6 ms·

Yeah, super super unacceptable hit on someone in an interview. BUT... professional clothes at burning man? The charitable view is that she's making that up and

Yeah, super super unacceptable hit on someone in an interview. BUT... professional clothes at burning man? The charitable view is that she's making that up and feigning indignation. The uncharitable view is that she's clueless and did absolutely no research about burning man whatsoever.

jpm_sd 8y ago
Star Simpson is actually somewhat notorious for her naivete: https://thetech.com/2007/11/13/simpson-v127-n40 https://thetech.com/2007/11/13/simpson-v127-n40 http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/10/i_was_a_teenage_terrorist_the.html http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/10/i_was_a_teenage_terrori... Edit: not sure why the downvotes, I was actually attempting to defend her, in the sense that her innocence has gotten her into bad situations in the past.
- Mithorium 8y ago
  the only naivete I can find in those links is that of the airport workers thinking a light up nametag is a bomb. About as ridiculous as the time boston shut down over some light up LED signs [1]. Something has wires and LED lights? Must be a bomb, no other explanation possible [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic
  - SilasX 8y ago
    No. She went into an airport wearing a circuitboard with flashing lights that made some people uneasy. When they asked her about it, she ignored them. Edit: Also, she was holding Play-doh, which no adult does at an airport, and can look like plastic explosives. Even if they did overreact (and they pretty much have to aggressively err on the side of caution), it was a bit tone deaf and callous for her to act that way.
    - Mithorium 8y ago
      Well, if in her view, it was just a nametag and not a scary piece of technology, then I think it's reasonable to not understand why anyone would be uneasy. Did people wearing google glasses back when that was a thing respond to everyone who harassed them about it? If you were walking with your phone in your hand and someone came up to you accusing you of trying to bomb them, would you bother responding or just roll your eyes and keep walking? Or other similar airport stories I've read of people in an airport terminal remoting into work being accused of hacking because scary linux terminals are the tools of hackers who are trying to hack planes and crash them. If that happened to me, I'd probably ignore the person while thinking to myself "what the fuck is this guy's problem, have they never seen a computer before"
      - SilasX 8y ago
        Being tone-deaf means being unaware of what kinds of things would make others uneasy. If the world changed to the point that a phone like mine was easily confused with a bomb, then I would consider it tone-deaf for me to carry on in ignorance of this dynamic.
        Mithorium 8y ago
        Well I guess our disagreement is that the world at that point had the dynamic where any electronic item was to be confused with a bomb. I was alive in 2007, some LED lights arranged in a star would certainly not have screamed "bomb" at me, and I would not have expected anyone else to have been scared of it either. If she was carrying around a clock like that one kid made, maybe, but even by 2007 movie standards a bomb would at least have a countdown timer of some kind I'm imagining her wearing something like https://www.flashingblinkylights.com/jade-led-christmas-tree-necklace-neon-look-sku-no-12053-tree.html https://www.flashingblinkylights.com/jade-led-christmas-tree... with a little less production value, if that can be mistaken for a bomb then those people better stay away from office christmas parties
        SilasX 8y ago
- rhcom2 8y ago
  She was 19.
ihtfp07 8y ago
See my other comment...Star probably was attending burning man before this guy was. She knew more about it than him. Also if you were into burning man since 2006, the event then was less about “bacchanalia” and “free love”. This was before it was mainstream for techies, when cheap tickets could be bought anonymously with cash at the entrance, and when you could even more believably show up in “conservative” clothes and be into it for the art and maker culture. If the victim was a man I doubt their style of attire would be mentioned, but for Star the author needs to clarify for their audience that she wasn’t there for the scanty costumed photoshoots that so many associate with burning man now. She’s a hardware engineer and well known maker. Is it that hard to believe she actually likes it for the art and everything that gets created that week? Networking for a Google X job was probably just a bonus.
- stickfigure 8y ago
  ...which is the charitable explanation: She's feigning surprise and indignation. She knew what she was signing up for. I'm not apologizing for the douchebag, but the narrative of "I wore my interview suit to burning man and was horrified when everyone got naked" does not hold water. FWIW, my burning man years started in 1994. Check your assumptions, kiddo.
icebraining 8y ago
The obvious view is that she knows perfectly well what Burning Man is, and she also suspected lewd intentions, and purposefully dressed that way to avoid them without having to refuse the invitation, which could have cost her the job. The sad reality is that for a significant number of people, office politics includes a good chance of sexual harassment, which they have to learn to navigate as well.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

jpm_sd 8y ago

Star Simpson is actually somewhat notorious for her naivete: https://thetech.com/2007/11/13/simpson-v127-n40 https://thetech.com/2007/11/13/simpson-v127-n40 http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/10/i_was_a_teenage_terrorist_the.html http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/10/i_was_a_teenage_terrori... Edit: not sure why the downvotes, I was actually attempting to defend her, in the sense that her innocence has gotten her into bad situations in the past.

