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I feel like this is the start of a rising tide. I think Brian's stance is great, companies have missions, they should focus on those missions. Everything has be

by redm 6y ago

I feel like this is the start of a rising tide. I think Brian's stance is great, companies have missions, they should focus on those missions. Everything has become so political that your work, which occupies a large portion of your life, should not be divisive.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ketzo 6y ago
> ...your work, which occupies a large portion of your life, should not be divisive. I get that desire, I really do, but I think it's so important to recognize that your work is not apolitical. It doesn't matter what you're building. What you build does not exist in a vacuum, and the decisions you make around politics at work are themselves political decisions.
- tupputuppu 6y ago
  If you want to have such a broad definition of political, then why restrict the whole fight to tech companies? Why aren't on the barricades about the fashion industry or traditional media? Are you sure this isn't just an excuse to make things political in these west coast companies that are full of young, hot-headed, extremely left wing people?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- baggy_trough 6y ago
  This is really a noxious idea. It's like saying that because we all breathe the same air, everything I do affects you. No, not in the vast majority of cases.
  - Avamander 6y ago
    Okay this is like the worst example. Everything you do does affect the environment around you. For example if you take a Bahamas trip, you are paying to generate tons of CO2. If you buy a diesel car, or just driving one, you're affecting the shared air as well.
    - baggy_trough 6y ago
      Yes that is true in a pedantic sense. It is also true that my gravitational force affects everyone in the world as I move about. But not enough to matter.
- ErikBjare 6y ago
  I see people replying this a lot, and those who do must have missed what Brian said about it this exact thing in his original post.
- f69281c 6y ago
  To me this take rolls into the general "silence is violence" or "either you're with us or against us" refrain that has become background noise to me. It reads the same as someone telling me I'm enabling fascism by not posting a black square on instagram or whatever. I'm nearing the point of being aggressively dismissive towards this kind of attitude, because a lot of it doesn't even seem to be laid out in good faith. People are just addicted to being mad, addicted to being right, addicted to the idea that they can channel their anger through pop politics and get validation for it as a bonus. I have an extremely low opinion of the people and groups who follow along with whatever pop social issue is trending today because they don't want to get in trouble, and IMHO those people aren't really worth interacting with because again, it's more about landing a spicy dunk on the bad guys (tm) and collecting heart icons than whatever issue they're using as a weapon today. >your work is not apolitical. It doesn't matter what you're building spare me.
  - freeone3000 6y ago
    We control the information flow for billions. How the hell could that NOT be political?
    - war1025 6y ago
      > We control the information flow for billions Who is "we"? The majority of people here don't work for FANG
      - username90 6y ago
        And the large majority of people at FANG have about as much control over the flow of information as a plumber has over the flow of shit from a city. They just keep the system running, they don't influence it.
        war1025 6y ago
        Even more so then. "We" don't control anything any more than anyone else.
- dingaling 6y ago
  > work are themselves political decisions But those political decisions are ones relevant to the mission of the company. Coinbase probably shouldn't be involved in politics around police reform, fracking, climate change or the Second Amendment because they are orthogonal to its mission. Insert other topics as you see fit. And hence its employees should leave their opinions of such matters at the door. Coinbase should be focused on politics around global financial regulation. And its employees should focus their workplace political energy on those matters. Also, it's generally just polite and respectful to your coworkers to provide a non-political, non-partisan workplace.
  - bluntfang 6y ago
    >Coinbase probably shouldn't be involved in politics around police reform, fracking, climate change or the Second Amendment because they are orthogonal to its mission. It's impossible to not involve yourself in politics that effect your employee's everyday lives.
  - mrguyorama 6y ago
    Taking "no stance" on a political issue is itself a political stance for the status quo. It is impossible to not be political
    - username90 6y ago
      If the outcome of society would be the same if you exist or not then you are not political. For example if you don't vote and don't support any political causes, then the people who take the time to get involved decides everything and you had no influence.
      - xmprt 6y ago
        There are 4 levels of competence. For all the people who know they are incompetence and therefore abstain from voting there are a lot of people (possibly more) that don't know their incompetence and decide to vote regardless. If you're not voting because you're uninformed, you're probably much more informed than many of the people who are voting.
choko 6y ago
I hope so. I enjoy talking about politics and social issues and think the discussion is important, but not at work. It's a distraction and it is alienating to employees who do not share the majority opinion.
yokaze 6y ago
I see it the other way around. (Almost) everything is political. The mission of the company is not disjoint from the society it is embedded in. Things have become divisive by being able to ignore and blend out the opposing views. By not talking and listening to one another. This is just one more step in that direction. Funnily enough, I think it has been extrapolated by Neal Stephenson in Diamond Age. We will end up having parallel societies which define themselves not by geographic boundaries, but by affiliation. A North Korean community could be your neighbour.
- tupputuppu 6y ago
  Do you have an example where in a political company both views were heard? Typically the whole discussion around overly political workplaces revolves around west coast tech companies, which are a monoculture of liberalism. Republican views are definitely not heard or dealt with.
- jcims 6y ago
  > (Almost) everything is political. I think people are talking past each other with the word 'political'. Some may define it as the execution of governance, and others may define it as partisan gamesmanship, and of course lots around and in between.
- oh_sigh 6y ago
  How should I properly demonstrate my wokeness while pooping? What about when I'm walking my dog? If everything is political I don't want to be seen as one of those complicit through silence while doing the dishes types of people.
- disposekinetics 6y ago
  >(Almost) everything is political. I'm curious what your definition of political is, because my gut feeling is that (Almost) nothing is political.
  - nemothekid 6y ago
    Do you believe end to end encryption is political? Do you believe that companies should disable E2E encryption in order to be "apolitical" in the eyes US's attorney general? How do you believe Coinbase, a cryptocurrency corporation, will remain "a political" in the design of their systems given the changing political climate around crypto? Does that just mean bowing down to whatever the administration says? Do you believe Coinbase will remain "apolitical" is the US begins to enact policy that causes Coinbase users to find alternatives? Do you believe Coinbase employees will have no opinion on the way the justice department handles cryptocurrency?
kelnos 6y ago
Unfortunately I think politics is unavoidable in some (many?) businesses. A financial services company that deals with new currency instruments that aim to supplement or supplant fiat currency is going to be neck-deep in politics pretty often. Coinbase will have to make political decisions, and it's natural that people within the company will have differing opinions -- informed by their personal politics -- as to the course those decisions should take.
- CryptoPunk 6y ago
  Coinbase says they want to be political insofar as it relates to and advances their mission. But political activism that is outside this scope is a distraction and what they are barring from company premises. I assume they also oppose political initiatives being taken without the approval of management. Their position is pretty straightforward and sensible, even if it is not entirely straightforward to implement in an even handed way.
- heavyset_go 6y ago
  Coinbase has already made political decisions by choosing to make political campaign donations[1]. [1] https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=coinbase https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?...
thescriptkiddie 6y ago
Personally I would like it if the workplace became a whole lot more political, seeing as the status quo is that you have no say in how the company is ran or what it does with its profits, and if you don't like it you can starve. Ignoring politics doesn't make it not exist.
- chii 6y ago
  > status quo is that you have no say in how the company is ran or what it does with its profits that is the rights of ownership, and is a capitalist ideal. To change it is to strip these rights from ownership and give it to those who do not currently have ownership (and is basically what communism is).
- luckylion 6y ago
  But that's a trivial thing to accomplish: create a company and you have all the say in how the company is ran and what it does with its profits.
lobotryas 6y ago
But he’s still being political when he bothers to look at numbers of non white employees or talks about “diversity in tue workplace”. All these are political agenda by another name.

