Palmer Luckey is the founder of Oculus VR， a start-up that Facebook bought for $2 billion. He is 21 years old. His company makes virtualreality headsets， which are marketed primarily to gamers. In fact， several Oculus staffers are people Luckey met in online-gaming forums when he was a teenager. On the “Careers” section of Oculus’site， large 1）candid photos 2）depict what one can only assume is the staff. They are overwhelmingly male. They are overwhelmingly white. And yes， a few of them are wearing hoodies. In a statement at the bottom of the page， Oculus 3）avers it is“governed on the basis of merit， competence and qualifications，” and its hiring decisions are not influenced by race， gender， or age.

It’s been a full decade since Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook and launched a thousand breathless trend stories about the code-fluent， postadolescent masses 4）flocking to Silicon Valley to change the world in Adidas 5）slip-on 6）sandals. But this youthful uniformity， once considered a feature， has become a bug. Tech， the The New York Times confirmed， has a “youth problem.” Writes former Facebook staffer Kate Losse， “Silicon Valley 7）fetishizes a particular type of engineer—young， male， awkward， unattached.” Or， as the New Republic put it， the tech industry’s “brutal ageism”means that if you don’t fit the 8）archetype—say， you’re over 35 and only wear hoodies when you’re exercising and have a few kids and a mortgage—you have to work twice as hard to get ahead. They’re stressed out and 9）ostracized by the“culture，” worried about their wardrobe choices， wondering if they should 10）freshen up with some subtle 11）plastic surgery， and struggling all the while to downplay their family lives.

While I 12）empathize， I found myself stifling a yawn as I read the Botoxed bros’ tales of woe. I’ve heard all of these stories before. It’s just that the storytellers are usually women.

If you think putting on a hoodie is rough， I wanted to tell these guys， try finding the line between workwear that’s not too sexy but also not too 13）schoolmarmish. If you’ve reluctantly taken up gaming in order to bond with your co-workers， now you know what it was like for women who learned to golf so they could meet male clients on the course. And ask any woman who’s ever huddled in her office hooked up to a breast pump： It’s not always so easy to be casual about the fact that you’ve got kids or the fact that you’re different. （Most of this stuff goes doubly and triply for people of color， gay people and those with disabilities.） Welcome， men， to the world of being hyperaware of how you’re perceived， every moment of every workday.

Older men in tech are discovering the unseen work that women and people of color have done for decades. Fitting in is hard work—an additional， invisible task on the daily to-do list.“I had a really hard time getting used to the culture， the 14）aggressive communication on pull requests and how little the men I worked with respected and valued my opinion，” Julie Horvath， a 15）whistle-blowing former employee of the programming network GitHub， told 16）TechCrunch. For most of recent history， we’ve made it women’s responsibility to fit in. Despite the prevalence of equal-opportunity disclaimers， actual corporate culture isn’t changing fast enough （or at all）， so it’s on women to figure out how to succeed in workplaces that are not overtly sexist but still quite alienating. Think that sounds retro？ In another article， The Times offered some time-honored advice to women： “Moving Past Gender Barriers to Negotiate a Raise.”

Rather than offering tips to older male 17）entrepreneurs， the chroniclers of Silicon Valley ageism make a case that the industry is what needs to change. The tech world， which counts innovation and creativity among its core values， has created a culture of unparalleled uniformity. The appearance of daring （look—that co-founder is so young he doesn’t even need to shave every day?。?has proved more alluring than actual diversity of background and experience. And this casual discrimination has been bad for business. Both pieces point out that consumers lose as a result of the industry’s narrow view of who’s got good ideas. The Times points out that Silicon Valley is missing all sorts of opportunities in the hardware sector because software is sexier to young entrepreneurs.

When it’s men who are 18）confronted by biases， we look at the bigger system. When women are， we put the 19）onus on them to get ahead. And when it’s people of color facing bias？ Well， that story is so familiar it barely makes headlines anymore. Journalists are paying attention to ageism in tech because it’s a new story that older white men， traditionally a very powerful 20）demographic in the white-collar world， are struggling with how to succeed in a collarless culture that claims to reward merit but rejects them due to factors beyond their control.

Maybe Silicon Valley has 21）inadvertently produced an innovation here： It’s“disrupted” discrimination， to use the industry 22）parlance. The tech-ageism stories， with their focus on culture rather than explicit policies， provide a new way of seeing the nowfamiliar stories about Silicon Valley sexism—and indeed， general workplace sexism， too. In most cases， companies aren’t actively alienating women. They’re rewarding people who match their deep-seated archetype of what “successful” looks like.

