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Leaving Google

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Re: Leaving Google

#181

Post by groovylick »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #149
eevilspock wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vancouver is a real city. Seattle is provincial, passive-aggressive, unfriendly to outsiders, and segregated. A hick town with skyscrapers as I've often called it. Californians who've moved there almost unanimously agree with my first sentence, and crack up at the latter. (Sadly, I lived in Seattle for 17 years. The Bay Area before that, and New York now.)

It's really because we (seattlites) just don't like Californians very much; they are turned on all the time, shifty, and drive super aggressively. Makes sense that he feeling would be mutual (e.g. Too passive, naive, and drive super cautiously). This was a real thing in the 90s at least.

As a born and raised Californian that has visited Seattle via car a few times, I agree completely about our driving habits. There is a reason we drive that way though, it's out of necessity. Our traffic is heavy and drivers are very self-centered so the only way to get anywhere is to be aggressive and take space and position or someone else will.

Personally I preferred the driver's mentality of the northwest and once I had been there a few days I drove much more like them since it was so refreshing to not have to not be in the take and defend mindset. Plus when you want to speed they get out of the way well in advance which is awesome when you're in a hurry.

Re: Leaving Google

#182

Post by eevilspock »

ulfw wrote: post #91
eevilspock wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vancouver is a real city. Seattle is provincial, passive-aggressive, unfriendly to outsiders, and segregated. A hick town with skyscrapers as I've often called it. Californians who've moved there almost unanimously agree with my first sentence, and crack up at the latter. (Sadly, I lived in Seattle for 17 years. The Bay Area before that, and New York now.)

Why do you live there for SEVENTEEN years if you find it that shitty? You only live once, you know. You deserve to be happy.

ex-wife. 'nuf said.

Re: Leaving Google

#183

Post by kevingadd »

bcantrill wrote: post #176
psbp wrote: post #5

"Plus I find the Bay Area congested, racist, incestuous, and overpriced." I like this guy.

I know Tim (he and I worked together at Sun) and like him a great deal -- but I take exception to his labeling of the Bay Area as "racist", especially from a Canadian. Indeed, the only time in my life that I have heard the n-word used in earnest by a white person was while I was living in Canada (Ottawa, 1995). Not only was I gobsmacked to hear it, I seemed to be the only person who was horrified. (This was at a corp…

If you think the definition of racism is about whether people say the n-word, you don't understand what racism is.

How people treat you is way more important than what they call you (even if those words are unacceptable), and the way minorities get treated in the bay area is not particularly stellar...

EDIT: This poster said it better than I could: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7273077

Re: Leaving Google

#184

Post by taopao »

mikestew wrote: post #125
zem wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

anecdata: my sister lives in los angeles, and her company once posted her to their seattle office for a few months. her impression was that it was an extremely white city; that might not be the sort of thing that strikes you if you're white yourself, but coming from california it would definitely reinforce the provincial impression.

> that might not be the sort of thing that strikes you if you're white yourself Oh, it struck this Midwestern white boy almost as soon as he got off the plane. I mean, I'd heard the phrase "white bread neighborhood" and always took it to mean there's only a few non-white people living there. No, in Seattle (and Redmond, where I live) entire neighborhoods can be comprised of nothing but white folk. I notice because I…

Bellevue: "more than 40 percent of its population a minority race or ethnicity in 2010." (https://www.bellevuewa.gov/demographics.htm)

Redmond: 20% nonwhite (http://redmond.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm)

Blacks are certainly underrepresented, I'll give you that, but everybody's talking as if African Americans are the only minority that counts... because it is a convenient strawman for propping up their arguments about the "whiteness", I suppose.

Re: Leaving Google

#185

Post by schrodinger »

bcantrill wrote: post #176
psbp wrote: post #5

"Plus I find the Bay Area congested, racist, incestuous, and overpriced." I like this guy.

I know Tim (he and I worked together at Sun) and like him a great deal -- but I take exception to his labeling of the Bay Area as "racist", especially from a Canadian. Indeed, the only time in my life that I have heard the n-word used in earnest by a white person was while I was living in Canada (Ottawa, 1995). Not only was I gobsmacked to hear it, I seemed to be the only person who was horrified. (This was at a corp…

Seems a little disingenuous to paint the entire country of Canada as racist based on one incident.

