Re: Yonatan Zunger's response is still worthwhile reading
From the first paragraph of Zunger's opinion piece: "...about, essentially, how women and men are intrinsically different and we should stop trying to make it possible for women to be engineers, it’s just not worth it"
Having read the memo, I did not infer that conclusion at all. Starting from an inaccurate (or, more charitably, a questionable) position is not a great way to build a solid argument.
The top-rated highlight is: "Essentially, engineering is all about cooperation, collaboration, and empathy for both your colleagues and your customers."
That sounds great, except that if you're an engineer and your project doesn't work, no amount of cooperation, collaboration or empathy will salvage it. Whether it's a bridge or a search engine, if the structure is faulty, the end result is a disaster of varying degrees. Sometimes it takes an engineer to stand up and obstinately refuse to cooperate or collaborate because your non-engineer colleagues and customers want to implement something that is wrong (pervasive privacy-infringing tracking) or dangerous (sub-standard steel girders from a cheaper supplier), and empathy be damned.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
