The Meritocracy Recruitment Video A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

Brendan B · Oxford University
This is a great piece. It also alludes to something I feel is also important: the effect of compounding of slight bias.

I remember seeing a conceptual game during a systems theory class. It had a 100 cell x 100 cell grid, filled equally with red and blue squares. Each red square preferred to be adjacent to another red square by 51:49, in other words, very marginally. Blues were the opposite - they very slightly preferred to be next to blues. Then the cells were randomly mixed, with only those individual cell preferences factoring in. And then mixed again. And again.

The result was surprising: after a few mixes the grid was almost completely segregated, even though each individual square bias was minute. This exercise shed light onto systems that can have a huge system bias, based only on slight individual biases (in this case...See More
Reply · 56 · Like · Follow Post · Saturday at 9:41pm

Gordon Mohr · San Francisco, California
The grid simulation to which you're referring is Thomas Schelling's model of how residential segregation can emerge from only slight, non-segregationist preferences for a few like-type neighbors.

If men or women even slightly prefer workplaces with more coworkers of their own gender, then via a process similar to that Schelling model, you could wind up with gender-imbalanced workplaces, and even eventually entire fields-of-practice, vie the iterative choices of individuals to change jobs and specialties. It requires no hiring discrimination or theories of differential ability... just individuals making locally-reasonable choices about their own happiest/most-productive working situations.

Brendan B · Oxford University
Gordon Mohr Thanks for filling that in with so much more sophistication than I could! Although I didn't remember the specifics, the takeaway has stuck with me. Cheers.

Brendan B · Oxford University
*among our *community*. My bad :)

Shaherose Charania · Subscribe · Works at Founder Labs · 325 subscribers
Eric - thanks for this thoughtful and articulate piece. You, Steve Blank, Ann Miura-Ko were the first three people I met when I dreamt up the idea of Founder Labs. You all believed in the concept and in me. Thank you.

Now 5 sessions in, 2 companies are funded, 6 are bootstrapping, and one now in YC (yep!) we are making a wave of change and building companies that *don't* look the same. I think that's fun, I think it's challenging, I think it's needed.

Is it OK to quote myself from a recent blog post (http://founderlabs.tumblr.com/) Oh well, here I go:

Harald Neidhardt · Founder at MLOVESOCIETY
Dear Shaherose - You deserve the highest respect for you work and drive! And I ♥ you for you selfless energy and passion ;-)

Eric Ries · Subscribe · Top Commenter · San Francisco, California · 479 subscribers
Amen. Thank you for the work you are doing.

Wilhem Pujar · Subscribe
I personally deplore the lack of black people in the startup industry. But I don't really care about the reason. I'm focusing on the solution : starting with myself.

Walter Cannon · Subscribe · New York, New York
amen

Brandon Rivers · San Jose, California
Totally agree. Same with me. This is why I moved to Silicon Valley.

Tim Abbott
Eric,


Melissa Hastings · Top Commenter
my gosh, that's the most interesting post I've read in ages on TC, Tim.
I bet there is an interesting story there and I wish you yourself wrote an article I could read on this.
I am assuming you are an African-American man from Tulsa that uprooted your family and moved to India to pursue your dreams of a better life? And felt over-the-hill at 30-something for doing a start-up. One thing I just thought of though was Jeff Bezos starting Amazon when he was 30 and some say he is the brightest CEO since Jobs. So I don't think 30 is over the hill.

Tim Abbott
Melissa Hastings thanks for the comments. You are absolutely correct. I am an African American from Tulsa and I actually went to some of the best schools in Oklahoma while growing up. I went to Monte Casino in elementary school, Cascia Hall in Middle School, and graduated from Thomas Edison High with honors where I played on the Tennis team. I'm not sure if I qualify as someone who was necessarily looking for a better life. I already made well above a six figure salary when I left but I could never seemingly get beyond the perception of being an awesome manager but not someone to necessarily be trusted with the keys to the kingdom. I certainly wasn't implying that 30 was over the hill. I was simply stating that it doesn't fit today's archetype of the Valley funded founder. Also, while Bezos is obviously a strong founder and CEO, he started as part of the first wave of Internet startups during the dot com land rush.

I think once all is said and done a may write more than just an article about my experiences. While I have never lived in the valley, I have understood the possibilities of why the Valley is so amazing. The infrastructure in talent, connections, and facilitation is so difficult in other places but it's still disappointing that there isn't much diversity.

