If you’re like me and lately you’re trying to stay as far away as possible from news, you might have heard something about a Google engineer being fired for posting an opinion about gender differences.

The news hit me enough times that I decided to understand what actually happened. If you want a quick summary, you’re in luck:

A Google Engineer, James Damore, sent internally a 10-page memo that about his perspective on how to improve gender equality. The memo seems quite rational and well researched at first.

He opens by saying that we need an open discussion about Gender Inequality. Today, too many things are not PC, and hence can’t be debated.

His main thesis is that there are biological differences between men and women that justify a lot of the gender gap in business. Examples: women have less ambition, are less assertive, and are more neurotic.

He then proposes a series of improvements to Google’s Gender Equality policies.

The memo circulated internally in Google for weeks, until it jumped outside of the company and was picked by news media. It blew up.

Google execs met urgently over the weekend, and decided to fire James. The rationale: it’s not ok to suggest that biological differences cause differences in work performance.

Now Damore is appearing in the media saying he was fired for saying the truth.

Why James Damore is wrong

Reading Damore’s memo, it’s clear he’s thought about the topic a lot. It seems well structured, reasonable, and well researched.

Excerpt from James Damore’s Gender Equality memo

Many people would read it and think: “Well, it’s a bit awkward, definitely not politically correct, but pretty reasonable and well researched.” You can see an example on the left.

This was my first reaction, so I researched the topic. After a couple of hours following links and reading papers, I found the strongest scientific evidence: males and females do have psychological differences, but most of them are due to society, not biology. This paper is the strongest one, this article is the most well researched, and this article is a pretty light summary.

So yes, Damore is right that there are differences between males and females, but no, he is wrong stating that they come from biology. Unfortunately, I’m guessing 95%+ of the population didn’t know that, and at face value, Damore’s claims sound reasonable.

Why Google should not have fired Damore

Google’s conflict was the following:

Should we fire Damore because he is furthering gender inequality through falsehoods, creating a hostile working environment for his female peers, and poorly representing Google?

Or should we keep him to protect freedom of speech, even if freedom of speech is a protection against the government, not between employers and employees?

In the end, the first argument won. The most public opposition coming from inside Google was authored by the CEO of Youtube, Susan Wojcicki: the memo is hurtful, furthers gender discrimination, and is unfounded; freedom of speech doesn’t protect employees.

For a hyper rational company, Google didn’t act in their best interest. That takeaway is the worst possible one: by firing him, Google prevented a debate to happen. Damore seems pretty rational, just not well informed. Google could have talked with him, looked at his research, explained how it was debunked by better research, and then post an statement together, explaining how Damore’s science was up to date, and in fact women are psychologically similar to men based on biology.

That would have been extremely powerful for Gender Equality: it would have turned the media’s attention to that little-known, but crucial fact. It would have set a key example for other people: it’s ok to be wrong about this, let’s learn the facts and work together.

By firing a person that seems so rational, willing to improve the status quo with actionable suggestions, and courageous enough to fight a culture of censorship, they’ve fired up the people who think like him, starting with the alt-right, and probably continuing with conservatives in general.

If a well-intentioned but wrong person is fired and shamed, it will only polarize those that are wrong like him. The answer is not to shut down the conversation. It is to address the claims.

Now, Damore is making the rounds of news media, giving full coverage to his position. Instead of talking about Gender Inequality, the debate has turned to Freedom of Speech, echo chambers, and liberal PC-ness.

That’s why Freedom of Speech is crucial. It’s not because the Constitution protects it. It’s the other way around. The Constitution protects it because it’s the only way to go past polarization and find truth together.