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I Met Paul Graham Once

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Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#851

Post by Angostura »

neom wrote: post #133
Angostura wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with your axiom that businesses shouldn’t have feelings. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a business that feels it should treat its workforce kindly and ethically and recruit a diverse set of people.

How can a business feel that? You mean a founder? a ceo? the investors? The laywers? People who are running business at $500MM+ arr have 4 things to consider distinctly, with their own lenses and frames: The business- It's model, it's operations, defined processes etc, every monday this report comes in, it is read by this functional area, it's converted into this insight, the insight is used, the consumer is delighte…

> How can a business feel that? You mean a founder? a ceo? the investors? The laywers?

The senior leadership team, from which corporate culture is lead. This doesn't seem to be as complicatedan issue as you want it to be.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#852

Post by mpak_ »

low_tech_love wrote: post #379

"I’m certain he wouldn’t be rude to my face, but he might quietly discriminate against me, say no thanks. He might not even think of it as discrimination, only that I don’t have what it takes." This resonates pretty strongly (and depressingly) with me being an immigrant academic in Europe who came originally from a third-world country. Even though I am one of the most productive researchers in my department, even tho…

You described the advantages of exploiting you for your boss. Your colleagues will only treat you worse because of these points. And you think because of your university someone have to like you or what?

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#854

Post by tomlockwood »

Shocka1 wrote: post #849
tomlockwood wrote: post #652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not obligated to do anything, man, but I can point at what he does and call it fascism. I know you may struggle with this because the American education system is awful, but if you pay a tiny fraction of attention to what American senators are like, you'll come to know that in a fistfight or a battle of the wits there is a non-zero number of senators that Biden could beat. This is not a Red vs Blue issue, as sim…

The parent comment you responded to was respectful and thoughtful, progressing the conversation in accordance to HN guidelines. > I know you may struggle with this because the American education system is awful This part undermines your whole comment by coming across as an insult rather than contributing meaningfully to the conversation. This is interpreted that the parent commenter lacks intelligence due to their aw…

I don't think you read the original comment.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#855

Post by low_tech_love »

Xmd5a wrote: post #827
Xmd5a wrote: post #726

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked as much as 200% more than some of my colleagues while having the lowest wage in the team. When I left, projects in my perimeter took 12x more time to develop (as assessed by a former colleague). I had a manager fired for failing to recruit me back. You're wrong in assigning the injustice you're going through to discrimination based on your ethnicity, especially in an academic context where the vast majority…

There is no concrete example of racism in his testimony. He describes universal situations of professional rivalry ("opportunities vanish," "pressure amounts") but interprets them as implicit racism without tangible evidence. The intangibility of racism paradoxically makes it more powerful as an accusatory mechanism. Its very invisibility becomes proof of its omnipresence - the more impossible it is to prove, the mor…

Racism (if done in a “smart” way) is impossible to prove. Does that mean that we should then not try to detect it or speak up against it, simply because we will never be able to objectively back up our claims?

And if yes, then does that not strengthen even more the case (and benefits) for being a racist?

Also I believe it’s disingenuous to treat racism as such a concrete, objective term. Maybe they are preying on me (and other people like me, which there are objectively many) simply because I’m the weak link in the system? But if my weakness stems from me being an immigrant (because I have no safety net, no family around me or a shoulder to cry on, because I don’t know the system well enough and thus I’m more likely to accept injustice and stay quiet) is that “racism”? Or “prejudice”?

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#856

Post by low_tech_love »

mpak_ wrote: post #852
low_tech_love wrote: post #379

"I’m certain he wouldn’t be rude to my face, but he might quietly discriminate against me, say no thanks. He might not even think of it as discrimination, only that I don’t have what it takes." This resonates pretty strongly (and depressingly) with me being an immigrant academic in Europe who came originally from a third-world country. Even though I am one of the most productive researchers in my department, even tho…

You described the advantages of exploiting you for your boss. Your colleagues will only treat you worse because of these points. And you think because of your university someone have to like you or what?

I would like to believe that my production output would speak for itself in an environment where supposedly we should care about that. But like you said, honest work will only get you treated worse; natives around me are surfing the benefits of the state and laughing away the days, while I cry myself to 4h of sleep everyday. So yeah, you’re right, it’s a war. I just wish it wasn’t.

And nobody has to “like” me, where did I even hint at that? I’m talking about professional respect; you know, the same I give to the people around me.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#857

Post by low_tech_love »

Xmd5a wrote: post #834
cropcirclbureau wrote: post #832

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you assign the injustice you faced to? And who're you to deny GPs claims? There's nothing more rancid than someone leaping to downplay someone's complaint as "ah, they're just being sensitive. They're imagining it". If they were lodging a formal complaint at their firm, sure, due process is a must but people being shit to the Other is a well established and common human behavior. It sucks what happened to you…

I'm not defending GP's colleagues, nor am I suggesting that the undeserved treatment he received was imaginary. However, the idea that this must be caused by racism is a cheap and comfortable narrative GP is telling himself and anyone who believes him. Should his colleagues read his post anonymously, they would probably agree with him. As for me, my story isn't unlike the rants often shared by open-source project mai…

You got many points right, and I’m sure it’s true that there’s bullshit everywhere. But you also got wrong the whole idea of “racism”; I never actually mentioned that word or considered that as a part of my situation. The right word is “prejudice”, as in, “you’re weak here, you have no support, and you don’t know how to play the game. If someone needs to be screwed, it’ll be you.” If you go by what is in the surface, you’d expect that an incompetent native would be in more danger than a competent foreigner. That’s not the case.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#858

Post by gnclmorais »

sho_hn wrote: post #351
_dark_matter_ wrote: post #4

I really appreciate this article, and I would like the author to know that there are lots of people - yes, especially in tech - that support their happiness.

This was also my first thought -- a deep sadness over someone hurting and feeling threatened and persecuted. I'd also like them to know they're not alone in this.

Same here

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#859

Post by foldr »

aiainua wrote: post #837
ModernMech wrote: post #835

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not asking about your examples, I'm asking about your principles. You say trans people shouldn't go into certain bathrooms, so here we are critically examining your position. Participation in public life is a key aspect of human society. Going to the bathroom is also a key part of being a human biological being. In recognition of this, the government mandates appropriate bathroom facilities in public places like…

> You say trans people shouldn't go into certain bathrooms, so here we are critically examining your position. Who's saying this? No-one in this thread. Point is that male people shouldn't be going into female bathrooms and female people shouldn't be going into male bathrooms. > What you're proposing essentially is that a certain class of people should not have access to the bathrooms, and therefore should be exclude…

> No-one is proposing this.

>>Buck Angel should use a unisex restroom, or, if none is available, go elsewhere to find one.

Re: I Met Paul Graham Once

#860

Post by vasilipupkin »

Angostura wrote: post #850
vasilipupkin wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how many people like this did meta have who had this issue and also had no access to a tampon, so that having it in mens' bathroom specifically was really important? what if I am a forgetful guy and I have socks with holes in them and I forget to buy new socks. Should meta bathrooms stock those socks? at some point this just becomes a bit absurd, no?

Do Meta bathrooms currently stock socks? No, so its a silly analogy. As to the question of 'how many people did this serve?' I imagine a very small number. The shocking cost to Meta was a box of tampons that probably needed to be replaced every 10 years. They've gone out of their way to remove this cost at the expense of making that small number of employees feel comfortable.

It's not a silly analogy. It illustrates the absurdity of accommodating every kind of small group of employees.
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