On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 10:09:41AM -0700, Dave Crocker wrote:
On 3/20/2013 10:01 AM, Jeffrey Haas wrote:
In general, we want the best people in the job in question. What is "best"
depends on the position (chair, I*, etc.) but as a technical organization
that runs on documents, several things will bubble to the top:
- Technical clue in the matter at hand.
- Reasonable administrative skills.
- Ability to work with others.
- Solid communication skills.
Note the 3 of the 4 items on your list are not a matter of technical
skill.
Agreed, although it is probably understood that technical clue tends to be
pretty high on the list in terms of weight.
The overlap of those (IMO) core skills and diversity (for some metric
thereof) is present. Regardless of the reason someone has a given skill,
the skill itself is the functional requirement.
Also note that your list is missing something that was raised
earlier in the thread, namely the difference between local
optimization versus 'global'. There are benefits in having a group
mixture that can be far more important than the attributes of the
group members taken individually.
Probably because I don't buy wholly into that argument - or at least the
argument it makes us "smarter". A broader source of opinions is always a
good thing and I believe that is one of the things that diversity brings us.
To draw a very geekish analogy, I tend to find that diversity helps only a
little on the "intelligence" of a group. It does wonders for the "wisdom"
of the group. :-)
-- Jeff