Silicon Valley Techno-Utopianism

and yeah the memo is mostly about gender but, in v anodyne language, it's all there:

Be open about the science of human nature.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3914586-Googles-Ideological-Echo-Chamber.html

○ Once we acknowledge that not all differences are socially constructed or due to discrimination, we open our eyes to a more accurate view of the human condition which is necessary if we actually want to solve problems.

yeah there's a lot of dog whistles in there. this isn't a naive guy who has no idea who he's aligning himself with.

lol I have a couple scientist friends who are brilliant and analytical but occasionally will make a guess or assumption about something outside their field and it's painfully naive. I love them, though

imo he might still be naive enough not to know why these ideas are bad or why people reacted to his words the way they did

that's the other emotional intelligence thing that they miss -- having an idea of how your ideas are perceived by others is important when communicating with them. if you're a successful racist or sexist you still need the *perception by others* that you're an understanding person, even if you're actually hiring all men because you're a misogynist

really aside from the content i have trouble wrapping my mind around the motivation here. yes i assume these things all seem painfully self-evident to him, but... i mean who on earth is going to write up a report about an extremely painful and contentious political subject and then send it to everyone at work. it's nuts!

this is literally how software bros communicate, via long manifesto. I don't think he sent it as in email, but posted it to his public google docs and linked it in their discussions or w/e

ok. something about the internal culture there is clearly alien to me.

there are a number of software blogger types that have been linked on a handful of threads, I get the impression that blog-like posting internally at google is a thing for people to do when they want to make broad proposals, although someone closer to their internal culture can confirm that

he's not objectionable, but the formatting and graph interjections reminded me of blogs like Jeff Atwood's:
https://blog.codinghorror.com/

btw never forget http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/pharaohs-silicon-valley-my-journey-through-google--2618

From someone at Harvard: pic.twitter.com/N30hlRSSra

— Matthew Garrett (@mjg59) August 8, 2017

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

I'm awful curious

has anyone noted that firing someone for doing what he did actually helps workplace "psychological safety" and is a very authoritarian, strong position to take? he should be in favor, imo

this is a great summary, and although I can't speak to it's accuracy, sounds about right from what I know
(url is about the topic in general, the specific comment is about Google's hiring culture)
http://www.metafilter.com/168651/Misogyny-based-on-flawed-erroneous-outdated-social-science-theories#7123515

https://www.wired.com/story/internal-messages-james-damore-google-memo

Rather than dismiss race science out of hand, Damore responds that he doesn't "know as much about racial issues" as he does about "gender ones." He goes on to claim, "Also, women and men have repeatedly been shown to have biologically driven differences in population level distributions of traits so it’s much easier to understand some of the forces (and their solution) behind the gender gap."
Eventually, Damore takes offense as he catches on: "I’ve been told by multiple people that you’re trying to bait me into saying something to get me fired and that you’ve done it before. This is perhaps the least Googley thing I’ve heard anyone do, please stop.”

in case ppl want to read a more non-CW liberal take, scott alexander is here to help: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/08/07/contra-grant-on-exaggerated-differences/

I keep seeing references to that site, what's their deal?

to scott alexander? he's a long time blogger who often has insightful things to say. he's center-left & a psychiatrist irl but he has a kinda contrarian streak as well.

he'd definitely be towards the right by ilx standards but he polls the readership regularly and he has about even conservative + liberal self-identifying readers and they generally say it has a slight liberal tilt.

(lol giving you an entire political ideology apologia but u kno this is where we're at now so)

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Scott_Alexander

I get the idea his readers/followers lean on certain issues a lot more than he does, but his own reading list leans toward people he disagrees with but is sympathetic to? tbh anyone who assumes you're familiar with M0ldbug is probably a little too deep into the "why should I read this" blogs

re the extended metaphor talk, these comments are from voxday.blogspot.com/2017/08/suppressing-dissent-at-google.html (a gamergate white supremacist site)

I despise SJWs too, but just wanted to provide a quick fact check: The author does not have a PhD; he "left" his PhD program in part due to fallout from a department-wide presentation where he discussed masturbating to his female colleagues.

and

@Weatherlea: The event occurred at a retreat and the conflict stemmed from the fact that the department wanted an apology while the author felt he did nothing wrong. Though SJW excesses in Silicon Valley need to be exposed, this guy isn't the right guy to stand behind.

also

Later, in what appears to be a group for libertarian-leaning Google employees, Damore asked for feedback, noting that his own libertarianism "influenced a lot of the document."

no fucking kidding

The whole thing he kept citing about people not feeling safe in certain positions is some real concern troll-style garbage, right? The libertarian/meritocracy line would be to let people work in positions they are qualified for and let them use their own judgment about their lives, with management having a sink-or-swim attitude. It’s this disingenuous “they’re not really qualified” opinion he has that he’s trying to temper with the idea he feels concerned

i haven't seen ppl commenting on the framing of his manifesto - v. rationalwiki/lesswrong but also afaik not that far away from the standard collective-self-optimization rhetoric that google promotes among its employees, embracing sober confrontation of biases and inefficiencies in thinking with the data that can be used to correct them

it seems like maybe that's one of the issues? that there is an older google culture colliding with a newer one?

you mean the data scientists vs the redditors?

as it were?

vs the gamergaters

.. I failed to make the connection that the graph in the manifestbro is in GamerGate colors pic.twitter.com/0fQfOhAeXw

— Geoffrey Thomas 🍥 (@geofft) August 8, 2017

this seems like a stretch, but i keep being disappointed so anything's possible

they have colors??!?

solid white iirc

https://www.fastcodesign.com/3037941/the-secret-meaning-behind-gamergates-branding

if I click on that am I going to have to see their astroturf female mascot

http://gizmodo.com/fired-google-memo-writer-took-part-in-controversial-s-1797658885/amp

Stop clickbaiting and say the idea

controversial s

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/the-most-common-error-in-coverage-of-the-google-memo/536181/

lol is there a creep conor friedersdorf won't defend to the death their right to etc etc

Three sources allege that Damore told what they characterized as a masturbation-related joke during the course of the performance, which fell flat and offended some in the audience. However, two sources attributed the backlash to the performance not to any malice on the part of Damore, but instead to his awkward delivery.

Multiple sources also allege that the skit was viewed as problematic among many individuals in the department and that a number of people were offended by the specific masturbation joke. The administration later issued the formal apology to the group for the skit overall.

this is like my worst nightmare, telling a joke in front of an audience that falls flat and then years later it's being dissected my multiple witnesses in a magazine article (not to say that he didn't bring it on himself etc etc)

graduate school comedy is already a nightmare

so it turns out this guy is probably not a total moron and just a sleaze looking for a payout from google?

those aren't mutually exclusive characteristics tbf

be nice if there was a way to fight this garbage w/o creating more RW culture heroes

https://twitter.com/Fired4Truth

chuck johnson, stefan molynaux, quillette mag, jordan peterson, mike cernovich, dana rohrabacher, one of the milo clones

lmao https://twitter.com/Fired4Truth/following

*fart noise*

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-a-google-manufacturing-robot-and-i-believe-humans-are-biologically-unfit-to-have-jobs-in-tech

That was actually funny

A little

my employer, a large corp, bought a startup this week. their website indicates they have had a bunch of venture capital partners and the ceo guy is going to be leading our group that develops software tools for customers

kind of intriguing, I want to meet this dude and see what that's all about