> What I'm talking about isn't just awkwardness and lacking charisma. I'm talking about randomly telling women that they can tell she is on her period and things like that.
These don't seem limited to SV and Big Companies™ like Google, all it takes is a cursory scroll either through this website (even this thread!) or a trip to any of the CompSci-focused boards on Reddit. Additionally not limited to women and minorities, but anyone from a non-traditional background as well.
If anyone feels like working on these issues, the problem is extremely local, you don't even have to leave HN!
As a result you get pretty average people. Even the weirdos tend to be just quiet and reclusive. My brother on the other hand, went to work for a smaller B tier to google, and he had multiple co-workers that were just beyond bizarre.
I'll just get the smartest of the smarts and rule the world! If I only get the alphas of the alphas, I'll surely win.
Reminds me of all the NBA players getting schooled in FIBA, because the international teams have better chemistry. At one point they had to do a total re-boot, because it was so embarrassing.
I know of at least one second tier, non-sv shop that goes hard to hire the best developers in terms of intelligence. It actually leads to huge quality problems during recruiting and poor diversity. There's just something about mega-nerds with extremely poor social skills that keeps the women and minorities away.
What I'm talking about isn't just awkwardness and lacking charisma. I'm talking about randomly telling women that they can tell she is on her period and things like that.