Comment by vmurthy

Comment by vmurthy a day ago

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I read the book. It’s a very interesting read. A few things stood out ( no spoilers )

- Casual indifference at exec level to atrocities happening because of FB/ Meta.

- Money/power does make you insensitive

- Tech bro view of the world permeates most decisions that Meta takes.

- Casual sexual harassment for women ( follows from the tech bro worldview I guess )

- US centric world view influencing how execs treat world leaders.

All in all worth a read or two!

hinkley 12 hours ago

I don’t think I ever connected that “Lean In” was from a C-suite member of Facebook and I certainly didn’t know how morally bankrupt it was. The case is made pretty well in the book that Sheryl does not practice what she preaches.

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  • vmurthy 8 hours ago

    From the book, it appears that Sheryl used Meta as a platform for promoting her own image and book rather than do the things that prevented a lot of bad. It’s beyond sad

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    • hinkley 3 hours ago

      Sounds like she got sued over it. But not over propositioning direct reports for sex in front of her entire team.

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diggan a day ago

Maybe I'm jaded, but this is how I understand all US technology companies to be run. In fact, I'd be surprised if all of those things weren't true for most of the enormous "tech bro" companies coming from SV.

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  • geerlingguy a day ago

    There's a reason the Silicon Valley TV show's humor was so biting.

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  • apical_dendrite a day ago

    I would put Meta, the Elon Musk companies, Uber, and some others in a separate category from Amazon, Apple, and Google. To be sure, Amazon, Apple, and Google have done some very immoral things, but there does seem to be something in the culture of those companies that understands that they wield enormous power and that sees value in acting responsibly - even if it's just because they think being cartoonishly evil isn't in their long-term interest. I do think there's been a change in ethos from the Jobs/Bezos/Page/Brin generation of leadership to the Musk/Zuckerberg generation.

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HexPhantom a day ago

The casual indifference part really got to me too.

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  • rubzah a day ago

    Then you realize that Facebook has been extraordinarily active banning Palestinian posts and accounts over the last year. So the "casual indifference" is at the very least selectively applied.

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    • belval 19 hours ago

      > Kaplan fires off an email stating that he's just realized that refugees don't have any money

      Maybe they just realized that Palestinians don't have any money.

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bena 19 hours ago

> - Money/power does make you insensitive

This is something I try to be acutely aware of in myself. Not that I have any level of wealth worth mentioning.

I started working at a company where they just give me stuff. I can go to work in clothes my employer gave me, eat my meals there, use the phone they pay the plan for, etc.

It does affect you. I first noticed it when I went to buy some triviality. Something small I needed for something or the other. Something that would have been just given to me at work. The line to checkout was long and while waiting, I just thought "Why can't I just fucking go? It's not even $10. What does it matter?"

So now I try and be mindful of what I receive and to be sure to acknowledge it at least mentally.

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