That’s a difficult thing to undo with an equal-opportunity hiring policy. Just ask the shocking number of gay people who are still in the closet at companies that have received awards for their 23）LGBT-friendly policies. Or the women who dread telling their supervisors that they’re pregnant. Or take a look at the Oculus recruiting page and compare the text with the photos. Maybe now that a major industry is excluding a traditionally powerful group （older white men）， it will be easier to recognize that other groups’ failure to break into the highest ranks of corporate and political power isn’t a result of personal shortcomings or lack of ambition—it’s a cultural problem.

帕爾默·勒奇是Oculus VR公司的創(chuàng)始人，這家新興公司被臉譜網(wǎng)以20億美金收購(gòu)。勒奇年僅21歲。他的公司主要制造虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)耳機(jī)，主要針對(duì)游戲玩家市場(chǎng)。事實(shí)上，該公司的好幾名員工都是勒奇在少年時(shí)代從網(wǎng)游論壇里結(jié)識(shí)到的。在Oculus網(wǎng)站的招聘板塊，掛著大量的員工日常照片，讓人印象深刻。他們絕大多數(shù)都是男性，絕大多數(shù)都是白人。沒錯(cuò)，其中有些穿著連帽衫。在頁(yè)面底部的說(shuō)明文字中，Oculus極力聲明他們的用人方針是“以個(gè)人優(yōu)點(diǎn)、勝任能力和任職資格為基本原則”，聘任決定與種族、性別或年齡無(wú)關(guān)。

自從馬克·扎克伯格創(chuàng)立臉譜網(wǎng)，已過(guò)去了整整十載。十年里，由他引發(fā)的讓人咋舌的傳奇故事一個(gè)接一個(gè)地上演，無(wú)數(shù)精通編碼的后青春期少年穿著阿迪達(dá)斯便鞋成群結(jié)隊(duì)地涌到硅谷去改變世界。但這種青春的一致性，一旦被定型為特征，就會(huì)產(chǎn)生問(wèn)題?！都~約時(shí)報(bào)》證實(shí)了這種“青春?jiǎn)栴}”的存在。一位叫凱特·羅斯的臉譜網(wǎng)前職員寫道：“硅谷盲目崇拜一種特定類型的程序員——年輕、外表笨拙的單身男性?！被蛘?，如《新共和》雜志所言，科技行業(yè)“野蠻的年齡歧視”意味著如果你不符合這種原型——譬如說(shuō)，你超過(guò)35歲，只在運(yùn)動(dòng)時(shí)才穿連帽衫，有孩子和房貸——那你就需要加倍地努力才可以獲得成功。他們備受壓力，被這種“文化”排擠，擔(dān)心自己的穿衣選擇，考慮是否需要來(lái)些微整形以煥然一新，同時(shí)還努力輕描淡寫自己的家庭生活。

當(dāng)讀到打肉毒桿菌的兄弟們的悲慘故事時(shí)，雖然我同情他們，但我也感到無(wú)聊乏味。在此之前我都聽說(shuō)過(guò)這些故事了，只不過(guò)講故事的人通常都是女性。

如果你覺得穿連帽衫很痛苦，我想跟這些人說(shuō)，去試試找出別太性感和別太古板的工作著裝之間的界線吧。如果你非常不情愿為了和你的同事打成一片而去學(xué)些小把戲的話，那你就會(huì)明白那些為了能在球場(chǎng)上遇到客戶而去學(xué)高爾夫球的女性的感受了。問(wèn)問(wèn)那些曾經(jīng)試過(guò)掛著擠奶器蜷縮在自己辦公室里的任何一位女士：當(dāng)你有孩子時(shí)，裝作對(duì)此毫無(wú)芥蒂是否容易？或者你就是與別人不同時(shí)（有色人種、同性戀或者殘疾人所受的壓力是平常人的兩三倍），對(duì)此一笑置之是否容易？男士們，歡迎來(lái)到這么個(gè)每時(shí)每刻你都高度在意別人對(duì)你看法的工作世界。

