samiur1204

Good thing you responded to a statement that admittedly lacked data with a statement that also lacked any real data except some statistics pulled out of the derriere. Here's a real study done that found that 87% of VC-backed startup founders are white, and 89% of VC-backed startup founders are male: http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/venture-capital/data-race-gen...

If that's the takeaway you got from my post, then I'm sorry: I was not able to articulate myself well.

There's no doubt that he's talented and gifted. And it's possible that I'm absolutely wrong and Evan and Snapchat are planning some amazing features. But I highly doubt that, and I would propose that it would be more pragmatic to take the cash offered and do something more meaningful.

Surely you must admit that there is a massive difference between the potential of Google and Snapchat.

That maybe so, but so are the people who invested in Snapchat. By the way, I am 23 myself. I'm not saying that everyone at 23 needs to be mature with their thinking of the world, but we should at least promote the ones that are.

Hey there, pre-welcome to Seattle! Seattle has a pretty active startup community, and most of the events are quite well captured on Startup Seattle's calendar: http://startupseattle.com/events/

Otherwise, let me know when you're in town, I'd be glad to show a fellow hacker newser around ;).

Completely agreed. I wrote an article about precisely this: http://blog.samiurr.com/snapchat-another-example-of-the-hubr...

Actually, I think that the issue should be discussed while there's attention and interest focused on it. Much like I thought the gun control debate should have happened when it was on everyone's minds, I think that an issue as important as sexism should be addressed when it is in front of the whole community.

not to mention piping those tty's...

(I just had to, I'm sorry guys)

I'm not saying that getting offended is the right response, I'm just saying she has the right to be offended. I get offended by people walking slowly in front of me. They're not doing anything horribly wrong, I'm just annoyed. Again, I understand her being offended, but do not excuse it, as you say.

Huh, works fine for me. Try again perhaps?

She's allowed to be offended with those comments (or single pun), but the method of communicating her offense was definitely not called for.

And honestly, even if it were sexual, it isn't sexist. I think that's a distinction that certainly needs to be made. Calling Adria a c*nt and other horrible things online definitely is sexist though.

Agreed. Even though I'm sure Adria has been putting up with tons of real sexism over the years in the tech industry, and that this may have been the figurative straw on the camel's back, this is definitely the wrong thing to focus on. Sex jokes are definitely not necessarily sexist. These guys were perhaps a little crude, and their puns maybe horrible, but they were essentially harmless and at worst, just annoying.

What we should focus on is the terrible response from the tech community towards Adria. There is horrifying sexism in the comments that have been posted over the past 24 hours, and it just brings to light the pervasive sexism in our industry. Let's focus on that and denigrate those comments, not some random crude comments a couple guys said in private.

Gah, this is just an absolutely terrible succession of events. These guys definitely did not say anything that was that harmful. Their jokes may have been crude, and they may have been loud, but that only makes them annoying, not sexist. Adria has every right to post about her annoyance, but her claim for it being sexist is exaggeration. The companies reacting to this by firing the two developers is absolutely wrong, and then the community's sexist responses to Adria is just disgusting. And then Sendgrid brings the whole debacle full circle to fire Adria too? What is this, amateur hour?

Erica, I too am very disheartened by the amount sexism in our industry. As a male feminist who is very passionate about engineering, technology and entrepreneurship, it's hard to see that many of my peers act in such ways. However, sex jokes are not inherently sexist. They are perhaps crude, but don't have to be sexist. From the surface, the comments of these developers seem just sophomoric and crude, but nothing else. I am a fan of crude jokes as long as they aren't sexist, homophobic or racist. I don't think Adria really had a reason to call them out on grounds of sexism, perhaps just on grounds for being annoying. But she certainly shouldn't have done it with their pictures.

