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Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

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Re: Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

#41

Post by rjknight »

Nate75Sanders wrote: post #8
fingerprinter wrote: post #4

I know NOTHING about Dickinson other than this article and the linked articles, but something that really bothers me about tech is how people like him are able to even become CTO/CEO/CXO at all, let alone continue to get jobs at that level! I've worked with my share of C level folk who are borderline sociopathic and have the wonderful combination of NOT being successful at that level either. It astounds me that peopl…

Most devs I've met will just endlessly put up with this shit. They'll also put up with: - long hours - far less than optimal physical workspaces - being left in the dark about what's going on in the company from a business perspective - all kinds of other crap We need more devs who will speak up or at least who will support the ones who do speak up. In far too many workplaces, it's still high school. Management is so…

Most people will leave rather than 'pick a fight' over something, taking the 'exit' rather than exercising 'voice'[1]. Looked at a certain way, this is one of the good things about the good economy for tech workers, in that we can at least leave bad situations, but it's probably not so good for those who can't.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit,_Voice,_and_Loyalty

Re: Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

#42

Post by minimaxir »

hosay123 wrote: post #26

For all the value of political correctness in the workplace, someone just lost their job for their honest views, because some found them too ugly to bear. If you're still thirsty for more ugly truth, check out a Twitter search for @paxdickinson just now. Apparently to many, honesty is objectively worse than endless vengeful hate. I don't support anything this guy said, but clearly some of it was sarcasm, and as for t…

It's about representing the business, which he clearly did. Putting a "all opinions are my own" in the bio is not a get-out-of-jail free card.

Re: Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

#43

Post by fedvasu »

why people who believe in meritocracy are termed anti-feminists? No I don't even remotely know Pax, heck this is the first time I heard of him. Guys seriously do you want to sink to the level of quota and reservation based on gender now? It is exteremely difficult to get talented and motivated people in tech, let us not put gender bias or elitism on people who care about their field (may be just their company/org). I am not saying Pax is not anti-feminist, may very well be, but so much hate against him, He didn't say women must be banned from our industry, he didn't even say women are dumb (or less capable). I am all for equal rights for all gender(which exist till now, which may come to exist in future). Is it so hard for all of us to accept that the most motivated, accomplished and talented people must be rewarded the most in our industry? Is meritocracy bad or plain stupid? I hope HN folks take their heads out their rear and deeply contemplate about this, Yes one need to be civil in public forums, but that doesn't mean one is not entitled to his/her opinion. Come On guys we are better than this (including me).And BTW he defended himself for being called ahole by his co-worker in a very dignified fashion, that is something!Let us be rational about things like this.

Re: Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

#44

Post by untog »

rdl wrote: post #39

This is fake controversy ginned up by Business Insider. Notice how you're all talking about Business Insider now? Is there any evidence "Pax Dickinson" is a real person?

Are you serious? You really think that if BI made a fictional CTO no-one would say anything about it?

Re: Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

#45

Post by mhurron »

fedvasu wrote: post #19

It is height of hypocrysy! That dude is not entitled to his opinion. :facepalm: I hate this entire feminism in tech agenda. Yeah, He is a douche, so what? Everyone is a little bit on varying topics.Because of things like that our industry is stranded in politics. Pax: Salute! business insider: you are anti-democratic and pro-feminist douche bags. fuck feminist agenda.

Yes he is entitled to his opinion.

In the US, the government can not prevent him from voicing it.

None of this means that what he chooses to voice is free of consequences. The first amendment to the US constitution does not prevent Business Insider from severing ties with him to prevent from being associated with is views.

There is nothing hypocritical about it.

Re: Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

#46

Post by eranation »

Rule #1 of work (Murphy entry #42331) - if you write something that has a public link, and involves the words: rape, asshole, feminism, and you hold a VP level position, it will be on HN front page, and it will not be a good thing for your job. I really hope for him he was sarcastic, but even if he was, it's no excuse.

my question: what gain would someone have for posting these kind of tweets? show off you are a cool guy? get some "no such thing as bad publicity" followers? is it a "Miley Cyrus" marketing scheme?

Rule #2 of work - be nice. to everyone. there is no downside to this. prove me wrong.

EDIT: corrected Murphy entry number

Re: Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

#47

Post by venomsnake »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #21

Kind of glad I've stopped using Twitter. Seems to be a cesspool of negativity and snarkiness. I think the problem is the vast majority of Twitter users have very few followers and consequently get very little interaction (Even programmer "celebrity" @izs only has ~8k followers). I think this leads to Lord of the Flies behavior, why we constantly see tweets getting attention when they are antagonistic.

Twitter - when all you have is only one line, everything you try to say sounds like stand up comedy oneliners. The majority of which are of dubious quality.

Also are BI so big that they require a CTO or title inflation is in full swing.

We are must also solve the problem why someone can be fired for something non work related and out of company time in general. Because it will grow bigger with time.

Re: Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

#49

Post by cstejerean »

untog wrote: post #27
samstave wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the debacle at Disrupt?

You wouldn't have heard about it if you only read Hacker News - users systematically flagged any reference to it off the site. The 21st Century equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "la la la la" Worth pointing out that the exact same thing has now happened to this thread.

After seeing all of the complaints about that event on Twitter, I was definitely surprised to find no mention of it on HN. I wonder why this wasn't worthy of discussion here.

Re: Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm

#50

Post by pessimizer »

untog wrote: post #22
Karunamon wrote: post #15

Was this just the last straw? I ask because the tweet pictured in the article seems fairly reasonable. Calling out a coworker for insulting you on twitter doesn't seem particularly objectionable.

Very much the last straw. How about this tweet: "In The Passion Of The Christ 2, Jesus gets raped by a pack of niggers. It's his own fault for dressing like a whore though." https://twitter.com/paxdickinson/statuses/18546571881

To be sure, this is a Mel Gibson joke that is funny if you heard the tapes. Still, not the kind of thing you tweet from an account linked to your job unless you feel incredibly entitled and secure.
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