Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

morningbrew.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 349 posts

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#141

Post by krapp »

truetraveller wrote: post #134
ATsch wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My unfortunate conclusion is that a large portion of people in this industry are either like this or wish they could get away with being like this. The amount of people who always reply about how they don't see any issues is enough proof of that.

Nah. These accusations are exaggerated and without proof. Put yourself in his shoes. Would you like random internet people to accuse you with dramatized statements and/or exaggerations?

If they're without proof, how do you know they're exaggerated and dramatized? Were you there? Do you have the proof to the contrary?

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#142

Post by vmception »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #50
prepend wrote: post #4

This article leaves out why he was promoted. I assume he was promoted despite the discipline, not as a reward. The article doesn’t research whether he’s reformed or still a bully. Or whether the position is important or not. These are important details. Maybe the position is BS and doesn’t have much authority. Maybe he’s learned the error of his ways. Without useful information this article is lame as it seems to lin…

> The article doesn’t research whether he’s reformed or still a bully. An adult man being a bully in a professional environment? No one should care about him. Fire him and let him try and find a job somewhere else.

Going by this logic wouldn't Google be that job for him? The purpose of that organization is to capture mindshare, and no other priority.

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#143

Post by truetraveller »

edgyquant wrote: post #127
truetraveller wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absolutely fine for an exec to ask an employee to do "x" task, where there is value for the company, even if it is not in the employee's scope. This is a moot point, and I'm astonished we're even debating this. What has the world come to? So, imagine I ask my developer or even my accountant on a one-off, rare occasion: "write me a critique of this new UX design". He replies "How dare you ask me about UX design!"…

Did you just compare asking if something looks good to having them write up an assessment of Russian political history? Yeah I’ll go ahead and ask my dog walker to write me an analysis of the potential outcomes if Britain had joined against the US during the Trent affair. If they refuse I’ll fire them and write horrible reviews about them because obviously they don’t take their job seriously /s You’ve got to be kiddi…

I never said "asking". I meant a small report. And this, only a single time. Absolutely no problem in my book.

Are you really comparing a "dog walker" to somebody who creates IP (nothing against dog walkers).

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#144

Post by Spooky23 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #84
marcinzm wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We had absolutely no work in Russia. Wouldn't the point of such a high level briefing be because they're tying to get work in Russia but don't already have any? It's rather common for employees to not know the details of the strategic plans of the executives until the execution starts.

Were these peopled hired for responsibilities including historical briefings? No? So why are they being asked to do them?

If you want to work to a job description, go join the plumbers union.

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#145

Post by jspash »

truetraveller wrote: post #129
oytis wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a total mystery to me why do people feel the urge to defend him. I kind of understand this in the case of technically brilliant but socially awkward people, but this guy seems to have done nothing but management in his life. And if this is how he's doing management then I don't understand why he's tolerated at all.

We're defending him because the accusations against him are egregiously exaggerated, and without proof. I'm against screaming, but infrequent/involuntary screaming by a very senior exec does happen, and in my opinion, cannot be called abusive. In fact, I would be upset if I had a sheep for an exec. I want a exec who is kind, and who can lead and is firm. Not screaming, but almost there.

Is this a common thing outside Silicon Valley? The US?

Having worked almost ny entire professional life outside of the States I have never, not once, heard of this happening. And it would absolutely not be tolerated in any professional organisation that I’ve been part of.

Or have I just been lucky not to have come across this type of behaviour?

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#146

Post by gigatexal »

HWR_14 wrote: post #105
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we not imply that "on the spectrum" means being an asshole? Autism causes a lot of social difficulties, but it has nothing to do with publicly humiliating people on purpose to make yourself feel powerful.

> Can we not imply that "on the spectrum" means being an asshole? Conversely, can we also not imply that being an asshole is excusable by being "on the spectrum"?

Well said.

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#147

Post by mattfrommars »

Does anyone know of good resource guide to climb up the corporate ladder? Apart being absolutely good at what you do and learning to communicate, what hard "things you should be doing" takes a good software developer climb up the ladder?

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#148

Post by lpghatguy »

elzbardico wrote: post #24
lpghatguy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many incredibly smart people are pushed out of the industry by awful people? By letting jerks run the show, you don't get a chance to see the intelligence of people who these folks suppress.

Really smart people are rarely pushed out of the industry. They just suffer. Usually people who say they were pushed are not that brilliant to start and are just making excuses

What are you basing that on? This is the worst in my experience in the games industry. So many people who strongly prefer to work indie instead of risk working with an endless cesspool of assholes.

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#149

Post by jwilber »

tbrownaw wrote: post #40
jwilber wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can’t see how being an asshole and being innovative are intrinsically linked. On the other hand, being an asshole and [taking credit for other’s work, stepping on others to climb the corporate ladder, throwing others under the bus, other sociopathic behavior…] seem pretty correlated.

Being innovative means ignoring the way things are supposed to be done, and maybe a bit of hubris to think you can do better. I'd imagine that being an asshole likely also involves ignoring the way things are supposed to be done, and/or a bit of (differently applied) hubris.

As nice as that sounds in writing, it’s entirely not true. Many innovations were stumbled on by pure chance, or were logical conclusions from observation-based studies.

Not to mention, this man has innovated nothing. His career is entirely management.

Re: After DeepMind’s cofounder was placed on leave for bullying, Google promoted him

#150

Post by serf »

renewiltord wrote: post #63
ptero wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Demanding random, pointless tasks from subordinates is a bad sign, but the Russia example might not be one of those. If a boss needs information s/he can ask a subordinate to make a brief. Sometimes the reasoning behind the important request is not clear to the subordinate and it might seem pointless. A good boss would generally explain, but failing to do it is still very very far from bullying (plus, some important…

Well, I write software. If you randomly ask me to write a brief history of Japanese factories, I’m going to be like wtf. You’re going to have to explain yourself. I won’t do it for the Elongated Muskrat himself.

> Well, I write software. If you randomly ask me to write a brief history of Japanese factories, I’m going to be like wtf. You’re going to have to explain yourself.

honestly I see that more as evidence of employment mobility and financial security.

a friend of mine works as a fry-cook as a chain restaurant. He is paid a low wage, and has a dwindling savings account. He told me a story about having to re-caulk toilets at the restaurant during low-traffic hours, I replied with "I thought you were a fry-cook?, he replied with "I do whatever keeps the job."

(i'd have serious misgivings about the history essay, too.. I just tend to think that our willingness to question the duty is just evidence that we're confident we could go elsewhere and write code instead. That confidence isn't intrinsic in the workplace across all professions.)

Post reply on HN