On the other hand, the community's reaction to her has been disgusting. It shows exactly the kind of pervasive sexism that exists in the tech industry. We definitely need to call that out and let them know that it's not okay. It's unacceptable to allow this kind of sexism to happen, much like it's unacceptable for the well-known tech big-wig to be so blatantly sexist in front of you to provoke you. You need to call him out, and so do the others who are with him.

Completely agreed with the fact that sex jokes, jokes about forking or dongles aren't inherently sexist. In fact, without knowing exactly what those developers were saying, from the surface it didn't seem sexist at all, just a tad bit crude. Being a man who's very much upset about the amount of sexism I see in my industry, this is an instance of calling out the wrong thing. I'm also a fan of crude humor as long as it's not sexist, homophobic or racist, which in my opinion, these comments were not.

I think the reaction online to her twitter posting from our community online is also disgusting and a representation of the gross sexism existing in our industry, however. I definitely agree that the vitriol is definitely unwarranted, far more than her anger over the developer's comments were unwarranted.

Wow, someone flag this please.

I love the military analysis of it too:

“Most Americans don’t realize that each PlayStation unit contains a CPU — every bit as powerful as the processor found in most desktop and laptop computers,” said one military intelligence officer who declined to be identified. “Beyond that, the graphics capabilities of a PlayStation are staggering — five times more powerful than that of a typical graphics workstation, and roughly 15 times more powerful than the graphics cards found in most PCs.”

and

“Applications for this system are potentially frightening,” said an intelligence source. “One expert I spoke with estimated that an integrated bundle of 12-15 PlayStations could provide enough computer power to control an Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV — a pilotless aircraft.”

Just hilarious.

I second this, my first impression is definitely that the design is confusing and not attractive.

Secondly, I'm really not even sure how this site would benefit me. You need to make that clear on your landing page.

You need to sell your idea, and sell it well if you want users.

Reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It's an incredible novel, but very dense and over 1000 pages. It's a trek, but has been so worth it so far.

Damn, that Amsung sure is working hard for it's ales.

I second that, it's definitely a great resource.

Also, check out:

1. http://talks.golang.org/2012/concurrency.slide#1 for concurrency ideas with Go 2. http://cplus.about.com/od/google-go/a/Learn-To-Program-Go-Tu...: A great intro

Hey,

Check out http://www.jobsuitors.com and http://blog.jobsuitors.com. Contact me if you're interested in the idea.

Good Luck!

Yea, that's totally fair. Unless we're talking about Rush Limbaugh or Justin Bieber.

Ahh, that might be nice to get to someday.

Well, you come up with a way to identify "indefensibly stupid" comments, and then I'll get behind it.

While I think there are objectively bad comments, the attitude you're taking towards them may be a little unfair. People may have some opinions that are objectively wrong that can be repaired through allowing their comments to be seen and having us tell them why they're wrong.

Actually have read Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground. I'll look into the other book that you recommended too. And personally, I have nothing against people being religious and wasn't belittling that sentiment. I merely think that many people are indoctrinated into a religion at an early age, and "know" that they are right, and use various ways to rationalize the belief their parents instilled in them, instead of exploring their beliefs on their and coming to their own conclusions.

Well. while I absolutely find these comments to be unhelpful, it's definitely not a good idea to censor comments or explicitly ban them. I'd like to think that we can filter out these comments by the community downvoting them rather than PG doing it himself. It should be a democratic process.

I'm sure a few people agree with what he said, because people tend to get swayed by forceful statements (eg. this is how Fox gets its viewership).

I'm never surprised to see these sorts of comments even in discussion forums that I hold in high esteem, such as HN. As an engineer, I've seen pretty heated arguments about very silly things such as whose editor is better. These are generally very intelligent people, but are susceptible to cognitive dissonance. Rational discourse goes out the window at that point, because they're convinced they're right and it's impossible that other view points may be correct. It's part of the reason most of the world is still religious.

I bet you if there were down votes allowed on HN, this post would be about dead even, because tons of people probably disagree with him. But it's just the right sort of inflammatory comments that garners attention and get up votes too.