Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#571

Post by nitrogen » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

monoideism wrote: post #142

nemo44x wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s generally a small but vocal group. And I wouldn’t call it politics so much as activism. A sort of religious zeal has made its way into our institutions like schools and universities. Some people have taken to it like a missionary would religion and believe it’s their duty to spread the word everywhere at all times. The Inquisition was no different in this regard. You just have to read what the activism says. It…

> It’s far beyond politics and more a religion than anything. I believe this is a result of the fact that Americans have turned away from organized religion in recent years (note: I'm not religious myself). There seems to be something deep inside of most people that requires a shared spiritual experience. Wokism has emerged to fill that need.

I came to this realization when someone at a job was waving and thumping Cracking the Coding Interview like I remember people doing with the bible when I was growing up. I was a missionary in a "past life", non-religious non-believer now, and I know religion when I see it.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#572

Post by hackerfromthefu » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

iandanforth wrote: post #438

I believe this stance is dangerous for the company. The founder has exhibited and is overtly displaying here traits that are known predictors of fraud. https://www.icpas.org/information/copy-desk/insight/article/... Encouraging explicitly amoral stances from companies and retaliatory actions such as this may be appealing to some but is ultimately harmful to the company and society in general. That's a debatable asser…

Ad hominems seem to be modus operandi for pc bullies

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#573

Post by derkster » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

subsubzero wrote: post #503

Barrin92 wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>All I want is to just focus on engineering and ship features/improvements. Yeah if there wasn't the pesky world around all the engineering and we could all just stare at our stock options while we sit in our gentrified neighbourhoods and pretend the world doesn't exist. You can ignore politics but politics doesn't ignore you. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil is an unworthy attitude for a democratic citizen.…

Your strawman argument is invalid to what I said. I spend an inordinate amount of time researching each candidates views and each propositions pros and cons. Before election day I usually set aside a day or two to deep dive into every choice I make. I take voting very seriously as people have died to give me the luxury to vote. These actions all occur outside of the office where they belong. That being said leave pol…

Absolutely. And I better not hear anything about unionizing either, with all their liberal communist ideology! They're lucky I let them have jobs. /s

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#574

Post by ryanisnan » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

subsubzero wrote: post #465

I may want to apply to coinbase. I am really fed up with 'activist' employees and the toxic environment they bring. All I want is to just focus on engineering and ship features/improvements. Bringing politics to the office(thanks Google!) has been one of the worst things to happen in the 21st century for tech companies. Interestingly enough google has been going through absolute hell with these cancerous employees an…

I hope you are only young and naive and will learn how short-sighted your opinion has been here.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#575

Post by tshaddox » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

ptero wrote: post #513

Barrin92 wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>All I want is to just focus on engineering and ship features/improvements. Yeah if there wasn't the pesky world around all the engineering and we could all just stare at our stock options while we sit in our gentrified neighbourhoods and pretend the world doesn't exist. You can ignore politics but politics doesn't ignore you. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil is an unworthy attitude for a democratic citizen.…

The comment author does not advocate ignoring the world, he wants to separate his engineering work from politics and thus wants to look for employers who do not push a particular political program on him. Which seems a perfectly valid (and attractive to me) view. You cannot ignore your dreams, your health, your family, social ills, the air quality, politics and a myriad of other things in the world around you. But if…

Wanting to separate engineering work from reality is precisely what Barrin92 is saying should not and can not be done. Engineering work isn't just some insulated game that gives you tokens to buy things you need in the real world. The engineering work is itself part of the real world.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#576

Post by claudeganon » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

subsubzero wrote: post #503

Barrin92 wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>All I want is to just focus on engineering and ship features/improvements. Yeah if there wasn't the pesky world around all the engineering and we could all just stare at our stock options while we sit in our gentrified neighbourhoods and pretend the world doesn't exist. You can ignore politics but politics doesn't ignore you. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil is an unworthy attitude for a democratic citizen.…

Your strawman argument is invalid to what I said. I spend an inordinate amount of time researching each candidates views and each propositions pros and cons. Before election day I usually set aside a day or two to deep dive into every choice I make. I take voting very seriously as people have died to give me the luxury to vote. These actions all occur outside of the office where they belong. That being said leave pol…

Lots of people also died to make sure that we have the right to organize our workplaces, a right that’s just as much enshrined in law as voting:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_Uni...

Their sacrifice wasn’t any less important or necessary to the expansion of the democracy in the United States. In fact, it was this “bringing politics to the work” that provided the means for workers having real representation for them in government in the first place.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#577

Post by hackerfromthefu » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

JeremyBanks wrote: post #497

eddof13 wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I concur, I suspect the influx of applicants to coinbase based on this will be larger than the potential loss of people taking the severance

[flagged]

Strong opinions, naievely held?

The world is a lot more nuanced than your vitriolic labelling of it. Be tolerant!

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#578

Post by makuto » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #519

hardwaregeek wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think each side needs to have sympathy for each other. I totally understand not wanting to hear about politics. I'd love for the world to be boring enough that work could stay work. But on the flip side, a lot of people have skin in the game, so to speak, and can't disentangle politics from their life. Being able to ignore politics right now is a very privileged, very lucky position. I have no doubt that if you sur…

People can be as politically active as they want, on their own time and on their own dime. Ironically, the people preaching activism in the workplace would be livid if a religious believer proselytized their faith at the workplace, despite the believer having as strong a belief in their ideas as the activists do in theirs. Quite the double standard.

This comparison resonated with me especially once I've learned how "deep" political views are, similar to religious views. Jonathan Haidt's "The Righteous Mind" is about this. Preaching politics in the workplace will scratch the same nerves that preaching religion will - deeply held beliefs that can cause strong reactions to people who agree or disagree with them.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#579

Post by tshaddox » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

moneytalks wrote: post #566

Barrin92 wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'the office' or the firm today, is for better or worse our primary means by which we can exercise influence. That is why tech workers are bringing politics into the firm in the first place , because they realise, rightly, that it is one of the most potent channels to actually exercise change, and that's why so many people want to keep politics out of it. The workplace is the one space where your political opponent ca…

Some would call political activism on your employer's dime theft. Unless it's part of your job description. But no one likes to face what it means to sell their time to another person.

> Some would call political activism on your employer's dime theft.

That's probably true, but they would be wrong. The fact that some people would say incorrect things is not a strong argument.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#580

Post by ryanisnan » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

ptero wrote: post #513

Barrin92 wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>All I want is to just focus on engineering and ship features/improvements. Yeah if there wasn't the pesky world around all the engineering and we could all just stare at our stock options while we sit in our gentrified neighbourhoods and pretend the world doesn't exist. You can ignore politics but politics doesn't ignore you. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil is an unworthy attitude for a democratic citizen.…

The comment author does not advocate ignoring the world, he wants to separate his engineering work from politics and thus wants to look for employers who do not push a particular political program on him. Which seems a perfectly valid (and attractive to me) view. You cannot ignore your dreams, your health, your family, social ills, the air quality, politics and a myriad of other things in the world around you. But if…

This is impossible. When the very technology you work on is employed in entirely political ways (i.e. dragonfly), you cannot separate work from the world.