Robots Will Resolve This

Recently your humble blogger found himself at a car repair shop where guys were standing around jawing about what the untrained eye would regard as junk auto parts. The issue was whether a Volvo engine could be salvaged, but the conversation ranged far afield.

Differences between the sexes concerning technical prowess have again risen to the top of the national conversation because of a memo written by Google engineer James Damore.

Mr. Damore asserted that the difference in performance in computer engineering between the sexes (in general, in general, ok?) can't all be attributed to sex discrimination and structural barriers. My limited experience does not contradict his thesis; I know some outstanding women in jobs that require hard math and science, but they are rare. Mr. Damore did not polemicize and is being lambasted in part because his piece is not up to professional writing standards. IMHO he didn't deserve to be fired.

No one is complaining about sex discrimination in the low-status profession of auto repair. The guys I know in this business like what they are doing and started at an early age. This Saturday morning I didn't see any women talking about exhaust manifolds or head gaskets.

It's not offensive to attribute innate sex differences to the people who go in to auto repair, but it is for computer science; oh well, when everyone is replaced by robots it won't matter.

Related: every guy in America fell in love with Marisa Tomei when she spouted car speak in the courtroom (and captured the Academy Award because of it). I daresay that scene would be as incongruous today as it was in 1992.