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

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#451

Post by poorjohnmacafee » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 1:50 AM UTC

tootie wrote: post #62

This seems like a gross abuse of the phrase "mission focused" to mean "operating for profit with total blinders on to the wider world". With a very appropriate photo of the 90s Bulls being a group of self-serving egomaniacs who put winning above everything else. My current employer (a non-profit) uses the term "mission focused" to mean "we are serving the public good even when it isn't profitable and acknowledging ou…

The goal in Western capitalism is to create wealth for stakeholders. Those stakeholders can then get involved in politically impactful projects as wealthy individuals if they have a conscience. As competitive, innovative companies they will bring wealth and better lives to their communities long term.

There are many good reasons for this system.

Wanting companies to play politics means they will be choosing sides of a political establishment or party, and it is divisive to our society. You should not want to divide our society even if you think you're obviously right and they're obviously wrong. America does this more than any other nation, arguably because their media constantly does it. Shoving politics at others is still fundamentally divisive.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#452

Post by pvg » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 1:55 AM UTC

poszlem wrote: post #317

Jensson wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The woke biggest fear is that people realize that only about 5-10% are woke so you can ignore them without much consequences no matter how much of a fuzz they make on twitter. They try to make a fuzz here at HN as well but just like the real world they aren't the majority here either.

This is quite disturbing, see all those accounts created 30 minutes ago: - https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=fancifulfiend - https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=workersrights - https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tesselator I wonder what's going on with HN moderation.

This is from the guidelines:

Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#453

Post by cyounkins » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

muench wrote: post #391

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Companies with great policies can sometimes retain employees on that basis alone! So I recently quit a FAANG and they sent me a COBRA notice with the cost of their insurance benefit. You can get great FAANG insurance for about $10k a year, which is peanuts for a Silicon Valley engineer. We need to dispel the myth that Silicon Valley engineers are working for health insurance.

COBRA means you’re still getting insurance through your (former) employer. How much does the same insurance benefit cost if you buy it fully on your own? In my experience you can’t even buy a similar plan as an individual. And definitely not at the same price.

Apples to apples comparison is very hard because the plans are all different. But having bought insurance from the state marketplace it two US states, I'd say around $500 USD/month.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#454

Post by proxyon » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:00 AM UTC

philosopher1234 wrote: post #287

Jensson wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is when people who care about justice harasses co-workers because those co-workers doesn't care as much about justice. That has a very negative effect on those co-workers regardless if this has a negative effect on the harasser.

Or: it has the positive effect of changing their minds, and improving the world.

You can't actually believe that harassing and stressing out one's coworkers over a political agenda has a positive effect, changes minds and improves the world.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#455

Post by mensetmanusman » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:07 AM UTC

tootie wrote: post #62

This seems like a gross abuse of the phrase "mission focused" to mean "operating for profit with total blinders on to the wider world". With a very appropriate photo of the 90s Bulls being a group of self-serving egomaniacs who put winning above everything else. My current employer (a non-profit) uses the term "mission focused" to mean "we are serving the public good even when it isn't profitable and acknowledging ou…

People define mission and public good differently.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#456

Post by woodruffw » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:07 AM UTC

Grimm1 wrote: post #248

woodruffw wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're paid to do a job. Politics is for your personal time. It's remarkable how easily we've forgotten that the very concept of "personal time" took decades of sustained political effort at the workplace.

Sustained political effort - in spite of the established rules. Every one of those people risked their jobs and in many cases their health and life fighting for those rights against laws and established order. People today want their cake and to eat it to. They want the people who made an economic exchange for their labor also let them do things that work directly against their "the purchaser's" interests. How about…

I think most people would agree that, by virtually all material standards, workers are better treated than they were a century ago. I think most people would also agree (again in material terms) that office workers have fairly easy jobs. But I think that fundamentally misses the point: good (read: easy living) isn't the same as just, and plenty of people have legitimate reasons for wanting their workplaces to be more just.

> Maybe the otherside of the table needs to take that collective action they talk so much about instead of talking.

I don't disagree. But to be clear: collective action, broadly interpreted, is mostly illegal in the United States. You can actually be thrown in jail for it and, unlike the CEOs, you probably don't have the money to tie the courts up. The US's labor movement spent decades fighting for recognition, and it's still paltry compared to the rest of the world (and is steadily being eroded). Most workers, including office workers, have strong social and economic disincentives against anything more than talk (at-will employment, absent social services, &c).

