1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company • Hacker News Board

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#351

Post by tmule » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:02 AM UTC

gwelson wrote: post #252

The thing I hate about this line of thinking is the supposed "distractions" of being mission-focused are nearly all related simply to basic rights/dignities for marginalized groups. I don't think anyone is saying companies need to take a strong stance on every political issue, but merely saying "we as a company believe the lives of our Black employees matter" or "we as a company welcome and accept our LGBTQ+ employee…

This is a caricature of the “mission-focused” mindset. I’ll preface this message by saying that I am brown, raised in relative poverty in the third world, and left of center on most issues. I’ll also say that I have materially contributed a substantial portion of my income helping educate poor brown kids, which most of my preachy white colleagues haven’t and won’t.

The discourse at work in SV tech is not about, “hey, let’s not hang homosexuals”, which I am sure 99.99% of employees and employers fully agree with. It’s typically more in the vein of, “hey, why did we hire person Z, who the media has proven to be a bigot”.

As an explicit example: Antonio Garcia Martinez’s firing was, IMO, bizarre and unwarranted and a manifestation of this attitude (coming from a company that is okay with using Uyghur labor).

I actually do not want my colleagues to have a very narrow view of what’s right and wrong — or a very black and white view of the world. And surely, I don’t want to expend cycles at work having such conversations.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#352

Post by tomp » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:02 AM UTC

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #306

tomp wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should any insurance cover elective procedures? You could also add things like beauty surgeries, hair transplant, lasik surgeries etc. (I know that EU insurances often cover birth control, but I think that's mostly because it's a drug prescribed by a doctor so it fits into the framework... I don't think it should cover birth control (except maybe for young people before they start working) - that's not insurance…

Birth control is prescribed by a doctor for a wide variety of things, including chronic health conditions. If you think insurance shouldn’t cover birth control because it’s consistent, do diabetics also not deserve to have insulin covered, or high blood pressure people their statins?

Sure, in that case if it’s medically indicated and not elective, that’s a different situation.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#353

Post by SamoyedFurFluff » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:03 AM UTC

Jensson wrote: post #350

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do if your peer reports you as political because asking people to go by your new name is a political demand? I’m genuinely asking, because I’m under the impression that even asking people to respect your pronouns can be too political, or trying to use a bathroom you think matches your gender.

If you legally changed your name then it isn't an political act. > I’m genuinely asking, because I’m under the impression that even asking people to respect your pronouns can be too political That is just your assumption here. Why are you assuming that? It is almost as if you assume "apolitical" means "conservative". That isn't true, even if the left tries to tell you that all "apolitical" people are really closet co…

I’m assuming that because there are laws in several places in the country about whether or not trans people can use certain bathrooms, so I’m assuming it’s a political thing.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#354

Post by poszlem » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:03 AM UTC

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #345

Jensson wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That doesn’t answer my question of what happens if someone transitions in a workplace. How do you do that non-politically? It is simple, you transition, you tell people you want to go by the other name now. If people say it wrong you remind them but don't get angry. If they harass it for it there are laws against harassment, bringing up harassment isn't political. You can discuss the medical benefits with your mana…

What do you do if your peer reports you as political because asking people to go by your new name is a political demand? I’m genuinely asking, because I’m under the impression that even asking people to respect your pronouns can be too political, or trying to use a bathroom you think matches your gender.

I can assure you that most people would not bat an eye they were asked to use a different pronoun. The problem starts when they are 1) forced to do so b) suddenly have to "disclose" their own pronouns, and you end up on a zoom call with he/hims she/hers and one they/them.

The problem is not that some people want to stop being marginalised, the problem is that the aim is to marginalise a normal person.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#355

Post by jollybean » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:03 AM UTC

philosopher1234 wrote: post #284

jamiequint wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like their policy of discouraging wokes, who want to use their job as a cudgel for their own political views, from applying to their company is working.

What do you know about OP? What if OP is an extremely productive programmer who lives to build product and has a huge impact, but also cares about black people or LGBTQ+ people? So he's worthless to coinbase? Thats insane.

