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Bootstrap Lesson 1.1

Last updated almost 2 years ago
16 questions
Lesson 1.1 (for absent students)
Today's Slides:
Make sure you have watched this video:
1

As you watch the video, write down things you NOTICE here:

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As you watch the video, write down things you WONDER here:

Computing Needs All Voices

Go to this website.


Choose one of the pioneers who is most interesting to you and answer the questions.


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What is the name of the pioneer you chose? Why did you chose this person?

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List one contribution this person made to math or computing.

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List one (or more) interesting fact about this person.

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Think about what you learned from the video and from the pioneer you learned about. Identify something(s) that serve as a mirror for you, connecting you with your own identity and experience of the world. Write about who or what you connected with and why.

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Identify something(s) from the film or the posters that served as a window for you, giving you insight into other people’s experiences or expanding your thinking in some way.

Read this article, then answer the questions below.


Perspective: A solution to tech’s lingering diversity problem? Try thinking about ketchup

BY DEXTER THOMAS - WRITER MARCH 16, 2016 6:24 PM PT
Diversity is a hot, and controversial, topic in Silicon Valley. But why do so many people care about it? At first glance, the answer may seem simple: Improving minorities’ access to tech jobs is the right thing to do. But when I moderated a panel Monday at SXSW on diversity in the tech industry, I was surprised none of the panelists talked much about what was “right.” Instead, they talked about what was right for business. Sarah Wagener, vice president of talent acquisition and diversity at Pandora, agreed during the panel that pushing to hire more diverse candidates is the “right thing” to do.

“But,” she said, “it’s been the ‘right thing to do’ for a long time, and we’re still having this conversation.” If you’re trying to make the case at your company for diversifying your workforce, she said, your argument needs to be focused on “real business outcomes.”
In other words, recruiting people from underrepresented backgrounds should be understood not as an obligation that could weigh your company down, but as an opportunity that could raise the bar, and lift your company above the competition.
Instantly, Wagener’s statements reminded me of ketchup. If you haven’t heard it yet, the “ketchup question” is a thought experiment that’s become something of a meme in some corners of the tech community thanks to a popular episode of the Reply All podcast. It starts as an innocent question: Where do you keep your ketchup? If you’re like most people in the United States, odds are that you keep your ketchup in the refrigerator. But depending on where you grew up, you might keep it in the cupboard.

Imagine that you reach for the ketchup bottle and find it empty. You need a substitute sauce, and grab whatever is nearby. If that bottle is in the refrigerator, you may opt for mayo. But if it’s in the cupboard, the seasoning closest at hand might be malt vinegar, or Tabasco, or salt and pepper.

Start-up culture is often centered around new ways of solving “problems” -- ride-sharing apps such as Lyft and Uber solve the problem of getting around town without a car, for example. The “ketchup question” shows how a slight difference in perspective can lead a coworker toward a completely different solution that might never occur to you. That extra perspective could lead to a fresh new idea that could take your company to the top.
But without a diverse team? It’s gonna be mayo every time.

What do we do about it? Most people aren’t chief executives of a major company, and may feel like they have no sway in the hiring process. So I asked two of the panelists to give some suggestions that could be useful for employees of all levels, regardless of the industry in which they work. Karla Monterroso, vice president of programs at Code 2040, an organization that works to place black and Latino students in engineering internships at tech companies, said that job listings could be an unexpected barrier to attracting diverse talent.

Using seemingly innocent words like “hacker” or “rockstar” in job listings could unintentionally give the impression to some women that the company would not be a hospitable place to work, said Monterroso. She recommended reading articles on the topic of bias and having informal conversations with coworkers. More directly, she said, using these articles as “evidence” to suggest small changes in recruitment practices could be an easy first step in attracting new talent.

James Talbot, a software engineer at San Francisco web publishing startup Medium, was concerned with what happens after a new recruit is hired. He suggested using social media to follow people who have different perspectives than you, for 30 days. The key, he said, is to listen to what they have to say, simply exposing yourself to their conversations -- not commenting or arguing with them.

This is important, he said, because even after a recruiter hires a person from an underrepresented community, adapting to the workplace environment can be another challenge. If people get into a job but have to deal with racist or sexist comments and insensitive treatment, they may simply leave – and take their unique perspectives and talent elsewhere.

People often say that the cause of the lack of diversity in many tech companies is the lack of an easy way to find available candidates. “People always give excuses, saying the problem is the ‘pipeline,’” Talbot said. “But who wants to be on a pipeline into a sewer?”
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Dexter Thomas
Dexter Thomas is from San Bernardino and is a PhD candidate in East Asian studies at Cornell University. He has taught media studies and Japanese and is writing a book about Japanese hip-hop. Thomas began working in new media as a student director of programming at KUCR-FM (88.3), independently producing podcasts as well as music and news programs. He has written for several outlets internationally on topics as diverse as Internet and youth culture, social justice and video games. He left The Times in 2016.
1

The author argues that tech companies with diverse teams have an advantage. Why?

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What suggestions did the article offer for tech companies looking to diversify their teams?

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What is one thing of interest to you in the author’s bio?

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Think of a time when you had an idea that felt "out of the box". Did you share your idea? Why or why not?

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Can you think of a time when someone else had a strategy or idea that you would never have thought of, but was interesting to you and/or pushed your thinking to a new level?

Exit Ticket
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How engaged (paying attention, doing work) were you during class today?

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Today’s learning target was: Let’s learn about some Pioneers in Computing and Mathematics and what they contributed. Where are you with this LT?

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Who is the pioneer that you researched? What was their contribution to the field of computing or mathematics?

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What is one thing you took away from the "ketchup" article about the importance of diverse teams?