michaelochurch

11 ms·

31.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
This is accurate. The "tech" industry is 95% marketing that uses technology, not actual technology. The bad guys have won in Silicon Valley and I don't see there being any way to reverse that.
32.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
I was actually enjoying the streak of quality comments that were downvoted. Until this one went to +2, I had a 6-long streak.
33.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
This was a great talk. Thanks for posting it.
34.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
A lot of it is authentic misogyny, because there are a lot of bad people out there and misogyny is as old (and as new) as dirt. My point is that programmers and technologists, as a group, aren't inclined to be worse than the general po
35.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
I didn't say that it was universally accepted as a good thing or that women didn't deal with an unacceptable amount of sexism. They did, and they still do. The generations that were most aggressive about pushing women out of the
36.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
I was hoping that this would be about the term "unicorn", which can't go away too soon. It reflects the juvenility of the Valley, that people are too creepy-humble amount money to say "a billion dollars" (teehee!) a
37.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
If we want to have a meaningful discussion about sexism in tech, it's time to talk about what we're up against, and it involves all of us: not just women and minorities. If it doesn't involve us now, it will in 20 years when
38.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
No one made San Francisco the most expensive place in the country on purpose. That’s the tragedy. I disagree. I've worked for a couple "limousine liberals" in New York. So has my wife and so have many of my friends. Many of
39.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
You know what I consider a distraction? Fucking electrons . Seriously. Half the time, they seem to be killing people. You know that people who do nothing wrong sometimes get killed by electricity that comes from the fucking sky , like out
40.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
We (the U.S.) are the favorite country for criminals hiding their wealth, and it's not even close. The problem is that they buy real estate in the most expensive areas (New York, Bay Area) and that hurts far more people than it helps
41.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
I'm no fan of Uber and I can't stand its founder or his ridiculous smirk but... they played this well. Uber's got game when it comes to politics. If either political party ever learned demagoguery from Travis, I'd be sca
42.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
Am I being asked to take seriously the company that produced this atrocity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMJIBxtDUHc
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by michaelochurch 11y ago
The Car was supposed to kill The Landlord by increasing the supply of adequate housing and driving residential land prices near zero. It didn't work, for the reasons you described. First, driving itself is very expensive, especially if
44.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
On Silicon Valley: Yet Facebook, Apple and Google — companies that brag about their forward thinking — are trying to reinvent this template of the past. They have commissioned high-profile architects to design versions of the ultimate offi
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by michaelochurch 11y ago
The faster-than-exponential growth phenomenon (I prefer to avoid the term "singularity", which makes no physical or mathematical sense) goes back billions of years. It took 2.5 billion years for life to get to sexual reproduction,
46.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
If I hear that word "scrappy" one more time, I won't have any veins left in my neck to pop.
47.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
What I mean is that the accelerated birth-and-death cycle of American organizations isn't entirely the result of technology or widespread access to capital. We've also lost much of our ability to form organizations worth caring ab
48.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
I think that it will be local in its impact. We're probably not going to see it hurt the wider market. Bankers will have a laugh at Sand Hill's expense. The few pension funds that got substantially invested in VC will be hurt, but
49.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
I think that this article is basically right, but would add that bubbles are generally dangerous based on what they represent, financially and culturally. If Bitcoin hits $1,000 again, it's not innately dangerous (unlike housing, no on
50.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
How is agreeing that posted salary numbers are accurate "baiting of googlers"? Why is every discussion of fact treated as incendiary? People react as if they were baited when they see my name. That's on them, not me.
51.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
Yes, I have. It failed. No one used it, so it didn't require maintenance. I assume that that's not what you're looking for, though. There's a fine line between "maintenance" and "improvement", and wit
52.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
Telling someone to "leave" is saying that he's not contributing. I should probably leave this thread, which I think only you and I care about. That's not an insult to me. There are conversations in which I am not useful
53.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
If technology is going to outgrow the existing manchild oligarchy, it has to leave Silicon Valley. It's impossible (for a critical mass of people, if not necessarily the individual) to be anything but The Man's bitch in a place wh
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by michaelochurch 11y ago
My guess would be that this may drive engineers to the Midwest, with its lower cost of real estate and already-entrenched culture of cooperatives (in agriculture and some industries) and worker-led structures like labor unions. Places like
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by michaelochurch 11y ago
What's common to both is that they are not passive, and that neither believes in a myth of "fairness" that promises them rewards simply for their work ethic. What rich and poor have in common -- and the middle class often mi
56.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
Usually, the answer is that companies would rather offer severance or settle than go into discovery if they fire someone for legal, bullshit reasons. Companies don't want their reasons for firing people in the public. If they said they
57.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
I will confirm that these numbers are accurate. I've heard that bonus percentages improve when you reach Staff. Google also has, interesting enough, High Compensation Plans (HCPs) for people it's trying to bring in from finance. O
58.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
Sure, but then you have to live in St. Louis, Missouri. Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Austin, Minneapolis, and Boston are more affordable than the Bay Area, and generally considered to be good places to live. (I won't say anything eith
59.
by michaelochurch 11y ago
This seems like the opposite of the Four-Hour Work Week (which I also don't buy, because while most office jobs can be compressed into 4 hours/week, most worthwhile work can't) in the sense of the emphasis on multitasking and
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by michaelochurch 11y ago
I'm working on one called Full Stack Goto that's going to be downright exception al.

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