by redm 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

ketzo 6y ago

> ...your work, which occupies a large portion of your life, should not be divisive. I get that desire, I really do, but I think it's so important to recognize that your work is not apolitical. It doesn't matter what you're building. What you build does not exist in a vacuum, and the decisions you make around politics at work are themselves political decisions.

tupputuppu 6y ago
If you want to have such a broad definition of political, then why restrict the whole fight to tech companies? Why aren't on the barricades about the fashion industry or traditional media? Are you sure this isn't just an excuse to make things political in these west coast companies that are full of young, hot-headed, extremely left wing people?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
baggy_trough 6y ago
This is really a noxious idea. It's like saying that because we all breathe the same air, everything I do affects you. No, not in the vast majority of cases.
- Avamander 6y ago
  Okay this is like the worst example. Everything you do does affect the environment around you. For example if you take a Bahamas trip, you are paying to generate tons of CO2. If you buy a diesel car, or just driving one, you're affecting the shared air as well.
  - baggy_trough 6y ago
    Yes that is true in a pedantic sense. It is also true that my gravitational force affects everyone in the world as I move about. But not enough to matter.
ErikBjare 6y ago
I see people replying this a lot, and those who do must have missed what Brian said about it this exact thing in his original post.
f69281c 6y ago
To me this take rolls into the general "silence is violence" or "either you're with us or against us" refrain that has become background noise to me. It reads the same as someone telling me I'm enabling fascism by not posting a black square on instagram or whatever. I'm nearing the point of being aggressively dismissive towards this kind of attitude, because a lot of it doesn't even seem to be laid out in good faith. People are just addicted to being mad, addicted to being right, addicted to the idea that they can channel their anger through pop politics and get validation for it as a bonus. I have an extremely low opinion of the people and groups who follow along with whatever pop social issue is trending today because they don't want to get in trouble, and IMHO those people aren't really worth interacting with because again, it's more about landing a spicy dunk on the bad guys (tm) and collecting heart icons than whatever issue they're using as a weapon today. >your work is not apolitical. It doesn't matter what you're building spare me.
- freeone3000 6y ago
  We control the information flow for billions. How the hell could that NOT be political?
  - war1025 6y ago
    > We control the information flow for billions Who is "we"? The majority of people here don't work for FANG
    - username90 6y ago
      And the large majority of people at FANG have about as much control over the flow of information as a plumber has over the flow of shit from a city. They just keep the system running, they don't influence it.
      - war1025 6y ago
        Even more so then. "We" don't control anything any more than anyone else.
dingaling 6y ago
> work are themselves political decisions But those political decisions are ones relevant to the mission of the company. Coinbase probably shouldn't be involved in politics around police reform, fracking, climate change or the Second Amendment because they are orthogonal to its mission. Insert other topics as you see fit. And hence its employees should leave their opinions of such matters at the door. Coinbase should be focused on politics around global financial regulation. And its employees should focus their workplace political energy on those matters. Also, it's generally just polite and respectful to your coworkers to provide a non-political, non-partisan workplace.
- bluntfang 6y ago
  >Coinbase probably shouldn't be involved in politics around police reform, fracking, climate change or the Second Amendment because they are orthogonal to its mission. It's impossible to not involve yourself in politics that effect your employee's everyday lives.
- mrguyorama 6y ago
  Taking "no stance" on a political issue is itself a political stance for the status quo. It is impossible to not be political
  - username90 6y ago
    If the outcome of society would be the same if you exist or not then you are not political. For example if you don't vote and don't support any political causes, then the people who take the time to get involved decides everything and you had no influence.
    - xmprt 6y ago
      There are 4 levels of competence. For all the people who know they are incompetence and therefore abstain from voting there are a lot of people (possibly more) that don't know their incompetence and decide to vote regardless. If you're not voting because you're uninformed, you're probably much more informed than many of the people who are voting.

