Top all-time · #15681
Jonathan Rauch
Personal blog · jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articlespoliticsculturewriting
Jonathan Rauch's personal blog at jonathanrauch.com covers politics, culture and writing. Since 2012, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 9 times, most often “Demosclerosis (1992)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-01-25, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Jonathan Rauch's essay on height discrimination against short men, mainly when discussing bias and how physical traits shape perception. The comments cite it without judging its writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /jrauch_articles/height_discrimination_short_guys_finish_last/2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2012-10-15
- Demosclerosis (1992)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-06-30
- Short Guys Finish Last 2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-06-30
What Hacker News says?
http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/height_discrimi...
Comment linking /jrauch_articles/height_discrimination_short_guys_finish_last/
on “Pixels don’t care”Submitted Short Guys Finish Last as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe comment you pointed to seems very reasonable to me, I am assuming from the rest of your comment that you don't think it is. We all have such realities, and typically few if any other people realise what's going on. Just be kind. To everyone (note to self: be better at this). It's not specific to any particular group (though: apparently short men have it quite a bit worse than other "protected" groups: http://www…
Comment linking /jrauch_articles/height_discrimination_short_guys_finish_last/
on “Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech”Submitted Demosclerosis (1992) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> "less confident" This is not a gendered issue. Men who act less confident are at least as disadvantaged. > "confidence / frowned upon" Also not primarily a gendered issue. Men who are not perceived as having the status to be confident get pounced on as hard or harder. This appears to have a lot to do with physical size. Tall men are "leaders", small men have a "napoleon complex". etc. Considering women are statist…
Comment linking /jrauch_articles/2004/08/short_guys_fini.html
on “We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews”Submitted Demosclerosis as a story · 1 points
HN discussionReminds me of http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/height_discrimi... Conclusion: "For centuries, short men have shrugged their shoulders and carried on. They, at least, still see themselves, and are seen by others, as variegated individuals, not as a monotonal social group. That may be the best approach to all such human characteristics."
Comment linking /jrauch_articles/height_discrimination_short_guys_finish_last/
on “Kathy Sierra On The Primer On Sexism Discussion”Submitted Demosclerosis (1992) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionJust a simple example of the one-sidedness of the "evidence" presented: > until recently, women weren't allowed to vote Until recently nobody was allowed to vote. Before that we had "the strongest rules", later locked into hereditary rule. When voting rights were extended to common men, they were (and mostly still are) inextricably linked to military service, that is your willingness to be killed for your country. V…
Comment linking /jrauch_articles/height_discrimination_short_guys_finish_last/
on “Why Men Don’t Believe the Data on Gender Bias in Science”