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I strongly disagree with this. In fact, what this criticism boils down to is akin to whining about the younger generation. What is happening at Google is actua

I strongly disagree with this. In fact, what this criticism boils down to is akin to whining about the younger generation. What is happening at Google is actually the opposite of your first paragraph, the employees aren't looking to Google to give them moral structure, their using their own moral code to judge whether google is behaving morally and holding Google to account for it. The fact that the employees are speaking out and in many cases actually taking direct action that will effect their career prospects is the antithesis of >They've got nothing to give them self confidence People with 0 confidence aren't conducting walk-outs, they aren't whistleblowing on Google's questionable military deals. The problem Google has is exactly the opposite- they market themselves as a morally good company and so they end up with a high number of people who view that as important working for them. When they fail to live up to those actual standards, the employees protest. I think trying to ascribe the protests to a lack of courage is a very strange conclusion.

repolfx 7y ago
I think you missed my point, which is quite tricky to put into words so I may have not done it well. "Google" in that context doesn't mean exclusively its management, but rather, the whole group of people. When Googlers stage walkouts and so on they don't care much about the specific situations at hand. If it wasn't one thing it'd be another thing. This is clear from scratching the surface of their complaints in any detail: it's all built on very brittle foundations. What they want is the feeling of collective moral action, of clarity of purpose, of being a part of something bigger than building the next chat app, and they're able to get that at Google where it wouldn't be tolerated at most companies. It's exactly because this sort of activity does not affect their career prospects or might even enhance them that is why they do it: remember that their promotions aren't decided by management at Google but rather, by committees of the same sorts of people who are protesting. People with 0 confidence aren't conducting walk-outs, they aren't whistleblowing on Google's questionable military deals. This is exactly what people with no self confidence in their own goodness would do. If they were secure in their own morality, in their own sense of living a right life, they wouldn't be attempting to find it by engaging in constant cultural crusades inside their own place of work. It seems quite clear to me that many of their supposed moral positions aren't well thought through and exist primarily so they can protest. In other words, the protests aren't a means to an end (change of policy by Google's management), the protests are the end, in and of themselves, because it's via noisy displays of moral virtue that they find what they're truly looking for. If you like I can go through some of the inconsistencies in the various positions their employees have taken.

repolfx 7y ago

I think you missed my point, which is quite tricky to put into words so I may have not done it well. "Google" in that context doesn't mean exclusively its management, but rather, the whole group of people. When Googlers stage walkouts and so on they don't care much about the specific situations at hand. If it wasn't one thing it'd be another thing. This is clear from scratching the surface of their complaints in any detail: it's all built on very brittle foundations. What they want is the feeling of collective moral action, of clarity of purpose, of being a part of something bigger than building the next chat app, and they're able to get that at Google where it wouldn't be tolerated at most companies. It's exactly because this sort of activity does not affect their career prospects or might even enhance them that is why they do it: remember that their promotions aren't decided by management at Google but rather, by committees of the same sorts of people who are protesting. People with 0 confidence aren't conducting walk-outs, they aren't whistleblowing on Google's questionable military deals. This is exactly what people with no self confidence in their own goodness would do. If they were secure in their own morality, in their own sense of living a right life, they wouldn't be attempting to find it by engaging in constant cultural crusades inside their own place of work. It seems quite clear to me that many of their supposed moral positions aren't well thought through and exist primarily so they can protest. In other words, the protests aren't a means to an end (change of policy by Google's management), the protests are the end, in and of themselves, because it's via noisy displays of moral virtue that they find what they're truly looking for. If you like I can go through some of the inconsistencies in the various positions their employees have taken.