
Female Founders Conference Live Stream [video] - craigcannon
https://blog.ycombinator.com/watch-the-female-founders-conference-live-stream/
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toufka
Pretty cool lineup. Even just a few speakers in, it's clear for as much
commonality as exist between companies and founders, there are also a lot of
differences in how to successfully approach different industries. It's
validating(?) to see how different companies' & founders' personalities
interpret and make good on otherwise simple aphorisms, "be tenacious",
"measure, achieve, repeat", "just start". I like seeing that different
interpretations are in themselves successful when applied to the appropriate
domain.

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primigenus
I really appreciated the insight by Poppy CEO Avni that pursuing your passion
might lead you to think you know what you're doing and not be open to
feedback, whereas pursuing a combination of curiosity and frustration is much
healthier. Food for thought.

~~~
toufka
An important nuance between the idea that you should be trying to solve _a_
problem vs _your_ problem. Identifying _your_ problem gets you aimed correctly
and can be a significant insight, but if you don't accept feedback by dint of
determined (unselfish?) curiosity you're likely to overshoot what is actually
marketable.

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cgh
I had never even heard of NIO before, probably because I don't watch Formula E
racing. That EP9 electric supercar looks stunning. I look forward to watching
the CEO's talk at some point (I don't have time for the live stream right now
and I've probably missed it anyway).

So they seem to have the EV technology down. Their goal is an autonomous EV. I
wonder how their autonomous technology stacks up, does anyone know?

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leejoramo
More info here:
[http://www.femalefoundersconference.org](http://www.femalefoundersconference.org)

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drenvuk
Was this advertised a few days ago somewhere else? It would've been nice to
know about it ahead of time.

~~~
craigcannon
we'll post the talks on youtube after the event.

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blhack
There are at least several comments in this thread right now that are some
version of "I don't like this because it is segragatory".

Here's why I _do_ like this: because I have young nieces, and I want them to
have role models that look like them. I have a 12 year old niece that I try to
expose to as much positive encouragement around her ability to create things
as I can, and things like this are a HUGE help.

So good. I'm glad this exists, and I hope this continues to exist for years so
that when my nieces start getting older, I can show it to them.

I think if you don't have daughters, or don't have young girls in your life,
it's really easy to overlook how powerful the zeitgeist is. Music, movies, pop
culture, business, everything seems to be wanting to steer these people in a
specific direction, and if that direction is something you disagree with, it's
REALLY difficult to get around it.

~~~
empath75
I'd love to live in a world where women were just equally represented at these
things as a matter of course without making a big deal about it but until that
world actually exists we need things like this.

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worik
The comments here have been weird. The moderation intense.

It is a valid question: Why does women organising together create such hostile
excitement?

Perhaps it is an illustration of the need for such organising?

~~~
JauntyHatAngle
I am quite glad for heavy moderation on these topics, look at reddit for
example, this kind of talk would quickly go off topic and devolve into mud
slinging.

There is certainly an odd dynamic on the "nerdy" websites when it comes to
promoting the under-represented gender.

That said, comments like yours (and mine) are only adding to that problem. I
guess I'm a hypocrite.

~~~
colemickens
Not taking any sides, but this whole "HN is more mature than reddit on these
topics" meme is wrong and out-dated. I mean, goodness, look at this thread
(well, if you have showdead on at least).

~~~
Chris2048
If the comments are dead, they are not representative, in fact, they are
clearly exactly what the community rejects.

~~~
colemickens
And, in my observations, similar toxic conversations and people acting in bad
faith are downvoted on reddit.

Who cares? My point was more that "at least we're better than reddit" is
tacky. I don't think either of us are likely to objective make an assessment
here either way on "toxicity of a topic on HN vs reddit".

~~~
JauntyHatAngle
>And, in my observations, similar toxic conversations and people acting in bad
faith are downvoted on reddit.

I suppose I disagree with you there, as someone who hasn't used this website
super much (about a year maybe?)and has been using reddit for about 5 years,
HN seems much better to me in providing a longer, more concerted discussion. I
didn't realise it was a meme though.

But that's just a personal opinion.

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tnone
First off, if you want to see hostile excitement, go look at what happens when
men try to get together to talk about real legal discrimination rather than
just low representation. A skeptical internet thread is nothing compared to
the protesting, fire alarm pulling, slander and career sabotage that occurs.

Second, people don't like it because it's special pleading, funneling
disproportionate attention to a minority in the industry for the sake of the
omnipresent boogieman of "cultural pressure". Of course coupled with heavy
handed moderation that if you disagree, you're a bad person.

The fact that it is easy to get support for stuff like this is paradoxically
used as evidence that it's hard. But coverage does not equal incidence, and
equal opportunity has not lead to equal occupations in those countries
focusing the most on gender equality. Thus the goal posts get moved again in
search of a 50/50 utopia that will never happen.

~~~
dang
We detached this comment from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14667704](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14667704)
and marked it off-topic.

~~~
tnone
Thank you for proving the point. Criticism must be punished, even when it's
directly addressing raised questions. It is exactly these sorts of actions
that create the "hostile excitement" OP was complaining about. Cause and
effect is a bitch.

All you had to do was not treat the subject as sacred.

~~~
dang
That's inaccurate. The problem is that people's passions about the hot generic
things are so strong that they blast them into every remotely related context,
obliterating the specifics that make a given post interesting. The term
'flamewar' expresses vividly how these dynamics consume everything in sight if
allowed to. On HN we're trying not to let that happen.

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mr_spothawk
> I'd love to live in a world where women were just equally represented at
> these things as a matter of course

serious question: why? what would make it better?

to be clear: i am not opposed (in any way) to equal representation. i do
prefer (real, meaningful) equal opportunity, rather that homogeneity.

~~~
dang
> _serious question: why?_

Please read
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14667456](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14667456)
and
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14667379](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14667379)

We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14668250](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14668250)
and marked it off-topic.

~~~
mr_spothawk
if your problem is that the conversation has been had, why not
remove/flag/off-topic the baitparent, too?

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brianwawok
What if they are biologically different in certain areas, and they do not WANT
to be in that area? Do we continue to force them into roles that they don't
want to meet a quota?

I am not saying that is the case in EVERY male dominated field, but it could
be in some. For the reverse, I have no desire to be a nurse or a nanny or a
elementary teacher. I know there are programs to get more males in the first
and third of these, but not sure it can be that successful. Because I have 0
desire to do either. Perhaps many other males share my feelings. That could
easily explain the imbalance, not discrimination.

I think the end game to equality is to not have a quote for every single
thing. Oh the population if 49% female but this job only has 12% females, it
needs adjusted. The end game of equality is to be race/sex/religion blind in
all hiring decisions. Literally hire the best person for each job.

~~~
just4themoney
Nobody is saying anything about quotas or forcing anyone to do things they
don't want to do.

~~~
brianwawok
From above

> I'd love to live in a world where women were just equally represented at
> these things as a matter of course

What is that isn't the natural state? What if 50% of the people that want to
do X aren't of gender Z?

How do we decide if we should do more to encourage X to do Z, or realize that
Z doesn't WANT to do X, and focus on other issues?