Jeremy Lichtman · Subscribe · Top Commenter · York University
I think Tim just hit on an interesting point - starting positions have a big effect when looking at network effects, and Dot Com is about networking and scale by its very definition.

There's more than one track in (top notch Computer Engineering program is one, but I can think of a few stereotypical others too - like the couch-surfing and exceedingly technically focused, self-taught techie, and the mathematically-minded new immigrant - goatee or unkempt beard optional in both cases), but the initial conditions of where a person is coming from act as filters.

The good thing is that people are now looking at this and trying to find solutions though. Its definitely a start. Speaking from personal experience in team building, monocultures aren't nearly as effective as a diverse group of people.


Darrin Taylor · Walla Walla University
I think everyone honest understands what is in play.
1) women are conditioned to only accept mates who make more money than them and are taller.
2) men are conditioned to only accept mates who are attractive regardless of if they are short or make less money.

Science: Both of these claims have been verified by science but are also so universal that the reader knows I am correct from their own personal observations.

BriAnna McKissen Shultz · Subscribe · Owner at Blabbermouth Media
The problem with the logic in your first part is that all of the other high-risk, high-reward professions are not dominated by men, at least not in the dramatic proportions we see in tech. There's another factor in there somewhere.

Peter-Jan Celis
BriAnna McKissen Shultz What other high-risk, high-reward professions not dominated by men are you talking about?

Derek Scruggs · Top Commenter · CTO at StatsMix
I think your analysis leaves out how these traits also shape selection processes. Until relatively recently orchestra selection committees were made up of men. Think maybe their biases affected their decision. They might think a female violinist is cute or not-cute, but in either case doesn't have the "right stuff."

If the Valley is colorblind to Indians, why do Indians feel the need to create TiE Silicon Valley? This is a real question, not rhetorical.

Yishan Wong · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Director and Co-Founder at Sunfire Offices · 4,911 subscribers
This thoughtful and nuanced essay about racism by a white man is a valuable perspective that our debate was sorely lacking. Thank you, Eric Ries!

Glenn K. Bolton
I appreciate you, and your post. As a blackman in technology, I believe evolution is our viable option. Race relations in work (Silicon Valley and elsewhere)has a TON of evolving to do. Its starts with most Black americans like myself being the decendents of slaves who never received wages for labor. But Silicon Valley has proven itself to be basically colorblind. Its just going to take a while for everybody else to come around. Don't lose hope, we will overcome. Peace.

JC McDowell · Subscribe · Chicago, Illinois
San Jose or San Francisco Bay Area if you had to choose D.

JC McDowell · Subscribe · Chicago, Illinois
California


Timothy Branch · Subscribe
I share your positon an Admire opinun...I seen alot of change in the Valley in the last 13-yrs.


Michael David Cobb Bowen · Redondo Beach, California
Ultimately you have to prove that racial diversity is real and useful. And so long as you cannot prove that what various races *do* or how genders *think* is material, then none of your simplistic statistics mean anything.

The entire problem with diversity is that it NECESSARILY benchmarks success by counting ONLY race and ONLY gender. And we already know by decades of practice and analysis that AFFIRMATIVE ACTION is how you fix that.

I have never seen a diversity program that did so much as Myers-Briggs (16 classes) in its statistical breakouts.

Tech is what it is, and this meme is just another attempt to manipulate its evolution by other than market means.


Michael Abehsera · Subscribe · CEO & Co-Founder at Eeden Labs
Your suggestion is ridicules and very RACIST. Affirmative action is not the way to fix the problem why would you force anyone to hire someone because of his race over someone else who might be better? I think it's unfair and racist. I agree with the above post we just need to make the selection process actually color and gender blind, and with time minorities will feel more comfortable to apply to different programs.
Also there will always be gaps between races in certain professions, why are so many Jews lawyers, why are most basketball players black? the list goes on, a lot of this has to do with culture and how we are brought up. Read malcolm gladwell outliers which will explains some of these cultural meanings very well.
Reply · 3 · Like · Saturday at 9:47pm

Michael David Cobb Bowen · Redondo Beach, California
Michael Abehsera I don't think you know what you're talking about, but I am certain that you don't know what I'm talking about. Here is my syllogism more plainly spoken.

Diversity = Affirmative Action/4.

If Affirmative Action offends you, but you accept the notion of diversity, then your principle on matters of racism is that it ceases to be racism if it is watered down. IE there is moral value in counting employees / entrepreneurs by race, so long as you don't count too high.