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#457

Post by kimmeld » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:08 AM UTC

zarkov99 wrote: post #437

ctur wrote: post #56

I wrote this in an email turning down a chance explore opportunities at Coinbase. > To me, diversity and social justice are critically important. I have the luxury of being selective in where I put my time and energy and it is important those values align with my career. I appreciate aspects of being "mission focused" but I think that there is a gulf between my personal values and Coinbase's values such that I would…

On the other hand, I, a fairly good Engineer, would favor Coinbase over many other tech companies precisely because their CEO had the courage to say what every other CEO is thinking, that is that a company is a place where money is exchanged for labour not a venue for promoting one's political agenda, no matter how righteous that agenda might feel.

Because the CEO shares your politics and is only allowing your brand to express themselves at work you want to work there. I mean I understand the feeling but can we stop pretending that this isn’t entirely political?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#458

Post by rafale » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:09 AM UTC

AgentME wrote: post #403

rafale wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if a bunch of white male employees ask the company to make s statement that their lives matter too? After all they are overrepresented in suicide statistics, drug addiction and homelessness. You now this shit will make a lot of leftists lose their mind and show up at ur company offices trying to cancel you out of existence. In a society going mad like ours, opting out of the madness like Coinbase did is the best…

"Black lives matter" is a slogan that largely refers to a desire to solve issues related to police brutality and black people. "White lives matter", as it's commonly said and understood, is merely a contrarian pushback against that desire to fix those issues. Obviously white lives do matter like others, but making a statement of something communicates something other than the literal meaning: it asserts that there's…

One could argue that the BLM slogan, being intentionally divisive and exclusive, is designed to provoke from day one rather than bring up constructive change. It's a heavily politicized movement. Since Biden was elected for example, the issue of BLM and police brutality is not mediatized nearly as much as before. It's not that the problem was fixed overnight, it's just that there is no use for it right now by the progressive left agenda.

It's not a honest movement. I refuse to support it even if I support the general idea that our police force and judicial system need reform to infuse them with more humanity and empathy.

And given that the two of us, as reasonable people, can have a rational disagreement on this issue, why should our employer take a side? Why bring this discussion in the office? It's not like the issue is so obvious and simple (i.e. all people have equal rights, women should be able to go to school, ...) that it's okay employers take a side. The simple stuff is usually written in the US constitution. And employers don't take stand opposite of it because... it's unconstitutional.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#459

Post by mensetmanusman » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:09 AM UTC

philosopher1234 wrote: post #287

Jensson wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is when people who care about justice harasses co-workers because those co-workers doesn't care as much about justice. That has a very negative effect on those co-workers regardless if this has a negative effect on the harasser.

Or: it has the positive effect of changing their minds, and improving the world.

The art of influencing people.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#460

Post by woodruffw » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:12 AM UTC

rsj_hn wrote: post #251

Grimm1 wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sustained political effort - in spite of the established rules. Every one of those people risked their jobs and in many cases their health and life fighting for those rights against laws and established order. People today want their cake and to eat it to. They want the people who made an economic exchange for their labor also let them do things that work directly against their "the purchaser's" interests. How about…

The difference between traditional union organizing and the social justice crusaders here is that the unions were fighting management to improve the material well being of the workers. They wanted more sick leave, higher wages, etc. The present-day crusaders are attacking their fellow employees (who disagree with them) as well as customers (trying to get customers who disagree with them dropped). They are most certai…

> The present-day crusaders are attacking their fellow employees (who disagree with them) as well as customers (trying to get customers who disagree with them dropped). They are most certainly not fighting management.

"Crusaders" already belies where you stand on this, but to be clear: historical labor movements absolutely included hostility against coworkers. The coworker who didn't join you on the picket line was called a scab.

Besides, US labor law places broad restrictions on the ability of labor organizations to call for boycotts (i.e., retaliating against customers). If you take your time to read about this history of workers' rights in the US, you'll find deeper parallels to the current day than you're probably currently inclined to believe.

Edit: Here's a link[1] to a summary of the confusing rat's nest that is NLRA's rules for boycotting.

[1]: https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/se...