Dan,
On 4/17/13 9:21 PM, Dan Harkins wrote:
We already know "who we are".
I disagree. We make a whole lot of assumptions about who we are, but we
don't actually know, and that's why the question is being asked. I
would clarify that IMHO the only reason this question should be asked is
for demographic purposes, along with others.
This question is trying to decide our
gender make up and nothing good can come of it.
It will provide more "evidence" for people to make use of logical
fallacies-- "if P implies Q then look we now have evidence of Q
therefore P"-- which really have no place in an organization devoted
to engineering.
This would be putting the cart before the horse. We first need to
understand facts. If we don't understand facts, then people will
continue on assumptions.
And it will be used as a baseline for doing work towards some goal
that has not been justified, work whose very nature requires treating
people according to what they are instead of who they are.
Look, bias stinks and when it exists its stench is detectable. I don't
recall seeing any evidence of bias being presented on this list. And I
don't believe there is any problem has been mentioned that we had or
have that is caused by this predominance of white men. It's just been
stated as a problem itself. We must have less white men. Why? Because,
that's why.
Nobody has proposed that, and I think you can put a bit more faith in
your peers to not make important decisions based on "because".
Eliot