Comment by joshlingaround | Hacker News Reader

Comment by joshlingaround | Hacker News Reader

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Teaching Lab | Senior Software Engineer | REMOTE (US) | Full-Time | $125,000 - $164,889

We're a nonprofit on a mission to make research-backed learning strategies (such as spaced repetition) accessible in K-12 classrooms through our web app, Podsie. You'll have significant ownership and impact on our product.

Ideal candidates:

- Are passionate about improving education (bonus if you're a former teacher!)

- Have a strong bias for action and entrepreneurial spirit

- Are technically strong across the full-stack

- Have experience in smaller startups or roles with significant product ownership

We're research-driven (eg. currently part of an NSF-funded project with CMU and Memphis), teacher-focused, and committed to measurable learning outcomes in under-resourced classrooms.

Read more about our work here: https://podsie.notion.site/The-case-for-spaced-repetition-in...

JD + Application here: https://jobs.lever.co/teachinglab/6b64797d-cb45-4d46-a777-22...

Please also feel free to email me at josh@podsie.org for more info!

How am I supposed to answer the question about making sure racial profiling isn't impacting my work? I work with computers all day.... I don't see a person. How is this a relevant question?

It feels like a weird unexpected question

Thanks for this question! It's a fair and valid one, and I'm sorry to see that you got a snarky reply (that seems to now have been deleted).

Since we're specifically building for traditionally under-served teachers/students, one example of what we're looking for with that question is an awareness of how technical decisions can impact equity. For example, in education technology, there's often a "Matthew effect" (https://www.allancho.com/2022/02/the-matthew-effect-and-digi...) where students who start with advantages tend to benefit more from new interventions. We want to ensure our product does't inadvertently widen this gap, and instead truly helps underserved students. Hope that's helpful!

I've been thinking about this for a bit, and I think the problem is how it's phrased: "What experience do you have ensuring that a commitment to racial equity and anti-racism is centered in your work?"

It seems to me that for the majority of developers the honest answer would be "none". If I look back at all my jobs over the last 20 years, then for none of them I can see how I could advance racial equity and anti-racism through them. It's mostly B2B software, or just doesn't really intersect with that in the way your K12-oriented software does.

I'm not looking for a job, but if I would be then I'd be somewhat hesitant to apply because all of this is kind of a lame reply (even though it's true). Answering all those questions is somewhat time-consuming to do well, and I'd sort-of expect to just be dismissed because of my somewhat lame reply – so why bother?

Sometimes I fear that these types of questions, no matter how well-intentioned, filter more on the ability to spin a yarn (if not outright bullshit) than anything else.

It's interesting that the thing to avoid is helping the wrong people. I might have naively thought that any nonnegative level of help provided to people other than the target demographic would be fine, and that outcomes could be compared primarily on the basis of the level of help provided to the target demographic.

Given the reply you got and my own experiences, dont bother. If you dont 'look' the part itll be a waste of time..

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