A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company • Hacker News Board

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#391

Post by throwaway894345 » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:09 PM UTC

DavidSJ wrote: post #386

throwaway894345 wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention confusing. The "reverse" of "racism" would certainly be "equality", so why should "reverse racism" mean "more racism"? This is pretty elementary logic--something can't be its own opposite.

Everything else aside, the term makes sense. It’s not the reverse of racism. It’s racism in the reverse direction than the more “traditional” one.

I buy that reasoning standalone (albeit it's still prone to misinterpretation), but in context its advocates appear to believe it is congruent with or equivalent to 'equality'.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#392

Post by thescriptkiddie » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:09 PM UTC

redm wrote: post #82

I feel like this is the start of a rising tide. I think Brian's stance is great, companies have missions, they should focus on those missions. Everything has become so political that your work, which occupies a large portion of your life, should not be divisive.

Personally I would like it if the workplace became a whole lot more political, seeing as the status quo is that you have no say in how the company is ran or what it does with its profits, and if you don't like it you can starve. Ignoring politics doesn't make it not exist.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#393

Post by bJGVygG7MQVF8c » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:10 PM UTC

rednerrus wrote: post #330

My company is becoming increasingly political and it's terrible. I'd gladly go work at a company where I didn't have to engage with endless political activism. If I want to hear everyone's opinions on everything, I'd find their facebook page or the HN usernames and follow them.

It's amazing how thoroughly prestige tech and its imitators have abandoned basic norms of professional culture like "don't wear bunny slippers at work" and "don't alienate your coworkers by calling their perfectly legitimate politics hate speech".

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#394

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:11 PM UTC

vonmoltke wrote: post #135

heavyset_go wrote: post #25

It's interesting to hear Coinbase management insist that they're apolitical when the company makes significant political contributions itself[1]. [1] https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?...

Something is off about those listings. The majority of the transactions went to "Brian Forde for Congress" and have the memos like " .03533216 BITCOINS SOLD VIA COINBASE - PURCHASER UNKNOWN". I don't think these are contributions by Coinbase, but Bitcoin contributions that went through Coinbase. There is probably some byzantine election funding rule that allowed or forced these recipients to list Coinbase as the"sour…

[deleted]

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#395

Post by tshaddox » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:13 PM UTC

tuna-piano wrote: post #335

mtalantikite wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“I personally am afraid to associate myself too publicly with a political stance, lest I be wrong and/or the environment changes.” I can understand this fear, but generally if you choose a stance based on compassion for all beings you’ll be in the right in the long run. This particular issue was sparked by Coinbase not taking a stance on Black Lives Matter, which they are wrong about. Standing for dismantling racism…

Funny, I don't see anyone complaining that Fruit Gushers hasn't taken a stand on child pornography? I will disagree somewhat with the people who say that companies never have a place for political stuff. If you are any company involved in South Africa during apartheid you should choose a side on apartheid and voice that position. If BLM means just the simple definition of what the words imply (that black lives matter…

> Funny, I don't see anyone complaining that Fruit Gushers hasn't taken a stand on child pornography?

Child pornography, from what I can tell, is not a controversial issue. Most companies haven't made statements about their views on murder, theft, and slavery either. But if the nation were prominently split over whether murder, theft, slavery, or child pornography are good things, I would hope some companies would make a statement.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#396

Post by asdff » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:13 PM UTC

eli wrote: post #144

krzyk wrote: post #123

Is "apolitical" stance a bad thing? Isn't it the default, safe? I lived in country where you had to be "political" to be in management, it didn't end up well (East Europe, Soviet Union), I always (naively?) thought that West countries were wiser. So I prefer companies to not mess with politics.

This has been discussed extensively in the previous threads on Coinbase, but banning the discussion of certain topics in the workplace is itself a political stance. Very much so.

