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It matters because the memo as being portrayed as 'the opinion of Google' by websites looking for clicks. The opinion is as relevant or not as any opinion expr
by MrScruff 3y ago
It matters because the memo as being portrayed as 'the opinion of Google' by websites looking for clicks.
The opinion is as relevant or not as any opinion expressed on Hacker News, the fact that the person who expressed it works for Google is irrelevant.
- startupsfail 3y agoWell, there a honest opinion of an unbiased engineer, ideally a researcher who was trained to filter his own biases, from the inside of the organization , speaking honesty is likely the best approximation that you can get for “an opinion of Google”. It is important that the engineer is an insider, as from outside of Google access to its internal knowledge is limited.
- skybrian 3y agoGooglers are no more unbiased than someone who gets a job somewhere else. Getting a job at Google might affect your opinions somewhat when you see what people are doing, but there is no special training in being unbiased. Also, the document we're discussing was not written as a serious research paper. It's a more like one of Steve Yegge's rants, written to be provocative. When something Yegge wrote while at Google leaked, people knew who he was, so it was interpreted as "here's what Yegge thinks." It's the same in this case, but it's someone else who isn't famous.
- mattlondon 3y ago> but there is no special training in being unbiased Citation needed! ;-)
- skybrian 3y agoWell, I didn't get any training like that when I worked there, but it was a long time ago and I don't know what they're teaching Nooglers these days. I suppose you might be referring to diversity training, but it's not the same thing.
- startupsfail 3y agoUnderstanding and preventing unwanted biases is a part of basic training in science, statistics and experimental design.