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

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

#501

Post by tomp » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:11 AM UTC

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #262

JPKab wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is banning discussion of religion in the workplace a political/religious stance? Or is it just an attempt to be decent and get people to do the thing they were hired to do, which is to make their investors more fucking money? As a shareholder in several tech companies, I don't like the idea of people having discussions like these on my dime. How many bugs that were never fixed with Youtube Music, for example, could h…

> Is banning discussion of religion in the workplace a political/religious stance? (Please forgive any flawed logic below - I assure you it's an oversight. I'm posting this in good faith.) I'd say yes, but basically in the same way Coinbase's band on political speech in the office is a stance. Consider religious people whose theology holds that they should attempt to convert everybody in their circles, even their pro…

It’s actually (d) they can do that just not in the office or during working hours.

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

#502

Post by adrianN » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:12 AM UTC

dd36 wrote: post #498

throwaway894345 wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The intersectional view is that 'real racism' requires a power imbalance - which is actually a fair point. It would be unfair not to recognize that some groups have considerably more power than others. I could get down with this if whites behaved as a class, working for their own mutual interests; however, such whites are few and far between and generally powerless.

You’re not down with the current iteration of the Republican Party?

Do they work for white people, or for rich people? (I don't follow US politics too closely, so this is not a rhetorical question)

I feel like racism and classism is often not separated cleanly in discussions about these things, especially in the US.

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

#503

Post by chrisdirkis » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:12 AM UTC

username90 wrote: post #311

mrguyorama wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking "no stance" on a political issue is itself a political stance for the status quo. It is impossible to not be political

If the outcome of society would be the same if you exist or not then you are not political. For example if you don't vote and don't support any political causes, then the people who take the time to get involved decides everything and you had no influence.

If one million people don't care about changing the status quo and 50 do, the status quo will won't change. If one person doesn't care and 50 do, it's much more likely. The status quo exists in everyone who does nothing to change it, even if they don't move to actively affect things.

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

#504

Post by CryptoPunk » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:14 AM UTC

Brian Armstrong is a phenomenally capable and committed CEO who has an accurate gauge on the importance of financial inclusivity. Perhaps there is no greater opportunity to advance humanity and uplift the world's population than to proliferate decentralized financial technology and thereby empower the people of every country to secure their right to control their own wealth.

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

#505

Post by CryptoPunk » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:17 AM UTC

rdiddly wrote: post #497

titanomachy wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do companies have an obligation to be democratic? Are democratic companies common? Protected classes aside, if I start a company I can choose to hire or exclude whomever I choose. I could start a company that only hires registered Republicans, or only people who can't stand the taste of bananas. If this turns out to be a bad business decision (which it probably is), the market will punish me and I'll eventually lose…

You can't discriminate against certain protected classes, but yes, it boggles my mind a little bit that someone could think "a corporation" is anything other than one of the most authoritarian, top-down governance structures ever devised.

If it's voluntarily formed, it's not authoritarian.

When a political faction deems that those who refuse to pay half their income for a highly benevolent social program, will face punitive legal consequences, that is authoritarian. I only bring this up because I suspect you are in support of these kinds of programs.

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

#506

Post by tomp » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:18 AM UTC

titanomachy wrote: post #338

TedShiller wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I think there are only two options for a company: 1) don't allow any activism in the company 2) allow ALL types of activism in the company Right now, it seems most companies only allow liberal activism but not conservative activism. This is a recipe for problems because it's arbitrary and not democratic.

Do companies have an obligation to be democratic? Are democratic companies common? Protected classes aside, if I start a company I can choose to hire or exclude whomever I choose. I could start a company that only hires registered Republicans, or only people who can't stand the taste of bananas. If this turns out to be a bad business decision (which it probably is), the market will punish me and I'll eventually lose…

I actually find it quite curious that you’re not allowed to discriminate based on religion, but allowed to discriminate based on political views, throughout the West.

One is a freely chosen personal belief, and the other is a freely chosen personal belief.

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

#507

Post by nickff » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:19 AM UTC

mrguyorama wrote: post #278

dingaling wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> work are themselves political decisions But those political decisions are ones relevant to the mission of the company. Coinbase probably shouldn't be involved in politics around police reform, fracking, climate change or the Second Amendment because they are orthogonal to its mission. Insert other topics as you see fit. And hence its employees should leave their opinions of such matters at the door. Coinbase should…

Taking "no stance" on a political issue is itself a political stance for the status quo. It is impossible to not be political

Isn't 'no stance' just the 'null stance'? Similar to how one must reject the null hypothesis to accept another, one must reject the null stance to take another.

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

#508

Post by tomp » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:22 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #373

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #46

I am beyond sick of political activists in the workplace, so I hope this trend catches on.

It’s a bummer that Coinbase’s ploy to intentionally conflate not supporting the Black Lives Matter movement (that is, a clear implicit endorsement of the status quo) with generalized left/right-political-activism-at-work seems to have worked, at least for a lot of people who aren’t paying attention. This isn’t about office politics, or political activism at work. This is about Coinbase making an explicit vote for the…

What if I don’t like the status quo, and I also don’t like the solution offered by Black Lives Matter?

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

#509

Post by missedthecue » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:25 AM UTC

banachtarski wrote: post #489

notSupplied wrote: post #487

When a group of employees demand that their employers engage in political activism, what they are asking for is the ability to commandeer the resources of the company, whether it be its reputation, money, or labor to advance their political objective. They want to amplify their impact beyond what they can accomplish with their personal resources. I wonder how these same people feel about the political contributions o…

During WWII, IBM supplied the Nazis with mainframe computers and were responsible for untold deaths in exchange for money. It's not that black and white.

That was in the early/mid 30s, not during WW2.

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

#510

Post by tayo42 » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:26 AM UTC

booleandilemma wrote: post #364

arawnx wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it interesting that the crowd fighting for liberation & equity are mysteriously up against... the apolitical crowd? When the dichotomy is ethical realism vs. pragmatism, you have to ask yourself who's actually operating like a religion, who's actually a dogmatist in liberator's clothing.

Nah. I’m one of the “apolitical” crowd. I have all sorts of weird, controversial opinions, but I simply leave them at the door and do the job I’m paid to do.

What if that job conflicts with your opinions or morals?