Comment by jasonmcalacanis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jasonmcalacanis | Hacker News Reader

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jasonmcalacanis

Wow, that's a fairly sexist comment!

I write in a gender independent style (unlike your comment!).

That is why I didn't bring up a "my wife" or "your wife." Many of the folks who responded to the email were women running startups who have stay at home dads, or dads as primary caregivers.

Additionally, there are families with one parent, three parents, four parents and any number of gender permutations. (Think divorced folks who remarry/re-partner... thus the child having 3 or 4 parents).

I tried to address the issue of a startup founder and a baby, and figured it was implied that your partner (or partners) need to buy in.

You are correct in that you need your partner(s) buy in, but incorrect in that the person has to be a wife!

Finally, it's wildly offensive to say women should not run a startup. I'm guessing you are troll in order to get a reaction here, since you're making such an outlandish statement AND saying you won't discuss said outlandish statement (in a discussion forum).

Finally, it's wildly offensive to say women should not run a startup.

No, I said women shouldn't run a startup and have a baby at the same time. Apart from the fact that having a baby unavoidably takes up more of a woman's time than a man's on a biological level (how is babby fed?), the general observation is that women psychologically want to spend more time with their children than men do.

Men and women are largely interchangeable, except around breeding time, where their brains and bodies become very different. Their brains much less so than their bodies, but there's still a lot of instinct built into the human psyche.

As a more general point, while you'll sometimes go wrong with generalizations of the form "women like A while men like B" you'll go wrong less often than you will with the belief that men and women are completely interchangeable on all levels.

When exactly did he say "women should not run a startup."?

> "I write in a gender independent style (unlike your comment!)."

That seems fairly silly considering 95%+ of founders are men. Women founders are an edge case. Whether that's how things should be or not is a question for another day IMHO (Ask women why they don't want to be founders), but acknowledging the fact that 95% of founders are men, isn't being sexist.

I think his point is completely valid - if you have a supportive spouse, you can be 50% involved in baby, or you can be 1% involved in baby. If it's 1% then it won't really impact your success in a startup (Although you'll most likely live to regret it).

>> When exactly did he say "women >> should not run a startup."?

At the end of his message he writes: "For the case of a female entrepreneur I'd say no, you probably shouldn't have a baby and a startup at the same time.)"

>> Women founders are an edge case.

While it might be true that female founders are a small percentage, that doesn't mean they don't deserve the respect of being included in the discussion on equal footing.

They are equally capable of being founders, as such it's best to use gender-neutral language out of respect.

Another way to think of this, is that women wanting to vote was an edge case.

Another way to think of this is that black founders are an "edge case" according to your description. That doesn't mean you should exclude them from the discussion.

The words we choose are very important, and being inclusive costs you nothing but a little bit of empathy and diligence when thinking about the "edge cases."

And yes, his point about having a supportive spouse making it easier is correct. However, in many cases that spouse needs to make money to support the startup spouse--which precludes them being the primary caregiver. Which goes to my point of "start in your 20s, family in your 30s" advice.

> When exactly did he say "women >> should not run a startup."?

At the end of his message he writes: "For the case of a female entrepreneur I'd say no, you probably shouldn't have a baby and a startup at the same time.)"

Do I really have to explain what's wrong with that?

Is it really worth everybody's time for me to come up with a silly analogy like how "Jeff Goldblum cannot carry a sheep and a chainsaw simultaneously" is not the same thing as saying "Jeff Goldblum cannot carry a chainsaw?"

I'm assuming that it isn't.

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