The context of the original post is a hiring manager moralizing only considering candidates from underrepresented groups. I think many people have a deep sense of empathy for the struggles of people trying to climb the economic ladder and starting from a lesser point. I commend Apple for investing in the Propel center in Atlanta and creating a developer program in Detroit as creative ways to alleviate the social problem, but a hiring manager exclusively considering underrepresented minorities is discrimination and will lead to more racial resentment. If we are to work towards an inclusive future it means everyone is included and I really think we'd achieve more by working together than fighting. I think a lot more people have a deep sense of empathy than are given credit for. I'm concerned with the rent seeking behavior that I see and hear instead of a focus on wealth creation and growing the pie for everyone.
I think its great to give personal anecdotes, but I never want to judge an individual person from their group membership. There will definitely be similar experiences across members of a given group.
This is something I suspect is happening at a wide scale and will only create resentment. I like to see Apple investing in things like the Propel center in Atlanta and a new coding program for kids and teens in Detroit. Ibram Kendi asserts that Discrimination can create Equity. That may be true in the short term, but will it be a permanent solution?
The Propel Center in Atlanta and a new coding program for young developers in Detroit are innovative ways at alleviating the issue of tech teams not resembling overall population, discrimination is not a creative solution and will only ever create resentment (I doubt discrimination can create longlasting equity). I commend Apple for paving the way and showing what a solution can look like.
What about voices like James Lindsay and Christopher Rufo?
We are doubling down on this new era where we are experimenting with the thesis that Discrimination can and will create (long-lasting) Equity. With policies in place for decades like Affirmative Action in the US and BEE in South Africa I'm not convinced in the thesis. Corporations in the US have now went further with more Corporate Affirmative Action programs like Microsofts commitment to hire more Black employees which is being looked into by the Department of Labor as Discrimination (https://abcnews.go.com/Business/department-labor-investigati...). Microsoft is 4.5% Black employees so they are underrepresented as it is.
How do we have discussions on Race? Can Discrimination create Equity?
“The defining question is whether the discrimination is creating equity or inequity. If discrimination is creating equity, then it is antiracist. If discrimination is creating inequity, then it is racist.”
― Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist
I started a project during the lockdown in March and eventually want to launch and make it a self-sustaining side project. I recently filed paperwork to form an LLC (my first) in anticipation of launching and perhaps trying my hand at fundraising on Kickstarter or elsewhere.
The project is called Learn with Grok (https://github.com/GrokApp/learn-with-grok) and is a language learning application. Unlike existing applications, Grok is focused on people who have already studied a foreign language for years and are past beginner level content. Learn with Grok is focused on Critical Reading Skills and will tailor short story content to you at your proficiency level after taking a placement test. The more you read and do well on the quiz at the end of the short story, the more difficult content you can work towards to achieve mastery (or Grok!) a new language. You can hear what sentences sound like and see a translation on the spot if you struggle comprehending a sentence. Challenge yourself with a little content everyday.
This project is pre-launch and my first real try at creating a business. I work full-time and work on this nights and weekends while also balancing a machine learning grad program.
While I agree with this, I think its important to keep in mind that students right out of college and who have not taken part in our society's big discussion on how to address racial/gender inequality and working towards equal proportion may not speak with the greatest of nuance. Give room for people to speak on their authentic experience (without trying to feel any personal offense) and give this forum to people who identify on any side of the political aisle. I happen to take the opinion that this so-called "Anti-Racist" movement happens to espouse quite a few policies that are discriminatory. Its not to say that some of their efforts are bad, but there needs to be room for critique without accusations of harboring racial resentment. The lack of room of express is creating resentment IMO.
Do other countries track this metric as well? I'd be curious to study worldwide trends in the quality of work and study the efficacy of policy in trying to reverse this trend.
I'm of the opinion that the future of work is focused on knowledge and creativity, but my worry is that that will leave out a big swath of people. Is Truck Driving an occupation that people want to do, or would freeing up people to do other things be a greater goal? Truck driving is a hazardous occupation, but it also provides opportunity for people that otherwise may have limited opportunity. There will surely be a transition period, but how can we create a large number of opportunities to ensure people are prepared for an economy with more robotics and automation? Maybe space ship building will employ a vast number of people, maybe indoor farming will provide new opportunities in an urban setting and maybe there will be new opportunities with implementing new forms of energy and transportation. I certainly think if you take a long term view the world it has trended towards solving many problems over the course of centuries, but we do need to factor the human element in or there will be another Luddite movement.
Idk what Facebook's decision will yield and I want a healthier discourse more than anyone else. The thing I would like to add to the conversation is that I think its important to know what people like Nick Cannon think or DeSean Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. Many prominent celebrities are followers like Snoop Dogg and P. Diddy.
When Nick Cannon came on air and said horrible things he got challenged and presumably (at least I hope), understands how his comments came off.
The main battle online is disinformation from not genuine sources. Many Holocaust deniers fit this bill and should be removed. That being said, there also needs to be room to discuss history and try to understand the events that led up to historical atrocities and I really want to know what the best way is to facilitate healthy discourse. I think the current method of upvoting and downvoting on the internet leads to an inorganic and not a serendipitous experience.
NYT and WSJ have sections for Featured Comments in an effort to put insightful comments at the top and eliminate recency bias. I just want to do anything to fight the tribalism happening in the USA.
I deactivated my account of 13 years, 4 weeks ago. As far as I'm concerned, its a propaganda machine the Soviets only could have dreamt of.
Its a shame because I got to briefly meet Alexis Ohanian in person and he's a great guy. I remember when redditors used to speak of the hivemind, but you don't hear about it anymore.