年長(zhǎng)的科技行業(yè)男士會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)女性和有色人士在過(guò)去幾十年里所付出的看不見的努力。努力去融入是件難事——是一項(xiàng)額外的、看不見的每日必做任務(wù)?！拔以谌谌脒@種文化時(shí)經(jīng)歷了一段非常艱難的日子，提出請(qǐng)求時(shí)遭遇到充滿敵意的交流，共事的男同事對(duì)我的意見毫不尊重和珍視，” 朱莉·霍瓦特對(duì)科技媒體TechCrunch如是說(shuō)，她是揭發(fā)社交編程及代碼托管網(wǎng)站GitHub公司內(nèi)幕的前職員。在最近的歷史里，我們都把去適應(yīng)作為女性的責(zé)任。除了放棄平等機(jī)會(huì)成為一種普遍現(xiàn)象外，事實(shí)上公司企業(yè)文化也沒快速跟上發(fā)展（也可說(shuō)是毫無(wú)進(jìn)展），所以要如何在沒有那么男性至上但仍然十分疏離女性的工作環(huán)境中取得成功，這個(gè)問(wèn)題還是要靠女性自己去解決。覺得這個(gè)問(wèn)題聽起來(lái)有點(diǎn)過(guò)時(shí)？另一篇刊登在《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》上的文章為女性提供了一些經(jīng)久不衰的建議：“跨越性別歧視的障礙去進(jìn)行交涉以取得地位提高?！?/p>

對(duì)硅谷歷年來(lái)的年齡歧視問(wèn)題所作的這些觀察分析并沒有給年長(zhǎng)的男性企業(yè)家提供什么建議，只是有力地說(shuō)明了該行業(yè)需要變革。科技世界，以創(chuàng)新和創(chuàng)造力作為其核心價(jià)值，創(chuàng)造出了一種空前一致的文化。大膽的外表（看——那個(gè)合伙創(chuàng)立人多年輕，他甚至不需要每天刮胡子?。┍蛔C明比真正多樣的背景和經(jīng)驗(yàn)更加吸引人。而這種隨意的偏好已造成了商業(yè)上的損失。兩篇文章都指出這種行業(yè)里關(guān)于誰(shuí)能想出更好主意的狹隘判斷視點(diǎn)給消費(fèi)者帶來(lái)了損失?！都~約時(shí)報(bào)》指出，由于軟件領(lǐng)域?qū)τ谀贻p的創(chuàng)業(yè)者來(lái)說(shuō)更有吸引力，硅谷錯(cuò)失了各種硬件領(lǐng)域內(nèi)的機(jī)遇。

當(dāng)男性遭遇到歧視問(wèn)題時(shí)，我們就把目光放到更龐大的體系上去看。當(dāng)女性遇到歧視時(shí)，我們只是指望她們自己去擔(dān)當(dāng)解決的責(zé)任。那當(dāng)有色人種遭遇到歧視問(wèn)題呢？好吧，這種故事大家已經(jīng)太熟悉了，根本不能再拿來(lái)做頭條吸引人。媒體記者們對(duì)科技行業(yè)里的年齡歧視如此上心不過(guò)是因?yàn)檫@個(gè)話題很新穎，因?yàn)槟觊L(zhǎng)的白人男子，傳統(tǒng)上都是白領(lǐng)世界里強(qiáng)勢(shì)的一群人，而如今他們卻要在無(wú)領(lǐng)世界里為了成功而去拼命奮斗，這里號(hào)稱獎(jiǎng)賞個(gè)人價(jià)值，但卻因他們無(wú)法控制的因素而排擠他們。

或許硅谷無(wú)意中在這個(gè)問(wèn)題上做了一次創(chuàng)新：“擾亂了”歧視定勢(shì)，以該行業(yè)的用語(yǔ)來(lái)說(shuō)。這些科技行業(yè)年齡歧視的故事，敘述重點(diǎn)在文化上而不是在明確的政策上，為如今大家都熟知的硅谷針對(duì)女性的性別歧視提供了新的視角——當(dāng)然，對(duì)于一般工作職場(chǎng)中的性別歧視問(wèn)題亦如是。在大多數(shù)情況下，公司并非主動(dòng)歧視開罪女性。只是，他們回報(bào)的是那些和他們心中根深蒂固的“成功人士”原型相符合的人。

僅以公平機(jī)會(huì)聘用政策來(lái)破解這樣的歧視是相當(dāng)困難的。不信問(wèn)一下那些不敢出柜的同性戀者，其數(shù)目驚人，即便他們所在的公司曾因?qū)嵭蟹钱愋詰儆押谜叨@獎(jiǎng)?；蛘邌?wèn)一下那些害怕直接跟上司說(shuō)她們懷孕了的女性?；蛘呖纯碠culus的招聘頁(yè)面，對(duì)比一下文字和照片?；蛟S是因?yàn)橛羞@么一個(gè)重點(diǎn)行業(yè)在排斥傳統(tǒng)上強(qiáng)勢(shì)的一類人（年長(zhǎng)的白人男子），我們更容易認(rèn)識(shí)到其他人群無(wú)法進(jìn)入企業(yè)或政治權(quán)力最高階層的原因，并非因?yàn)閭€(gè)人的毛病或沒有雄心壯志——而是文化問(wèn)題。