[humanrebar]

> COVID/WFH only turbocharges this: tall white guys have way less edge over Zoom.

Being tall probably matters less, sure.

I do find that ability to communicate in writing with English-speaking audiences is much more important than it used to be. Technical communication and persuasion that used to happen in hallways and on whiteboards is now happening in discussion threads, written code reviews, design papers, etc. In some cases, I expect people that some people that used to struggle now benefit from the ability to communicate more deliberately or without a verbal accent.

I don't know that white versus non-white maps to excellent writing skills as such. Partly because I'm never sure what folks mean by "white" in these contexts.

[benreesman]

Yeah, I’m personally a bit conflicted that English, especially written English is such a key skill. I once spoke a little French, and enjoyed it immensely, but there’s no money in it so it atrophied almost out of existence.

Mandarin seems to be a pretty credible candidate for a “must know” business language, but even there that’s climbing up hill at least a little.

[pc86]

Why are you conflicted about this? There has to be a lingua franca for business, the internet, etc. (not necessarily the same language). Historically speaking, it makes sense how English would bubble up as this language. Why should that cause guilt or conflict?

[benreesman]

Oh I just mean it doesn’t seem “fair” that other people have to work hard to be understood in the lingua franca, and I grew up in a household where it was spoken. Opinions will differ on whether I can construct a pleasant sentence from an aesthetic point of view, but I got “this line of code looks to be where the big is” for “free”.