Michael Abehsera · Subscribe · CEO & Co-Founder at Eeden Labs
Michael David Cobb Bowen Great let's solve racism by being racist, that is an awesome idea, grow a brain and think about what you are saying, your taking someones job and giving it to someone based on his race, does that make any sense? why not think about this issue and try to figure out smart non racist ways to solve it, like the article above. Asking for affirmative action is being lazy, it's asking for something that you don't deserve, finding solutions that will base everything only based on who you are as a person (ability) is the best and only solution. It's also very possible to accomplish (there are many examples where it worked).

btw I truly think that anyone who agrees with affirmative action is a huge racist.



Michael Agnich · Zazzle at Zazzle
Great article - for those of you have never heard of the Harvard IAT's, you should check these out:

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html

Take the Race IAT and read the results. Race bias exists in almost all of us - and our actual race or gender turns out not to matter much. Taking those tests was eye-opening to me.


Michael David Cobb Bowen · Redondo Beach, California
I've taken the IATs three times over several years and tested neutral each time. Abandoning meaning in race can be taught, but I believe most Americans think that there is a way to ascribe 'positive' meanings to race and ethnicity that compensate for prior discrimination. It doesn't work. But at least the IATs are better than the Peggy McIntosh white privilege backpack stuff.


Teresa Jay · Chicago, Illinois
Michael David Cobb Bowen I usually test neutral as well. It is possible. It can be taught AND learned.


Kristy Tillman · IDEO
Excellent article from Eric Ries. I think your approach (trying to be as objective as possible, non accusatory and using logic/science) to this issue should open the floor for better discussions. Thank you for this piece.


Yash Kumar · Subscribe · Software engineer at A2Z Development (Amazon.com)
This is just ridiculous. So much of being a startup is being able to bootstrap yourself. If you are economically disadvantaged, there is no way in hell you could spend countless hours dreaming up ideas, testing them and failing... You'd be working minimum wage jobs to pay the bills.

Young founders from rich households is what makes startups today. There is no race bias, it's an economic bias. Building something takes many iterations of trial and error, from learning to program to marketing online. I just can't see young people doing that unless they are from privileged households.


Karan Jain · ITM Gurgaon
Angel Investor


Janus Gemini · Archbishop of Dingleberry at Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
Being poor for 30 years and working never much more than minimum wage is the whole reason i dream with imagination beyond the internet's current states. I get to think while i am a gobot zombie for hire. Assembling the proper skilled partners is another thing...


Gavan Woolery · Top Commenter · CTO at Appstem Media LLC
Diversity (or lack thereof) is a non-problem. So why even suggest that it is one? Studies on diversity, are - simply put - bullshit. In any sample size you can find false correlations - especially in nebulous studies. If everyone should be treated as equals, then that means it does not matter how many white people end up working somewhere, just as much as it does not matter how many black people end up working somewhere. Why are there so few women programmers? Because most of them are not interested in those positions, simple as that. Maybe one day that will change, but why try to do it artificially?

That said, there is no harm in doing blind screenings, and meritocracy is a good thing. But neither of those should have the GOAL of increasing diversity. Intentionally trying to manipulate diversity, whether in favor of the minority or the majority, is defined as "racism."


Jacob Singh
I'm not sure you really read this article deeply. Eric is pretty directly responding with confidence to all of your opinions. Perhaps you should take another crack at it. Might also be fun to google "Confirmation bias".

You might think it is fine to have 95% white men in senior positions in technology, but that's because, well... you are a white man with a senior position in technology, so this doesn't surprise me :)


Adam Brunet · Springfield, Massachusetts
Actually, I think you raise an interesting point. I have very, very little benefit of the doubt left for supposedly scientific "studies" that purport to reach conclusions that have ideological ramifications. The so-called social "sciences" are, as a group, suspect in my mind at this point, and as you mention, "nebulous studies" are not to be trusted. Of course, neither are nebulous criticisms. I'm not ready to reject these conclusions any more than I am to accept them. My general rule is to ignore them until I can see, in detail, how the data was collected, how it was treated, etc. This hardly ever happens, since these things are usually so vague and tendentious as to ultimately have no importance, and I'm seldom driven to delve into the analysis it would take to do a proper assessment. Lord knows the studies themselves are hardly ever presented squarely by the interested parties who take them up trumpet them (who are not always the people who carried them out). My ignore-it principle has generally served me well - and if that sounds anti-intellectual, I assure you it is the opposite. I don't waste my time on studies of UFOs and ESP, either.
Still, I assert that if it is crap, there will be SPECIFIC reasons it is crap. So, Mr. Woolery, can you perhaps give some citations of bullshit diversity studies, and where exactly you think they fail?


