Everybody lies, constantly

Do people know what they are talking about?

Understanding that most of the students who confidently discussed the awesome projects they were working on were actually bluffing was the biggest realization in my life.

When I was a master’s student working in machine learning and artificial intelligence fields, I accidentally ran out of printer paper in my lab and had to walk to undergrad student lab where a couple students were working on a project. As they worked, one of the students recited facts about machine learning and the others nodded obviously fascinated by his extensive knowledge. None of the facts he claimed with such confidence were true had no solid ground to it, yet the students sitting next to the talkative guy did not know any better and believed what he had to say.

I walked out of that lab my belief system shattered. Since then I started to doubt anything a man says to me with confidence. The answer is no, people do not know what they are talking about.

What about experts?

Stop teaching girls how to code

While in Idaho I noticed on many occasions grassroots to get more women into tech by teaching little girls how to code. That’s it. I asked the organizers what happened to the girls that they supposedly taught how to code, but only got shrugs and indignant stares. At that point I realized we have a very big problem. By teaching the little girls how to code, we delude ourselves that we are doing good, that there will be more women in tech, and we do not need to do anything else.

“Increase the pipeline” is another phrase I heard a lot from Idaho leaders and good-doers. Working on getting more women in and out of a computer science degree is a very important goal, and I discovered that the university has been a lot more proactive in what they achieved compared to, say, Idaho Technology Council.  But past school the support for women in tech becomes spotty. The leaders that I was fortunate to work with helped me grow in my career and made sure that I went further. In a way, I was lucky I met them, yet at the same time I chose very carefully who I work with. Yet there were leaders who I talked to at conferences and job interviews who made me realize how far from the goal of getting more women into tech we actually are.

What can post-school organizations and tech companies do to break the status quo and make a real difference beyond showing a couple little girls how to place 3D objects in Scratch?