Comment by graeme | Hacker News Reader

Comment by graeme | Hacker News Reader

A couple comments:

First, Altruism aside, this will likely be a win for ycombinator. There are always opportunities to be had in targeting subgroups which others neglect.

And the problem with bias is that much of it is subconscious. Unless an organisation makes a conscious effort, it will likely discriminate.

This means there's an opportunity for YC to get easier access to the cream of the crop, merely by specifically recruiting. And articles like this are helpful too, as they'll signal to would be black entrepreneurs that they should not shy away from YC.

Second, this could be very important for future african-american entrepreneurs. Reference examples are so, so important. I (white male) did not become a programmer, despite a love for math and computers. I literally didn't have a single programmer in my extended family or circle of close friends. I played around with computers, but I had no idea what a programming language was until age 25.

(If this sounds incurious, think about what massive blind spots you yourself had until recently)

If YC can fund an african-american entrepreneur who succeeds massively, then this will inspire thousands of others.

The same arguments apply to recruiting women, and inspiring women. I applaud this move, and YC's earlier initiative to recruit women.

> There are always opportunities to be had in targeting subgroups which others neglect.

This is true if you're assuming that a more diverse group of entrepreneurs would be more likely to build businesses targeting a more diverse base of consumers.

In that case, one cannot underestimate the importance of geography and overestimate the importance of technology in targeting these groups. There are a number of lucrative demographic groups with significant and growing purchasing power that are under served or poorly served, in large part because many of the businesses which serve them (or would serve them) have difficulty accessing capital.

I doubt very much that a Silicon Valley-based program like Y Combinator, which obviously focuses on technology, would be an effective incubator for new businesses targeting many of these groups because you realistically have to be on the ground in the geographic regions they dominate and you have to be prepared to employ less technology, or technology in a different fashion than the typical Silicon Valley startup.

>And the problem with bias is that much of it is subconscious. Unless an organisation makes a conscious effort, it will likely discriminate.

Could you elaborate? Here, the article states that 1% of all applicants are black. How can the demographics of those who apply at all be attributed to bias on Y Combinator's part, intentional or otherwise?

I didn't say YC was biased, specifically. I meant we all our, inasmuch as our culture produces bias against black people.

Growing up in a biased culture, it would be very, very, very difficult not to acquire any.

This idea has received some empirical validation from the implicit biases test. Some details here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090617142120.ht...

Other studies have compared the performance of white vs. black names.

http://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/w9873.html

The evidence suggests that most people are biased, yet think they are not. Removing this unconscious bias from our society will take time.

So I meant that almost EVERYBODY is likely to discriminate, at least if current evidence pointing that way is correct.

Therefore, unless an organization takes conscious effort, it will discriminate. But on the bright side, merely by taking such conscious effort, an organization can both help itself AND help a disadvantaged group.

And leading the way forward is one mechanism to reduce unconscious bias. I am sure, for instance, that Obama's presidency has made today's children far less likely to be biased.

I agree that we all have implicit bias, and I also agree that it's good YC is broadcasting itself to groups of all kinds, but I doubt bias plays any significant role in the demographics of past and current YC batches, at least when looked at directly (choosing which applicants to accept, as opposed to indirect societal biases possibly causing people not to apply or to choose a different path).

Accepting that we all have implicit bias but saying that it doesn't play a significant role in who YC accepts seems to suggest that the YC application review process is able to overcome implicit bias. This may be true to some degree because of the number of steps and people involved in reviewing applications. However, I'm skeptical that it's so effective that it makes bias play an insignificant role.

I think it's unfair to assume that bias plays a role simply based on the truism of "we all have implicit bias". YC is run by a good group of intelligent people who are very aware of such biases.

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