Episode Notes
- Amazon one followup
- Uses infrared camera to look at veins
- Encrypts scan and analysis is done in the cloud
- Still sucks for privacy
- Commission vs Omission
- Leave politics at the door when we work
- Shut up and dribble?
- Was it the way it was written or is the core idea wrong?
- the reason why folks are upset is this isnt normal politics
- Norms are being destroyed
- Debate is normal but things today have gone to far
- Need to support norms like Democracy
Shut up and Code
With all thats going on in the world its actually hard to see the timing of this post as ideal for anyone. Its not at all the same but it reminds me about a spat that happened at Postlight earlier this year where some employees were frustrated by Postlight's unwillingness to say anthing about Black Lives Matter.
After that post employees pushed management to not only come out publically and say something but to make large donations to organizations in the fight.
It seems to me this is exactly the kind of thing that the Coinbase CEO thinks is a "distraction" from their mission. That companies shouldn't be getting involved and going further employees shouldnt really be discussing these issues at work. "Shut up and Code", if you will.
It wasn't ok for Laura Ingrim to say that about Lebron James and its not ok to for companies like Postlight or Coinbase to stay out of it either.
I understand that reasonable people can disagree out all kinds of big important issues and that fighting about all that stuff at work can and is alienating to some percentage of your employees no matter how small.
But lets be clear, there's a line thats been crossed that makes this different than normal political debate. Trump has called into question the validity of our democracy without offering a single suggestion on what to do to help fix it? The system is rigged and gee if i was just the president than maybe I could fix it! Vote Trump. He'd turned the far-from-perfect debate format into a complete waste of time. And he's joked about saying in power for the next 12 years. I could go on from here but you all know what I'm talking about.
I particularly liked the way John Gruber talked about it on Daring Fireball the other day
If you don’t see this man as the threat to U.S. democracy itself that he obviously and proudly proclaims himself to be, you’re an idiot. If you see it and don’t care, you’re garbage.
In normal times Id be all for companies having the right to ask their employees to keep their personal political believes, much like their religious one, to themselves. But these aren't normal times.
