I can’t believe getting upset about something as trivial as having to write a small essay atop of the regular rigorous rigmarole associated with entering a university (as a student or faculty member).

This doesn’t make sense to me; let alone being upset on behalf of others!

> something as trivial as having to write a small essay

Do you think the essay itself is really why people are upset, or are you being glib? It's hard to tell.

I understand the essay represents some Very Bad Idea that they disagree with or something along those lines.

I know that people posting here aren’t upset about the essays, because 99% of them haven’t read a single one. This is not exactly a community of educators, but technology industry insiders. The level of unfounded self-assuredness on display here about what goes on at e.g. a UC Berkeley faculty hiring committee rivals ChatGPT.

Which brings us back to: if no one here has read any of these essays, what‘a with all the angry comments?

In defense of HN, the audience has been staunchly "libertarian" and all that entails for years. So being anti- something that seems to threaten the social power hierarchy is the norm. Before the every-day-anti-DEI posts, it was an Elon-fest were folks would tout "free speech" and other stuff. After Elon got Twitter and his free-speech absolutism turned out to be a disposable talking point, the HN audience largely moved on.

Companies pretend to be sorry they are screwing you. DEI is proud to screw you.

Companies are dispassionate, like elephants and insects. You are worthless to a company.

You are hated by DEI people.