> There will be a recognition that if we don’t have control of the nation state, we should reduce the nation state’s power over us
Does this mean he's defending separatism?
Am I reading this wrong?
Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
91–100 of 140 posts
Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
#92I'm just going to cut right through this from the start. Unlike most of my tech friends, I actually have tried to reconnect outside our privileged circles (and if you don't think that's what they are, you're kidding yourself). And you know what I found? A lot of echoes of the personal past. Lets face it. A lot of techies — engineers specifically — are who they are because they were socially rejected in younger years.…
So what if you got socially rejected in younger years? That's no excuse for anything and it's time to grow up. Social skills are just that.. a skill. Skills can be acquired through training and practice. I know because I went through all of this personally. A lot of nerds never try because they are too scared of other people and have low self esteem. Social value is an illusion, one you can craft if you know how. The first step is stop being selfishly always inside your own head and actually listen to the other person.
Not all of us were naturals or were taught this by our parents. But now we are adults and there are a lot of resources out there about social skills in work, life, and dating. Try it, and you and your new beautiful wife might find your career success going beyond anything you could have imagined. Not because you became a better programmer, but because you made connections and knew the right people.
Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
#93I don't see how the things he discusses have to do with empathy in Silicon Valley. Driverless trucks, for instance, have nothing to do with empathy and a lot to do with simple economics. Someone is going to build them if they can make a buck doing it, and empathy isn't going to somehow stop that. On the other hand, I do think companies like Facebook and Google and the news sites (or whoever makes their comment system…
> I don't see how the things he discusses have to do with empathy in Silicon Valley. Driverless trucks, for instance, have nothing to do with empathy and a lot to do with simple economics. Someone is going to build them if they can make a buck doing it, and empathy isn't going to somehow stop that. But whether or not you consider what happens to the people who used to drive those trucks and what they, their families,…
Ok, tell me what good it is going to do to consider those things. Are you suggesting that if we all collectively decide that building such things hurts people, no one will build them? And that such an idea is remotely realistic?
Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
#94It's not a private company's job to have empathy for the people affected by progress. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of empathy. But petitioning private companies to change their ways will get you exactly nowhere unless it comes with a corresponding profit motive. It's the government's job to redistribute wealth and income to the needy, and provide safety nets and retraining opportunities for people whose industri…
I don't disagree with your analysis, but I also think the article is right that SV business in general lacks an understanding of life in the "fly over" states. I don't see that as a moral failing necessarily, because, as you point out, it's not the function of business to remedy dislocations in the job market.
However, I do see it as a business failing. Dislocations in the job market and other social and economic disruptions in middle America are business opportunities in their own right. Like the old schtick from SWOT analysis about turning threats into opportunities. For example, automation in factories will lead to laid off factory workers. They will need training for new jobs, perhaps via online courses/certifications. Providing those would be one example of such an opportunity. There are almost certainly many more such opportunities, upon which not even the slightest fraction of the intellectual might of Silicon Valley has been brought to bear.
If a general sense of duty doesn't motivate SV business to address the issue, perhaps the dim foreshadowing of pitchfork-wielding hoards streaming from the heartlands to the coasts will. Millions of unemployed truck drivers, restaurant servers, and factory workers will not idly stand by while falling into an economic ruin rendered ever more stark by the excessive accumulation of wealth in Silicon Valley. An awareness of opportunities for business growth in less prosperous regions could help prevent that.
Lack of exposure to economic realities elsewhere in the country is one of the chief dangers of a highly insulated, highly centralized tech center like SV. How we address that risk is a hard question. Empathy may not be the ideal term or tool for facilitating the flow of information between SV and other, less thriving communities across the country, but it's at least a first order approximation of the deficit.
Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
#95It's not a private company's job to have empathy for the people affected by progress. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of empathy. But petitioning private companies to change their ways will get you exactly nowhere unless it comes with a corresponding profit motive. It's the government's job to redistribute wealth and income to the needy, and provide safety nets and retraining opportunities for people whose industri…
bull. You're a human being. A CEO is a human being. A software engineer is a human being. The type of thinking you just espoused leads to sweatshops, environmental destruction, and corporate fraud. We all have a responsibility to show empathy to others. Anyone who tries to hide behind the corporate shield of "it's just my job and fiduciary responsibility" should be shown the door.
Sweatshops, environmental destruction, child labor etc. has only been effectively fought through government intervention. Personal empathy has no net effect in a free market.
Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
#96“Productivity is at record levels, innovation has never been faster, and yet at the same time, we have a falling median income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling behind because technology is advancing so fast and our skills and organizations aren’t keeping up.” It is, he said, “the great paradox of our era.” While I believe this is true, and understand why it is a problem, I do not think there is anything tha…
One of the things I think we forget about here, where most of us are smarter than the average bear, is that there are a lot of people that aren't so smart. If you have an 80 IQ, you might be able to learn how to code, but it's going to be really hard and you're never going to be as good as somebody with more mental resources to start with. My mother works as a special ed teacher - her main concern is trying to get he…
I agree in spirit, but I think most people are capable of obtaining an STEM degree (you're being too pessimistic). You just have to work a bit harder than say you work for an art history degree (and you certainly come out of college less well-rounded, which is also a huge problem).
There are always going to be good jobs that don't require college degrees. Plumbers can make $100K a year if they're good and work hard. I'd rather be a plumber making $100K any day then working for $25/bucks per hour trying to pay off my $180K in student loans from a B+ list law school. (a lot of people are in this position)
If you can get through law school, you can certainly get through any STEM degree.
Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A strong welfare state and job security can break the cycle, but who is willing to pay - in taxes - for that? Don't get me wrong, I fully agree. But I think that if I were to pick a single element of a welfare state that can bootstrap the whole thing, I'd pick education. It seems like a lot of the largest country growths were bootstrapped by betting on the educational system (Finland, Singapore and South Korea come…
I really really disagree with this. I think the evidence is against you. The economics research shows that the 'best returns' come from early education, with diminishing returns the further progress is made. It is counter intuitive I know, but mass education is similar to macro economics. Helping everybody can help nobody. South Korea and Japan put a lot of focus on education, work insane hours for comparatively low…
> I think the evidence is against you. The economics research shows that the 'best returns' come from early education, with diminishing returns the further progress is made.
There isn't a single country where majority of the population does some sort of research. And guess what, that's what people in the future will have to be doing for their jobs.
> It is counter intuitive I know, but mass education is similar to macro economics. Helping everybody can help nobody.
You need a new system though. Fundamentally I think that one of the issues of the system is a lack of exploration. Like there are so many areas where you can go to extreme detail but people don't explore them because the educational system limits your worldview by limiting your choices. I guess it does get slightly better in college but not by much.
> South Korea and Japan put a lot of focus on education, work insane hours for comparatively low pay, pay stupid rents and are also in a wage stagnation.
I think that some of these issues are somewhat cultural though. To me it feels like both SK and Japan still cling to old social structures to a detriment of the society. The recent president Park scandal highlights quite a few of these issues.
Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
#98> However, when you are a data-driven oligarchy like Facebook, Google, Amazon, or Uber, you can’t really wash your hands of the impact of your algorithms and your ability to shape popular sentiment in our society. We are not just talking about the ability to influence voters with fake news. If you are Amazon, you have to acknowledge that you are slowly corroding the retail sector, which employs many people in this co…
Is Amazon really corroding the retail sector or is brick and mortar largely just obsolete?
Probably both.
Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd be very careful about that "won the popular vote" meme. First off, it isn't relevant. Second off, if people who were ineligible to vote, aka illegal immigrants and felons (and maybe dead people, too) then what we know about the popular vote is a fallacy, too. The media does nothing but propagandize 24/7.
Your second point is incomplete. Can you elaborate?
He is probably referring to stuff like this:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Dead-Voter-List-Long-Is...
There are lots of other sources with more details, but all of them are considered now "trump shills", so I won't post them, last time I accidentally mentioned one of them (I didn't even knew the place was right-wing, it was the first time I read the site, and happened to be useful for an argument) I got lots of flak and stress.
Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
#100I don't see how the things he discusses have to do with empathy in Silicon Valley. Driverless trucks, for instance, have nothing to do with empathy and a lot to do with simple economics. Someone is going to build them if they can make a buck doing it, and empathy isn't going to somehow stop that. On the other hand, I do think companies like Facebook and Google and the news sites (or whoever makes their comment system…
> don't see how the things he discusses have to do with empathy in Silicon Valley. Driverless trucks, for instance, have nothing to do with empathy and a lot to do with simple economics. Someone is going to build them if they can make a buck doing it, and empathy isn't going to somehow stop that.
The lack of empathy displayed here is exactly the problem. Appealing to economic justifications does nothing to help the communities devastated by automation. So long as they are ignored, or met with a callous response of "get a new job", then a source of anger and resentment will remain and propagate.