
Mistakes we've made - mgeraci
https://www.hackerschool.com/blog/34-mistakes-weve-made
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oskarth
For what it's worth I still think the name is great. The meaning of words
change. The identity of Hacker School is strong, and I could easily see it
deciding what hacker and school _means_ in the future, not unlike YC and the
words hacker and incubator. Granted, it's an uphill battle, but the name
recognition is strong, unlike Foo Bootcamp (I might be biased in this regard,
but friends have remembered the name without being prompting just because it
sounds cool).

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jey

        presents strong evidence that this language is gendered. 
        We've since stopped saying that people must "love" 
        programming
    

Could someone expand on this point and explain how the "love programming"
phrasing is gendered?

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nicholasjbs
The linked book ( _Unlocking the Clubhouse_ [1]) is based off a multi-year
study of Carnegie Mellon CS majors. They found it was common for the male CS
majors to describe themselves as "in love" with programming but much less
common for female CS majors to do so.

(That's obviously greatly simplified, but that's the gist of it.)

[1] [http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/unlocking-
clubhouse](http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/unlocking-clubhouse)

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AndyKelley
That doesn't imply that "love" is a gendered word, it implies that males use
the word more.

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sthatipamala
I wouldn't call the word itself gendered. The problem is it appeals
disproportionately to men (for a variety of cultural reasons described in the
study).

It's not in Hacker School's interest to skew their appeal toward certain
groups of people for no reason.

~~~
peterwwillis
Personally i'm much more concerned with why "i love programming" appeals more
to one gender than another, and would prefer to see the cause of the problem
tackled first. Abandoning the wording removes any need to have a conversation
about things like gender-leaning language in the first place, further burying
the issue.

~~~
sthatipamala
It's a worthwhile question. The referenced study ("Unlocking the Clubhouse")
explores part of the issue and is a very interesting read. Take a look!

Unfortunately, the lead time for solving the root cause is at least 1
generation. We will have to use stopgap solutions until then.

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coffeecodecouch

        We shouldn't have named our company "Hacker School."
        Both parts of our name have caused us trouble: Hacker
        because so many people take it to mean a person who
        breaks into computers rather than a clever programmer.
    

Why would that matter? Everyone who's interested in Hacker School is a hacker
and understands the true meaning of the word.

~~~
nicholasjbs
That was initially our assumption, but we've learned that there are some
people who are interested in (and ultimately great fits for) Hacker School who
don't primarily interpret the word as we do.

Also, while most people who come to Hacker School understand our use of
_hacker_ , many of their families and friends don't. And that's caused Hacker
Schoolers a surprising amount of annoyance ("What do you mean you're quitting
your job and moving to New York for _Hacker School_?!")

~~~
coffeecodecouch
Sorry for the late reply, I was temperately banned after my comment got
downvoted twice.

> Also, while most people who come to Hacker School understand our use of
> hacker, many of their families and friends don't. And that's caused Hacker
> Schoolers a surprising amount of annoyance ("What do you mean you're
> quitting your job and moving to New York for Hacker School?!")

That's a really great point, I hadn't though of that. I'm still glad you chose
that name though, if you hadn't I probably wouldn't have been interested
enough to read through your website and ultimately decide to apply in the
future.

If you were to re-make Hacker School with the knowledge you have now, what
would you name it?

~~~
nicholasjbs
I don't know. We've considered a number of names but haven't found one we
really like. We're open to suggestions :)

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rando289
I'm very impressed by this post. Concise. Insightful. Practical. Honest.

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AlliedEnvy
_We 're also updating our internal review system to obfuscate applicants'
names to avoid any subconscious bias during our application review process.
We'll soon be considering applicants named "Blue Dart" and "Purple Rover"
rather than "Jane Doe" and "José Smith"._

Careful. I am reminded of a classic hacker koan (perhaps, appropriately for a
hacker school):

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_koan#Uncarved_block](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_koan#Uncarved_block)

The situation would likely be better than before, but this may be trading one
set of subconscious biases for yet another.

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jonalmeida
‎I'm glad I got to read this post since I recently didn't get into HS for this
summer.

I don't think I'm worried that they may have made a mistake with my
application because I'm worth the time, or other self affirming points (blah
blah blah). Although, it would have been nice if they mentioned what exactly
made them feel like I wasn't a good fit so I could work on that. I get that
it's not always possible since they probably get a huge number of applications
to go through.

It seems like they do a lot of introspection which I like to see - gives you a
sense of what kind of people they are and makes me want to go there even more.

EDIT: Grammar

~~~
nicholasjbs
Thanks for the kind words, and I'm sorry things didn't work out this time
around :\

Regarding feedback: We tried to give individualized feedback up until last
year, but we stopped doing it because it took a ton of time and wasn't
particularly effective. We wrote about this here:
[https://www.hackerschool.com/feedback](https://www.hackerschool.com/feedback)

~~~
jonalmeida
Thanks for link. It would be great to add that to future emails so people
understand the use of a generic email.

Impressed as always!

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sadfnjksdf
I disagree with one "but" in this post. Rebranding is not optional/too
expensive. It's THAT important. Don't not do it, and never give up on a
necessary TODO. Good luck! You guys are doing great.

~~~
peterwwillis
It's funny because they actually know a bit about rebranding. Hacker School
evolved out of Hackruiter, which in turn came from HireHive.
[http://unschooled.org/2012/06/the-path-to-hacker-
school/](http://unschooled.org/2012/06/the-path-to-hacker-school/)

All told they've been around since 2011. If they think three years is too late
to change brands, well, it just sounds pretty shortsighted to me. They can
take their existing customers with them and build much needed credibility in
being true to their vision. As long as the new brand is better than the old
brand I don't see a downside.

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sown
I personally think something like 'Code Atleier' has a nicer ring to it. :)

