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Interview with Susan Fowler

nytimes.com

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Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#81

Post by gus_massa »

linkregister wrote: post #61
fizixer wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel for what happened to her at Uber but, no offense, her description of her physics achievements appeared to be borderline bullshit (e.g., things like studying for quantum field theory exams a year and half after getting introduced to college level physics and math for the first time, after picking philosophy as a major originally. And then proceeding to blog about how everyone can do this because she can).

I'm not skeptical about her physics achievements, so I don't agree with your opinion. I don't understand why this post was flagged. Down votes are for communicating "I don't like this post." Flagging is for violation of community guidelines, or just plain abusive comments. To respond to your claim, I'd like to point to you her blog post on the subject. She does a good job of explaining how she went from zero to being…

IIRC, when a comment has too many downvotes the software in HN transform it to flagged.

(I'm not sure about the threshold and I'm not sure if that is still enabled, because there are a lot of tweaks in HN that are enabled or changed without announcement.)

Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#82

Post by AnAnonyCowherd »

BadassFractal wrote: post #59
baron816 wrote: post #32

I think the one good thing about the Harvey Weinstein scandal is that it has brought to light that the issue of sexual harassment is not just a Silicon Valley problem, it's a problem that is almost universal in our country. I've written here several times here that articles similar to this one are more likely to backfire as they help perpetuate the idea that the tech industry is hostile to women and they should stay…

Let's be real, males using positions of power to obtain sex isn't exactly a US-only problem, it's fundamental hardwiring of virtually every primate species. I don't think any country at this point is particularly amazing at containing those primal tendencies, but happy to be proven wrong. Either way, just like with violence and crime, we need to continue the journey of education of what is and is not acceptable behav…

> Let's be real, males using positions of power to obtain sex isn't exactly a US-only problem, it's fundamental hardwiring of virtually every primate species

I'm sorry, but did you just make a generalizing statement linking a difference in behavior to sex? Logically, you can invert your comment to say that females use sex to get power. Neither of these things can be said. Ever. Isn't this sort of thing precisely what got James Damore run out of town on a rail for, just a few months ago?

Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#83

Post by AzzieElbab »

meddlepal wrote: post #39
6841iam wrote: post #3

While her post did send shockwaves inside Uber and the Silicon Valley at large, I think, it was Mr. Kalanick's incriminating involvement in the Waymo - Uber lawsuit that ultimately sunk Mr. Kalanick. He simply had to go.

Susan's a great mind and I have had the pleasure of chatting with her in person, but there is definitely some historical revisionism going on here. Travis created a bad Uber culture in general. He was done in not by Fowler specifically but the fruits of his failures as a leader blossoming into several parallel disasters of which Waymo was probably the major major fiasco of the bunch.

Pretty sure VCs smelling blood in the water is what took Kalachik down. Consequences of denying company of its do founder were obviously overlooked. Overall, if you read something by Susan Fowler, read her book instead

Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#84

Post by dominotw »

All China has to do is encourage this and America will self destroy its own software companies . Meanwhile America can do no such thing to China due to their censorship and tight controls.

Lets see what happens.

Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#85

Post by _9rq6 »

fpoijasw wrote: post #56

Hey engineer at Uber here. I'm a male engineer started working at Uber two years ago. I'm seeing a lot of comments here that is discrediting Susan Fowler's accomplishments in taking TK down, and I would like to correct the notion that the culture/TK himself/Waymo is what brought TK down. To preface I've work both at Google as an engineer, and frankly speaking the engineering culture at Uber didn't differ all that muc…

Ubers a great place to work now.???

That's why they are asking for bonds(you can't leave the company for the time stipulated in the contract) in India and paying superfluous money.

