10 ms·
Interesting that you see that as a "jab against white men" - I read it as a jab against monoculture. That the company's monoculture is middle aged white cis dud
by ealexhudson 8y ago
Interesting that you see that as a "jab against white men" - I read it as a jab against monoculture. That the company's monoculture is middle aged white cis dudes is kind of beside the point.
A company this big needs to address most, if not all, people. The need for escapist leisure activity is something only relatively privileged people have. You only have to look at Google Glass to see what that limited appeal does to a product. It's a valid commercial consideration.
- bsenftner 8y agoThe point is a common journalistic mechanism: throw in a controversial side note, and somewhere morons will make that an issue and drive readership of the article in outrage. You fell into this con...
- UncleEntity 8y agoThe problem with that theory is I read a good portion of that article before I found out I was out of touch with (virtual) reality...
- derangedHorse 8y ago> It is telling that the most compelling glimpse of a possible future with Magic Leap was relayed to me by nonwhite, non-male product manager Yeah but the language used here makes it seem like white male product managers can't relay compelling visions for Magic Leap's future which isn't necessarily a correct statement.
- pjc50 8y agoThey could have, but didn't. The implication is that the PM in question was trying to advance their career on meritocracy grounds, while the other PMs get by on connections. I'm reminded of Theranos' extremely well-connected board. I don't think there would be anything wrong with trying to market Leap as a gaming peripheral, but that implies a much smaller valuation, so ...
- jim_and_derrick 8y agogoing to sound like a jerk but if i saw that (lord knows how filthy rich) chubby little CEO and he started talking in corporate buzzword speak i'd probably laugh in his face and then give him a good slap and say your st fking sucks man. I like the line about the 'everyone is hallucinating but i missed the dosage'. I get this feeling in tech all the time. After working in industry for 5 years i really dont give a fk about any of your new technology. I've seen hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted on contractors trying to build fancy new tools instead of us properly building something in house. Wish they would have thrown the 100K over my way but that aint how it works. is it any coincidence that our in-house built in 2 months postgres system has survived for 5+ years while every attempt for 'nosql' or 'just put your data on s3 and use lambda' or 'just put it in the data lake', or 'use kinesis streams' has failed miserably. Some random contractor made bank making a little toy project good for him. HE should go work for magic leap where you get to build meaningless kids games and be worth billions of dollars.
- dymk 8y agoWhy mention the race and gender of the culture, if the specific race and culture aren't relevant? The author easily could have made that point by saying "sci-fi obsessed leadership" instead of "white male sci-fi obsessed leadership".
- ealexhudson 8y agoBecause white male culture is broader than just sci-fi? I'm making the point that both one specific culture means monoculture, and I think pointing out that it's white male is important. Techbroism is a thing. White men aren't incapable of empathy, but it's very much more difficult to address a diverse audience from one fixed viewpoint.
- dymk 8y agoBut why does the article go out of its way to say the white male leadership is interested in the escapist, scifi, entertainment aspect of AR, and makes a special point of the nonwhite nonmale manager being the one actually coming up with compelling usecases? It seems like a cheap grab for article attention, piggy backing on the current political climate, and not a genuine analysis on why ML is failing to come up with inventive AR usecases. It cheapens the point the article could have made, but fails to explore at all: Diversity is needed to develop a product that appeals to everyone.
- _jal 8y agoThis thread is entertaining as an object lesson in white male fragility. Obsessing about a side note in an article because the scrutiny normally reserved for nonwhite-males is glancingly turned their way... Instead of indulging the sense of alarm you get from this sort of (very mild) scrutiny, try to get outside of your ego and consider that this feeling you have is others' normal state of existence. You'll adapt better as demographics change and the wheel turns, and introspection is good for you. Smile more, and stop being so emotional. /s
- dymk 8y ago
- sametmax 8y agoReplace men by women or white by black. Do you still read it as monoculture ?
- neom 8y agoIn the context of feminine hygiene products, or the black lives matter movements, yes. In the context of a high valued venture funded technology company, no.
- berberous 8y agoEscapist leisure activity is for more than just privileged people, see, e.g., video games, sports and movies. Google Glass did not fail because it lacked a diverse perspective. It failed because it was a garbage product, way too expensive, early, and with no compelling functionality. (I feel the same way about HoloLens at it's current stage. I have not tried Magic Leap.) Also, the diverse take was: "who spoke to me convincingly about a world freed from the tyranny of browser tabs, where you could ‘leave’ web pages in physical spaces where you’d need them; recipes in the kitchen, research articles in the office". That seems to me to be a far more 'privileged' use case than escapist entertainment.
- woah 8y ago> The need for escapist leisure activity is something only relatively privileged people have. Are you kidding? Escapist leisure activities is one of the most broadly consumed forms of entertainment. Have you ever heard of TV or movies?
- Apocryphon 8y agoSure, but it's hardly the best value proposition to justify a $2000+ new product type that claims to be a revolutionary form of technology.