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My initial reaction reading this (I had t heard the news) was disbelief. How could someone so accomplished and influential be driven to such despair over what s

My initial reaction reading this (I had t heard the news) was disbelief. How could someone so accomplished and influential be driven to such despair over what seems to be an interpersonal workplace conflict? But the more I think about it, the more I get it. Many of us pour our identities into our work. It becomes more than a job. It’s our purpose, our sense of self. When that’s destabilized or taken away, the fallout can be devastating. It’s a sad reminder of how vulnerable those who care deeply about their work can be in the face of toxic or unjust environments. Passion and commitment, when met with indifference or hostility, can push anyone to a breaking point.

falcor84 2y ago
>over what seems to be an interpersonal workplace conflict Well, it started with an interpersonal workplace conflict, but ended up with him being forced to retire from his professorship and the entrepreneurial mentoring program he saw as his mission.
- mrguyorama 2y ago
  We have zero data or evidence to differentiate between "He was pushed out for being right about the ethics complaint" and "he was pushed out because he was wrong about the ethics complaint and did not take that well" People are jumping to conclusions about who the aggrieved party is because they have a vague connection to the guy who made HowStuffWorks and zero connection to the counterparty. Especially on HN, people would rather believe that "the system is rigged against the brilliant individual" rather than "the individual can often be the problem". Just as often as upper management is corrupt, a single individual who had NO PRIOR EVIDENCE OF NEGATIVE INTERACTION WITH ANYONE goes absolutely apeshit and attempts to destroy your life. My mother is a well respected teacher. After about 4 years of working in a new school, one of the other teachers in her department seemingly got "triggered" and went utterly insane. He started fabricating ethics complaints, lying to administrators, and even went so far as to retain a lawyer to sue the school district to have her removed for his completely made up allegations. I read the complaint and I cannot believe a lawyer was willing to be paid to participate. It was pages of insane rantings, like manifesto level, full of misspellings and mistakes and made up entirely of outright lies. The internal investigation was terrifying, because it starts as "He said/She said". Luckily he was crazy enough to fill his allegations with things that were demonstrably disprovable with documentation, but without that, the school absolutely would have just let my mother go instead of fight it. There was no "cause", no change in department policy that favored my mother over him, no change in pecking order, nothing. He just one day decided to go to war with her. He completely lost his connection to reality. Yet to his students, he continued to teach normally, and nothing seemed off. We have no facts. We have no evidence. We likely never will. We should reserve judgement.
  - xeonmc 2y ago
    > Especially on HN, people would rather believe that "the system is rigged against the brilliant individual" rather than "the individual can often be the problem". Slightly off topic question, but is this Silicon-Randian projection really particularly widespread on HN by and large or only for specific subset of topics?
  - walty8 2y ago
    Actually, my experience is, there is always a cause. But some causes could be very subtle or unexpected.
gamblor956 2y ago
There are indications that the office space conflict was simply the last straw in a long line of interpersonal conflicts he had with other faculty. For example, he frequently filed ethics complaints against other faculty after minor disagreements... putting their careers at risk over trivial matters. He may have been well like by the internet but he was not well liked at the school, and the relative silence by faculty and students is pretty telling.
- oasisaimlessly 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - gamblor956 2y ago
    You do understand that the supposed genesis of this (in Mr. Brain's own words) was that he filed an ethics complaint about his boss because she decided to reassign some office space he wasn't using anymore? In what world do you think that this sort of behavior is remotely acceptable? How would you feel if a co-worker filed a harassment claim against you (which could have serious career consequences for you) for moving their lunch bag in the office refrigerator? That's basically what he did. Being allowed to resign was letting him off easy; at most universities he could have been terminated for cause. Again: Mr. Brain put a colleague's career in jeopardy over office space. Think about that really hard before you comment again.
    - yzydserd 2y ago
      > at most universities he could have been terminated for cause Is that really true? In my country, there are employment laws to prevent the suffering of detriment post reporting of an incident, grievance, or violation, even if (especially if) the claim is found baseless. It’s important for these regulations to exist because without them some people fear reporting true problems as they may lose their job, and the wrongdoers do more wrong in such a culture. Processes should deal with baseless, frivolous, or even vexatious claims far in advance of any consideration of termination of employment. But I’m clueless on US labor laws, apart from a general suspicion they’re relatively thin.
hulitu 2y ago
[flagged]
- lotsofpulp 2y ago
  The haughty projections about robots in the future with specific years seemed weirdly confident to me, too.
  - Terretta 2y ago
    And yet we have them sooner.
    - lotsofpulp 2y ago
      Guess I need to pay more attention to the humanoid robots around me, and less attention to the fact that hotels offer less housekeeping services, restaurants offer smaller menus and less wait service, plumbers and electricians and other tradespeople have longer lead times…things that tend to happen when demand for work is increasing faster than supply of labor to perform the work.
      - Terretta 2y ago
        Step one is telepresence for toil, allowing long distance labor arbitrage: https://cybernews.com/ai-news/watney-robots-fold-your-laundry/ https://cybernews.com/ai-news/watney-robots-fold-your-laundr... Step zero is purpose built robots, since the human form isn't necessary for most repetitive tasks: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/amazon-robotics-robots-fulfillment-center https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/amazon-robotics-... What I was referring to though is that the Boston Dynamics dogs and Sony spaceman efforts of a decade ago have iterated faster than thought when those predictions were made: https://cybernews.com/science/humanoid-robot-dance/ https://cybernews.com/science/humanoid-robot-dance/ But here's an example where it's coming together, and this was the specific robot I had in mind when I said "they're here": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3J250fr_V4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3J250fr_V4
- 2y ago
willio58 2y ago
> It becomes more than a job. It’s our purpose, our sense of self. Also, consider Brain made a quarter of 1 Billion dollars with the sale of his company. The man didn't have to work, it was his choice to work. I think this contributes even more to the feeling that work is your identity.
- walterbell 2y ago
  > Brain made a quarter of 1 Billion dollars Incorrect. The company burned through venture capital for three years, then laid off 50% of workers and was sold in 2002 to vulture capital for ~$1MM with no cash trading hands, only a promissory note [1] to the previous underwater investors. No liquidity to founders. The 2002 purchaser, Convex Group, scaled the company, took the company public via reverse IPO and sold it five years later to Discovery TV for $250MM. Seven years later, Discovery took a 82% loss, selling the company for $45MM. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20240717220914/https://genesis-capital.com/the-convex-group-acquires-howstuffworks-inc/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240717220914/https://genesis-c...
  - willio58 2y ago
    Oh interesting! The original article linked in the post really skips over all of those details and makes it seem like he sold the company for 250 million
IlPeach 2y ago
Yeah workism is real [1] 1: https://theweek.com/culture-life/workism-new-religion https://theweek.com/culture-life/workism-new-religion