If someone wants to work at a place because of ideology, then the might be worse than worthless, they might have negative worth.

That said, I'll bet there's far more agreement among all of us than not on these issues, it's just that they get all blown up.

Outside of Twitter wars and the most radical voices in a company, I strongly believe we would just all get along pretty darn well actually.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#356

Post by sciurus » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:03 AM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #186

joshuamorton wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

COIN has lost 25% since IPO (in that time, GOOG, FB, MSFT, AAPL, HOOD are up, PP is even, and SQ is down marginally), and their offers aren't particularly better than , so it doesn't seem like this is true. Like, even if you think crypto is going to be super relevant, there's tons of other cryto startups. Coinbase has or had first mover advantage, but that's no longer an enormous advantage.

If you got stock for free because you work for coinbase, does it matter much it went down? I mean it's still around $250 each, that quickly adds up. > their offers aren't particularly better than citation needed, I mean 'anywhere' is a big space. I'm seeing north of $100K on a quick google, that's a lot more than most places pay. Or are you speaking from a privileged, SF-blinkered position?

AIUI Coinbase is offering around $400k comp to senior-level engineers now, similar to FAANG.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#357

Post by SamoyedFurFluff » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:04 AM UTC

poszlem wrote: post #354

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do if your peer reports you as political because asking people to go by your new name is a political demand? I’m genuinely asking, because I’m under the impression that even asking people to respect your pronouns can be too political, or trying to use a bathroom you think matches your gender.

I can assure you that most people would not bat an eye they were asked to use a different pronoun. The problem starts when they are 1) forced to do so b) suddenly have to "disclose" their own pronouns, and you end up on a zoom call with he/hims she/hers and one they/them. The problem is not that some people want to stop being marginalised, the problem is that the aim is to marginalise a normal person.

> The problem starts when they are 1) forced to do

So is the apolitical thing that a co worker can choose not to call a trans person by their new name and pronouns and the trans person can’t demand it?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#358

Post by SamoyedFurFluff » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:05 AM UTC

tomp wrote: post #352

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Birth control is prescribed by a doctor for a wide variety of things, including chronic health conditions. If you think insurance shouldn’t cover birth control because it’s consistent, do diabetics also not deserve to have insulin covered, or high blood pressure people their statins?

Sure, in that case if it’s medically indicated and not elective, that’s a different situation.

Why does a workplace get to determine what is and isn’t medically elective for a woman to take birth control? Isn’t that political too?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#359

Post by Jensson » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:06 AM UTC

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #353

Jensson wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you legally changed your name then it isn't an political act. > I’m genuinely asking, because I’m under the impression that even asking people to respect your pronouns can be too political That is just your assumption here. Why are you assuming that? It is almost as if you assume "apolitical" means "conservative". That isn't true, even if the left tries to tell you that all "apolitical" people are really closet co…

I’m assuming that because there are laws in several places in the country about whether or not trans people can use certain bathrooms, so I’m assuming it’s a political thing.

Yeah, so in those parts you will use the bathrooms you are allowed to use. I'm not sure what is unclear here?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#360

Post by Zababa » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:07 AM UTC

afavour wrote: post #114

fleddr wrote: post #71

Just want to say how ridiculous this is from a European perspective. I know nothing better than for any company to be mission focused. You go to work to do work. And you do so with a degree of neutrality, as you can't pick your colleagues, yet still need to cooperate with them. This doesn't mean you can't say anything at all, it means you shouldn't be overly divisive or confrontational. A company isn't your personal…

As a European living and working in the US: your comparison is very shortsighted. European countries literally have no legal concept of at-will employment. They have strong social nets that make quitting your job much easier, and more prevalent unions that fight to improve working conditions (all of these things are, gasp, political! incidentally) By comparison employment in the US is messed up enough that if you lea…

You make at least three times as much as people in Europe, while the cost of living isn't three times higher. You can save this money in case something bad happens. If you're a minimum wage worker that's a different story. But we're talking about software engineers here. A standing desk and wrist exercises solve most of your possible work-related injuries.