There is a reason why buildings in China have nets to prevent suicide and Japan has a work to death problem. Working that much is not good or healthy.
Probably not, but us westerners are going to be forced to compete with them sooner or later.
Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
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Re: Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s the difference between a society where tensions are high because we’re actively trying to work through the challenges faced by our minority groups, and one where there are no tensions because the concerns of minority groups are completely suppressed. Very well put!
"We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive." -MLK
In America, there is a lot of tension near the surface. It might seem like that means we have deep, deep problems. But sometimes when an issue is closer to the surface, that can mean it can no longer be ignored and is closer to needing resolution.
Re: Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
#73Complaining about Silicon Valley political correctness while extolling the virtues of China is at best tone deaf. It’s pretty much impossible for anyone who has any experience with Asia to deny that racism is just more socially acceptable over there than in the US. And things like homosexuality are suppressed. For example, China recently banned depictions of homosexuality on TV. So of course it’s easier to say certai…
The simplest way of looking at this is that the more power you divide up among increasingly small segments of your population, the more you divide the house. In China, there is the objective of China, where there is a singular focus on what is good for the people and the country. Groups that would take away from this to empower their own group are viewed as attacking the collective. America until the middle of the 19…
In my opinion 'maximum' diversity doesn't just mean diversity of identity, it also means diversity of thinking and opinions. I also think the division of power up to the individual level is called Democracy...
Re: Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
#74Chinese culture is pretty different from ours (from what I read). I’m not sure one can pin longer work hours on work ethic alone. As I understand it, China has a gender imbalance and there are not enough women. Men therefore must be successful to find a wife. This could help explain some of the difference in work ethic, as one of the primary human motivations is to reproduce.
This is the most ridiculous explanation I have read about why Chinese work hard.
It’s extremely simple: everybody wants to be successful, and right now because of many reasons, Chinese think they can be successful by working hard. This is the Chinese equivalent of American dream, that one can pursue happiness by working hard.
Re: Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Conference speakers being checked for political affiliation is crazy but not surprising - are there specific examples of this? On sites like reddit you often see reasonable arguments shot down based on the author's political leanings gleaned from their comment history. The chilling effect is made clear when you see people having to preface their commentary with "I hate x, but... {insert argument here}"
"You post on 'X' sub. That says all I need to know about you."
It's a vicious cycle where opposing sides become more polarized with every interaction. For some, the only way out is apathy.
Re: Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think political correctness is the correct description of what he is trying to complain about. The word he is looking for is “entitlement caused by excessive privilege.” The reason people in China work that hard is that there are many people in poverty who would also like to work very hard for those jobs and very little safety net. I should also mention once again: The United States is nowhere near as racist…
I think that as liberals, we have a habit of fiercely criticizing problems within our own society, but will gloss over the same (or deeper) problems in other societies as 'cultural differences'. This can lead to a very rose-colored view of the situation in other countries.
It's not like we can control the racism levels in other countries, so why does it matter?
However when you look at countries we materially support (in their carrying out of racist actions) like Israel, liberals do care very much. So it does seem like there's some consistency there.
Re: Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
#77The troubling part for me is:
"Top managers show up for work at about 8am and frequently don't leave until 10pm. Most of them will do this six days a week — and there are plenty of examples of people who do this for seven. Engineers have slightly different habits: they will appear about 10am and leave at midnight."
This dude wants his fellow Americans to work at least 84 hours a week, if not a "modest 7 day work week" of almost 100 hours. Life is too precious for that sort of nonsense and I can only hope that this fellow and those like him lose their power and capability to influence society.
Re: Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
#78I agree with this guy. I know I'll be downvoted to oblivion but gotta say what i gotta say. I'm not saying political correctness is bad, and I don't think this guy is saying that either. He's just stating the facts and I would like to also just state the facts. There are way more conflicts and drama and scandals in America because Americans are much more "woke" than citizens of other parts of the world. Again, this i…
> If you look at "less woke" developing countries around the world, they don't have this sense of social justice because they don't have the luxury. So they do whatever is possible to increase their GDP.
They don't have that sense of social justice for a number of reasons. Having lived in the developing world, one big component is that the legal system is not set up to prevent exploitation of the many by the few who are rich. Corruption and exploitation are entrenched because the culture accepts it and those crushed under it don't feel they have the power to change it.
There's more than enough money in many developing nations to significantly raise the standard of living for the average citizen, but those taking the lion's share of the spoils have no interest in changing that system.
> That's why a lot of developing countries are corrupt.
No, a lot of developing countries are corrupt due to weak rule of law and an entrenched culture of back-scratching. The corruption is not there simply because they are relatively poor countries.
So for example, in Latin America, Brazil's GDP is around $1.8 trillion, and Costa Rica is at $57 billion. Yet Costa Rica performs MUCH better on international corruption scale. And there are plenty of examples of that. Look at Russia versus some of it's former satellite states. Corruption is much worse in Russia than it is in Georgia, even though Russia is a much bigger economy.
It really is about the strength of institutions and rule of law. Being a developing nation doesn't mean that out-of-control graft is inevitable.
Re: Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
"You post on 'X' sub. That says all I need to know about you."
It's a vicious cycle where opposing sides become more polarized with every interaction. For some, the only way out is apathy.
I think it's more that pre-reddit/twitter/facebook we all had separate online forums, chat rooms, etc and now it's all centralized to the same few sites.
For example before reddit we didn't have popular fascist subforums hosted on the same site as a liberal politics subforum, where people could cross-post and PM between them.
Re: Mike Moritz slams politically correct tech culture, praises Chinese work ethic
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a vicious cycle where opposing sides become more polarized with every interaction. For some, the only way out is apathy.
I think it's more that pre-reddit/twitter/facebook we all had separate online forums, chat rooms, etc and now it's all centralized to the same few sites. For example before reddit we didn't have popular fascist subforums hosted on the same site as a liberal politics subforum, where people could cross-post and PM between them.
This is a good point. I used to frequent DemocraticUnderground back in the 2004 days during the Kerry campaign. It was as bad an echo chamber as anything we see today. The alternative site was FreeRepublic (or 'freepers', as we called them). However, the fact that you didn't have to go to that site or see those people's opinions if you didn't want to, made a big difference to how vitriolic the whole thing felt.