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How Basecamp Blew Up

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Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#411

Post by arp242 »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #395
arp242 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nor did he see the irony in the fact that holding a person responsible for horrible action of people who look like them is the same way of thinking that leads bigots to blame all Arabs for the actions of the 9/11 hijackers. I like to do the "Muslim test" on these things: replace "white people" (or "men", or any other group) with "Muslims" and see how it sounds then. If it sounds yikes then it's probably not a good…

Muslims are adherents to a religion. Using "Arab" might be more relevant.

It's just that in the Netherlands significant amount of political discourse has been surrounding "Muslims" and "Islamification" in the last 15 years, so it makes sense for me personally. Anything could work really, "Arabs", "gays", "women", "gingers", or whatever else makes sense for you. The point is better understanding how the message is perceived, and is mostly an emotional thing. Exact accuracy regarding ethnicity and such doesn't really matter here.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#412

Post by jjeaff »

treeman79 wrote: post #294
JPKab wrote: post #209

"But Fried and his co-founder, David Heinemeier Hansson, had been taken aback by an employee post which argued that mocking customer names laid the foundation for racially-motivated violence, and closed the thread." Children understand that calling people names isn't the same as violence. At some point can we all admit that the most narcissistic, dramatic people are overly-indulged by this garbage? I'm at a startup n…

Had to quit a company last year due to bigotry. Constant bashing of white men on company calls. Exceptions if you were openly non straight. They also loved talking about how inclusive they were. Constant mocking of customer base, who was mostly traditional white people. I figure out quick I was hired only because they were desperate for someone with experience. Which sadly meant hiring an undesirable. At some point i…

So as a white male, you were in the minority at this company?

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#413

Post by FireBeyond »

mbergal wrote: post #30
DiNovi wrote: post #6

so they: - Announced a new company policy publicly before telling the staff - Deleted internal threads that would go against their narrative of why they did so - Had a conservative senior employee go off about politics on the call discussing the new no politics policy. - refused to reprimand said employee on the call - had one founder take this extremely sensitive call from his bed with his camera off and on mute. -…

> - Announced a new company policy publicly before telling the staff Bad > - Deleted internal threads that would go against their narrative of why they did so I am not sure where you are getting this, but I might have missed it. > - Had a conservative senior employee go off about politics on the call discussing the new no politics policy. Yes, on 90th minute - we are not sure what was said before that. > - refused to…

> We all can be sick sometimes, certainly would be better to it in some other way, but maybe he was just that sick?

He was busy hitting Twitter pretty hard during the day, throwing some shade at Apple. No mention of company, employees, anything.

That's bad optics, regardless of how you're feeling. If you're sick, you're sick. If you're too sick to deal with the most pressing issue your company is facing, you should consider yourself too sick to devote chunks of time to Twitter feuds.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#414

Post by jakelazaroff »

vimy wrote: post #369
edoceo wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, was it academia? I mean, is there an origin story? I don't even know what terms search.

https://newdiscourses.com/2021/01/what-is-critical-race-theo...

Here’s a far less biased overview: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_r...

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#415

Post by FireBeyond »

SvenMarquardt wrote: post #68
rodgerd wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Had a conservative senior employee go off about politics on the call discussing the new no politics policy. Ironically it seems that, contra to the narrative existing in the minds of quite a few HN posters, it was the Brietbart quoting, "white people are the real victims of racism" guy who had spend over a decade being unable to shut up about politics in the workplace.

Where's your evidence of that?

The quote in the article? And the fact that the author gave Singer a chance to respond, and Singer did so in some depth, and did not deny or rebut the claim that he said that?

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#416

Post by edoceo »

vimy wrote: post #369
edoceo wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, was it academia? I mean, is there an origin story? I don't even know what terms search.

https://newdiscourses.com/2021/01/what-is-critical-race-theo...

thanks! I've read that and this part sticks out:

""they assume racism is present in everything and look for it “Critically” until they find it.""

that doesn't seem like the scientific method to me. am I the dumb?

edit: also the founder of the linked site is critical of Critical Race Theory - so maybe there is bias in this article. Whatever, I asked for a place to start - so, thanks again.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#417

Post by dasudasu »

otde wrote: post #392
treeman79 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had to quit a company last year due to bigotry. Constant bashing of white men on company calls. Exceptions if you were openly non straight. They also loved talking about how inclusive they were. Constant mocking of customer base, who was mostly traditional white people. I figure out quick I was hired only because they were desperate for someone with experience. Which sadly meant hiring an undesirable. At some point i…

I really tried not to take the bait here, but come on, dude, that last bit was especially rancid. You do get that we’re real human beings with rich internal lives like everyone else and not shallow, opportunistic crossdressers, yeah? I’d be mortified if I worked with someone who thought like this, and I’m glad I don’t.

You almost certainly do, they just keep silent.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#418

Post by anon7725 »

tomlockwood wrote: post #345
anon7725 wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marxism is a basis for critical theory. The critical theory that made a species jump from academia to the mainstream has its roots in the ideas of Gramsci and Marcuse, among others. I call it “cultural Marxism” because unlike plain old Marxism, it has relatively little to say about the redistribution of wealth and other economic interests. In this way it’s made itself innocuous to corporate America, which would other…

What's Marxist about it, then?

Marxism is about the politics of the underclass - the revolutionary struggle to achieve a just society by upending the inequities of Capitalism. So the proletarian uprising wrests control of society from the bourgeoisie.

Cultural Marxism redefines the oppressed and oppressor along the lines of identity rather than economy. This makes it much more palatable to a capitalist society.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#419

Post by freddie_mercury »

Trasmatta wrote: post #20
DiNovi wrote: post #6

so they: - Announced a new company policy publicly before telling the staff - Deleted internal threads that would go against their narrative of why they did so - Had a conservative senior employee go off about politics on the call discussing the new no politics policy. - refused to reprimand said employee on the call - had one founder take this extremely sensitive call from his bed with his camera off and on mute. -…

> Can't believe only 21 employees walked The article said they extended the buyout offer indefinitely, so I wouldn't be surprised if more people leave over the next few weeks. Even if you weren't thinking of leaving, 3-6 months severance would be really hard to turn down, especially if you know you can get another job quickly.

If that many employees think they can get another, comparable, job quickly then that is implicitly saying Basecamp's overall compensation package (including how interesting the work is, extra time off in summer, profit sharing, etc, etc) isn't actually especially unique or valuable. Which kind of says something not great about Basecamp in and of itself.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#420

Post by etchalon »

tomlockwood wrote: post #136
moduspol wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but you'd have to have blinders on to not see the political left increasingly branding everyone they disagree with as evil / Nazis / white supremacists. That's what happened above, and you're rationalizing it here.

If you think the political left increasingly branding "everyone" as evil / Nazis / white supremacists is bad - wait till you hear about people claiming the "political left" all brand people as evil / Nazis / white supremacists.

I remember when the political right branded everyone as a communist.
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