People are too sensitive. We're basically at the point where nearly any mistake can destroy the rest of your life. e.g. "zero tolerance" in schools, stories like this, and the recently ousted CEO of Mozilla.
Case in point, the amount of downvoting happening in this thread: Someone says something you don't agree with so they must be the devil incarnate.
The reaction to his comments and the comments here are laughable.
The rest of your life? Some rich dude in a very public position got fired for doing stupid things in public. Boo-hoo. How very, very tragic.
He will manage, no doubt. He will not die poor. Maybe not a billionaire, but no one’s entitled to that. What’s with all the unending sympathy for rich people in public positions with lots of power making stupid mistakes and having to face the consequences for those?
The supermarket cashier being fired for picking up change from the floor, now that’s tragic. This? Doesn’t matter. Do you really believe his life is in any way ruined? Maybe because he won’t be able to become a billionaire in the future because of choices he made?
I have exactly zero sympathy for rich people in public positions of power being scrutinised. That’s the price you pay.
Really, I want someone to explain to me why it’s somehow not ok to critically examine things who are working in public do in public. I really don’t understand the argument for that.
Should some lowly employee be fired for what they do in their own time public? No, of course not, it’s none of the employers fucking business. Should leadership in public positions (representing the company to the outside) be fired for what they do in public? Yes, of course, how could you ever think otherwise?
> He will manage, no doubt. He will not die poor. Maybe not a billionaire, but no one’s entitled to that. What’s with all the unending sympathy for rich people in public positions with lots of power making stupid mistakes and having to face the consequences for those?
Because he was judged in the court of public opinion. You may point and say "What this man did was obviously wrong! He deserves everything he gets!" And then someday, maybe you make one small, innocuous mistake. One off-the-cuff comment taken out of context. And the internet lynch mob will come for you.
(Please understand that I'm not saying what he did was said out of context or could be misinterpreted. It was pretty obviously a dumb thing to do. People have been "executed" in the court of public opinion for infinitesimally smaller gaffes, and it is this we must work to stop.)
Freedom of speech is important. I do not want to drag everyone in front of a judge just because of what they said. Moghadam should no doubt be legally allowed to say what he said.
However, whether or not someone is fired is not a decision a court has to make. And when someone who is in the public pisses parts of the public off the company is perfectly justified in firing that person. Isn’t that just common sense? They also can not fire the person, of course, and deal with the consequences of their actions. I’m really not sure why companies should ignore the public. I mean, they can, if they want to, but there is no good reason to ignore them just because.
Also, hey, if you are in such a public position of power your error margin will always be extremely low. No one said it’s an easy job. That’s just how it is. If you don’t like it that way do something less public and scrutinised.
No, I did not. This ain’t gonna screw up anyone’s life. Oh, it might cost him a few millions, sure (as doing dumb things in public tends to if you are working in a public position), but he will never ever live in poverty.
Each case is different, and I (personally) do not see a pattern emerging. In this instance, all signs point to this being the "last straw". In the case of Eich, it was the unique relationship that Mozilla has with it's community and the community believing that someone with his views should not be running the face of Open Source IN PARTICULAR.
You really don't know what happened in this instance and all signs point to "started to view him as a liability that outweighed his value as an asset as company outgrew founders". Eich I'm sure the HN community can argue about all day, but that seemed like a REALLY unique situation to me.
What leads you to believe Brendan Eich or Mahbod Moghadam have had their lives "destroyed"? What leads you to believe downvotes mean someone thinks you're the devil incarnate?
a thread full of people from the community someone is a part of calling them a disgusting piece of human trash is a pretty good indication of a life being ruined.
Just read this thread for a few minutes for a full dosing of that.
He has said a lot of disgusting things, but is still young and can do whatever he wants going forward (he's got enough shares to live many lives). Of ways to have your life ruined, this sounds like a great way to go.
It appears that the whole team needs to grow up. They come off as something right out of HBO's Silicon Valley.
How are people too sensitive in this case? The things he said were absolutely horrific. Making flippant comments about a disturbed kid who went on a murderous rampage within the last week is absurd for someone in this guys position. If I had vested interest in the company I would want him fired just because this incident proves he has terrible judgement.
Also, what is the deal with people's obsession with rapgenius? Its a lyrics site. I don't understand how they got all of this funding for a lyrics site. There are like hundreds of them that work fine. In face, songmeanings.com is particularly good. People can say rapgenius is the best designed site blah blah blah til they are blue in the face, but I bet it doesn't matter for 99% of the people who use these sites. I would guess most people who look up lyrics do what I do and just Google the song/lyrics and click the first link. I have literally never used a lyrics site's interface, and I have never thought, oh man I wish there was a better lyrics site out there for me to use. The valley is crazy.
I don't know what he said, but are we really in the business of defending people who are against human rights and make jokes in the face of tragedies? These are founders and CEOs we're talking about, I wouldn't want to work with them regardless of public image.
>> "We're basically at the point where nearly any mistake can destroy the rest of your life."
I think in the past people could make these 'mistakes' in private and nobody would ever know. We're giving up more and more of a privacy and even if you 'have nothing to hide' you could very easily make a 'mistake' eventually. I think it's inevitable that in 50 years, when people have grown up without privacy and with making embarrassing mistakes in public people will be much more likely to forgive as they have their own errors publicly available.
And yet when I suggested naming and shaming the real assholes of our industry, the patent trolls, everyone lost their shit and began defending those low-lifes.
edit: downvoted again; I will never understand this community
Case in point, the amount of downvoting happening in this thread: Someone says something you don't agree with so they must be the devil incarnate.
The reaction to his comments and the comments here are laughable.