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> But let’s talk about my unfair advantage – my Lyon family mafia. I was living with my brother Bob and his wife. Bob was working at Xerox SDD developing the Xe
by gopalv 1y ago
> But let’s talk about my unfair advantage – my Lyon family mafia. I was living with my brother Bob and his wife. Bob was working at Xerox SDD developing the Xerox Star workstation. And my brother Dick was at Xerox PARC with an Alto on his desk
Sometimes, I feel like the whole downwards trend having a single kid loses the family aspect of my previous generation - I meet enough people who don't have uncles, aunts, nieces or nephews for nepotism (literal) to work sideways on.
Nobody to pull them up and nobody to pull up in term. Not dynasties of tiger children, but simply support in minor ways.
I got into Linux because my uncle's brother in law worked in computer repair when I was 14, back when India still needed to fill in an export control form to download software. Another uncle sent me extra 32Mb of RAM from Dubai and a modem which wasn't a winmodem (& my dad hated him for the phone bills).
> We were just managing a house mortgage with 3 full time incomes. Interest rates then were well above 10%.
- Take8435 1y ago> Sometimes, I feel like the whole downwards trend having a single kid loses the family aspect of my previous generation There are many reasons folks have no kids or only one kid. I don't think opining for a larger family 'for the chance' of having a family member with similar tastes is really... compelling. > Nobody to pull them up and nobody to pull up in term. Not dynasties of tiger children, but simply support in minor ways. Are you saying friends cannot provide support in minor ways? In my view, it's more compelling to solution the many downsides of nepotism (esp. in governments not just private entities) rather than endorse or perpetuate it.
- ghaff 1y agoI pretty much agree. All of my jobs since grad school have come through professional connections—none remotely through relatives.
- geodel 1y ago> In my view, it's more compelling to solution the many downsides of nepotism The solution is endless growing bureaucracy to implement and enforce fairness at every level and it is happening everywhere I can see. > Are you saying friends cannot provide support in minor ways? From my experience family members have some sort of obligation towards other members( though maybe less true or just untrue in modern day US) whereas friends can say yes or no to any request purely based on convenience.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- mulmen 1y ago> The solution is endless growing bureaucracy to implement and enforce fairness at every level and it is happening everywhere I can see. Really? Endless? Everywhere? “I can see” is doing a lot of work there. > From my experience family members have some sort of obligation towards other members( though maybe less true or just untrue in modern day US) whereas friends can say yes or no to any request purely based on convenience. Ostensibly the United States is a meritocracy. Nepotism is a form of corruption. It’s fine to help your family and peers with their career development but it’s not ok to hire them based purely on your relationship.
- pcl 1y agoI don’t think that’s really fair. Nepotism has a lot of negatives, but also positives. It’s a form of management and hiring, not a form of corruption. It can be bad for a business, but it also can be good, especially once you take the owners’ goals for the business into account.
- Take8435 1y agoIt's actually considered a form of political corruption. Not necessarily illegal corruption but corruption in the "normal" sense of decision making and dealings of the organization.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- no_wizard 1y ago>Ostensibly the United States is a meritocracy. I have yet to see any of this purported meritocracy. I see lots of nepotism (as well as adjacent behaviors similar to nepotism) and things typically associated with oligarchy, even in the world of business. Who you know and your background have so much to do with success that outliers are rounding errors for a reason. It has nothing to do with ability or any accepted definition of merit as related to meritocracy.
- CommenterPerson 1y agoThe author used Nepotism tongue in cheek. It's clear he was pretty talented. He was just saying his family was also talented and knew people in Silicon Valley.
- lysace 1y ago> I meet enough people who don't have uncles, aunts, nieces or nephews for nepotism (literal) to work sideways on. In terms of optimizing for happiness and life fulfillment, I think less nepotism is probably good, even in the literal sense.
- cryptonector 1y agoNepotism is not a great reason to want larger families...
- roywashere 1y agoIn this case, the Lyons were not providing each other jobs. But they shared insights into which companies had cool tech. And they inspired each other with the nice work stations! Much different. And not really 'nepotism'.
- cryptonector 1y agoFair!
- asdsadasdasd123 1y ago[flagged]