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

291–300 of 349 posts

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

#291

Post by rowanG077 »

dimitrios1 wrote: post #239
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.

It's the same reason people defend Bill Gates or Bezos, or any other rich or powerful person for that matter. People want what they have, and they feel if they attack them, recognize their immorality or destitute nature of their souls they are in a sense attacking their future self image, and it feels inconvenient. Especially where where there are a lot of valley Elizabeth Holmes types on here that fancy they are pot…

This seems completely bonkers insane to me. Can you back up your armchair psychologist points with actual sources?

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

#292

Post by shard972 »

joebob42 wrote: post #249
klyrs wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a fun one: > "Employees said Suleyman encouraged them to use private chat groups on Signal and Telegram for work conversations, some of which were set up to automatically delete messages after a set period. Employees were also on occasion asked to delete messages from their phones, a former employee said. They were also told to notify the group once they had done so." The burden of proof is on the claimant, su…

Google makes all employees do this, for whatever it's worth. I think this may just be kinda standard for corporate stuff. (Not telegram, but the self destructing messages)

then google is suspect

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

#293

Post by ewalk153 »

joebob42 wrote: post #249
klyrs wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a fun one: > "Employees said Suleyman encouraged them to use private chat groups on Signal and Telegram for work conversations, some of which were set up to automatically delete messages after a set period. Employees were also on occasion asked to delete messages from their phones, a former employee said. They were also told to notify the group once they had done so." The burden of proof is on the claimant, su…

Google makes all employees do this, for whatever it's worth. I think this may just be kinda standard for corporate stuff. (Not telegram, but the self destructing messages)

That seems odd for corporate communications at a publicly traded company.

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

#294

Post by pmorici »

dalbasal wrote: post #77
sillysaurusx wrote: post #16

I see a lot of people saying this seems not a big deal, or that his leadership deserved promotion. It’s because this is a second order article. The original, most substantive source that I could find is quite thorough: https://archive.is/wqdkF > "He would ask us to do personal things for him," one of these people said. "He said, 'I need you to write a briefing for me on Russian history and politics.' [...] We had abs…

>> Behavior patterns were not productive. I agree with you on success often being in spite of, or regardless of negative traits. That said, there are quite a lot of arseholes at the top... or maybe being at the top allows arseholes to indulge. Jobs, by most accounts, was a real arsehole. Musk, by some reports, at least at time. Gates too, had a reputation for nastiness. Lots of professors are known for bullying and m…

A lot of people confuse being direct and honest with being an asshole.

To elaborate; To me, being an asshole means being mean spirited or verdictive without a purpose for the heck of it. On the other hand telling someone directly that their work isn't acceptable or that something needs to be fixed may feel harsh but it is absolutely necessary to cultivating a functional high performing organization. One of the biggest problems with large bureaucratic organizations is that no one is ever willing to say anything uncomfortable and thus none of the problems are ever dealt with effectively and they devolve into swamps of mediocrity.

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

#295

Post by jmeister »

truetraveller wrote: post #102
gundmc wrote: post #8

I feel like this story is overblown. He was clearly a bad manager. From what I can gather, he was placed on leave after an investigation and then moved to a policy position where he does not manage anyone. Calling it a promotion is pure spin.

This is today's cancel culture, unfortunately. Dramatize and exaggerate things. And hypocrisy, but that's a separate issue.

This is just a consequence of feminization of society.

I used to work on Wall St, and it’s a rite of passage there for senior people to send juniors to fetch cigars or lunchboxes. I’ve seen execs angrily bang on glass walls of their cabins so hard, hundreds on the open-floor outside would notice.

Two quotes from Camille Paglia:

“There is no female Mozart because there is no female Jack-the-Ripper.”

You have to tolerate deviance if you want to accommodate world-class talent. Mozart himself would’ve been cancelled by today’s standards for being a boor and a creep.

“If civilization was left in female hands, we’d still be living in grass huts.”

I hope the adults in the business world can step up and stem this tide, or else we are on our way back to grass huts.

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

#296

Post by jmeister »

random314 wrote: post #181
mach_architect wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he has literally zero technical credentials > Looks like a standard issue corporate climber who demands work from his subordinates that he himself cannot deliver. The people I've seen like this had machine learning PHDs and lots of publications, while some of the most productive had no such pedigree. I'd be careful judging based on "technical credentials".

This is not an engineering organization. Deepmind is a research organization led by PhD Hassabis who is the obvious intellectual force behind the organization. All the pioneers of AI from Hinton to Goodfellow have PhDs in AI with a strong publication record. Core AI research is simply not an area where college dropouts like Suleyman can drive research. He is a non technical "manager" riding Hassabis coattails. If Has…

I have to admire your arrogance. You know better than Hassabis about Suleyman’s value?

You want to judge the founders of the top AI group in the universe?

I am at loss for words.

FYI: Keynes is considered to be the most influential economist of the 20th century, and he had about a year’s worth of training in economics.

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

#297

Post by truetraveller »

jmeister wrote: post #295
truetraveller wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is today's cancel culture, unfortunately. Dramatize and exaggerate things. And hypocrisy, but that's a separate issue.

This is just a consequence of feminization of society. I used to work on Wall St, and it’s a rite of passage there for senior people to send juniors to fetch cigars or lunchboxes. I’ve seen execs angrily bang on glass walls of their cabins so hard, hundreds on the open-floor outside would notice. Two quotes from Camille Paglia: “There is no female Mozart because there is no female Jack-the-Ripper.” You have to tolera…

It's not feminization of society. That is IMHO a misogynistic way of thinking. It is the hyper-sensitivity, sensationalism and hypocrisy. Just look at this thread.

I am Muslim, so Richard Dawkins is someone I do not espouse at all. But it was upsetting (even a little funny) to see him being cancelled by the humanist society. And him a chief supporter of humanism! See this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SsHhgeAAhM

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

#298

Post by truetraveller »

stablechaos wrote: post #252

Seeing a link like this at the top of HackerNews is deeply disappointing. Regardless of the accusation or the status of a person, everyone deserves due diligence when it comes to attacks on people's character and reputation. A brief 200-word blurb is gossip, even if she provides links. The fact that she couldn't be bothered to write any more is indicative of how little she cares about whether her criticism is legitim…

It is disappointing. More so, the general attitude of HN. This witch-hunt culture / cancel-culture has got to stop. It's far worse in my eyes than any so-called "abuse". This is abuse.

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

#299

Post by PhasmaFelis »

gigatexal wrote: post #78
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.

I did imply that. And it's an unfortunate consequence that sometimes those on the spectrum can exhibit "asshole" like behavior but one does not need to be autistic to be an asshole so I've made a false equivalency and I am sorry. What I was trying to get at is that all this hero worship of sociopathic myopic founders and 100x engineers who "get results" that somehow gives them license to be assholes, we've transcende…

I can agree with that.

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

#300

Post by PhasmaFelis »

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"?

Of course it isn't. I really hope you didn't get that from what I said.
Post reply on HN