Ask HN: Are social and political conflicts within tech pushing you away?
1 comments
It does seem that Silicon Valley used to have a hacker / technologist culture (think Steve Wozniak, Robert Noyce etc.) while now most of the new companies are often just traditional businesses but with slightly better tech and rebranded with nauseating slogans about grandiose missions to "change the world", "connect people", "give experiences" etc.
For most of these companies their mission statements and "company culture" are complete BS. Just look at how much tax these companies (think Apple, Facebook, Amazon etc.) pay to see if they are truly "progressive" and "forward-thinking" companies. They are not. And that hypocrisy trickles right down to the bottom.
Thats why its not surpising that in supposedly one of the most liberal and open-minded places in the world, sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination are rife.
I can't find this thread but there was a discussion about workplace discrimination and a transgender woman wrote that she had pretty much no problems working in a large corporate mid-west based company where the majority of employees were conservative and Christian but faced plenty of abuse and comments from co-workers when working for a more "open-minded" silicon valley style company with more of a "bro" culture.
For most of these companies their mission statements and "company culture" are complete BS. Just look at how much tax these companies (think Apple, Facebook, Amazon etc.) pay to see if they are truly "progressive" and "forward-thinking" companies. They are not. And that hypocrisy trickles right down to the bottom.
Thats why its not surpising that in supposedly one of the most liberal and open-minded places in the world, sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination are rife.
I can't find this thread but there was a discussion about workplace discrimination and a transgender woman wrote that she had pretty much no problems working in a large corporate mid-west based company where the majority of employees were conservative and Christian but faced plenty of abuse and comments from co-workers when working for a more "open-minded" silicon valley style company with more of a "bro" culture.
I consider myself to be forward thinking - fiscally conservative yet socially liberal - having grown up poor in the south surrounded by all kinds of "diversity". Tech used to be this place where we all collaborated to make beautiful things to either make lives better or fund our next idea. Now, I'm getting burnt out, having to stop every two weeks to follow/address/avoid a new issue (some valid, some grandstanding).
Are you growing (insert emotion) with the growing number of conflicts, incidents, soap-box speeches, etc being publicized or revealed throughout the industry?
Are we headed towards a more vanilla, corporate-like industry where people-soft training and HR presentations are baked into our daily lives to ensure we're all getting along?
Will all of the conflict and friction slow down innovation or stunt open source technology?
I'd love to hear your thoughts, HN!
Refs:
Gender diversity: http://mashable.com/2017/06/08/silicon-valley-harassment/#ybOPzWFGdEqH
Peter Thiel: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/fashion/peter-thiel-donald-trump-silicon-valley-technology-gawker.html
Nodejs: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15081821
Opal: https://github.com/opal/opal/issues/942