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Companies like Google making company culture such a visible part of their identity strikes me as the kind of wise foolishness that you find a lot in mythical na

Companies like Google making company culture such a visible part of their identity strikes me as the kind of wise foolishness that you find a lot in mythical narratives. Sure, you will get some very motivated employees that swallow the kool-aid, but if you think those employees' loyalties are with you, you better think again. They're loyal to the idea that you sold them on, to the gospel that you preached. Once they get it in their heads that the road you're leading them on is going to hell and not heaven, there's gonna be a reckoning. Now the faithful are going to start questioning things they wouldn't allow themselves to question years ago. Is making all this software so that Google can profit off of collecting people's data worthwhile? I hope at least one Google exec is forced to sell a yacht over this. But what I really want is that we find a way to force more accountability onto these assholes. I'm happy it happened, but I think we're going to start seeing a shift away from companies making culture such a visible part of their identity as Google did.

exelius 8y ago
I think you’re very wrong. Companies like Google have trained an entire generation to seek greater meaning in their work. Even if Google’s promises were hollow, millennials don’t have the cultural institutions our parents did. Thus we seek self-fulfillment in the ways we know how: at work. I work with a lot of C-suites on “the culture issue”. They see statistics like “40% of people between age 12 and 18 identify as LGBTQ” and they start to panic because their company culture isn’t so friendly to that. Things that were taboo only a decade ago are now commonplace: every kid today knows at least one trans kid, and a over half of teens identify as “somewhere in between gay and straight”. The institutions that used to prop up culture in this country (marriage, church, family, etc) are no longer a reality for most people. Corporations have lobbied successfully for more power, so the employees of these companies expect to be able to wield that power from within to make the change they want to see. Because the culture at large is so hostile to those ideas, the culture at companies is only going to become more important as time goes on. Companies that ignore it are going to have a difficult time attracting the top talent that can afford to be choosy. Companies that provide a safe, nurturing refuge will find themselves drowning in qualified applicants.
- vinceguidry 8y ago
  I hope you're right.
- brandmeyer 8y ago
  > They see statistics like “40% of people between age 12 and 18 identify as LGBTQ” ... and a over half of teens identify as “somewhere in between gay and straight” Citation. Needed.
  - dagw 8y ago
    over half of teens identify as “somewhere in between gay and straight Citation. Needed. Possibly referring to this poll: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/yougov-poll-homosexuality-half-young-people-10458032.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/yougov-poll-... If you think about it, it's not too surprising. 12-18 is a weird age with lots of weird hormonal things happening, and it's hardly unheard of that otherwise 'straight' teenagers in that age bracket experience some sort of same sex fantasies or experimentation. It's just that in the past they would identify as "100% totally straight!!! (except for that time...)" but they're now more comfortable to be more fluid in their definitions.
    - exelius 8y ago
      Exactly. Those kids will eventually reach a company, look around and see it’s 95% cisgender/heterosexual people, and they don’t feel welcome because that’s not the world they grew up in. The whole “trans agenda” is really about letting kids know that they are not weird, and they are not morally bound to the “default” gender they were given. Turns out when you do that young, a lot of people don’t pick the default without at least exploring the other options. This blows many adults’ minds, and it’s going to be a huge shift in the corporate world. You think #MeToo is a problem? Wait till gender discrimination has a whole lot more variables. Point is, culture is important. The culture that got you here is not the culture you’re going to need tomorrow. Google’s culture is pretty close to what a lot of this generation aspires to though; and doing work to enable state sponsored surveillance is likely personally threatening to their LGBT staff given the current president’s agenda.
galieos_ghost 8y ago
Larry and Sergey's research was initially funded by DARPA. Silicon Valley itself was built by military funding. Self-driving cars and AI research were initially funded by the military. Everybody working in tech is getting blood money, anyone who thinks otherwise is either ignorant or a raging hypocrite.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

exelius 8y ago

I think you’re very wrong. Companies like Google have trained an entire generation to seek greater meaning in their work. Even if Google’s promises were hollow, millennials don’t have the cultural institutions our parents did. Thus we seek self-fulfillment in the ways we know how: at work. I work with a lot of C-suites on “the culture issue”. They see statistics like “40% of people between age 12 and 18 identify as LGBTQ” and they start to panic because their company culture isn’t so friendly to that. Things that were taboo only a decade ago are now commonplace: every kid today knows at least one trans kid, and a over half of teens identify as “somewhere in between gay and straight”. The institutions that used to prop up culture in this country (marriage, church, family, etc) are no longer a reality for most people. Corporations have lobbied successfully for more power, so the employees of these companies expect to be able to wield that power from within to make the change they want to see. Because the culture at large is so hostile to those ideas, the culture at companies is only going to become more important as time goes on. Companies that ignore it are going to have a difficult time attracting the top talent that can afford to be choosy. Companies that provide a safe, nurturing refuge will find themselves drowning in qualified applicants.

vinceguidry 8y ago
I hope you're right.
brandmeyer 8y ago
> They see statistics like “40% of people between age 12 and 18 identify as LGBTQ” ... and a over half of teens identify as “somewhere in between gay and straight” Citation. Needed.
- dagw 8y ago
  over half of teens identify as “somewhere in between gay and straight Citation. Needed. Possibly referring to this poll: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/yougov-poll-homosexuality-half-young-people-10458032.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/yougov-poll-... If you think about it, it's not too surprising. 12-18 is a weird age with lots of weird hormonal things happening, and it's hardly unheard of that otherwise 'straight' teenagers in that age bracket experience some sort of same sex fantasies or experimentation. It's just that in the past they would identify as "100% totally straight!!! (except for that time...)" but they're now more comfortable to be more fluid in their definitions.
  - exelius 8y ago
    Exactly. Those kids will eventually reach a company, look around and see it’s 95% cisgender/heterosexual people, and they don’t feel welcome because that’s not the world they grew up in. The whole “trans agenda” is really about letting kids know that they are not weird, and they are not morally bound to the “default” gender they were given. Turns out when you do that young, a lot of people don’t pick the default without at least exploring the other options. This blows many adults’ minds, and it’s going to be a huge shift in the corporate world. You think #MeToo is a problem? Wait till gender discrimination has a whole lot more variables. Point is, culture is important. The culture that got you here is not the culture you’re going to need tomorrow. Google’s culture is pretty close to what a lot of this generation aspires to though; and doing work to enable state sponsored surveillance is likely personally threatening to their LGBT staff given the current president’s agenda.

galieos_ghost 8y ago

Larry and Sergey's research was initially funded by DARPA. Silicon Valley itself was built by military funding. Self-driving cars and AI research were initially funded by the military. Everybody working in tech is getting blood money, anyone who thinks otherwise is either ignorant or a raging hypocrite.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]