<story><title>269 people join class-action lawsuit against Google claiming age discrimination</title><url>https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2017/08/nearly-300-have-joined-google-age-case.html?page=all</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lend000</author><text>If age alone isn&amp;#x27;t a reliable factor in determining success, then why do most of the big Silicon Valley companies lean young? Shouldn&amp;#x27;t economics sort them out if they really aren&amp;#x27;t getting more bang for their buck with younger employees? Couldn&amp;#x27;t I get way more done by gaming the market (and therefore &lt;i&gt;win&lt;/i&gt;) if I only hired older employees who were rejected by Google solely for their age? I see lots of conspiracy theories here, but none answer that question.&lt;p&gt;It seems to me like young employees may have a few properties going for them (&lt;i&gt;on average&lt;/i&gt;), that may be less true as they age:&lt;p&gt;-motivation&amp;#x2F;drive&amp;#x2F;desire to put in hours&lt;p&gt;-low cost&lt;p&gt;-flexibility&lt;p&gt;-creativity&amp;#x2F;fresh ideas&lt;p&gt;-more likely to bond with other young employees, and participate in company culture (instead of having a family they need to spend time with).&lt;p&gt;To me, it basically means that for basic software engineering, at a certain point you actually do (on average) become less valuable as you age, &lt;i&gt;unless&lt;/i&gt; you move up into system architecture, specialism&amp;#x2F;subject matter expertise, or management.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rsj_hn</author><text>This is the kind of argument you hear from free marketeers explaining that discrimination can never happen, because it&amp;#x27;s irrational for firms to not hire certain groups who are talented. And yet it does happen, so there is something that the argument is missing, namely that firms aren&amp;#x27;t perfect optimizers and there&amp;#x27;s a lot of politics within a firm that is often unhealthy. Far from doing everything optimally, real life firms (and people) really struggle even to get the second or third best option right. They have blind spots, customs, narrow minded people in key positions, etc. There is some level of age discrimination in the valley, but I think most larger firms try to professionalize their HR to avoid that. However, there are biases within the population of fellow engineers and managers that may be at play.&lt;p&gt;Having said that, I am not going to assume that they are guilty just because of the lawsuit -- let the lawsuit play out.</text></comment>
<story><title>269 people join class-action lawsuit against Google claiming age discrimination</title><url>https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2017/08/nearly-300-have-joined-google-age-case.html?page=all</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lend000</author><text>If age alone isn&amp;#x27;t a reliable factor in determining success, then why do most of the big Silicon Valley companies lean young? Shouldn&amp;#x27;t economics sort them out if they really aren&amp;#x27;t getting more bang for their buck with younger employees? Couldn&amp;#x27;t I get way more done by gaming the market (and therefore &lt;i&gt;win&lt;/i&gt;) if I only hired older employees who were rejected by Google solely for their age? I see lots of conspiracy theories here, but none answer that question.&lt;p&gt;It seems to me like young employees may have a few properties going for them (&lt;i&gt;on average&lt;/i&gt;), that may be less true as they age:&lt;p&gt;-motivation&amp;#x2F;drive&amp;#x2F;desire to put in hours&lt;p&gt;-low cost&lt;p&gt;-flexibility&lt;p&gt;-creativity&amp;#x2F;fresh ideas&lt;p&gt;-more likely to bond with other young employees, and participate in company culture (instead of having a family they need to spend time with).&lt;p&gt;To me, it basically means that for basic software engineering, at a certain point you actually do (on average) become less valuable as you age, &lt;i&gt;unless&lt;/i&gt; you move up into system architecture, specialism&amp;#x2F;subject matter expertise, or management.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gaius</author><text>&lt;i&gt;If age alone isn&amp;#x27;t a reliable factor in determining success, then why do most of the big Silicon Valley companies lean young? Shouldn&amp;#x27;t economics sort them out if they really aren&amp;#x27;t getting more bang for their buck with younger employees?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes it does - young people are easier to exploit, you can make them work long hours and pay them in stock instead of cash, and if they burn out there&amp;#x27;s another fresh crop next year. Remember that for every Google or Facebook, there are 1000 startups that went nowhere. They were full of young people too.&lt;p&gt;Other countries do this too, tho&amp;#x27; to a much greater extent. Why do you think your running shoes and electronics are so cheap...? Is that the kind of economic success we really want?</text></comment>