Mithorium 8y ago
the only naivete I can find in those links is that of the airport workers thinking a light up nametag is a bomb. About as ridiculous as the time boston shut down over some light up LED signs [1]. Something has wires and LED lights? Must be a bomb, no other explanation possible [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic
- SilasX 8y ago
  No. She went into an airport wearing a circuitboard with flashing lights that made some people uneasy. When they asked her about it, she ignored them. Edit: Also, she was holding Play-doh, which no adult does at an airport, and can look like plastic explosives. Even if they did overreact (and they pretty much have to aggressively err on the side of caution), it was a bit tone deaf and callous for her to act that way.
  - Mithorium 8y ago
    Well, if in her view, it was just a nametag and not a scary piece of technology, then I think it's reasonable to not understand why anyone would be uneasy. Did people wearing google glasses back when that was a thing respond to everyone who harassed them about it? If you were walking with your phone in your hand and someone came up to you accusing you of trying to bomb them, would you bother responding or just roll your eyes and keep walking? Or other similar airport stories I've read of people in an airport terminal remoting into work being accused of hacking because scary linux terminals are the tools of hackers who are trying to hack planes and crash them. If that happened to me, I'd probably ignore the person while thinking to myself "what the fuck is this guy's problem, have they never seen a computer before"
    - SilasX 8y ago
      Being tone-deaf means being unaware of what kinds of things would make others uneasy. If the world changed to the point that a phone like mine was easily confused with a bomb, then I would consider it tone-deaf for me to carry on in ignorance of this dynamic.
      - Mithorium 8y ago
        Well I guess our disagreement is that the world at that point had the dynamic where any electronic item was to be confused with a bomb. I was alive in 2007, some LED lights arranged in a star would certainly not have screamed "bomb" at me, and I would not have expected anyone else to have been scared of it either. If she was carrying around a clock like that one kid made, maybe, but even by 2007 movie standards a bomb would at least have a countdown timer of some kind I'm imagining her wearing something like https://www.flashingblinkylights.com/jade-led-christmas-tree-necklace-neon-look-sku-no-12053-tree.html https://www.flashingblinkylights.com/jade-led-christmas-tree... with a little less production value, if that can be mistaken for a bomb then those people better stay away from office christmas parties
        SilasX 8y ago
rhcom2 8y ago
She was 19.

ihtfp07 8y ago

See my other comment...Star probably was attending burning man before this guy was. She knew more about it than him. Also if you were into burning man since 2006, the event then was less about “bacchanalia” and “free love”. This was before it was mainstream for techies, when cheap tickets could be bought anonymously with cash at the entrance, and when you could even more believably show up in “conservative” clothes and be into it for the art and maker culture. If the victim was a man I doubt their style of attire would be mentioned, but for Star the author needs to clarify for their audience that she wasn’t there for the scanty costumed photoshoots that so many associate with burning man now. She’s a hardware engineer and well known maker. Is it that hard to believe she actually likes it for the art and everything that gets created that week? Networking for a Google X job was probably just a bonus.

stickfigure 8y ago
...which is the charitable explanation: She's feigning surprise and indignation. She knew what she was signing up for. I'm not apologizing for the douchebag, but the narrative of "I wore my interview suit to burning man and was horrified when everyone got naked" does not hold water. FWIW, my burning man years started in 1994. Check your assumptions, kiddo.

icebraining 8y ago

The obvious view is that she knows perfectly well what Burning Man is, and she also suspected lewd intentions, and purposefully dressed that way to avoid them without having to refuse the invitation, which could have cost her the job. The sad reality is that for a significant number of people, office politics includes a good chance of sexual harassment, which they have to learn to navigate as well.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]