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The proposed changes are wholly reasonable, and definitely not that different from 99% of the companies out there. The real problem is that they’ve spent years
by baron816 5y ago
The proposed changes are wholly reasonable, and definitely not that different from 99% of the companies out there.
The real problem is that they’ve spent years hiring for a type of person where this sort of thing is anathema.
- Trasmatta 5y agoYeah, DHH is very outspoken politically, and fairly progressive. Of course there was going to be a selection bias where they hired similar people. This shouldn't have come as a surprise to them, and they should have realized the backlash. Shockingly bad foresight.
- danieljacksonno 5y agoIt's not that long ago that hiring a progressive usually meant hiring a tolerant person who would go the extra mile to include everyone, also people they disagreed with. It's only recently that parts of the progressive movement has radicalized.
- Trasmatta 5y ago> a tolerant person who would go the extra mile to include everyone, also people they disagreed with That sounds like the definition of liberalism rather than progressivism. I don't think the progressive movement has ever really fit under your definition -- or even wanted to. I think what you may be seeing is more people shifting from liberalism to progressivism (at least in certain communities like this).
- chubbyish 5y agoAt the extreme ends of the spectrum people always end up turning on each other. Many liberals like DHH who don’t stay up to the minute eventually get cancelled. The US left is unrecognizable from just a few years ago. I couldn’t imagine being able to dissent on anything in public. And who knows what will be outlawed in the future. Hopefully it all collapses somehow.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- themolecularman 5y agoI agree, the Verge article mentions this explicitly that DHH and JF are routinely outspoken on progressive issues: > Both founders are also active — and occasionally hyperactive — on Twitter, where they regularly advocate for mainstream liberal and progressive views on social issues. What did they expect?
- Trasmatta 5y agoYeah, I had to stop following DHH on Twitter for that very reason. Every few months he picks up some new pet issue, and then will not shut up about it. Then he finds another issue, and moves onto that one. Of course they were going to have employees that approached politics in a similar way, and of course that would leak into the workspace. They've built their brand on the personalities of Jason and David, which has obviously informed all of their hiring decisions.
- kethinov 5y agoThis caught him off guard because the progressive camp has since split into two groups: one that favored Hillary in 2016 and accuses the other of being class reductionists and the other that favored Bernie and accuses the first group of being identity reductionists. DHH is more aligned with the latter and is now discovering that he clashes with the former.
- heartbreak 5y agoI don’t know about progressive, but he’s definitely something. Here’s his last in-person RailsConf keynote: https://youtu.be/VBwWbFpkltg https://youtu.be/VBwWbFpkltg He’s promoting anarcho-communism in a RailsConf keynote.
- gscott 5y agoOdds are if the conference told him to keep it on topic... he would decline to show up ever again!
- KODeKarnage 5y agoNow imagine he was offered 6 months pay to not show up ever again!
- randomsearch 5y agotbf, when basecamp set out woke twitter wasn't a problem.
- iainctduncan 5y agoBut what leads us to believe it was a surprise? Genuinely curious, did they say they were shocked? I would assume the opposite with an offer that generous.
- kbuchanan 5y ago> The real problem is that they’ve spent years hiring for a type of person where this sort of thing is anathema. This is dead on: the real issue here is not politics vs. not-politics at work—Basecamp is having a crisis because expectations were broken.