mikeleeorg

Could/should there be an equivalent of a sports manager and/or sports agent? Like a headhunter, only dedicated to a programmer throughout that programmer's career? Hmmm.

I think that's the key point here, even if the article doesn't quite highlight it.

Technology and social media haven't changed human behavior, but it allows both positive and negative behavior to be amplified multiple times over. And sometimes all it takes is one negative incident to crush an adolescent's self-esteem.

We shouldn't discount the positive that social media and technology bestow, just as we shouldn't discount the negative as well. I don't think the problem is just a little worse - I think, for some cases, it's A LOT worse. And that's the frightening thing. Both the positive and the negative are amplified.

I dealt with a lot of bullying in school. High school was a nightmare. But at least it's over now and I'm hopefully a stronger person for it. But if the kinds of things that the bullies said or did were recorded on social media and amplified...

By "working under" do you mean having an engineer report directly to a product manager, where the PM is responsible for the engineer's career growth, compensation, reviews, etc?

As a former engineer turned product manager, I would not advocate such a reporting structure. A PM wouldn't be the best person to help manage an engineer's career growth and everything else. I think it's perfectly fine to be on the same cross-functional team though.

"make bright comfortable" <- Yes, this. f.lux has been great for my eyes too.

Definitely seems to be a preference thing I guess. I'm like you, I find it more uncomfortable reading bright text on dark backgrounds that I often avoid sites that have that color scheme, if there is no "bright mode" available.

Censorship is only a piece of what is disturbing too. Linking searches to personal phone numbers is way more frightening.

The articles don't say if phone number logging was only going to be done for users searching for censored keywords, or all users making any kind of search. I suspect the latter. And that is a very, very problematic.

Wasn't there a Silicon Valley (the HBO show) episode about something similar?

Ah, found the episode: Season 2 Episode 2, "Runaway Devaluation".

PROS

* Potential marketing for your startup, especially if you gain followers that are also in your target audience.

* Have a way for someone (e.g. investor, potential employee, potential business partner, etc) to look you up and see what kind of person you might be.

CONS

* Distraction away from your customers and team, which should be among your top priorities. It can take time to cultivate a social media presence.

* Misinterpretation risk. For better or worse, if you happen to say something that can be misinterpreted, and someone has an agenda against you, social media can be risky. Assume that everything you say can be posted on a billboard in every major city.

MY $0.02

Each of these carry different weights. I would argue that the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages.

If you want marketing benefits, you'll get more bang for your buck by having someone with lots of marketing experience. Being discoverable by investors via social media is really a minor thing; you'd have to substantially invest in your "social media reputation" in order for this to give you anything, and even then, it's more useful as a tool to maybe get meeting with an investor, than it is to secure funding from that investor.

Being a distraction from your core priorities is really the most important thing I'd offer. Social media can easily be a black hole for attention and time. That's attention and time you can't afford to lose right now.