choko 6y ago

I hope so. I enjoy talking about politics and social issues and think the discussion is important, but not at work. It's a distraction and it is alienating to employees who do not share the majority opinion.

yokaze 6y ago

I see it the other way around. (Almost) everything is political. The mission of the company is not disjoint from the society it is embedded in. Things have become divisive by being able to ignore and blend out the opposing views. By not talking and listening to one another. This is just one more step in that direction. Funnily enough, I think it has been extrapolated by Neal Stephenson in Diamond Age. We will end up having parallel societies which define themselves not by geographic boundaries, but by affiliation. A North Korean community could be your neighbour.

tupputuppu 6y ago
Do you have an example where in a political company both views were heard? Typically the whole discussion around overly political workplaces revolves around west coast tech companies, which are a monoculture of liberalism. Republican views are definitely not heard or dealt with.
jcims 6y ago
> (Almost) everything is political. I think people are talking past each other with the word 'political'. Some may define it as the execution of governance, and others may define it as partisan gamesmanship, and of course lots around and in between.
oh_sigh 6y ago
How should I properly demonstrate my wokeness while pooping? What about when I'm walking my dog? If everything is political I don't want to be seen as one of those complicit through silence while doing the dishes types of people.
disposekinetics 6y ago
>(Almost) everything is political. I'm curious what your definition of political is, because my gut feeling is that (Almost) nothing is political.
- nemothekid 6y ago
  Do you believe end to end encryption is political? Do you believe that companies should disable E2E encryption in order to be "apolitical" in the eyes US's attorney general? How do you believe Coinbase, a cryptocurrency corporation, will remain "a political" in the design of their systems given the changing political climate around crypto? Does that just mean bowing down to whatever the administration says? Do you believe Coinbase will remain "apolitical" is the US begins to enact policy that causes Coinbase users to find alternatives? Do you believe Coinbase employees will have no opinion on the way the justice department handles cryptocurrency?

kelnos 6y ago

Unfortunately I think politics is unavoidable in some (many?) businesses. A financial services company that deals with new currency instruments that aim to supplement or supplant fiat currency is going to be neck-deep in politics pretty often. Coinbase will have to make political decisions, and it's natural that people within the company will have differing opinions -- informed by their personal politics -- as to the course those decisions should take.

CryptoPunk 6y ago
Coinbase says they want to be political insofar as it relates to and advances their mission. But political activism that is outside this scope is a distraction and what they are barring from company premises. I assume they also oppose political initiatives being taken without the approval of management. Their position is pretty straightforward and sensible, even if it is not entirely straightforward to implement in an even handed way.
heavyset_go 6y ago
Coinbase has already made political decisions by choosing to make political campaign donations[1]. [1] https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=coinbase https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?...

thescriptkiddie 6y ago

Personally I would like it if the workplace became a whole lot more political, seeing as the status quo is that you have no say in how the company is ran or what it does with its profits, and if you don't like it you can starve. Ignoring politics doesn't make it not exist.

chii 6y ago
> status quo is that you have no say in how the company is ran or what it does with its profits that is the rights of ownership, and is a capitalist ideal. To change it is to strip these rights from ownership and give it to those who do not currently have ownership (and is basically what communism is).
luckylion 6y ago
But that's a trivial thing to accomplish: create a company and you have all the say in how the company is ran and what it does with its profits.

lobotryas 6y ago

But he’s still being political when he bothers to look at numbers of non white employees or talks about “diversity in tue workplace”. All these are political agenda by another name.