If your goal is to change the companies behavior, then protesting and getting fired and getting a WaPo story is more effective than resigning in protest.
> protesting and getting fired and getting a WaPo story is more effective than resigning in protest
Idk, these guys looked unplanned and childish, which lightens the credibility of their claims. They went zero to occupying an executive’s office—there wasn’t even a petition stage. That’s not the kind of escalation anyone wants precedent for, because if you provide it you’d better be ready to make space for a perpetual environmental and MAGA lobby in every leader’s workspace.
And while the PR impact of this hasn’t been negligible, it’s also been light. Outside HN it hasn’t really registered.
>And while the PR impact of this hasn’t been negligible, it’s also been light. Outside HN it hasn’t really registered.
I divested all my GOOG stock when the Gemini debacle happened. I figured they were too entrenched in political ideology to compete with AI and would just slowly decay. For me, this is a positive PR impact as it shows GOOG is getting back to competing instead of collecting rents on technology they created decades ago.
Because all anyone not on your immediate team would know is the HR sanitized "they left for other opportunities, we're so happy for the contribution they..."
I think it's silly that people will protest like this with the expectation that they won't immediately get fired but that's the play if you want to make noise.
>If your goal is to change the companies behavior, then protesting and getting fired and getting a WaPo story is more effective than resigning in protest.
VCs want to be perceived as steely eyed futurists, who are specially gifted at sifting through the mass of ideas bubbling up in tech and picking the winners. But it's actually quite difficult to pick winners, and as more and more investment has flooded into the space even getting a few winners in a batch is more difficult. So what A16z has done is to cash in their reputation as futurists to pump their investments. The article points out that it was their late stage Groupon investment that was the anchor Andreessen's famous "Software Eating The World" op-ed, a late stage investment dumped as soon as the IPO lockout ended. However, one of the consequences of VC being more public and in the press is that now everyone has seen them breathlessly shilling shitcoins during the boom. How long will their reputation last as they are publicly associated with more and more high profile failures?
It's all three, but did want to point out that your claim that
> It's obvious to see how there could be non-Republican-friendly results of faculty being easier to fire for, say, a controversial twitter post.
contains within it the idea that not being fired for a controversial twitter post or even free speech generally are either concepts that help Republicans or concepts that Republicans believe in, neither of which are true. Not for present day Republicans, historical Republicans, idealized conservatives or any shade of right wing thought except for a tiny insignificant rump of libertarians.
I think that as a trend, difficult personalities will have a harder time succeeding in any public role... Business, entertainment, politics, the arts. In the world of Twitter and Instagram, basically any disgruntled employee or collaborator can greatly damage reputations by sharing their experiences. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds, because as humans, I think we are drawn to celebrity, to authorship, to hero worship, to the "great man" theory, but that is obviously somewhat in tension with a world where every employee has the power to launch an effective protest movement from their phone.
I think as more and more people launch their own protest movements, they will become less and less noticed. When everyone is accused of racism/sexism/being mean it completely loses its sting. A few years ago I judged people accused of racism as lacking, now I assume it's likely a bitter opponent or a disgruntled employee until evidence is provided
I worked at a summer camp in NE Alabama for two summers in high school and college. Weekend trips to Unclaimed Baggage were extremely popular excursion. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the neighborhood.
