Diversity and bullies

[koganbot]

In Professor’s Model, Diversity = Productivity

What the model showed was that diverse groups of problem solvers outperformed the groups of the best individuals at solving problems. The reason: the diverse groups got stuck less often than the smart individuals, who tended to think similarly

Comments

[koganbot]

Also, reminding you of this post, which I liked a lot though it didn't generate any comments:

Easy: Paula DeAnda and Axl Rose

[skyecaptain]

If you define "bully" as someone who just wants to end the conversation (without wanting to join it in any meaningful way), then I don't see how this could ever be beneficial to anything. If you define "bully" as someone with an aggressively opposing viewpoint, then I guess this would be positive diversity -- but ideally diversity will come from people with diverse backgrounds and maybe worldviews, opinions, etc. -- my sense is that a lot of the bullies driving people away are simply making certain spaces unpleasant for anyone involved (and, by association, more pleasant spaces in which they participate more congenially).

You can keep people like this out by ignoring them (a la trolling on the teenpop thread vs. trolling elsewhere re: other threads), and their influence won't necessarily ruin anything (provided they don't overwhelm the people whose interest is in continuing a given conversation).