4 ms·

Having read this post and pg's essay (and comments), I think the pitch forks have been raised and we should calm down. Yes, removing "these" was a bad judgement

Having read this post and pg's essay (and comments), I think the pitch forks have been raised and we should calm down. Yes, removing "these" was a bad judgement call, and I believe the true intentions were hidden in the post. It was an editorial mistake that caught pg off guard and went viral, making it a "disaster". In hindsight, things could have been better communicated and better organized; but everything is better with hindsight. In the end, the mistake was corrected and we hopefully all learned something from this debacle.

redwood 13y ago
You bring up a good point: Whether or not the quote was damagingly modified (which it was) we have a greater problem in our society than a journalist mis-quoting, and that's an obsession with link-bait BS.
thatswrong0 13y ago
> It was an editorial mistake Yet this post doesn't acknowledge it as such: > We edited a bit around some of Mr. Graham’s quotes on female founders. Specifically, we edited a “these” from the quote. The reason was simple. The “these” didn’t refer to anything. > ... > Mr. Graham has since said the “these” referred to women who aren’t programmers. In our opinion, he didn’t say that to us. We’re happy for him to have clarified to the public. No acknowledgement that they made a mistake. That's the sound of heels digging in.
gbog 13y ago
> It was an editorial mistake that caught pg off guard I can't understand this. "Guarding oneself" should mean to be carefully watching one's own word in order to avoid saying bad things, right? Then this would imply that these "bad things" are there, in the mind, but shouldn't be said, right? And being "caught off guard" would mean that the person (here pg) would have lifted his own self-checker for a second, letting his "real thoughts" leak outside, is that right? Then I plainly, furiously disagree with all the process: - I disagree that pg has "bad (hear sexist) thoughts" - I disagree that saying something about female founder is sexist - I disagree that social issues should be solved by guarding oneself from saying misinterpretable things - I freaking disagree with all this new trend, I believe it is an extremely dangerous experiment on human minds. My theory is that the essays pg wrote against PC are the reason of the attacks he is experiencing right now. I nearly moved to the USA 3 years ago. I am happy I did not and stayed in China because all in all I prefer China's censorship, which is plain and solid, right here, and doesn't hide.

redwood 13y ago

You bring up a good point: Whether or not the quote was damagingly modified (which it was) we have a greater problem in our society than a journalist mis-quoting, and that's an obsession with link-bait BS.

thatswrong0 13y ago

> It was an editorial mistake Yet this post doesn't acknowledge it as such: > We edited a bit around some of Mr. Graham’s quotes on female founders. Specifically, we edited a “these” from the quote. The reason was simple. The “these” didn’t refer to anything. > ... > Mr. Graham has since said the “these” referred to women who aren’t programmers. In our opinion, he didn’t say that to us. We’re happy for him to have clarified to the public. No acknowledgement that they made a mistake. That's the sound of heels digging in.

gbog 13y ago

> It was an editorial mistake that caught pg off guard I can't understand this. "Guarding oneself" should mean to be carefully watching one's own word in order to avoid saying bad things, right? Then this would imply that these "bad things" are there, in the mind, but shouldn't be said, right? And being "caught off guard" would mean that the person (here pg) would have lifted his own self-checker for a second, letting his "real thoughts" leak outside, is that right? Then I plainly, furiously disagree with all the process: - I disagree that pg has "bad (hear sexist) thoughts" - I disagree that saying something about female founder is sexist - I disagree that social issues should be solved by guarding oneself from saying misinterpretable things - I freaking disagree with all this new trend, I believe it is an extremely dangerous experiment on human minds. My theory is that the essays pg wrote against PC are the reason of the attacks he is experiencing right now. I nearly moved to the USA 3 years ago. I am happy I did not and stayed in China because all in all I prefer China's censorship, which is plain and solid, right here, and doesn't hide.