falcor84 2y ago

>over what seems to be an interpersonal workplace conflict Well, it started with an interpersonal workplace conflict, but ended up with him being forced to retire from his professorship and the entrepreneurial mentoring program he saw as his mission.

mrguyorama 2y ago
We have zero data or evidence to differentiate between "He was pushed out for being right about the ethics complaint" and "he was pushed out because he was wrong about the ethics complaint and did not take that well" People are jumping to conclusions about who the aggrieved party is because they have a vague connection to the guy who made HowStuffWorks and zero connection to the counterparty. Especially on HN, people would rather believe that "the system is rigged against the brilliant individual" rather than "the individual can often be the problem". Just as often as upper management is corrupt, a single individual who had NO PRIOR EVIDENCE OF NEGATIVE INTERACTION WITH ANYONE goes absolutely apeshit and attempts to destroy your life. My mother is a well respected teacher. After about 4 years of working in a new school, one of the other teachers in her department seemingly got "triggered" and went utterly insane. He started fabricating ethics complaints, lying to administrators, and even went so far as to retain a lawyer to sue the school district to have her removed for his completely made up allegations. I read the complaint and I cannot believe a lawyer was willing to be paid to participate. It was pages of insane rantings, like manifesto level, full of misspellings and mistakes and made up entirely of outright lies. The internal investigation was terrifying, because it starts as "He said/She said". Luckily he was crazy enough to fill his allegations with things that were demonstrably disprovable with documentation, but without that, the school absolutely would have just let my mother go instead of fight it. There was no "cause", no change in department policy that favored my mother over him, no change in pecking order, nothing. He just one day decided to go to war with her. He completely lost his connection to reality. Yet to his students, he continued to teach normally, and nothing seemed off. We have no facts. We have no evidence. We likely never will. We should reserve judgement.
- xeonmc 2y ago
  > Especially on HN, people would rather believe that "the system is rigged against the brilliant individual" rather than "the individual can often be the problem". Slightly off topic question, but is this Silicon-Randian projection really particularly widespread on HN by and large or only for specific subset of topics?
- walty8 2y ago
  Actually, my experience is, there is always a cause. But some causes could be very subtle or unexpected.

