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

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#531

Post by throw_m239339 » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:22 AM UTC

bradlys wrote: post #526

throw_m239339 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> European countries literally have no legal concept of at-will employment. They have strong social nets that make quitting your job much easier, and more prevalent unions that fight to improve working conditions (all of these things are, gasp, political! incidentally) This isn't what is debated here. What is debated is whether Coinbase should display a Black Lives Matter flag on its website and whether employees sho…

The reason it’s absurd in Europe is because Europe is a very “left” leaning region (its more that America is just so wildly conservative and in the pockets of capitalists). Many European countries do not have a political party that is even as right leaning as the Democratic Party within the USA. A lot of the stuff in Europe is just a given whereas in the US, almost nothing is a given. Even the leftists in the US are…

> The reason it’s absurd in Europe is because Europe is a very “left” leaning region (its more that America is just so wildly conservative and in the pockets of capitalists). Many European countries do not have a political party that is even as right leaning as the Democratic Party within the USA.

Europe isn't "left" leaning at all. Most of Europe is culturally conservative. It's just like unlike the USA, Europeans believe in strong central governments and even the right usually don't question welfare state.

But it says nothing about Europe and wedge issues like homosexuality, immigration, ...

The fact the far right in countries like France for instance have high voting scores should dispel any sense of Europe being "left leaning".

> Many European countries do not have a political party that is even as right leaning as the Democratic Party within the USA.

This is completely false. Every European country has a far right party, that holds "traditional" view on wedge issues and is opposed to the US made idea of "diversity".

I don't know why americans think Europe is somehow "left leaning", this has never been the case. The divide is more along the lines of "globalists" which are classical liberals and pro EU, and nationalists/isolationists, which are anti-EU, anti-globalism. Both camps have their socially liberal and culturally conservative parties.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#532

Post by plorg » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:27 AM UTC

ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #505

plorg wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a trans person walked into my office their existence would be a political problem, because none of my coworkers or company leadership accept the legitimacy of trans identity. It isn't that the person's physical safety is in danger (necessarily), but merely being present makes them the subject of politics. And those politics are generally hostile. I have a trans friend who was qualified for an open position, and I…

I'm in South Korea. We don't have many trans people here, the mainstream feminist movement is anti-trans, and most of the mainstream Christian movements are anti-LGBT. (My boss is Catholic.) Despite this, when we had a trans person visit my workplace ... absolutely nothing happened. They had lunch with us, nobody said anything about their gender, sexuality, or appearance, and they never mentioned it. Conversation was…

I work for a company run by evangelical Christians, and this extends to probably 80% of the company. Certainly the only people taking about religion are the evangelicals. Management attends explicitly Christian "leadership retreats". Among other things, I would not be comfortable attending these events. Officially discussion of religion and and politics is discouraged. In practice that means the conservative culture warriors are vocal about whatever issue they're worked up about.

For the trans people I know, "acknowledge the existence of" them basically means to treat them according to their self-understanding as communicated to you. Usually that means using the name and pronouns that they identify with and not asking invasive questions. The idea is, roughly, that you are acknowledging that they - the person in front of you, a real physical body presented according to their self-understanding - exist. Dead naming or using a gender assigned at birth would imply that you are making their identity subject to your own model of the world, they're an abstract notion to you. Or, worse, that you are addressing a person that doesn't, in their conception, exist. It's imprecise language, perhaps, and not every person experiences it the same way.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#533

Post by moosedev » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:30 AM UTC

secabeen wrote: post #524

moosedev wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This matches my recent experience. I researched plans on Washington state's health marketplace and found that while the available plans were generally much cheaper than COBRA, their coverage for out-of-network or out-of-state care was limited (e.g. "emergency" care only, where the definition of emergency is vague and up to the insurer). And even if you are careful to get taken to an "in-network" hospital, there are p…

> . And even if you are careful to get taken to an "in-network" hospital, there are plenty of horror stories about inadvertently getting treated by an "out-of-network" provider while inside and being on the hook for the entire bill. This is no longer legal in any state as of July 1st of this year. > Bans out-of-network charges for ancillary care (like an anesthesiologist or assistant surgeon) at an in-network facilit…

That is an improvement indeed. Thanks for correcting me!