It's as political as banning goofing off at work. You aren't hired to spend the working day debating politics with your co workers, just like you aren't hired to blow off the day playing Halo in the back room with your coworkers. You are hired to do the tasks described in your job and that alone.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#397

Post by damnyou » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:25 PM UTC

ponker wrote: post #166

danaris wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your life may not be political. My life may not be political. But the life of a black trans woman? That's political by its very nature, in today's climate. One party doesn't want her to be allowed to exist, the other does. Believing it's possible to be "apolitical" in any time of polarization is a privilege of those who benefit from the status quo.

I think there are definitely people who don’t want her to exist but there are also ones like me, who get called Nazis for it, but whose perspective is largely 1) OK 2) please pay for your own costs related to your choices and 3) I’m not being an asshole to you because you’re a black trans woman, I’m being an asshole to you because I am an asshole and my white male friends say “oh Xxx is such as asshole.” So don’t tak…

In other words, given the rates of poverty among Black trans women, you don't want her to be allowed to exist.

Your view is not above regular politics. It is a view that's firmly embedded within the right wing of regular politics. I personally wouldn't consider it "Nazi" but would definitely consider it deeply transphobic, and exclude you from my friend circle. If I met someone with your view at work, I would avoid any interactions with them other than the minimum necessary to perform my job.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#398

Post by asdff » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:26 PM UTC

gnusty_gnurc wrote: post #115

devtul wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This idea of "everything is political" is why the discourse went to shit, now nobody can catch a break from politics, and if you had enough and don't want to take part then you instantly gets attacked for "supporting the status quo". I prefer to not be lectured on political issues by my orange juice brand. Their mission should be to sell high quality orange juice and make a profit.

It’s precisely the type of messaging that happened after 9/11 too. “You’re either with us or against us.” Leave it to the woke crowd to take a page out of the Karl Rove handbook.

Why stop at Karl Rove? Tribalism is an inherent primal instinct in our species. We are all directly descended from brutal tribes at odds with other tribes over competition for limited resources. It's rooted in nearly all of our thinking, and you have to take active steps in your thought processes to avoid being biased by this inherent biological preference you have for the success of your kin versus the kin of others.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#399

Post by vmception » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:27 PM UTC

jkaplowitz wrote: post #114

vmception wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> COBRA alone would eat up most of the severance. A single software engineer paying for full price for high premium plan on COBRA would be spending around $400[1], over the whole 18 months of doing that it would be $7,200 which would be less than one month's paycheck on a $160,000 salary. A cursory look at h1bdata.info shows that Coinbase pays plenty of H1B's that much, on the low side. Your view is a little exaggera…

The one time I was on COBRA, under 3 years ago, I paid close to $700/month, and I was the only person included in my coverage. Health insurance premiums have very likely gone up since then, and family sizes above 1 (such as even I have now) would cost meaningfully more than that. Smaller companies than that employer might also have higher total premium cost per employee, if they aim for good coverage.

Kaiser Permanente's Norcal and Socal plans this year have monthly premiums that are half of that, including dental.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#400

Post by argonaut » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 11:27 PM UTC

anoncareer0212 wrote: post #57

shuckles wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe COBRA is available for up to 36 months after your employment ends in California by law. As a result, I don’t know how to read “6 months COBRA” from the excerpt of the severance email besides “we will pay 6 months of employer premiums.”

COBRA means employees paying the employer premium, by guaranteeing COBRA, an employer is saying "We won't stop paying the health insurance company for _everybody else's insurance_, so you'll still have someone to pay" - it's a great PR jiu jitsu move, I didn't realize until this thread how confusing it is - I'm only familiar with it because sadly I had to sunset a company in California.

That is the most convoluted interpretation of offering COBRA, and is almost certainly incorrect. You're referring to the fact that an employer can technically terminate COBRA by ending all health insurance plans. But Coinbase would have to stop offering any health insurance to all their current employees for this to occur. If that happens (I'm virtually certain it won't), there would be an actual employee riot/exodus and the tech media would be all over that story.