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

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#481

Post by jollybean » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:46 AM UTC

temp8964 wrote: post #470

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…

This is a win win. They don’t want you and you don’t want them. There’s nothing wrong with it. It would only seem wrong to people with authoritarian desire to force everyone to align with themselves.

I would argue maybe it's a lose-lose.

There's no reason on god's green earth that a reasonable person should not be able to work at Coinbase, and in reality, Coinbase probably has pretty much the same level of inclusivity at the end of the day as every other tech company. Moreover, there's no reason why Coinbase can't at least acknowledge some of the social ills flaring up, it's not 'unfair' I think to staff to do so.

It's a sad war of words.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#482

Post by nefitty » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:46 AM UTC

pcthrowaway wrote: post #471

doopy1 wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"For no benefit" is not an objective read. A lot of folks are benefitting. IMO the environmental impact of crypto is also completely overstated. There are issues so much bigger than crypto's energy consumption that it's basically just a rounding error.

1% of global energy consumption is hardly a rounding error. I'm massively excited for the potential of cryptocurrency, but there's a reason ETH is moving to PoS, and newer PoW projects aren't getting the same kind of traction.

What do you consider the potential of cryptocurrency to be? Specifically, which of those potentials excites you?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#483

Post by proxyon » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:50 AM UTC

whymauri wrote: post #386

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…

'Acknowledging discrimination in our industry is distracting, so to stop being distracted I'm going to focus on writing on how un-distracted we are because we're _mission focused._ I'm going to do this several times.' I can't be the only person feeling a sense of irony, here. A big argument you see a lot is that people who raise concerns around equitable treatment only do it for clout, the ever popular 'virtue signal…

What you've said makes no sense. Coinbase offered a bunch of employees the change to quit gracefully with an exit package rather than fire them. That's not virtue signaling, that's material reality.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#484

Post by temp8964 » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:51 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…

No. You are mission focused to profit and at the same time you are also serving public good. This is how the society works.

You don’t have to care about any social issues at all to contribute to the society!

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#485

Post by john2x » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:52 AM UTC

nefitty wrote: post #482

pcthrowaway wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1% of global energy consumption is hardly a rounding error. I'm massively excited for the potential of cryptocurrency, but there's a reason ETH is moving to PoS, and newer PoW projects aren't getting the same kind of traction.

What do you consider the potential of cryptocurrency to be? Specifically, which of those potentials excites you?

Two words: “cha ching!”

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#486

Post by doopy1 » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:55 AM UTC

pcthrowaway wrote: post #471

doopy1 wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"For no benefit" is not an objective read. A lot of folks are benefitting. IMO the environmental impact of crypto is also completely overstated. There are issues so much bigger than crypto's energy consumption that it's basically just a rounding error.

1% of global energy consumption is hardly a rounding error. I'm massively excited for the potential of cryptocurrency, but there's a reason ETH is moving to PoS, and newer PoW projects aren't getting the same kind of traction.

The most aggressive estimates I've seen are below 1% (maybe around half), which is quite literally a rounding error. Don't get me wrong I agree it's a lot, but it's a drop in the bucket on the global scale.

What about the fact that china is pumping out something like 1/3rd of the world's emissions?

What about excess livestock?

FWIW - I do agree that PoW is not ideal and will largely be phased out, but there are lower hanging fruit with regards to our climate change crisis than cryptocurrencies.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#487

Post by Zababa » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 2:58 AM UTC

xyzzyz wrote: post #478

Zababa wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the system working as intended. Coinbase decided to focus on consensus rather than pure raw technical competence (which is also what companies do when they try to meet diversity quota). You don't agree with their consensus, so you explain them so they have data and a chance to reconsider, and you can go in a company that aligns more with your values. While I don't doubt at all your technical competence…

Coinbase decided to focus on consensus rather than pure raw technical competence (which is also what companies do when they try to meet diversity quota). Companies trying to meet the diversity quota very much do not focus on pure raw technical competence. In fact, to suggest so, borders on gaslighting.

Sorry, the way I put it wasn't clear, but that was my point. Only putting "also" to indicate that is an error on my part, it's easy to interpret my statement in the exact opposite way. What I meant to say was:

"Coinbase decided to focus on consensus rather than pure raw technical competence. Companies that try to meet diversity quotas are also focusing on consensus rather than pure raw technical competence. These companies and Coinbase are similar in that way."

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#488

Post by joshuamorton » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 3:01 AM UTC

civilized wrote: post #311

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…

Basecamp's angry worker faction was demanding the company apologize for contributing to a white supremacist, genocidal culture... because some customer service folks had a funny customer name list that included names from all backgrounds. That had absolutely nothing to do with basic dignity for marginalized groups. It was simply a grab for power and status. One of many. We who have been watching are very familiar wit…

This is a fantastically creative misrepresentation. No one demanded anyone apologize for contributing to a genocidal culture for anything. And yes I know you're referring to the pyramid. It also misses out on plenty of other content too, but that bit was fantastically creative, really.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#489

Post by rafale » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 3:08 AM UTC

joshuamorton wrote: post #476

rafale wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pro…

The slogan is only divisive if you make it so. It certainly isn't "intentionally" divisive. > Since Biden was elected for example Looking at Google trends, there's basically no correlation between Bidens election and "Black Lives Matter". You're reaching to creating a narrative that doesn't fit the facts. > even if I support the general idea that our police force and judicial system need reform to infuse them with mo…

> Looking at Google trends, there's basically no correlation between Bidens election and "Black Lives Matter".

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&ge...

There is a perfect correlation.

> Do you support any group or organization that does policeor criminal justice reform?

It's not the issue here. I am not even trying to say you are wrong about BLM. My point is it's one of those issues where 2 reasonable people can disagree. And employers shouldn't take sides.

> Concretely, you're making an argument from status quo in a conversation about how we change norms.

Strawman fallacy. My only argument is that work environment shouldn't be politicized. Which in turn allow people with different ideologies to work together effectively in a safe non-toxic environment. If you were my co-worker I would refuse to discuss this issue unless we have a very close bond/friendship outside of work and we are comfortable discussing this kind of stuff.

We can effect change through debates, voting, protests, ...

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#490

Post by throwanem » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 3:10 AM UTC

tomp wrote: post #240

afavour wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that positions like Brian's require there to be a clear and bright line between "political" and "not political". I think it's at least slightly easier to draw that line in European workplaces where the nature of employment is not as politically fraught. Just to take two of your examples: feminism and trans rights. Both have healthcare implications. Your employer controls your healthcare. Should the health…

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…

"Elective" in "elective procedure" doesn't mean "optional and potentially frivolous." It just means "not emergent", or put differently it means you won't die if you don't have it right now.

Kidney stone surgery is elective. Cancer resection is elective. Most heart surgery is elective. Most brain surgery is elective.

I assume you're not arguing that health insurance shouldn't cover these things, because that would be extremely foolish. It may, though, be worth acquainting yourself with at least the basic terminology of the field about which you want to argue, because overlooking this point makes you seem as if you don't really know what you're talking about.