplishments are superior?

2. No company interviews everyone that ever sends a resume in. If they did, they'd never get any work done. Remember, the goal of a company is not to interview people, but to produce a product or service. Continuing to interview once they've identified candidates to their liking is a waste of time.

3. The entitlement in this article is just...ridiculous. He assumes that because he has a good resume he's owed an interview. Again the world doesn't work like that.

4. He says her accomplishments aren't as impressive, but that's largely subjective.

5. He then goes on to say this: >Don’t discriminate against qualified male candidates just to boost your female numbers.

Do what I do instead.

Teach your daughter to love computers. When she grows up and can program circles around me, I’m sure the market will reward her.<

Why does she need to program circles around him to be rewarded by the market? Up-article he basically admits to not being the best programmer himself, but expects future women to be super programmers just to get a spot at some startup. Why can't women have the freedom to be average like so many men are given? I mean, aren't we the industry that's constantly lamenting the number of bad programmers, most of whom are male?

6. I've interviewed and recommended for hiring tons of engineers for my company over that last 5 years. And one thing I can tell you is that the relative superiority of one's resume does not guarantee that a good employee. I've interviewed people with Masters degrees, CS and Eng degrees, no degrees, you name it. And the one thing that I see is that the truth is in the interview; I'm not impressed by where someone went to school, how many degrees they have, or which prestigious company they worked for in the past.

This guys needs to just suck it up and realize that as men we have huge advantages in the tech marketplace wrt to employment, and also accept the fact that he has no idea whether or not the woman that was hired was truly a better candidate than he. Sheesh...next he'll be complaining that he can't get hired at Hooters....

I've been thinking the same thing recently, what with the debates about where logic goes in Rails apps (was here on HN a few days ago), and the debates about concerns etc. that I've seen on Rails oriented blogs and twitter accounts. I'm a .NET developer that has always admired rails (and dabbled in it a bit myself), but I have to say in .NET land these are all solved problems, and everybody just gets on with building their apps.