I suspect that lawsuits like this will show that trying to artificially influence diversity through hiring practices is an incorrect approach. When I'm in a hiring position, it's not like we sit around a table and say, "we'd prefer the white male." We just don't have enough women and minorities in the hiring pool to begin with.

The problem is that there aren't enough women and minorities entering our field. We just can't decide to hire more women and minorities when there aren't any to hire. Getting women and minorities to choose tech as a career isn't something that I honestly don't know how to solve. Ultimately, our employees reflect who's in our hiring pool.

The same happens in other fields, too. In pediatrics, there aren't a lot of men entering medical school, so there is a desire to hire more men.

Anyway, getting back to the original topic; I suspect there's more going on than we realize. I'm curious about how much this reflects Google actual policies versus a decision of a middle manager.