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A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

nytimes.com

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Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#201

Post by troutwine »

binbag wrote: post #189
darth_avocado wrote: post #176

I can totally see how this can fly under the radar. "Cults" are common in tech, though not of this type. I've received job offers where entire functions are all people who had worked together at a previous company and not hired through acquisitions. I've had teams where majority of the team is from the same university or class. More than 50% of the team having a common denominator is common and it usually starts with…

In what way are cults common in tech?

I'm curious about the definition as well. "Cult" generally has a very specific set of behaviors associated with it as a term, where the GP could easily be describing a close-knit, large friend group.

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#202

Post by dcow »

swatcoder wrote: post #178
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they didn’t cover their tracks very well anyways ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I mean they actually told him where they were from (geographically, if not organizationally), so clearly they didn't consider it something that needed to be secret. Which is interesting, because it gives us insight into their way of thinking [1]. They clearly don't consider themselves to be in any way toxic like the author thinks they are. Cults are interes…

The satanic and brainwashing/deprogramming scares of the 80’s changed the way a lot of people use the word, but for the preceding several millennia cult simply suggested: A membership community with secrets and opportunities reserved for members. There are millions of these around us, and we’re all probably members of several. It seems to be pretty normal throughout history. We just don’t acknowledge it as such becau…

Costco: a modern cult.

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#203

Post by txru »

binbag wrote: post #189
darth_avocado wrote: post #176

I can totally see how this can fly under the radar. "Cults" are common in tech, though not of this type. I've received job offers where entire functions are all people who had worked together at a previous company and not hired through acquisitions. I've had teams where majority of the team is from the same university or class. More than 50% of the team having a common denominator is common and it usually starts with…

In what way are cults common in tech?

I believe the parent is referring more to referral/promo networks.

For a positive example, I knew one of my senior managers basically brought 15 people from his previous company, to the point where a comfortable majority of people under him were from the company.

This can be nefarious when the network arises from abusive or unhealthy environments.

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#205

Post by monkeybutton »

nocturnial wrote: post #168
akomtu wrote: post #157

Suing a cult with hundreds of members is a dumb idea: they'll turn vindictive and will go after you. Instead, you appear mildly suppotive and friendly to them, gather information, give them publicity via media outlets, and give anonymous tips to FBI.

I hope nobody takes your idea seriously. Most people aren't super-spies who can go undercover and save society from a cult. Just go to law enforcement, report it and listen to what they have to say.

There once was a professor doing research on cults who sent out his grad students to secretly embed themselves in various cults and report on them. Not all of them came back.. And now we get learn about why that was a bad idea in the ethics portion of psychology classes! Yay!

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#206

Post by bowsamic »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #169
kradeelav wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YMMV, but there seems to me a difference between "generic corporate sleaze" and "sex trafficking doom cult literally within the system".

YMMV, but when you have 100k+ employees - you're gonna have more than "generic corporate sleaze" somewhere in the system.

Not every company then eh?

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#208

Post by swatcoder »

whatshisface wrote: post #197
woah wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to hire. I can imagine that "someone in a high enough position" could have a pretty good competitive advantage being able to hire employees of known and consistent competence without having to slog through resumes and interviews. Once there were a few of this group already working, it would also be easier to close hires with the social pressure. I can imagine that higher ups might be inclined to look the ot…

Here's how you articulate it: the odds that the best people for the job all came from the same class at the same university are slim to none.

“Best person for the job” is either a meaningless phrase or a myth, depending on how you choose to define best.

In reality, there are many comparably adequate people for getting any job done, and no clairvoyance that lets us know who among them will deliver the best outcome.

So we resort to picking among the comparably adequate candidates by either broadening “best” to include non-task factors like culture harmony, diversity of perspective, gut feeling, etc

That a bunch of adequate people all came from the same class at the same university is actually pretty plausible, and (subject to tradeoffs) those people will probably even work pretty well as a group because of that shared experience.

I’m not saying its the ideal strategy to only hire that way, but just that it’s not nearly so straightforward as you suggest.

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#209

Post by [deleted] »

bseidensticker wrote: post #190
Beldin wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> aside from Jehovah's Witnesses, they tend to not be active in proselytizing From [1]: Members are expected to participate regularly in evangelizing work ... [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_practi...

Yeah, that's literally what they said.

[deleted]

Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit

#210

Post by rendall »

Not really sure what the big deal is. Did the cult hurt this fellow? Abuse him? Discriminate against him? Mob him? No. The article really just talks about his own disapproval of the cult.

It wasn't his business what these people got up to, frankly.

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