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I'm glad that google's internal culture is healthy enough for this. I wonder how the internal conversations about affecting politics, issues of privacy, etc. lo
by cowpig 8y ago
I'm glad that google's internal culture is healthy enough for this. I wonder how the internal conversations about affecting politics, issues of privacy, etc. look..
However, I really think it would be better if these debates happened somewhere that the public could see. It has to be a biased debate when every participant is an employee of the company.
- knuththetruth 8y agoWell, I think this why Google has been so good at controlling their employees to stay within the margins of Google’s business interests. It creates a vibrant illusion of consequential debate and “resistance,” while keeping all the real power in the hands of a few executives. Don’t get me wrong, Google employees have ways to put a stop to things like this project. But they’re not to be found in these pseudo-battles of their internal forums. Employees have to organize outside of company channels, withdraw their labor, or quit like those who were already brave enough to do so.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- lapinot 8y agoAgreed. And let's not forget about google's current core business, which always reminds me of this clockwork orange cinema scene: reprograming your brain by forcefully feeding it images, thoughts and other stimuli advertising whoever pays them. Nothing is black or white, but that's already far into "evil" for me. Yet every spark of subversive action is good to take.
- more_corn 8y agoThis is absurd. The true power of democracy is freedom to speak. To disagree to challenge. Google does this better than any big company I've ever heard of. I literally challenged the CEO in public on the question of the housing crisis in the bay area. He responded and the conversation continued. There have been a dozen times in the last several years when healthy internal conversation at Google has changed policy. Name one time that happened at IBM.
- knuththetruth 8y ago>The true power of democracy is freedom to speak. The true power of democracy is...democracy. Google doesn’t have a labor union or worker-ownership, so while executives might be open to appeals, ultimately what you’re describing is an authoritarian arrangement. I do think employees and users would be better off if Google was democratically controlled in either of the ways described above, but unfortunately that’s not where we are right now.
- mariuolo 8y ago> I'm glad that google's internal culture is healthy enough for this. I wonder how the internal conversations about affecting politics, issues of privacy, etc. look.. Stymied, I suspect. Lest they end up like James Damore.
- ihsw2 8y agoStymied in what sense? The cultural power brokers at Google have allocated a tiny sliver of lenience and they encourage vigorous debate within the confines of this narrowly-defined freedom. Similarly, this logic extends outward into society. The message sent out from Google's cultural authorities is this -- if you fall outside of the progressive chauvinist mindset then you are persona non grata by default. Repent, sinners, or be excommunicated.
- mariuolo 8y agoThing is you don't always know the exact extent of those confines, so you err by caution. And the ones of which we've seen an example concern gender roles (or lack thereof), not working with the military.