That's an interesting way to underscore the point that these courses reinforce a kind of bias.

Definitely. Though not necessarily a bias between male and female. Just a bias for people who can work well [enough] with that sort of learning.

And it's not just courses.

Many types of work bias toward people who are just fine with locking themselves in a room/the library stacks/a lab for a week to work through some problem. It's a completely different mindset from someone who likes doing sales or PR work.

It's not that there aren't people who can do a good job with both. But some things certainly come more naturally to some people than they do to others.

100% agree with your entire comment. People are just different.

I recently learned guitar for the first time using one of those Guitar Hero games but you play with a real electric guitar. Two friends commented how if I haven't gotten to learning it after multiple attempts, gamification won't work. But it did. This isn't the first time gamification has worked on me. For whatever reason, gamification [and accountability] work[s] great for me.

I'm of the school of thought that the tech industry should absolutely take affirmative steps to encourage and make it possible for people with a wider set of skills and backgrounds to enter and do well in tech. At the same time we have to accept that people and roles are different. I work with a lot of engineers. I also work with a lot of PR people and, especially at agencies, they conform to at least as much of a demographic/behavioral stereotype as software developers do.

Nice response. Definitely agree. Cool that you know first hand that other industries are just as bad. Which isn't surprising.

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