<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 7:32 PM, Aahz <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:aahz@pythoncraft.com">aahz@pythoncraft.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="im">
</div>Going off on a little bit of a tangent, it's my perception that because<br>
Python is still largely self-selected, the Python community overall skews<br>
older than other parts of the computer industry. Although the bias<br>
toward young people does exist in the computer industry, I've seen little<br>
evidence of it in hiring for Python jobs.</blockquote><div><br><br>That's not my sense of Python demographics at all. Or of hiring bias.<br>
<br>
People who attend meetings *also* represent a
largely self-selected group. There may be something about the meeting
night, time, or location that causes one group to show up and
another not to make it. I've wanted to come to a meeting of this group
for years and never seem to make it happen.<br>
<br>
</div></div>Your evidence for young people in Python may lie in the disparity between how many people are on the mailing list and how many people make it to a meeting. The fact that you don't see them may, itself, be evidence of hiring bias. Young people may be more likely to blow off networking and professional development stuff during the time they're in heavy professional demand.<br>
<br>$.02,<br><br>Dylan<br>