That's fair. I shouldn't judge the entire community based on its loudest online members.
In any case, the sentiment in the article resonates with me, because it matches my anecdotal experience outside of online communities. I haven't seen the converse in the feminist community, but that's also anecdotal.
That's a lot of ignoring to do. In the last feminism related thread I can think of (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5432277), the majority of people were, to put it mildly, not exactly progressive. That includes two mainstays of the HN community, with 15k+ karma.
The last one before that got flagged off the front page after one commenter declared that he was flagging it because programs that help women are sexist (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5353136). The story was highly upvoted, but it only takes a handful of flags to relegate a story to oblivion. Pg commented that it was an abuse of flagging, and it was restored, but pg usually doesn't show up, and most of these stories get buried, even when they're upvoted.
This story is a perfect example. With "19 points, 3 hours ago", it is ranked 151, right next two stories with "3 points, 14 hours ago".
You don't need to be a member of the tech community to see that. All you need to do is read the comments at any of the sites listed in the article. Yes, that includes HN.
I had the opposite thought: a PhD might be worthwhile if you really love research, but it's hard to imagine making up the opportunity cost.
What's the normal time to PhD? 5-7 years? Five years out of school, my base salary was barely below the range, and salary + bonus was just a bit above the top end of the range. Seven years out of school (without a PhD), my base salary is in the range, and my salary + bonus is substantially above the range. In the meantime, I've been making a six figure salary instead of a grad student stipend.
I sometimes regret not doing a PhD, but it's definitely not because of the money.
I certainly agree that you’re more likely to get the things you mention at a startup, but it’s possible to get those elsewhere (I have them now, with the exception of inexperience). Since I only need one job, I care more about the upper bound than the expected value.
Everyone has a different definition of ‘interesting’, but, IMO, Microsoft Research has more interesting work than pretty much any startup out there. Since I don’t have a PhD, there’s no way I’d get hired there; I’m just using them to illustrate a point.
As nostrademons points out, Google’s also full of interesting projects. Their process is notoriously slow, so I can’t tell if my resume was thrown into a black hole, or if it’s actually being considered, but that’s at least within the realm of possibility. Even IBM, which is known for not being a great place to work, has teams that are doing really cool stuff. Here in Austin, I’ve heard very good things about their Linux group, and, of course, IBM Research has lots of groups working on fun problems.
In any case, the sentiment in the article resonates with me, because it matches my anecdotal experience outside of online communities. I haven't seen the converse in the feminist community, but that's also anecdotal.