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#534

Post by brodo » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:30 AM UTC

gorwell wrote: post #32

Every company that continues to let itself get embroiled in Twitter's Political Topic of the Week is at such a distinct disadvantage it will ultimately fail. It's inevitable if you extrapolate. They won't survive the evolutionary process and will get selected out, only earning themselves a Darwin Award. Imagine a rowing team where half the team rows in one direction and the other half rows another direction. They nev…

FAANG are de-facto monopolies and have created their own markets so market forces work on them only to a small extend.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#535

Post by zestyping » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:42 AM UTC

fleddr wrote: post #228

b9a2cab5 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure there are. Have you walked into any FAANG office? There are a huge variety of West/East European nationalities and East/Southeast Asians. That's representative of over half the world's population right there. You can probably find an engineer from every single one of the ex-Soviet countries in an NYC Google office. I suppose by diversity you mean the right kind of diversity then?

"Diversity" can be so confusing and misunderstood. The example I gave, extreme diversity, is not the standard in my country, this tech hub is the exception. I've also worked in teams consisting of only white men. The inconvenient reality is that I couldn't detect a meaningful difference in the quality or quantity of output in either team. As said, I did enjoy the increased diversity from a personal perspective, so th…

Just wondering, what country are you in? Do you think this is something unusual about your particular tech hub?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#536

Post by bad_username » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:48 AM UTC

fay59 wrote: post #177

Charitably, “don’t want to be distracted by politics” means “the status quo works for me”. This doesn’t mean anyone at Coinbase is ill-intentioned, but given the status quo, there’s a lot of people it won’t work for.

No, it means "if the status quo doesn't work for me, I focus on changing it outside of my work". Like I work out outside of my dining room and sleep outside of my garage.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#537

Post by icelancer » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:52 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #404

chairmanwow1 wrote: post #16

Love that Armstrong did this at Coinbase. I want to work at work, not worry about the political opinions of my coworkers.

Work, including who you work for, is an inherently political act. The set of coworkers you have is a result of their and your political opinions. He didn't simply ban politics at work, however: he just refused to acknowledge the Black Lives Matter movement. Prior to that Coinbase had Black History Month events they conducted; now they don't.

"Work, including who you work for, is an inherently political act."

Citation needed.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#538

Post by brodo » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:54 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…

The big problem with diversity in corporate settings is that it is often fake. It is not used to help marginalized people. It is used for internal power grabs and for “woke-washing” evil organizations. Like the “I’m a Latina with two moms” CIA ad.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#539

Post by icelancer » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:54 AM UTC

kimmeld wrote: post #457

zarkov99 wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, I, a fairly good Engineer, would favor Coinbase over many other tech companies precisely because their CEO had the courage to say what every other CEO is thinking, that is that a company is a place where money is exchanged for labour not a venue for promoting one's political agenda, no matter how righteous that agenda might feel.

Because the CEO shares your politics and is only allowing your brand to express themselves at work you want to work there. I mean I understand the feeling but can we stop pretending that this isn’t entirely political?

> Because the CEO shares your politics and is only allowing your brand to express themselves at work you want to work there.

What are Brian Armstrong's politics again? And what are mine? The reality is that I don't care what Brian's politics are.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#540

Post by inglor_cz » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:55 AM UTC

bradlys wrote: post #526

throw_m239339 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> European countries literally have no legal concept of at-will employment. They have strong social nets that make quitting your job much easier, and more prevalent unions that fight to improve working conditions (all of these things are, gasp, political! incidentally) This isn't what is debated here. What is debated is whether Coinbase should display a Black Lives Matter flag on its website and whether employees sho…

The reason it’s absurd in Europe is because Europe is a very “left” leaning region (its more that America is just so wildly conservative and in the pockets of capitalists). Many European countries do not have a political party that is even as right leaning as the Democratic Party within the USA. A lot of the stuff in Europe is just a given whereas in the US, almost nothing is a given. Even the leftists in the US are…

This is a lazy stereotype. European nations generally spend more on welfare, but the social justice stuff, which is now a defining part of the current "left", seems to be overwhelmingly produced in and exported from the U.S. and plenty of locals resent it as an inorganic cultural import. The entire obsession with "whiteness" looks extra weird on a continent where the population has been mostly white since the Stone Age, but yes, some of our less than stellar intellectuals still try to transpose (and impose it) here.

Also, compared to the U.S., Europe is decidedly more tribal. There is a sense of national identity forged by foreign occupations and attacks, especially among the smaller or weaker nations, that produces a lot of entrenched, insecure nationalism. Americans, being the top dogs of the world's pack for generations, generally do not understand how nationalism can arise from conditions of humiliation and victimhood, or only limit this understanding to their own black population, thus misunderstanding the European political currents a lot.

If a quarter of your population was forcibly deported to Siberia (which happened in the Baltics recently enough that witnesses are still alive), you will be a lot more jaded and distrustful than if you have no concept of such threats.