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1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

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Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#411

Post by okwubodu »

Zababa wrote: post #389
Aicy wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that the next few words were "...the right of Black people to not be killed randomly" I do not consider that being a zealot, but just a normal person.

That's because "the right of black people to not be killed randomly" is the motte, and supporting the movement Black Lives Matters and all that it stands for is the bailey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_fallacy . I'll add that people "randomly killing black people" are mostly killed by black people https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-... .

Unless I’m missing something the root comment did not mention BLM. That’s a whole different sentence.

Please, if the only purpose of your comment is derailing, keep it to yourself.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#412

Post by [deleted] »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #294
poszlem wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about we stick to "a company can do everything it wants as long as it is legal and people are free to go work at whichever company they want"? Why is that controversial? If you want to effect social change become a politician, do not try to turn your work place into a political party that has to react to every social fashion.

The problem with the argument that this is making a workplace a political party is what the fuck are you supposed to do if you’re transitioning at work? Now you’re fucking political, and all you want is for your boss to call you she/her and your health insurance to cover your hormones.

[deleted]

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#413

Post by Swizec »

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.

> or trying to use a bathroom you think matches your gender

If you get in trouble for being in the wrong bathroom at work, you need to go find a company that isn’t full of children. Nobody has time to care where you pee

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#414

Post by danielheath »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #299
dmix wrote: post #253

> 3/ One of the biggest concerns around our stance was that it would impact our diversity numbers. Since my post, we've grown our headcount about 110%, while our diversity numbers have remained the same, or even improved on some metrics. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Reddit is at scale a sentence like this often means they’ve established a dominant monoculture and squashed out the ‘annoyances’..

> while our diversity numbers have remained the same, What precisely are those diversity numbers? A 5% people of color would be dismal regardless of growth.

It’s dismal in an environment where the base rate is far higher than 5%. What’s the rate near their HQ? What’s the rate among those with any qualifications locally?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#415

Post by [deleted] »

Zababa wrote: post #348
philosopher1234 wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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? Then they are not compatible with Coinbase's culture, and Coinbase seem to place more important on cultural fit than on raw ability. It's nothing new, really. How do you think an interview at one of the big FAANG goes if you show some controversial opinions? You're r…

[deleted]

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#416

Post by refenestrator »

fancifulfiend wrote: post #272
refenestrator wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Noisy echo chambers are uninclusive to anyone who doesn't hold that precise political viewpoint. We both know that the program goes way beyond "black people shouldn't be indiscriminately shot", its driven by people who are addicted to social media and perpetually pushing for another rush of outrage. I'd prefer not to be around that, personally.

It seems like Brian Armstrong is the only person using social media to push for fabricated outrage. Anyone complaining about “wokeness” is talking about an issue that only exists in the minds of true bigots. It’s a boogeyman that they use to punch down. No one is forcing Armstrong to say stupid shit constantly.

I don't really use Twitter, but this is the first time I've heard of the whole thing since a year ago. If he's on there every day fighting with people, then yeah, he's an addict too. If he's just checking in after a year and saying "hey it's working out for us", more power to him.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#417

Post by Jensson »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #395
Jensson wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then your problem isn't with apolitical workplaces, but with conservative workplaces. Also, a few people saying that trans stuff is political doesn't mean that those views are the general consensus or that apolitical workplaces works with that. I haven't seen that and almost everywhere I've been doesn't really do politics at work. Trans people are just people etc, nobody cares.

How do you tell an apolitical workplace from a conservative workplace if the conservative workplace claims it’s apolitical?

I don't know. How do you tell an apolitical workspace from a progressive workspace if the progressive workspace claims it's apolitical?

But until we see that coinbase harasses trans people who work there I'll assume they are apolitical as they say and not conservative. If you have evidence that they did harass trans people as you fear then you can bring them up and we can see that coinbase isn't really apolitical, but until then you are just creating a problem out of nothing.

Plenty of companies have policies against politics at work, but I've never heard of a real expample where that caused issues with trans people. Instead people just bring up thought examples. I don't doubt it might have ever happened, but I don't think it is nearly as common or problematic as people try to make it out to be.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#418

Post by Talanes »

staysafeanon wrote: post #257
jrockway wrote: post #67

What mission did they focus on and how did it go? All I see here is "I wrote a controversial screed and many people tolerated it and kept showing up to work." That's great and all, but what sort of new things did it unlock? How do you compare it to the world where you didn't write the screed? It all feels like a heap of bullshit to me -- if you're in the right industry, you can be the worst manager on the planet and…

>What mission did they focus on and how did it go? RTFA: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-comp...

If you could tell me what point you think I should be drawing from that link, it would be lovely.

Because all I see is the first half devoted to the sort of generic PR speak that any company does about having an aligned vision, and the latter half is about what they're not doing.

Where's the big reveal? What makes being a 'mission focused' company different than just... actually not making political statements? What did the big meta-political statement add to their company?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#420

Post by sneak »

ayngg wrote: post #236
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…

Coinbase hits a unique intersection of outrage here since it provokes vitriol from both people who hate cryptocurrency, and those that are outspoken progressives, both of which are large demographics on HN. Like when you think about it, how is this a big deal in any way? I think the fact that people are making a big deal out of it is a bigger deal than whatever Coinbase's internal practices are here.

I love cryptocurrency and don't care much for american progressivism.

It's still pretty obvious to me that Coinbase is run by scumbags, like Uber and Google are.

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