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> is this just people being hyperbolic, or is is truly that terrible? I'm on the outside looking in and don't have any special internal insight, but they did

by paulmd 9y ago

> is this just people being hyperbolic, or is is truly that terrible? I'm on the outside looking in and don't have any special internal insight, but they didn't just pull this robo-RIF idea out of their ass spur-of-the-moment. Oracle is the kind of place that maintains a robo-layoff system, which pretty much says all you need to know. "What you think of Oracle is even truer than you think it is. There has been no entity in human history with less complexity or nuance to it than Oracle." https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?t=33m https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?t=33m

fasquoika 9y ago
Oh man, so many good quotes in that talk. "Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison"
- _asummers 9y ago
  "There is no need to have an open mind about Oracle. That wastes the openness of your mind."
snuxoll 9y ago
“We make money” - no truer words have been spoken. Hell, I work for a medical billing company and even our company mission has something about helping patients in it (and literally, our company sends bills and insurance claims to collect revenue).
mr_overalls 9y ago
There's a fascinating book by Joel Bakan called The Corporation, which applies the DSM criteria for diagnosis of mental illness to the modern corporation. It concludes that the modern corporation is functionally equivalent to a psychopath (even created that way by law) - an entity whose destructive behavior, if unchecked, leads to scandal and ruin. Based on the stories I've heard about Oracle and Elison, I've often thought that Bakan might have had an inside informant at the company. https://www.amazon.com/Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-Profit-Power/dp/0743247469 https://www.amazon.com/Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-Prof...
DonHopkins 9y ago
And you know somebody had to program the robo-RIF script. Wanna bet they had to run it on themselves when they were done?

by paulmd 9y ago

fasquoika 9y ago

Oh man, so many good quotes in that talk. "Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison"

_asummers 9y ago
"There is no need to have an open mind about Oracle. That wastes the openness of your mind."

snuxoll 9y ago

“We make money” - no truer words have been spoken. Hell, I work for a medical billing company and even our company mission has something about helping patients in it (and literally, our company sends bills and insurance claims to collect revenue).

mr_overalls 9y ago

There's a fascinating book by Joel Bakan called The Corporation, which applies the DSM criteria for diagnosis of mental illness to the modern corporation. It concludes that the modern corporation is functionally equivalent to a psychopath (even created that way by law) - an entity whose destructive behavior, if unchecked, leads to scandal and ruin. Based on the stories I've heard about Oracle and Elison, I've often thought that Bakan might have had an inside informant at the company. https://www.amazon.com/Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-Profit-Power/dp/0743247469 https://www.amazon.com/Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-Prof...

DonHopkins 9y ago

And you know somebody had to program the robo-RIF script. Wanna bet they had to run it on themselves when they were done?