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"[Caitlyn] Flanagan is a self-described anti-feminist"

[1]: http://www.msmagazine.com/winter2004/backtothekitchen.asp


To be clear, I wasn't trying to claim McInnes or Flanagan weren't anti-feminists. In fact I introduced the term in my response because I thought it was a more accurate description than "misogynist". In American culture are all anti-feminists considered misogynists? It would be easier to discuss if there were common understanding of certain definitions. Similarly, if you are against marriage equality are you by definition a homophobe [1]? Not sure really why I was downvoted, as the link given in the parent post was about racism not homophobia (burden of proof etc). Also, I'm saying all this as someone who disagrees with many of McInnes's positions, go figure.

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FCLkZKIJF4&feature=youtu.be...


Consider using more inclusive language (re: "Rails guy", "right guy")


Thanks for pointing out, edited!


Yes. The post was also heteronormative.


> Singer himself donates about one-third of his income to charity, he says, and I admire his commitment. Still, I wonder... where do we draw the line?

Peter Singer himself wrote, in the New York Times Magazine, nearly a decade ago, an article titled "What Should a Billionaire Give – and What Should You?"

[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/magazine/17charity.t.html?...


  Companies with a female founder: 25 (21.93%)

  Companies with a Black founder: 9 (7.89%)

  Companies with a Hispanic founder: 6 (5.26%)
They should release the stats of the number of people overall, not the number of companies with at least one member who fits into one of those groups.

For example, say X% of the people are female, etc.


We've historically reported companies versus individuals, so we wanted to stay consistent. But that's fair -- we'll put it in those terms next time we release stats.


Do you have historical data? It seems as if the number of minority founders is growing (which is awesome!)


Sam Altman wrote 8 months ago:

> As a side note, even though it will break backwards compatibility, we are considering changing how we look at this to the percentage of all founders that are women instead of the percentage of companies with a female founder.

http://blog.ycombinator.com/diversity-and-startups

After being told by dozens of people how obviously misleading this statistic is. It was beneath YC to ever release such a phony stat, but it's downright unethical to continue propagating it.


I'm sure you didn't mean it but your post comes across as entitled.

YC has no obligation to share stats and just because you disagree with the methodology doesn't make them unethical.


Likewise, just because you disagree with the parent poster's interpretation doesn't make them "entitled". Just as YC has no obligation to share stats, the parent has no obligation to not have an ethical opinion about that, or to share it.


I'm just sharing my opinion. I don't mean it to be a grand condemnation or a big deal. I hardly feel entitled. When otherwise good organizations misbehave I feel free to point it out. I don't complain about getting downvoted when people disagree.

The fact is that this stat is provably misleading. People are understanding, and reporting it as, "25% of YC founders are female" when the reality is very different. YC knows about this and yet continues to use it. I think it's an understandable and small lapse in ethics predictably justified by some weak rationalization.


That wouldn't serve their purposes.


I had a lackluster interview experience at the company the author works for and mentions. After completing a coding challenge, I got a generic:

  "After deliberating, we have decided not to proceed with your application."
I asked for more specific feedback, from two different people, and got no response.


That's pretty much standard operating procedure. You don't want to open the company up to a legal challenge as an interviewer...


This seems completely unrelated to the article and doesn't really add anything to the conversation.


I mentioned it because the company itself was plugged in the post.

Also there's a bit of irony involved, where they're extolling the virtues of data, but failing to provide proper interview feedback.


That's generally the only feedback you'll get from any company.


That's not true. I've gotten better, more detailed feedback from other companies. Things like: your approach for this coding challenge was X when you should have been doing Y.


Don't forget about ethical veganism, whose reasoning doesn't involve health.

Almost every vegan I know is so for ethical, not health reasons.


Since this is a UX site, here's my impression:

I found the landing page a little confusing.

"Edit my Free Checklist"

I don't have a checklist to edit, I think this should say Create a Free Checklist?

Also once I clicked that, and it took me to /accounts/new, I just clicked Checklist in the top bar to view the checklist, which is what I originally wanted to see.

It'd be cool if when you clicked something on /welcome/checklist, it did a 'gradual' sign-up and say something like: "Do you want to save this?".


The reason I called it "Edit my Free Checklist" is that we already prepared a checklist for you. But you are right, it is confusing, I will change that! Thanks for the feedback!

The checklist link shows our original usability checklist, but if you sign up, you can edit it as you wish.

Gradual sign-up would be great, good idea, thanks!


Ah, I see. Cool.

Another idea: you could add a little box to the bottom of each section that says "Add your own", which would gradually lead into a sign-up, as well.


True, another good idea, thanks! :)


The author of this piece, Stephen Marche, has a great essay that appeared on the Los Angeles Review of Books site last summer, called "The Literature of the Second Gilded Age"

[1]: https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/literature-second-gilded-a...


"One of Marx’s greatest insights, delivered in an early book known as the 1844 Manuscripts, is that work can be one of the sources of our greatest joys."

[1]: http://www.thebookoflife.org/the-great-philosophers-karl-mar...


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