I can't say I share the same feelings as you, but it certainly would be great to see young Americans be more excited about the future and I think some big investment in infrastructure could be a way to make that happen. There are many people worse off in other Countries that are happy because they are seeing vast improvements year over year and their own value goes up proportionately to how much effort gets put in.
We have low interest rates so I'd love to see shovel ready projects like the Gateway tunnels in NYC get off the ground. I'd love to see emerging industries in America get bigger like Robotics, new Energy Ventures, anything related to Space and Advanced Manufacturing.
Anecdotally, the largest problem I think we have is that there are vast amounts of people who feel like victims and just about everyone feels like they are under attack or have been violated. I want to create value with my life and hope that I can provide opportunity for others in the process. There are many culture wars things that are debated on social media that I see disingenuous actors from many angles that I need to drown out so I can focus on other things.
I think it is to some extent. The "Tyranny of the Majority" on internet forums pushes people to finding safe spaces for them. It's great that you can find subreddits for your interest and I even think they should exist for political ideologies, but I think it would do us a big service to see the main political arena to be more like the US House of Representatives.
For me, I see the main problem is that we need to create demand for fair and balanced news sources. I really don't like when you only hear about perceptions of other perspectives from pundits/activists, instead of hearing the opinion from its source. I think this is breeding prejudice. I think there is a vast amount of misrepresentation and the backlash we see is from people who often don't feel like they have the proper avenues to express themselves.
I try to be part of the solution, by paying for subscriptions for Bloomberg and WSJ. Its a hard problem, that's for sure.
Its evident to me that our strategy to combat misinformation is not going great at the moment. I've been on Reddit for over 13 years and the site has gone through many changes.
What if we changed our thinking from removing/flagging bad content to fostering rich discourse?
I'll use r/politics for example, I currently do not think there is productive or rich discourse being had there. If you have had a different experience please let me know.
I think for the political arena it would do us good to try to emulate the US House of Representatives where representatives are given equal time to address the floor. In this way you will be exposed to other perspectives. The ways we can achieve this are similar to the approach NYT has taken to comments. You can still sort comments by most recommended, but there are also "Featured Comments". Featured Comments are chosen by a team at NYT, presumably from ideologically diverse perspectives, and they choose comments that are insightful and rich in information without toxicity. Does anyone else think that would be a good idea?
I think its important because I truly believe Americans are far more alike then different and just about everyone feels like they are under attack or have been violated. Its time to heal and listen and understand that we are in it together and the people that we really should be castigating are the people filled with prejudice to the point where they have shut themselves off from hearing other perspectives. I believe there is a vast middle in the USA, but its currently getting drowned out and it should have a louder voice.
I think NYT has set a decent example with how to deal with internet comments sections. I like the idea of a US House of Representatives type approach to comments where every person in the house is given an equal amount of time to address the house so you can hear all perspectives.
The way NYT has done this is by introducing "Featured Comments". A team at NYT, presumably ideologically diverse, picks insightful features to highlight out of all comments. You can still view comments sorted by number of recommendations, but they default to the Featured Comments.
The web forum I think needs this more than any else is the r/politics subreddit of Reddit. Someone please let me know their experience, but I don't think the comments on highly upvoted content are insightful at all. A lot seek to exacerbate and misrepresent which IMO adds fuel to the flames of the flame wars.
> Birthrates fell or held steady for women of all ages except those in their early 40s. Teenagers saw the sharpest drop, with a 5% decline in their birthrate. Since peaking in 1991, the teen birthrate has fallen 73%.
Seems to me like people are waiting longer these days. We may be in a lull at the moment, but I'd expect this to pick back up barring any adverse economic conditions.
There's something I've been thinking about lately and its the fact that I learned about the Black feelings of the Hasidic (Jewish) community moving to Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood of Jersey City only after the mass shooting that occurred their earlier this year. I saw a news report from the neighborhood and a resident mentioned how they have seen a big shift in their neighborhood and longtime residents were getting harassed to sell their homes for the incoming Hasidic residents as they were looking to leave Brooklyn for cheaper real estate.
I bring this up in relation to free speech because it seems to me like there was no outlet for the residents to speak up on what was happening. It looks like there was a chilling effect and some discussions may just not have been had. I think its important to provide that forum to air grievances so that a chilling effect does not occur and people feel like they are a frog slowly being boiled alive.
I don't think Democracy is the model for all nations today, but I do think that as countries develop and have a certain educated populace that they will trend in that direction. Its better to be enfranchised, then completely trust the decisions made on your behalf elected by a group of technocrats but it requires a populace voting in good faith and of a certain education attainment overall.
We must keep an open dialog and forum for people to speak freely. I like to think of confronting prejudice as a first responder running towards danger. I don't cower from having those conversations, I'd much prefer to deconstruct them. I have to say though that the internet makes that hard since it is easy to find echo chambers.
I really want to see communities like r/politics on Reddit better try to foster rich, insightful discourse because I really don't see it that way now and if someone feels differently, I would love to hear from you.
I personally think Reddit should create a new "Featured Comments" feature like they have in comments on NYT and appoint mods of different biases to choose Featured Comments on highly upvoted content. In the US House of Representatives they give members of the house equal time to address the floor and should we try to virtually recreate that type of forum as well?
This is unfortunate, but I also imagine that Uber may be one of the beneficiaries when it comes to re-opening later this summer if there are more people that choose to avoid taking mass transit. They have talented employees so I hope everyone lands on their feet.
I think its great to give personal anecdotes, but I never want to judge an individual person from their group membership. There will definitely be similar experiences across members of a given group.