Which is a good thing: we make generalizations because we don't have the cognitive ability to instantly assign a million variables to every stimulus. Generalization keeps us sane.
When it becomes a bad thing is when we allow these mental shortcuts to take the place of sound reasoning, as in when we are looking at job applicants.
Never think that stereotyping or generalizing is bad -- it's the way your brain works, and for good reason.
If this was a response to "generalizing about people on other attributes, like race or sex.", I have to disagree with you, since the context of discussion here is about selecting someone for a job. I have yet to see a valid generalization about sex or race providing an indicator about programming ability.
"Never think that stereotyping or generalizing is bad -- it's the way your brain works,"
and unless overridden with logic, it is also the way prejudice (in this case racism and sexism ) operate.
Just so we don't go round and round, my opinion on generalization from examples: generalization is neither good nor bad by itself - it depends on the quality of the data and the inference mechanism - it could lead to good or bad depending on what it results in.
It is a facility of the brain certainly but being human means you are not blindly subject to your generalizations. All imho. Feel free to disgaree.
When it becomes a bad thing is when we allow these mental shortcuts to take the place of sound reasoning, as in when we are looking at job applicants.
Never think that stereotyping or generalizing is bad -- it's the way your brain works, and for good reason.