
Racism and Meritocracy in Silicon Valley - michaelwellison
http://michaelwellison.tumblr.com/post/13222757011/eric-ries-on-racism-in-silicon-valley
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coffeemug
Actually, I think YC is incredibly diverse. Each batch has people of different
gender, ethnicity, and country of origin. More importantly each batch has
people with an incredibly diverse range of personalities and experiences -
there are nerds, athletes, business people, political activists, and
everything in between.

Everyone shares focus and determination, which I suppose makes people look the
same on the surface, but if you dig a little deeper you'll be pleasantly
surprised at the diversity of ideas, personalities, points of view, and
experiences.

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MBlume
This article looks nearly content-free to me:

> It’s true that there was little diversity in the racial sense but what
> struck me most was the lack of diversity of backgrounds, attitudes, and
> personality types.

OK, what backgrounds did you see? What attitudes? Which ones were missing?
Hard to have a conversation without specifics

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natrius
If investors have a blind spot, there is money to be made by capitalizing on
it. Eventually someone will. I'm having trouble being concerned by this.

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gaoprea
You are right about the unconventional ideas. But investors must feel
confortable with the people they invest in too, not only with their ideas.
It's a relation based on trust, so they are looking for certain traits. This
may explain why you perceived little diversity in personality types.

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iFire
A Young Steve Jobs definitely would not get in [YC].

Prove this statement.

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j45
More non-minorities talking about the life and experiences of minorities? It's
uplifting to see the talk, but it would go well with some first hand
experiences too.

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lambdasquirrel
_"Ron Conway is a successful entrepreneur and one of the most successful angel
investors in history. If he were a young person today, he would not get into Y
Combinator."_

 _"Ron Conway has described Y Combinator as “the Harvard of incubator
programs”"_

Ron Conway also didn't go to Harvard. He went to SJSU. Just saying...

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skmurphy
Core assertion:

    
    
       I was a member of the summer 2011 class of Y Combinator and I can tell 
       you first hand that it was one of the most homogeneous environments I had 
       ever been in. It’s true that there was little diversity in the racial sense 
       but what struck me most was the lack of diversity of backgrounds, 
       attitudes, and personality types.

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barry-cotter
You too can flag this post.

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burgerbrain
Again? Are we not sick of this conversation yet?

