Backreaction: Outraged about the Google diversity memo? I want you to think about it.
That leaked internal memo from James Damore at Google? The one that says one shouldn’t expect employees in all professions to reflect the demographics of the whole population? Well, that was a pretty dumb thing to write. But not because it’s wrong. Dumb is that Damore thought he could have a reasoned discussion about this. In the USA, out of all places.
SoundCloud faces do-or-die vote by investors | TechCrunch
SoundCloud has proven it can’t manage itself. It’s too damaged, too in debt and too far behind to thrive independently without a miracle turnaround. No matter what, the whole service is on shaky footing, so musicians may want to archive their audio and start promoting their presence somewhere safer.
How I, a woman in tech, benefited from sexism in Silicon Valley
I know you’re tired of hearing about that Google manifesto. Me too. I’ve read the memo. I’ve read Yonatan Zunger’s angry response and profoundly disagree with his opinion that the act of publishing it was “incredibly stupid and harmful”. I’ve read Megan McArdle’s essay and relate with her feeling of isolation as I’m often the only woman in an environment dominated by men. I’ve watched Damore’s interview and was struck by his sincerity and calmness even when the reporter was pushing him into corner. Throughout the entire process, I was deeply conflicted. As a woman in tech, I understand precisely what everyone is talking about. However, as a woman in tech who has experienced sexism to the point of accepting it as background noise, I have the feeling that we’ve been only addressing one side of the story. It’s the side where women are victims. I’m here to tell the story of how I, as a woman in tech, benefited from sexism and that men can be victims too.
UX brutalism
Forget seamless experiences. The Brutalist UX Framework™ creates rough edge moments that will make your users love you. A new type of experience based on neglect, and on user affinity caused by brutality.
Zebras Hate You For No Reason: Why Amdahl’s Law is Misleading in a World of Cats (And Maybe in Ours Too) – Jason Sachs
I started writing this article in December 2015, but put it on hold shortly thereafter, while working on the Padé delay article, and managed to free myself from the Kittens Game a month or two later. When I resumed working on this article a few weeks ago, I took some screenshots from the game and double-checked a couple of facts about it. Unfortunately now I’ve been sucked in again….
173 rejections while fundraising and we were considered successful
As I look back in our fundraising spreadsheets, I can count over 175 firms or individuals that turned us down. Often I’ll talk to first-time entrepreneurs that get frustrated after hearing their first five rejections. They think they are failing — that they won’t be able to raise the money they need. It is with mixed emotions that I tell them that they need an order of magnitude more rejections before they can consider their fundraising efforts unsuccessful. A dozen rejections are barely scratching the surface!