161–170 of 1001 posts
Why would you talk to women at all professionally, unless there are reliable witnesses or video recordings? As we increasingly see, witch hunts are already possible by deliberately misinterpreting written statements like mails or bug tracker messages. I would not want to get into a he-said-she-said real life situation. Mike Pence understood this early.
This is kind of the end result we're heading for, where you can only talk candidly with people who are equal or lower than you on the oppression hierarchy. The shitty part is that I'm pretty sure 99% of people are reasonable human beings but the media has to make it seem like that isn't the case so the risk equation changes. Similar to how kids used to roam around the neighborhood but now it's deemed too risky becaus…
> where you can only talk candidly with people who are equal or lower than you on the oppression hierarchy Wouldn't someone talking to someone "lower" on the "oppression hierarchy" just be what we basically have today? That sounds like "privilege," or an "imbalanced power dynamic." I think you'll only be able to talk to equals, whatever that is, and by whatever metric is en vogue for that day.
Creating a throwaway for obvious reasons. I'm not an investor but someone who is in a position to make key decisions about peoples' careers and give advice, and I do have a bit of a trick I use for this. There was one black female mentee who I noticed was timid in taking credit for her work. I had recently attended a diversity panel where someone in a similar role as me said that in a similar situation, and her advic…
I am very glad you rethought that racist sexist approach. It was a learning experience for you. I am glad it did you no harm, even better. People need to be tolerant of casual racism and sexism, up to a point. People have been raised like this, advised to to act like this, they need a chance to learn. It is tough on those on the receiving end, and unjust. But the world will not change over night and the prejudice is…
well ... interpreting everything in the worst way possible will lead to the outcome that the poster will never say anything again. And that will help no one!
This is kind of the end result we're heading for, where you can only talk candidly with people who are equal or lower than you on the oppression hierarchy. The shitty part is that I'm pretty sure 99% of people are reasonable human beings but the media has to make it seem like that isn't the case so the risk equation changes. Similar to how kids used to roam around the neighborhood but now it's deemed too risky becaus…
> where you can only talk candidly with people who are equal or lower than you on the oppression hierarchy Wouldn't someone talking to someone "lower" on the "oppression hierarchy" just be what we basically have today? That sounds like "privilege," or an "imbalanced power dynamic." I think you'll only be able to talk to equals, whatever that is, and by whatever metric is en vogue for that day.
I also work in a very “woke culture.” In fact, as a straight, white, cis man I am in the extreme minority. I have been told that I can’t do my job which includes negotiating with LGBTQ+ companies because I am an “old, white, cis guy and there is always an unfair power dynamic there” just because of my identity. It is discrimination plain and simple, but I literally stand to have my career derailed if I fight back. On…
IANAL, and I don't know what "LGBTQ+ company" means, but if you believe that you're not being allowed to negotiate with other companies because of your age, race, and gender, you can (and should) sue for discrimination.
Clearly shows the need for diversity at all levels of the economy and what a problem the dominance of white men (some of my best friends are white men) has been
Creating a throwaway for obvious reasons. I'm not an investor but someone who is in a position to make key decisions about peoples' careers and give advice, and I do have a bit of a trick I use for this. There was one black female mentee who I noticed was timid in taking credit for her work. I had recently attended a diversity panel where someone in a similar role as me said that in a similar situation, and her advic…
Presumably this doesn’t occur if a female VC is giving that advice to females founders; maybe this will be an additional incentive to actually promote some women to be partners. VC is one of the most male-dominated professions around.
More generally, it’s easy to look at just the costs of a social change, without remembering to weight against the benefits. If this issue is one of the costs, and reduced sexual harassment of female founders is the benefit, then I would ask women who have been in this position how they weigh the two (having not experienced either I wouldn’t presume to know how much the benefit is actually worth to female founders, and since the costs and benefits are both incident on them, it’s not really my place to choose).
But I’d hazard a guess that most women would prefer not to get hit on / harassed as they fundraise, at the expense of sometimes not getting fully candid feedback.
This is kind of the end result we're heading for, where you can only talk candidly with people who are equal or lower than you on the oppression hierarchy. The shitty part is that I'm pretty sure 99% of people are reasonable human beings but the media has to make it seem like that isn't the case so the risk equation changes. Similar to how kids used to roam around the neighborhood but now it's deemed too risky becaus…
> people who are equal or lower than you on the oppression hierarchy This supposed hierarchy of oppression, based on identity characteristics such as race, gender and sexuality, really is the biggest scam going. Almost all of the oppression we see around us can be explained by wealth disparities, corruption, and abuse of power. Yet, identarians insist on shoehorning everything into their flawed worldview. The Black L…
Yes, and almost none of the people founding startups in Silicon Valley are oppressed by any reasonable understanding that concept.
Anecdotal but my office is ultra -woke. There are endless internal emails about whatever-week, or veterans-this, or LBGTQ+-that etc etc. People have been hounded out and either quit or been fired for fairly minor "infractions" of the groupthink (...and also some people have rightly been fired for actual inappropriate behaviour). And guess what all this talk about "toxic masculinity" and generally vilifying all men le…
Not good. Some of us have felt like that for thirty years. Once apon a time there were a group of people who swaggered through life saying whatever popped into their brains whom ever it offended or belittled. They engaged in metaphorical, but brutal, wrestling matches not just with each other but with any body who crossed their paths. Now life is very hard for them. Should have happened thirty years ago. Has it gone…