Phibian Salamander
Jacob Singh, you might think it is fine to have 95% black men in starting positions in the NBA, but that's because, well... you are a black man with a starting position in the NBA, so this doesn't surprise me ;)



Adnan Virk · San Francisco, California
I really like the "blind resume review" method described. Its a very fair way to challenge inherent biases.


Anna Billstrom · Works at Momentus Media
Great article Eric, and so glad you've written it. It's a cogent summary and examination of so many resources and arguments I've come across on this topic.
Couple of things:
- I met you in the first season of Founder Labs, and I totally agree with you that it was an oasis of diversity - age/race/gender - that I've ever participated in, in Silicon Valley.
- As a Silicon Valley native I've felt personally.. upset and confused... because we haven't made it better for the next generation.
- I feel there's one more post left here unwritten, which is why diversity rocks. To doubters, I am thinking they just haven't felt it, or experienced it. True innovation and inspiration comes from a multiplicity of viewpoints and lifestyles. Brogrammers can only go so far.


Anna Billstrom · Works at Momentus Media
comment I wrote on a great (long) article by one of the Customer Development gods Eric Ries


Cathy Block Daves
Very well put Anna.


Anna Billstrom · Works at Momentus Media
Thanks Cathy Block Daves - seriously impressed that he squeezed so much into this one post. Epic, haha.


Tessa Horehled · Subscribe · Principal at TessaHorehled.com
This is probably the best article I've read on TechCrunch all year. I really hope it helps inspire change.


Michael Arrington · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Founder at TechCrunch · 89,881 subscribers
"All experts in the musical world agreed on the reason: male performers had superior aptitude to female performers." - The problem is that people here don't say that about women and minorities, and they don't think that, either. There's zero thought that white men make better entrepreneurs than someone who isn't white or isn't a man. And before we criticize YC for being, once again, sort of biased without even knowing it, I'd like to know the acceptance rate of minorities, particularly blacks, before we label them that way. Because if the acceptance rate is off the charts good, then we can't continue to say that YC, or me, or anyone, is secretly and unknowingly keeping minorities out of the game.

There are programs that are dealing with the pipeline problem, and that's where we need to focus our energy. Not on more self accusi...See More


Phil Mos · Subscribe · CEO & Founder at Taramo
I'm Black.


Ahmed Naqvi · Subscribe · CEO at Zozolo
SuperLike


Tara Hunt · Subscribe · Top Commenter · 401 subscribers
I thought this article was amazing and, unfortunately, still necessary. I know innately the disadvantages AND the advantages I get being a (rare, but not AS rare anymore) woman in tech. I have been given opportunities (like TC Disrupt) because of a dedication to change the ratio, which gave me an unfair advantage. But that counterbalances the fact that I'm a middle-aged woman trying to get the same level of mentorship from angels and VCs who have, quite literally, pushed me out of the way mid-conversation to talk with the young developer showing his latest iPhone photo app.

I do agree with you that we need to stop saying SV are racists, but I think Eric's ideas for how we change the selection process are sound and may encourage more applications from non-stereo-typical startup founders. Instead of feeling condescended, think about the actionable ways we can demonstrate that SV is not racist/sexist (beyond affirmative action - I love the idea of blind selection).

I hope you are flourishing with your newest venture.



Christine Tsai · Google
Quite honored that 500 Startups is mentioned here as one of the programs that has diversity (Disclosure: Eric is a venture advisor and mentor for 500, but regardless it's true. We still have a ways to go, but we have great diversity, even on our own staff).


Maya Bisineer · The Ohio State University
Honored to be a part of the present 500 Startups class! I have to say that the diversity (and number of tech women!) makes for a really rich experience.


Eric Ries · Subscribe · Top Commenter · San Francisco, California · 479 subscribers
You've earned it - and not because of affirmative action or quotas, either.


Christine Lu · Subscribe · Top Commenter
...also honored to be part of the 500Startups family!


Kervin Pierre · Top Commenter · FIT
Interesting article. Much better than what I've been reading on TC lately.

Intolerance is just a hard problem to beat for us human beings. We're hardwired to gather facts quickly and statistically based on our loose observations. We do it all the time, and our statistical biases usually not a problem until you're affecting another human being unfairly.

