Live and Learn

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Live and Learn

  • This was removed by the editor as SPAM

  • This editorial reminds me of an article I read recently, I believe that it was on the BBC site but I can't find it to give a reference this morning.  The article suggested that the reason for the CIA's blindness to the rise of Islamic terrorist organisations was that they lacked diversity.  They were mainly white, upper-middle / upper class protestant men.  They had no knowledge of Islamic symbolism, and certainly no idea about the extremes that poverty can drive people to.  They literally had no frame of reference for these things and so were completely ignorant about their own lack of knowledge.

    On the plus side, every time that you discover something else that you don't know anything about, you become slightly less ignorant. You now know that you may need to learn more or to seek out someone who does know more.  This is usually better than blithely carrying on completely unaware.

  • I've had an argument with my ex partner in the past, she claimed that women were discriminated against in the software world.

    the truth is that I don't care if you have tatoos, piercings, green hair, muslim, catholic male/female … when I interview people it's about whether you can do the job … or learn to do the job.

    maybe I'm a little blind to the diversity thing, as I see everyone as equal without having to force diversity.

    Our company embraces not only diverse people, but diverse opinions... we are encouraged to tell our boss that he got it wrong, and welcome new ideas and people regardless of "type"

     

    MVDBA

  • “As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.” - Albert Einstein

  • Chris Wooding wrote:

    “As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.” - Albert Einstein

    indeed

  • MVDBA (Mike Vessey) wrote:

    I've had an argument with my ex partner in the past, she claimed that women were discriminated against in the software world.

    the truth is that I don't care if you have tatoos, piercings, green hair, muslim, catholic male/female … when I interview people it's about whether you can do the job … or learn to do the job.

    maybe I'm a little blind to the diversity thing, as I see everyone as equal without having to force diversity.

    Our company embraces not only diverse people, but diverse opinions... we are encouraged to tell our boss that he got it wrong, and welcome new ideas and people regardless of "type"

    Without debating the specifics of women, most of us have some prejudice and we rarely see all groups the same as us. It's a very human trait to discriminate, often in unconscious ways. Many of us "like" a certain type of person. Not picking on you or implying you are this way, but often people that want to say everyone is equal don't give everyone equal opportunities or chances. We either avoid or become overbearing with others. We may think that someone that doesn't act like us isn't as competent or doesn't do the job well.

    Diversity doesn't need to be forced necessarily, but I think often we do need to push back on the traditions, habits, and subtle biases that most of us hold.

  • Steve Jones - SSC Editor wrote:

    MVDBA (Mike Vessey) wrote:

    Many of us "like" a certain type of person. Not picking on you or implying you are this way, but often people that want to say everyone is equal don't give everyone equal opportunities or chances. We either avoid or become overbearing with others. We may think that someone that doesn't act like us isn't as competent or doesn't do the job well.

    Diversity doesn't need to be forced necessarily, but I think often we do need to push back on the traditions, habits, and subtle biases that most of us hold.

    trust me , i'm not offended... It's a fair point

    I worked in Ireland for a while and we had to go through "interview prejudice training" - Ireland has some funny laws , one of which I had never even considered - you cannot discriminate based on where someone lives.. including romani gypsies and irish travellers.

    the most you can ask is "did you have a good journey today"

    MVDBA

  • This was removed by the editor as SPAM

  • deleted

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply