Re:Ask HN: Why does US allow hard tech interview questions i...
by jazz9k on Thursday January 16, 2025 @06:26PM
(#42732250)
So there is no way to know about rowing unless you are wealthy and white?
Re:Ask HN: Why does US allow hard tech interview questions i...
by defrost on Thursday January 16, 2025 @06:34PM
(#42732324)
In the context of the 1970s ...
The Oxbridge UK and US Ivy league rowing shell sport was largely confined to wealthy private schools and universities and uncommon outside those domains.
To "know" about the sport in detail you either had to take part, be adjacent, make a study of the behavioural activities of that class, or read a lot of Agatha Christie et al literature that referenced the sport.
Rowing shells has been part of the Summer Olympics since 1900, the argument can be made that the working class prior to widespread TV broadcasts didn't get a lot of Olympic exposure.
There were other ways of stumbling into an exposure but they weren't exactly commonplace.
Rowing a boat with oars was common across the globe.
The validity of IQ tests is debated and their history is checkered: they've been used by eugenicists and racists to support their views and statistically minorities under perform on them.
It's not hard to imagine someone purposefully writing an "IQ test" that's racially biased by focusing on things that wealthy white men know. An infamous example from the SAT in the 70's (and allegedly used later as well) that favors those familiar with rowing (aka: "crew"), a largely Ivy League sport:
RUNNER: MARATHON A) envoy: embassy B) martyr: massacre C) oarsman: regatta D) horse: stable
So it's fine if hard tech interviews are actually trying to assess your IQ, but if they're racially biased it's a problem.