Any article that looks to address this topic should, I believe, ask more questions then offer solutions. So it's nice to see that this author does.


Michael David Cobb Bowen · Redondo Beach, California
If the premise is that applying some standard of diversity makes any organization better, then doesn't it stand to reason that the world's best organizations would already be diverse?

It doesn't, and the best organizations are not diverse. Simply stated, there is a bias towards (certain) organizations that are diverse and against those that are not. Some of that bias is reasonable but I think the moral arrogance of most of it is out of place.

I would like for anyone who is inclined to imagine several benchmarks of organizational fitness. Let us imagine one to be management efficiency, and measure it as the ratio of meetings to goal alignment. The fewer meetings you need to align the goals of the various departments in the organization, the higher the rating. That would be the Y axis. On the X axis, let us imagine in the firs...See More


Chap Godbey
Thursday fodder for Phibian Salamander.


Rafiki Cai · Subscribe · Technologist in Residence at University of San Francisco
ER: you've made a noble and applaudable attempt at an "I'm OK, You're OK" treatment of diversity (and its inverse sibling discrimination). However, this line caused me to pause and just come back to the rest of the article later: " that even a collection of unbiased actors can work together to accidentally create a biased system."

I thought we were talking about intelligent, alert, bright engineers, scientist and the like. Are you trying to tell me that decade after decade, generation after generation, a 'consistent' accident just happens? Are You saying a 'group affinity' and human tribal tendency does not produce bias?

I guess that same accident is why there is not a single African American in the U.S. Senate right now. Or is the inference that no Afircan American, anywhere in the nation, out of a 30 million plus population people, wants to be there?

I don't buy that biases and their consistent and institutionalized effect is an 'accident'. That bridge won't cross. Go back and come again, please.


David E. Weekly · Subscribe · Stanford University · 103 subscribers
Cui bono? We need all the smart brains we can get.


Jacob Singh
Well written and I agree with you, and I also think that Eric's wording is most effective at getting people out of defensive mode and thinking rationally about their actions.

So tactically, isn't it effective to separate the person's intentions and their behavior? In reality, they are reflective of each other as you point out - but the hard confrontational bit is only going to be received once the "reality-check" phase is broken though IMHO.


Mark Murfin · Subscribe · Top Commenter · FIT
Eric's point is that it is indeed just a "consistent accident" that is causes the bias, not intentional malicious racism on the part of a few gatekeeps that people seem to believe in.

Jianping Huang · Stony Brook Üniversitesi
OK, I will apply as a Chinese.

Akshay Khanna · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Windsor
I will apply as an Indian.

Yishan Wong · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Director and Co-Founder at Sunfire Offices · 4,911 subscribers
And my axe!

Adam Brunet · Springfield, Massachusetts
I will apply as a proud Hominid-American.

Ade Molajo · Top Commenter · Works at CompareChecker
A black man, a white man and a Asian man walk into a selection process. As the recruiter what is your immediate inference about the 'expected' competence/intelligence/aptitude of each of these individuals?

If you can say there is no bias -fair enough. Unfortunately I don't think a lot of people assume the black man is a "Makinde Adeagbo (dropbox, formerly Facebook engineer)" or "Tristan Walker (head of biz dev, Foursquare)".

I will not say anybody is to blame for this. It is a complicated issue. I don't think affirmative action does anything to help this. Entrepreneurship is not about being "given" anything. I don't think any black entrepreneurs in the making want a handout. They EXPECT it to be harder (as Eric has pointed it out). That is not a deterrent.
...See More

Luke Metcalfe · Subscribe
There is already a large group of internet entrepreneurs that experiences no selection bias. They (mostly) don't live in Silicon Valley. At no point in their career do they need to prepare a meeting with a startup hub or VC. Look at the large contingent who work from home, and often offshore. Many of them don't reveal their identity to users at all.

I would survey sites that:
* only have ad inventory from major networks (so they don't need to do direct deals) - the big networks;.
* Take credit card payments online;.
...See More

Eduardo Frias · New York, New York
While our own reality and background determines how we see this issue (as we do any other), I am still to find truly successful entrepreneurs that will give higher importance to any kind of bias (I also prefer that word to "racism") than to what will make their respective enterprises winning ones.

That said, our biases are sometimes invisible to ourselves and can be even harder to eliminate. I can only hope for an open and fair mind, a strong team to help illuminate my decision making and, like always, a bit of luck. I am hiring to win, everything else comes in second.