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It really does a disservice to the cause as well. If we assume everything bad is the work of untouchable dark figures in smoke filled rooms, we'll never confro
by jayd16 3y ago
It really does a disservice to the cause as well. If we assume everything bad is the work of untouchable dark figures in smoke filled rooms, we'll never confront the real problem of various policies with broken incentives.
- __loam 3y agoSilicon Valley does have untouchable dark figures in smoke filled rooms though. Many of them have a podcast.
- BurningFrog 3y agoCan't remember last time I met a Silicon Valley person that smokes.
- ulizzle 3y agoWeed, there’s plenty.
- HaZeust 3y agoThen you're not getting out there if you live in the Valley, lol.
- omginternets 3y agoAs if that were the relevant part of the imagery…
- BurningFrog 3y agoWhere else does the smoke that fills the room come from?
- omginternets 3y agoI’d be content with some recognition that there are multiple such figures with a plurality of opinions and impulses, and that this is the main driver behind SV’s apparent “personality disorder”. So framed, we can at least call for these shadowy figures (many of whom have names and public personas) to engage with some of the contradictions of SV and suggest ways to resolve them.
- __loam 3y agoWhy would they resolve any of these contradictions? Those "contradictions" are their beliefs, and they benefit directly from them.
- logifail 3y ago> If we assume everything bad is the work of untouchable dark figures in smoke filled rooms, we'll never confront the real problem of various policies with broken incentives In that worldview I think it's the dark figures in smoke-filled rooms who are in charge of all policy, broken-incentive or not. More seriously: in any system where broken incentives are [still] in place, isn't it typically those in power who are primarily responsible for that being so?
- jayd16 3y agoMy point is that if you start from a position that the powerful make policy and we are not powerful then we accept hopelessness and cede any power or responsibility we do have.
- krapp 3y agoNo, it just means we accept that we have no power working within the system, only working against it. Which, for every demographic in the US besides white, straight Christian men, has often just been the self-evident truth.
- antonvs 3y agoThat’s not what this piece is saying. It’s calling out the toxic ideologies that are indeed common in SV, especially among leadership. There’s no question that those attitudes strongly influence how companies are run and what lobbying is done. That influence extends out to government and other companies that buy into that technocratic mindset. The overarching policy here with broken incentives is the kind of relatively unrestricted capitalism which Silicon Valley would be loath to give up. Most of the attitudes listed in the article tie strongly into that: money is seen as defining worth, values that can’t be monetized or that inhibit profit are rejected, often vehemently, and so on. If you’re inclined to dismiss a piece like this, it may be because you’re too enmeshed in at least some of the ideologies in question to recognize its accuracy.
- __loam 3y ago[flagged]