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It’s a perspective that has gotten me into trouble over my career. Science is often not politically correct. But once you learn this way of viewing the world, it cannot be unlearned.

The manifesto’s author is a man who is at war with himself. He knows that his life would be simpler, his career path smoother, if he followed his colleagues’ lead by flying the diversity flag and keeping his head down. But he refuses to sign on to politically fashionable concepts that he believes are inconsistent with the evidence-based science that Google applies in all other areas of its operations.

Some might say he stuck to his principles. Which, last time I checked, was a good thing.

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I’m still in touch with many of my engineering classmates from the 1990s. We’re in our 40s now. Some of us started companies, or became managers, or went into unrelated fields. The only classmate I know who still loves working every day as a metallurgical scientist happens to be a woman. She works for a multinational company that makes airplane engines.

My friend also happens to be a polymath who loves music, the performing arts, board games, and history, and has found ways to incorporate all of these into her intellectual life. Which should not be surprising, since — as any Silicon Valley recruiter can tell you — the most successful engineers usually have hyperactive brains and all sorts of esoteric interests outside of their main field. This quality allows these workers to come at problems from different vantage points, and to find alternative routes to bonding intellectually with his or her colleagues — a necessity for collaboration.