the hardest thing about hiring is avoiding the fash -- wingolog

Most of the literature on hiring is about technical ability, and indeed that's important. But no job is solely technical: there are communication and cooperation aspects as well. The output of a group is not simply the sum of its components.

In that regard I have a thesis: the most important thing about hiring is to avoid the fash. Fascist sympathisers are toxic to the collective organism and you do not want them on your team. The tricky thing is honing your fashdar to suit the purpose.

I am currently in Oxford for ICFP, one of the most prestigious conferences of my field (programming languages). I came to be refreshed with new ideas and to maintain contacts, for collaboration and also for future hires. This evening I was out with a group of folks, and the topic of conversation for much of the evening was the abstract value of free speech versus anti-fascist activity.

Unfortunately, one participant was stuck on free speech side of the debate. All day the conference has been doing logical programs and term equivalence, but somehow this person didn't deduce the result "free speech fundamentalism == fash", at least within the current evaluation context.

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