[wiggumz]

"You try to hire people you could become friends with" is a profoundly stupid maxim.

People who come from conservative and religious societies will always be pressured by friends to not make new friends who are of different ethnicities.

Thiel is basically ensuring each company Will become a little Island of segregation and this is what I have seen in the bay area: companies that are 90% Indian, 90% Chinese, or 90% white guys.

[feybay]

I come from a conservative background and I've never been discouraged from hanging out with different ethnicities and cultures. We are not the strawmen you apparently think we are.

[sambull]

Conversely when a few of my friends family found out I was an atheist they were no longer allowed to associate with me. A select few tried to convert me, others acted outright vitriolic towards me. This was in a major metro in CA. Romantic relationships have also ended in the past when family members couldn't get over my lack of faith.

[natecavanaugh]

Speaking as a white American from a very conservative/religious family and social group, I think your view is just as generalized as you imagine conservative/religious groups to be. I have multiple aunts and uncles who are Korean, my first serious girlfriend was black, my best friend growing up was Mexican (as well as having many Mexican relatives), so I would say that our conservative and religious views didn't preclude us from not only being open to other ethnicities, but to embracing them as our own. Granted, I don't think my upbringing was typical of conservative/religious upbringings, but I know it wasn't typical of many liberal/non-religious points of view. I don't think it's something you can shoehorn quite like that. (I would say our religion brought us all together more than anything else).

I think the effect you're seeing (where many Asians, such as Chinese, Korean, or Indian) are more isolated has far less to do with idealogical beliefs, than it does with multiple factors, such as being immigrants in a country that has typically has had a harder time identifying with their culture as well as a large trend of pushing towards higher education, especially in demanding fields such as medicine and engineering.

But I digress :)

[jeffdavis]

If you are comfortable being friends with many different kinds of people, it may be just fine.

If not, you may be bad at leadership regardless.

[siphor]

ya'll are taking this maxim and removing it from the context of hiring. I thought it was obvious he meant, you want someone capable and someone you could be friends with. It's not supposed to be a maxim, it's from an interview.

[saryant]

I come from an incredibly conservative family (literally had pictures of Reagan and Cheney on the wall) and they had no problems with my engagement to an Hispanic woman.

[czep]

Yes but how would they react to your sister dating a black man?

[dang]

Please don't delete comments and repost them.