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Comment by theGimp | Hacker News Reader

"Who is this guide for" usually talks about a certain level of experience or familiarity with different components or systems. I don't see why you'd put anything about gender there.

I am not a woman, but I'm sure a woman would be just as frustrated as me reading that section and going "oh come on, tell me if I should read this article based on what I know, not what sex I am."

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I know females in tech explicitly annoyed by the usual statements which start, "I am not a woman, but I'm sure a woman..." Same goes for white folk presuming to speak for people of color, wealthy elites speaking on behalf of the poor, etc. People who are systematically worse than ignorant.

(And BTW, these same people I know occasionally mention HN as a cesspool of reactionary ideologies, mythologies about how the tech/startup industry actually works, and general absurdity. So like most places online, beware the comments section. Then again, it's a great place to discuss the latest nontechnical thing DHH said.)

I think it's safer to say that anyone would be annoyed by being treated in a condescending manner.

I can't tell if you're trying to broaden the statement or disagreeing, but I find it more condescending when someone outside my minority is presuming to speak for it than when someone acknowledges the systematic discrimination that we face.

It sounds like the most important piece of information that you need to judge a person's ideas is the list of which protected groups they belong to.

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