Blog/August 2017/Aug 11th

August 11th

First off: welcome to our meḥutanim (consuegros, the parents of our son-in-law)! They came to the Land for a wedding, and just couldn’t resist spending time with us first. So we went out for a very nice dinner a few scant hours after their arrival. They were very tired, but put on a brave face and consumed the entire dinner. And dessert. We had a great time meeting up with them, and hope they have an excellent visit.

You may not have heard, but in their ongoing quest for more efficiency, Google changed their corporate motto this week from “Don’t be Evil” to “Be Evil”.

A bit of background: a Google employee, one James Damore, published a memo on an internal Google forum intended for discussion of controversial ideas. The memo was entitled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber: How bias clouds our thinking about diversity and inclusion”. He opens by saying, “Google’s political bias has equated the freedom from offense with psychological safety, but shaming into silence is the antithesis of psychological safety”. So Google fired him because his post “advanced incorrect assumptions about gender”. Because that’s exactly what he didn’t do in his memo (source: read the damned memo).

The memo was initially released, as mentioned, on an internal and private forum at Google. But it was leaked to the public and went viral. Subsequently, “VICE” published a redacted version which did not contain the citations and graphs which Damore had put in the memo, and the “social-network-universe” erupted with declarations of “sexist pig” and so forth and so on. But the version VICE published originally was (perhaps deliberately) out of context, as they did later admit.

If you read the original version, you’ll see that it’s very reasonable both in tone and in content. Far from being a “screed against diversity”, it actually presents a sympathetic view towards addressing the “diversity” issues, with some concrete suggestions based upon science as to how Google might address those issues. Here’s four scientists’ takes on the validity of Damore’s statements.

For questioning the orthodoxy of political-correctness, Google fired him and thus explicitly confirmed his original contention that Google’s environment is extremely hostile to opposing viewpoints. Ironic.

This is an extremely chilling development. First, because Google quite literally controls huge portions of the information disseminated on the internet. YouTube is owned by them, as is Android. Think about the potential consequences of having a proven ideological monoculture in charge of your information access. Think about 1984 and “Big Brother”. It’s no longer just a dystopic novel.

It’s chilling as well because it displays in stark relief what I think is the most pressing social issue in the West (or perhaps in the world at large): absolute intellectual tribalism and unwillingness to consider alternative viewpoints. And worse: the demonisation of anyone holding such viewpoints.

Whether you agree with Damore’s arguments or not, whether you think his proposed solutions are valid or not, you owe it to him and to yourself to be intellectually honest, and to consider them as proposed without ascribing intent which may or may not exist. Screaming “sexist!” does not make it so, and belies your lack of gravitas. As an example, you can read a actual screed one former Google “Distinguished Engineer” (one of the highest ranks at Google) wrote on the topic. Pay particular attention to how he misquotes, takes out of context, and attacks straw-men. Be sure to take an anti-emetic first.

It’s quite telling that the company whose primary business is information, fails to minimally research the claims made by Damore using their own tools. Rather, they succumb to PC pressures and emotional “arguments” to vilify him and destroy his career without cause. Of course, things are not going to play out quite that way: Damore’s received a number of job-offers already. Google’s loss, and a cautionary message.

Some other things:

• Elon Musk’s plan to power the USA with solar panels. Not that he has a vested interest or anything
• Three ways to defeat a locked “smart gun”
• You may decide to avoid using kitchen sponges now. Or maybe you’ll realize we’ve survived this long while using them
• A fish-tank called Wanda. Or perhaps Natasha

As for us: we’re doing fine, B”H. I spent this week doing some difficult assembly-language debugging for 8th. Stating that on LinkedIn resulted in a variety of interesting responses, among them, “Impressed you are debugging Assembly! I imagine it is highly complex…”. I don’t know why it’s impressive, it’s just part of writing “low-level” code. If people are that impressed, they can send some money my way. I accept PayPal, Payoneer, and direct bank transfers. And untraceable cash in small denominations.

Next week we expect standard summer weather, so that’s a good thing!

This shabbat we’ve got guests for dinner. For them and us we’ll serve:
spicy chicken wings, honey-glazed chicken thighs, zucchini pashtida, leek pashtida, roasted eggplant, veggie chili and rice, roasted yams, various salatim, fruit, and apple pie.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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