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> The equivalent in the case of Google would be that it is not enough to not be evil; one must be “anti-evil” as well. This sentence alone, and within the para
by browningstreet 3y ago
> The equivalent in the case of Google would be that it is not enough to not be evil; one must be “anti-evil” as well.
This sentence alone, and within the paragraph that hosts it, is pretty meaningless. Their (even benign) racial restrictions are the result of not just timidity but also their internal anti-evil signals. Not addressing that in the Stratechery article seems short-sighted.
In fact, this whole article builds and then just ends, without saying anything particularly poignant. It's like a movie review that mostly recounts the plot of the movie and ends with one or two sentences about production or script.
Google doesn't want to offend or be racist, which is their "don't be evil" directive. The boundaries of those controls weren't well thought through, and were mostly limiting gates, without some pass-throughs for reasonable requests.
I think Google needs to do better, but this article isn't the insightful critical salvo he meant it to be.
- digging 3y agoI also felt the article was a bit confused and weak. Actually I can't even tell exactly what is the change in Google's culture they'd advocate for.
- burnerburnson 3y ago> Google doesn't want to offend or be racist This is where you're wrong. A non-trivial percentage of Google's workforce does want to be racist and does want to offend. And despite the fact that this group is a minority in the company, their lack of scruples allows them to have substantial power in setting corporate policy. Since they're willing to play dirty, they get their way more often than the employees who play by the rules.
- xdennis 3y ago> Google doesn't want to offend or be racist, Treating one race differently from others is being racist. This whole thing blew up because people were offended by Google's racism.
- browningstreet 3y agoI said they didn't want to be racist, what they haven't yet figured out is: 1) how to not be racist, while aligning with 2) how to be anti-racist. They've also confused "racial" with "racist".