[seanmcdirmid]

The issue is that we don’t need more woodworkers or death row inmates, but we need more programmers. Expanding the talent supply by being more inclusive will be beneficial to the industry and humanity as a whole, though we can definitely argue about how it’s currently being done.

[matte_black]

We don’t really need more programmers anymore than we need more woodworkers, or construction workers, or plumbers, but no one is calling for women to enter those other careers.

[seanmcdirmid]

I don’t think that is really true. Both of the latter are apprenticed-based but otherwise easy to enter, and we are only having a shortage now because of the housing crash in the previous decade. Tech has been booming almost continuously now since the beginning of the century.

[matte_black]

But tech work has many force multipliers, unlike those other careers. The right framework, or library, or product can make the work of one programmer feel like the work of 10, and that’s what many people do not take into account.

Also, demand for programmers at the salaries programmers want to work for is not that strong. Many companies that want programmers want them for a lot less. This cheaper labor can be harder to find, but can be substituted in many ways such as using an “As a Service” offering or scooping up a pile of Indians from Kolkata.

[seanmcdirmid]

It is never that easy. Frameworks are kind of force multipliers until you want to do something new, then you are stuck.

Demand for programmers is high even at high salaries (depending on experience of course). The average google programmer pulls in around $1 million in revenue, which covers their overhead well enough.

[matte_black]

What average google programmer pulls in $1 million a year?

[seanmcdirmid]

I meant revenue for the company.

[spodek]

The issue for me is equality.

If women faced prison as men do, justice and prison reform would happen faster, as happened in medicine when women became doctors. If people pushing for equality in high-pay, low-injury fields also pushed for equality in low-pay, high-injury fields, they would sound more credible as desiring equality, not just to advance personal interests. We'd also likely see injury rates drop.

Let the rates of arrest, conviction, and time served reflect the rates of crimes performed. If society puts burdens on men in a sexist way that lead to them committing more crimes, then change society to stop putting those burdens on men.

If men inherently commit more crimes than women independent of social pressures, justifying different outcomes, then either say that the only difference between men and women is that men are simply worse for being criminals, or say that there may be many differences that may lead to different outcomes in other places too.

[seanmcdirmid]

Blanket blind equality is never really our society's goal, we only care about just equality. High tech jobs represent the future of prosperity and society in general, not being equal there will have a lot more negative impacts than other professions that will probably die out much sooner.

[matte_black]

What professions are dying out? Woodworkers, construction workers and plumbers aren’t going anywhere for a long time.

[spodek]

Do you consider 100:0 just?

[seanmcdirmid]

In which context?

[Density]

That's a myth. We don't need more programmers or STEM grads.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/education/edlife/stem-...