5 ms·

Ever since the Damore thing blew up, any article that portrays google in a negative light gets a lot of play..

by nova22033 7y ago

acdha 7y ago
It started many years before Damore’s tantrum. I think it mostly goes back to the image Google enjoyed for years as this amazing place with crazy benefits, and then reality caught up that it’s a big company and will do things like most other big companies such as aggressively cost-optimizing its workforce or canceling beloved products (Reader was very popular with journalists). Companies which never had that kind of image don’t get dispelling stories.
- povertyworld 7y ago
  Google's notorious whiteboard hazing gives off a toxic smell. I'm sure it only gets stronger once you're in.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    Yeesh, I know it's popular to dump on the fact that their recruiting process (perhaps unduly) is tilted towards CS grads, but this is the first time I've seen someone go full conspiracy theory and assume it's part of some nefarious tendency to treat employees poorly in general.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- tomcam 7y ago
  Can you tell me how Damore’s memo was a tantrum, and quote passages that reflect your opinion?
  - acdha 7y ago
    This is getting off-topic but it's basically two parts: the first being the he attended an optional “Diversity and Inclusion Summit” and had a strong emotional reaction, which he made an effort to circulate around the company for several months. It's loaded with emotional language (“an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed”) and claims of authoritarian oppression. That inflammatory rhetoric is what cost him his job because it clearly wasn't just a scientific discussion and left quite plausible grounds for anyone working with (or especially, had he been successful in making it into a leadership role, supervised by) to claim a hostile working environment — which is why he dropped the NLRB claim after it was looking like it'd be unfavorable[1]. Even if you think they're wrong, publicly putting your management in a position like that is unlikely to end favorably. The second part is the painful irony of his positioning himself as a Man of Science Protecting The Enlightment Against Dogma!!! but what he wrote was a poorly-edited (and don't forget, what finally leaked was presumably better after the several rounds of editing prior to it being published) rehash of traditional reactionary arguments for biological determinism with only a few references to peer-reviewed literature, with little discussion or signs of familiarity with their fields, and instead relying mostly on links to broad Wikipedia pages and conservative blogs. Note how much work it was simply to summarize his claims clearly enough to evaluate them in https://medium.com/@tweetingmouse/the-truth-has-got-its-boots-on-what-the-evidence-says-about-mr-damores-google-memo-bc93c8b2fdb9/#ba47 https://medium.com/@tweetingmouse/the-truth-has-got-its-boot... — that's the most point-by-point examination I've seen and it's considerably longer than the original. On its own failing to perform at the level of a good student essay would be embarrassing but given the topic and how quick he was to cast this as political oppression while taking as little responsibility as possible for his own actions, I think it warrants the use of “tantrum”. 1. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/federal-labor-board-google-was-justified-in-firing-engineer-behind-gender-memo/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/federal-labor-bo...
    - VladimirIvanov 7y ago
      This may not be totally relevant but it's always bothered me that he lied about being a chess Fide Master (FM) and then doubled down on his lie in a reddit ama
fvrghl 7y ago
I don't think this has anything to do with Damore. I think people are frustrated with the way technology has infiltrated their lives, and how they have no control over it. Many people want tighter regulation of the tech companies + the view of technology workers as the new yuppies makes tech an easy target.
la_barba 7y ago
Every Google product launch gets a free marketing boost on all tech blogs. Maybe these negative articles balance it out..
nickpsecurity 7y ago
It started when they stopped following "Don't Be Evil" motto. If they want to be evil, then people might portray them in negative ways. Usually based on their own behavior.

Ever since the Damore thing blew up, any article that portrays google in a negative light gets a lot of play..

It started many years before Damore’s tantrum. I think it mostly goes back to the image Google enjoyed for years as this amazing place with crazy benefits, and then reality caught up that it’s a big company and will do things like most other big companies such as aggressively cost-optimizing its workforce or canceling beloved products (Reader was very popular with journalists). Companies which never had that kind of image don’t get dispelling stories.

povertyworld 7y ago
Google's notorious whiteboard hazing gives off a toxic smell. I'm sure it only gets stronger once you're in.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  Yeesh, I know it's popular to dump on the fact that their recruiting process (perhaps unduly) is tilted towards CS grads, but this is the first time I've seen someone go full conspiracy theory and assume it's part of some nefarious tendency to treat employees poorly in general.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
tomcam 7y ago
Can you tell me how Damore’s memo was a tantrum, and quote passages that reflect your opinion?
- acdha 7y ago
  This is getting off-topic but it's basically two parts: the first being the he attended an optional “Diversity and Inclusion Summit” and had a strong emotional reaction, which he made an effort to circulate around the company for several months. It's loaded with emotional language (“an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed”) and claims of authoritarian oppression. That inflammatory rhetoric is what cost him his job because it clearly wasn't just a scientific discussion and left quite plausible grounds for anyone working with (or especially, had he been successful in making it into a leadership role, supervised by) to claim a hostile working environment — which is why he dropped the NLRB claim after it was looking like it'd be unfavorable[1]. Even if you think they're wrong, publicly putting your management in a position like that is unlikely to end favorably. The second part is the painful irony of his positioning himself as a Man of Science Protecting The Enlightment Against Dogma!!! but what he wrote was a poorly-edited (and don't forget, what finally leaked was presumably better after the several rounds of editing prior to it being published) rehash of traditional reactionary arguments for biological determinism with only a few references to peer-reviewed literature, with little discussion or signs of familiarity with their fields, and instead relying mostly on links to broad Wikipedia pages and conservative blogs. Note how much work it was simply to summarize his claims clearly enough to evaluate them in https://medium.com/@tweetingmouse/the-truth-has-got-its-boots-on-what-the-evidence-says-about-mr-damores-google-memo-bc93c8b2fdb9/#ba47 https://medium.com/@tweetingmouse/the-truth-has-got-its-boot... — that's the most point-by-point examination I've seen and it's considerably longer than the original. On its own failing to perform at the level of a good student essay would be embarrassing but given the topic and how quick he was to cast this as political oppression while taking as little responsibility as possible for his own actions, I think it warrants the use of “tantrum”. 1. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/federal-labor-board-google-was-justified-in-firing-engineer-behind-gender-memo/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/federal-labor-bo...
  - VladimirIvanov 7y ago
    This may not be totally relevant but it's always bothered me that he lied about being a chess Fide Master (FM) and then doubled down on his lie in a reddit ama

fvrghl 7y ago

I don't think this has anything to do with Damore. I think people are frustrated with the way technology has infiltrated their lives, and how they have no control over it. Many people want tighter regulation of the tech companies + the view of technology workers as the new yuppies makes tech an easy target.

la_barba 7y ago

Every Google product launch gets a free marketing boost on all tech blogs. Maybe these negative articles balance it out..

nickpsecurity 7y ago

It started when they stopped following "Don't Be Evil" motto. If they want to be evil, then people might portray them in negative ways. Usually based on their own behavior.