_wwz4
Joined 15 years ago
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Comment · 5 years ago
I actually spent a bit of time searching for a letter she sent with an ultimatum to her management. I've seen this referenced multiple places as "the email that got a Google researcher fired": https://www.platformer.news/p/the-withering-email-that-got-a...
But that doesn't seem right. That looks more like a different type of letter, sent to a wider audience than just Timnit to her manager(s).
I've seen referenced that there was a timeframe for when she was going to quit that she mentioned. I see no such reference in that letter.
Maybe there's a real copy of the letter floating around. My guess is that people pretend that they've seen "the letter" but only read this other one I referenced above.
I'm happy to be proved wrong, though. I have no dog in this fight except to understand the truth of the situation. If you've seen a different letter than shows her ultimatum and time frame, please share.
Comment · 5 years ago
I got that book based upon a HN recommendation. It's fascinating reading and made me think carefully about how much sleep I was getting.
I used to think of sleep as something that I could put off on a whim and catch-up on over the weekend. I would stay up later to play video games or program if I felt like it. Now, I'm a lot more rigorous in keeping to my nighttime sleep schedule. Whatever I'm doing can normally wait until the next day.
Comment · 5 years ago
No, the jump/push analogy is too contorted to be meaningful. Employers and employees have a relationship that has processes that have common meanings and names like "resigned" or "fired".
There's no accepted relationship if you push someone threatening to jump. You're just an a-hole committing assault and possibly murder.
Is there a link to the letter that she sent? That could help to clarify.
Comment · 5 years ago
I agree that it could be viewed as firing language, but only if we had no context.
However, we have context. We know that an ultimatum including a resignation threat was given.
Accepting that resignation and making the termination of their employment relationship immediate with some extra "Yeah, this is for the best" language doesn't mean that she was fired.
If you only want to consider the limited context of ignoring that she submitted a resignation ultimatum, aren't you just cherry picking?
Comment · 5 years ago
I'm just going by the CNN article and her tweets, which include the response from some manager, Megan:
As a result, we are accepting your resignation immediately, effective today.
https://twitter.com/timnitGebru/status/1334364732480958467
Looks like Timnit Gebru made an ultimatum and offered her resignation if the terms of the ultimatum were not met. Google accepted her resignation and chose to have it effective immediately (as is often the case when you resign and a company feels like it would not be beneficial to have a longer departure period).
It's not like I'm taking only the words of others. I'm reading what Gebru herself chose to put out there.
Comment · 5 years ago
As someone who just learned about this kerfuffle a few minutes ago, that doesn't make sense to claim that she was fired.
If you offer to resign if new conditions of employment aren't met and the company accepts your resignation without honoring your exact terms of schedule, it sounds like you largely were responsible for terminating your own employment. Claiming that you were "immediately fired" as she tweeted just sounds dishonest to me.
Comment · 5 years ago
Because this particular job does require a certain independence to do it properly
Does it also require a certain intellectual integrity to do properly?
Because claiming that you were "immediately fired" online, then later having to "clarify" that you actually submitted your resignation because some demands weren't met sounds pretty dishonest to me.
Comment · 5 years ago
There's a lot of truth in that, but it's not strictly true.
And yet, rayiner's comment appeared faded-out from down-voting when I came upon it.
And that's the real problem. He had truth and thoughtfulness in his comment (yeah, you can quibble about federal attempts to override local policy), yet even a smart group of people like regular HN users tribalistically downvoted it. Rayiner sinned by making a coherent argument against throwing Republicans under the bus for metro-area problems.
We are a tribalistic society and it's only getting worse. Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and his supporters would defend him. He was probably right. When evidence of Biden's family corruption surfaced before the election, the media and tech giants actively suppressed and subverted the information.
Ending no-knock warrants or shuffling around police roles just eats away at the edges of the problem. If as a society, we can't find ways to get at truth and logic that cuts through the dynamics that push tribalism, we're doomed to a never-ending race toward the drain.
Comment · 5 years ago
Are there any persons who can work, say, 8+ hours? I mean, really work, not be at office.
Yes. Some people can, some people can't. Some people can, but they don't really need to in order to do the job that they get paid for. Some people struggle for 9 hours a day trying to do the job that someone else can do in 2.
Mental performance varies tremendously from person to person, as does athletic performance. Can someone run 4 miles in 20 minutes without stopping? Sure. Some people can keep up that pace for a marathon (26 miles).
I wouldn't worry so much about what other people are doing. Just focus on your own performance and improve it (or don't) based upon how you feel about your productivity and its impact on your life. If enhancing it is your goal, you've taken the first step of measuring it and understanding what influences it. You could cut out distractions and see how that works for you.
For me, improving my performance has always meant synching up my work with what interests me. Sometimes that can mean changing what I'm working on - when I have that flexibility. Sometimes I have to jump-start my interest in a more boring problem by trying to mentally frame it in a way that I framed other problems that have interested me in my life.
Comment · 5 years ago
I know. If it were still a thing, I'd probably play it today. /C++
Comment · 5 years ago
Efficacy is still tested with vaccines because there is a statistical expectation of contracting a given disease.
If you give 40,000 people a random mix of placebo and vaccines and then monitor whether or not they contract the target disease, you get an indication of efficacy by comparing the vaccinated group to the placebo group.
Comment · 5 years ago
If you're not in one of the early target groups, I would assume that tens of millions will have received it before you - in the USA alone. We should have a lot of data to look at in a short amount of time.
Comment · 5 years ago
I ignore all of the COVID vaccine messaging histrionics. The level of ignorance and political maneuvering out there is astounding.
When I'm afforded the option to get the vaccine, I'll make an assessment of risks based upon data we have at that time vs the risks of contracting COVID.
If I had to make that decision today, I'd take the vaccine. But by the time I'll likely be able to get it in February or so, we'll have millions more data points that I'll be able to consider.
Comment · 5 years ago
Bolo was a cult phenomenon back in its heyday in the early-to-mid 1990s. It was a game with a great deal of tactical and strategic depth that it allowed a huge range of player ability. It definitely wasn't the kind of game where some newbie could just start playing and get a lucky win or be a master in days or weeks. It felt more like a sport where you needed to practice the basics (like you mentioned on taking PBs) while you also learned a lot about strategy.
My favorite times were the Bolofests where traveling boloers would come into town and we'd all get together to play on a LAN.
Comment · 5 years ago
Andrew Welch had an intense Bolo addiction for a while. It was in the latter part of my own Bolo addiction, but we played quite a few games together.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_(1987_video_game)
Ah, Bolo.
Even when I'm not working in a startup, the startup mentality infects how I approach my work.