I generally use Walmart and Target for shopping online, but recently I decided to go with Amazon for something (pet supplies) that Walmart, Target, and Chewy didn't carry.

I created my account, and before I could put the order through, the account was locked for "suspicious activity," which resulted in a black hole of me repeatedly sending them the information they asked for (a recent credit card statement) and them responding with the same form letter email about being unable to verify ownership of the card. I even called, spoke to a human who said they would do something, but no, same form letter response.

Why do people use Amazon over walmart.com or target.com?

Because your experience is unusual. It's more inline with new accounts on twitter, not amazon, in my limited experience.

> Diversity. We really, really suck at diversity. We’re getting better, but we have a long way to go. Most of the industry chases the same candidates and assesses them in the same way.

What about neurodiversity and hiring neuroatypicals? "Culture fit" is often a euphemism for discrimination against them and others with poor social skills.

Also, call me cynical, but I've come to view blogposts like this as little more than marketing for the author and whatever company they started/work for. They're always vague, self-congratulatory, studiously avoid saying anything genuinely controversial, and to the extent that they're critical, it's often just as a way of contrasting themselves with the competition.

Cultural fit sucks, but working with developers who cannot communicate clearly and effectively also sucks. The "how to interview" discussion must always focus on what sucks less as the whole framework of thinking sucks here.

There are plenty of neurotypical developers who can't communicate clearly or effectively either; I've sat through enough presentations and design meetings over the years to attest to that. Therefore, it's not a good disqualifying criterion.

While of course there are limits, why turn away a good engineer when all it costs you is a bit of patience and accommodation? It's not like talented people are easy to find.

Everything I've seen suggests that neuroatypicals are over-represented in tech relative to the wider population. I'm not saying there isn't anything more to be done for them, but I expect they're still going to have a more welcoming environment in tech than just about anywhere else.

The industry isn't nearly as accepting of them as it was ten or twenty years ago.

To those downvoting: if Linus Torvalds was 30 years younger and just as competent, yet completely unknown, do you really think he wouldn't have a lot of trouble getting hired at a FANG company because of his poor social skills?

If you mean that the industry is less likely to allow a self-diagnosis of "it's the autism" as an excuse for sexual harrassment, sure.