SDEs hate bonds because we can't leave the company if we don't like the work etc etc

Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#86

Post by [deleted] »

linkregister wrote: post #71
abalone wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Waymo lawsuit only happened when it did and only effective as it was because of the chaos Susan Fowler initiated. This seems a bit much. Why on earth would Google wait to sue? Their case was not at all dependent on internal turmoil at Uber. Fowler deserves a lot of credit but there was significant chaos pre-blog-post (#deleteuber) and after (Greyball). Uber was having a new crisis every other week it seemed, al…

I think that Susan Fowler is the single most influential individual in Uber's history, even more so than Travis Kalanick. 1. #deleteuber was a flash in the pan. It fizzled because it was based on a falsehood, that Uber had broken an airport strike by cancelling surge. Uber cancels surge for all notable events. Lyft somehow avoided judgement, despite also failing to honor the strike. The impetus behind the campaign wa…

[deleted]

Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#87

Post by aaron-lebo »

linkregister wrote: post #71
abalone wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Waymo lawsuit only happened when it did and only effective as it was because of the chaos Susan Fowler initiated. This seems a bit much. Why on earth would Google wait to sue? Their case was not at all dependent on internal turmoil at Uber. Fowler deserves a lot of credit but there was significant chaos pre-blog-post (#deleteuber) and after (Greyball). Uber was having a new crisis every other week it seemed, al…

I think that Susan Fowler is the single most influential individual in Uber's history, even more so than Travis Kalanick. 1. #deleteuber was a flash in the pan. It fizzled because it was based on a falsehood, that Uber had broken an airport strike by cancelling surge. Uber cancels surge for all notable events. Lyft somehow avoided judgement, despite also failing to honor the strike. The impetus behind the campaign wa…

None of it happens without Kalanick, no Uber, no work machismo work culture, no blog post.

Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#88

Post by skj »

_9rq6 wrote: post #85
fpoijasw wrote: post #56

Hey engineer at Uber here. I'm a male engineer started working at Uber two years ago. I'm seeing a lot of comments here that is discrediting Susan Fowler's accomplishments in taking TK down, and I would like to correct the notion that the culture/TK himself/Waymo is what brought TK down. To preface I've work both at Google as an engineer, and frankly speaking the engineering culture at Uber didn't differ all that muc…

Ubers a great place to work now.??? That's why they are asking for bonds(you can't leave the company for the time stipulated in the contract) in India and paying superfluous money. SDEs hate bonds because we can't leave the company if we don't like the work etc etc

What is superfluous money? I honestly have no idea what that means.

Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#89

Post by falcolas »

bogomipz wrote: post #38

I wish the article connected the dots of her path from studying physics at the University of Pennsylvania to working as an SRE at a San Francisco tech company. It seems like that might be an interesting part of her story. I loved the anecdote of her buying her own leather jacket when Uber couldn't be bothered to buy them for women. Brilliant. The title is a bit unfortunate in that it makes her sound like an Attorney…

We currently have two physics doctorates working in the same department as me. The trajectory for both was the same - they wrote code as an integral part of obtaining heir doctorate, and realized they could 1) get a job today and 2) make a lot more money working as entry level SREs than as physicists.

They're both intelligent and willing to learn; traits that mattered a lot more to us than a CS degree. Both also moved to follow the job, and neither regrets it. One worked on her doctorate at CERN, the other at a US facility (I don't recall the name off hand).

Re: Interview with Susan Fowler

#90

Post by poothrowaway »

bogomipz wrote: post #38

I wish the article connected the dots of her path from studying physics at the University of Pennsylvania to working as an SRE at a San Francisco tech company. It seems like that might be an interesting part of her story. I loved the anecdote of her buying her own leather jacket when Uber couldn't be bothered to buy them for women. Brilliant. The title is a bit unfortunate in that it makes her sound like an Attorney…

>Uber couldn't be bothered to buy them for women

Let it be known the manager who made the decision not to buy jackets for women only worked at Uber for a year, made a magnificent mess of SRE, and went back to Google with a more senior position. This same guy made a data science manager (who has a PhD in theoretical chemistry) take notes during his meetings, and who coincidentally was one of his only female reports.

Fuck you NSK.

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