gamblor956 2y ago

There are indications that the office space conflict was simply the last straw in a long line of interpersonal conflicts he had with other faculty. For example, he frequently filed ethics complaints against other faculty after minor disagreements... putting their careers at risk over trivial matters. He may have been well like by the internet but he was not well liked at the school, and the relative silence by faculty and students is pretty telling.

oasisaimlessly 2y ago
[flagged]
- gamblor956 2y ago
  You do understand that the supposed genesis of this (in Mr. Brain's own words) was that he filed an ethics complaint about his boss because she decided to reassign some office space he wasn't using anymore? In what world do you think that this sort of behavior is remotely acceptable? How would you feel if a co-worker filed a harassment claim against you (which could have serious career consequences for you) for moving their lunch bag in the office refrigerator? That's basically what he did. Being allowed to resign was letting him off easy; at most universities he could have been terminated for cause. Again: Mr. Brain put a colleague's career in jeopardy over office space. Think about that really hard before you comment again.
  - yzydserd 2y ago
    > at most universities he could have been terminated for cause Is that really true? In my country, there are employment laws to prevent the suffering of detriment post reporting of an incident, grievance, or violation, even if (especially if) the claim is found baseless. It’s important for these regulations to exist because without them some people fear reporting true problems as they may lose their job, and the wrongdoers do more wrong in such a culture. Processes should deal with baseless, frivolous, or even vexatious claims far in advance of any consideration of termination of employment. But I’m clueless on US labor laws, apart from a general suspicion they’re relatively thin.

hulitu 2y ago

[flagged]

lotsofpulp 2y ago
The haughty projections about robots in the future with specific years seemed weirdly confident to me, too.
- Terretta 2y ago
  And yet we have them sooner.
  - lotsofpulp 2y ago
    Guess I need to pay more attention to the humanoid robots around me, and less attention to the fact that hotels offer less housekeeping services, restaurants offer smaller menus and less wait service, plumbers and electricians and other tradespeople have longer lead times…things that tend to happen when demand for work is increasing faster than supply of labor to perform the work.
    - Terretta 2y ago
      Step one is telepresence for toil, allowing long distance labor arbitrage: https://cybernews.com/ai-news/watney-robots-fold-your-laundry/ https://cybernews.com/ai-news/watney-robots-fold-your-laundr... Step zero is purpose built robots, since the human form isn't necessary for most repetitive tasks: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/amazon-robotics-robots-fulfillment-center https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/amazon-robotics-... What I was referring to though is that the Boston Dynamics dogs and Sony spaceman efforts of a decade ago have iterated faster than thought when those predictions were made: https://cybernews.com/science/humanoid-robot-dance/ https://cybernews.com/science/humanoid-robot-dance/ But here's an example where it's coming together, and this was the specific robot I had in mind when I said "they're here": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3J250fr_V4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3J250fr_V4
2y ago

willio58 2y ago

> It becomes more than a job. It’s our purpose, our sense of self. Also, consider Brain made a quarter of 1 Billion dollars with the sale of his company. The man didn't have to work, it was his choice to work. I think this contributes even more to the feeling that work is your identity.

walterbell 2y ago
> Brain made a quarter of 1 Billion dollars Incorrect. The company burned through venture capital for three years, then laid off 50% of workers and was sold in 2002 to vulture capital for ~$1MM with no cash trading hands, only a promissory note [1] to the previous underwater investors. No liquidity to founders. The 2002 purchaser, Convex Group, scaled the company, took the company public via reverse IPO and sold it five years later to Discovery TV for $250MM. Seven years later, Discovery took a 82% loss, selling the company for $45MM. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20240717220914/https://genesis-capital.com/the-convex-group-acquires-howstuffworks-inc/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240717220914/https://genesis-c...
- willio58 2y ago
  Oh interesting! The original article linked in the post really skips over all of those details and makes it seem like he sold the company for 250 million

IlPeach 2y ago

Yeah workism is real [1] 1: https://theweek.com/culture-life/workism-new-religion https://theweek.com/culture-life/workism-new-religion