Racism and Meritocracy in Silicon Valley | Hacker News Reader

Racism and Meritocracy in Silicon Valley

michaelwellison.tumblr.com

Actually, I think YC is incredibly diverse. Each batch has people of different gender, ethnicity, and country of origin. More importantly each batch has people with an incredibly diverse range of personalities and experiences - there are nerds, athletes, business people, political activists, and everything in between.

Everyone shares focus and determination, which I suppose makes people look the same on the surface, but if you dig a little deeper you'll be pleasantly surprised at the diversity of ideas, personalities, points of view, and experiences.

This article looks nearly content-free to me:

> It’s true that there was little diversity in the racial sense but what struck me most was the lack of diversity of backgrounds, attitudes, and personality types.

OK, what backgrounds did you see? What attitudes? Which ones were missing? Hard to have a conversation without specifics

If investors have a blind spot, there is money to be made by capitalizing on it. Eventually someone will. I'm having trouble being concerned by this.

You are right about the unconventional ideas. But investors must feel confortable with the people they invest in too, not only with their ideas. It's a relation based on trust, so they are looking for certain traits. This may explain why you perceived little diversity in personality types.

A Young Steve Jobs definitely would not get in [YC].

Prove this statement.

More non-minorities talking about the life and experiences of minorities? It's uplifting to see the talk, but it would go well with some first hand experiences too.

"Ron Conway is a successful entrepreneur and one of the most successful angel investors in history. If he were a young person today, he would not get into Y Combinator."

"Ron Conway has described Y Combinator as “the Harvard of incubator programs”"

Ron Conway also didn't go to Harvard. He went to SJSU. Just saying...

Core assertion:

   I was a member of the summer 2011 class of Y Combinator and I can tell 
   you first hand that it was one of the most homogeneous environments I had 
   ever been in. It’s true that there was little diversity in the racial sense 
   but what struck me most was the lack of diversity of backgrounds, 
   attitudes, and personality types.

You too can flag this post.

Again? Are we not sick of this conversation yet?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com