Re: Leaving Google

#186

Post by redditmigrant »

benched wrote: post #112
eevilspock wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vancouver is a real city. Seattle is provincial, passive-aggressive, unfriendly to outsiders, and segregated. A hick town with skyscrapers as I've often called it. Californians who've moved there almost unanimously agree with my first sentence, and crack up at the latter. (Sadly, I lived in Seattle for 17 years. The Bay Area before that, and New York now.)

Seattle 8 years. Sadly I have to agree wholeheartedly with this, because I've been unable to find much contrary evidence. The 'Freeze', which is deservedly famous, is very, very real, no matter how many people try to minimize its reality. Go ahead, come here - it's on display every second of every day in every cubic meter of the city. The only people who will make eye contact or speak a word to you are the homeless -…

I have lived in the bay area, south bay specifically, for 2 years now and I dont remember the last stranger who spoke to me beyond the general politeness. I meet people through a common activity, like playing a sport, tech meetups etc. but that is the same for Seattle. So what really is the freeze and how does it affect you?

P.S. - I have lived in Seattle and would move back in a heartbeat if I had the same professional opportunities as I have here.

Re: Leaving Google

#187

Post by taopao »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #158
zem wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

anecdata: my sister lives in los angeles, and her company once posted her to their seattle office for a few months. her impression was that it was an extremely white city; that might not be the sort of thing that strikes you if you're white yourself, but coming from california it would definitely reinforce the provincial impression.

Seattle is 16+% Asian and 70-% white, 8.4% black and 1% native. How is that very white? In contrast, LA is 50% white, 10% asian, 10% black, with a 50% Hispanic (many co-identifying as white or black). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Seattle

eevilspock: Actually, most people in Seattle are recent arrivals, irrespective of national origin.

"Of the people living Seattle itself, only 37% were born in WA, 44% another state, and 19% another country according to the 2006 census." http://www.city-data.com/forum/seattle-area/281766-transplan...

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/NPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=1...

Re: Leaving Google

#188

Post by [deleted] »

bcantrill wrote: post #176
psbp wrote: post #5

"Plus I find the Bay Area congested, racist, incestuous, and overpriced." I like this guy.

I know Tim (he and I worked together at Sun) and like him a great deal -- but I take exception to his labeling of the Bay Area as "racist", especially from a Canadian. Indeed, the only time in my life that I have heard the n-word used in earnest by a white person was while I was living in Canada (Ottawa, 1995). Not only was I gobsmacked to hear it, I seemed to be the only person who was horrified. (This was at a corp…

[deleted]

Re: Leaving Google

#189

Post by mikestew »

taopao wrote: post #184
mikestew wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that might not be the sort of thing that strikes you if you're white yourself Oh, it struck this Midwestern white boy almost as soon as he got off the plane. I mean, I'd heard the phrase "white bread neighborhood" and always took it to mean there's only a few non-white people living there. No, in Seattle (and Redmond, where I live) entire neighborhoods can be comprised of nothing but white folk. I notice because I…

Bellevue: "more than 40 percent of its population a minority race or ethnicity in 2010." ( https://www.bellevuewa.gov/demographics.htm ) Redmond: 20% nonwhite ( http://redmond.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm ) Blacks are certainly underrepresented, I'll give you that, but everybody's talking as if African Americans are the only minority that counts... because it is a convenient strawman for propping up their arguments…

I only use black because that's the only diversity one was likely to find in Indianapolis when I lived there. I'd believe the Bellevue stats, given the population around Crossroads Mall if nothing else. As for Redmond, maybe I need to get out more. Mentally touring my street and thinking of the race of the residents I know of, I'm coming up with only the Chinese family that lives across the street from us. I think the Indian family on the corner moved out a while ago. Granted, an anecdotal survey of my neighborhood and my general impression does not hard data make. But that's where I'm coming from.

Re: Leaving Google

#190

Post by yuhong »

varelse wrote: post #19
theoh wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem that he left on better terms that Brian Reid, but possibly for similar fundamental reasons...

Brian Reid was kicked out of Google by Urs Holzle ahead of the IPO after helping to build the company (so much for don't be evil and all that). I don't think the issue here is age discrimination - Geoffrey Hinton is in his late 60s - but rather that his skillset is not sufficiently critical to Google's flavor of the week to merit special treatment. But as an ex-googler myself, they have become amazingly rigid and bur…

I am trying to trace some of the problems. For example, I believe Vic Gundotra should probably be fired.
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