1dundundun

At some point in the (very) near future, we'll all be forced to realize that the deck is stacked against you if you're black in America.

It's just one of those inconvenient truths.

I was a technical sales manager at a fast growing ISP focused on selling T1, DS3 and "business grade" DSL. The money was good. It felt like we were on top of the world. Embarrassingly, looking back, the movie that best describes our culture/ environment back then was Boiler Room. It's one of Vin Diesel's last movies before becoming a star w/ the Fast & Furious series and it's streaming on Youtube if you're ever interested. Different industry but same vibe. Most of us were recent grads from no name schools. There were also a few dropouts and a few who never attempted college. Depending on where you live, this would be the equivalent of coming out of school in your 20's w/ very few skills to make a doctor's salary almost 20 years ago.

Towards the end, every week for a few months, we'd talk/ read about mass firings or competitors shutting down completely. The writing was on the wall when the CEO brought in the PE guy (who still maintained his role at the PE shop he came from) in as a VP to "tighten things up".I was too young and naive to recognize what that meant but his role was to come in and get the company ready to be acquired or parted out like an old car at the junkyard. Yup, we were being prepared for the slaughter.

That last day was tough. We knew it was coming but didn't know when. Working under that type of environment is a tough feeling to describe. Big cardboard boxes on everyones desk one morning, along w/ an offer to take or leave was devastating & relieving at the same time. I took the offer and used the cash to start a company.

Some never recovered. Some had picked up bad habits (cars, alcohol, coke, fast life) while the money was flowing, making it harder when the cash dried up. I always lived a low key existence. I never appreciated it more than when our world stopped spinning.

Same reason we put all of our business on Google. Convenience.

Good try Swedes. It'll take more than that to keep me from my sweet Model 3.

Thank you. That helps.

FBI head Hoover was a closeted gay man. That probably played a part.

Interesting post from the comments ...

"The FBI did not investigate writers according to their literary merits. As Kurt Vonnegut's biographer, I can tell you that, despite his publishing Slaughterhouse-Five— one of the most popular anti-war novels of the 1960s— the FBI didn't keep a file on him. But the bureau did monitor the lives and works of Amiri Baraka, Lorraine Hansberry (a 1,000-page file), W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, and Richard Wright, among others.

What the bureau opposed was African American literature and its potential— a backhanded recognition of that genre's power to influence readers. No cultural upheaval would be coming from the likes of Roth, Updike, or Mary McCarthy, for reasons you no doubt understand."

If you were a thinking black or Native American in the USA, wouldn't you possibly feel the same hurt/ anger?

He speaks for the voiceless. He wasn't advocating violence, nor was he a violent man himself, nor are his readers- artists, academics & such...

Laughing a sinister laugh as I super glue a $20 to the sidewalk...

The Chief Diversity Officer often operates in a silo and doesn't have the ability to impact things like hiring so yes, it can be a vanity/PR role if not implemented well.

Bottom line is this...

At some point EARLY on, you're going to want to put some thought into casting a wider net for talent and wrapping your heads around the fact that people from different (age, gender, racial, ability, socioeconomic) backgrounds can be a strategic asset to developing a world class orgs.

Throw away the notion of cultural fit where you assume people have to like what you like and think how you think to "fit in". That's bullshit and extremely limiting.

Build an environment where everyone feels whole and contributes.

You WILL sacrifice some of the benefits of that frat boys club environment a lot of early stage startups have.

You will gain the type of insight that will allow you to navigate an increasingly divese workforce and (US and global) consumer base.

Be willing to make mistakes. It's a clumsy process.

Uber is going to have a hell of a hard time retrofitting a less toxic culture and the numerous leaks we're seeing points to an employee base that's begging for change.

Successful high growth orgs of tomorrow are gonna be the ones stumbling towards getting this shit right today.

Consider becoming a technical project manager. Among other things, a big part of your teams role would be to translate stuff the engineers are doing to other non technical people, departments or sometimes customers.

The salaries aren't high. It's just that you're getting screwed.

Depending on location, equity, industry, you probably should be making north of $200k.

Is this the situation with those RV's lined up just outside of Stanfords campus?

Noticed this as well...

Your depression and hatred of your current role is impacting your energy and the impression you're making on people. Perceptive people pick up on that, especially face to face. Change your outlook and also push for critical feedback when they reject you. You have nothing to lose by asking every person you interact with in the process for feedback after they've passed on you. Some will ignore your request and some will offer you some actionable advice. Change your outlook. It's going to work out. Good luck.

Gets publicity and $$ over to a good cause. I'm loving it.

Thanks for the insight.

Yes.

I'm either old as hell or we were broke (maybe both), because I only got quarters!

Putting some thought into culture helps you avoid problems down the line. First startup I worked for was fun. It was a frat house basically. Looking back, I cringe when I think about how shitty it must have been for the few women who decided to work with us. It's embarrassing actually.

It's not a "perfect environment for meritocracy" and the playing field isn't level man. The sooner we get over ourselves and that idea, the better.

This answer will be ignored for the most part but you nailed it. As far as your last two sentences in your reply, I appreciate the honesty. The fact that the convo has elevated to this level of nuance and understanding indicates things are finally moving in the right direction though.

Annualcreditreport.com doesn't do it on your behalf. It guides you through the steps with each CRA so that you can get your free annual report that the law gives you. It's the only "official" site other than each agencies site. There are hundreds of others that often play on the users confusion/ ignorance. This is why I agree that AnnualCreditReport should be a .gov site to help it cut through the noise.

Also, take a look at the US Digital Services Playbook. Pretty impressive, right. The US Govt is stepping it's game up! I wish the administration would do a better job of touting these big steps on the right direction. Can't have it all I guess.

http://playbook.cio.gov/

For anyone "hearing" about 18F for the first time in this thread, they are pretty legit. It's not just another typical gov agency with a little lean startup lingo and a cute site. That was my first guess when I first read about them, but I was wrong. A quick cruise through their github shows that. However, like someone mentioned, they will need more good luck than a leprechaun with a rabbit foot keychain if they are going to bring true innovation to the federal government. There are so many points of failure within the process of working with other agencies. I'm hoping for the best!

I tend to agree. It's the best all around machine out right now.

I respect this convo because even though some of Jason's comments bother me, he stands by his feelings & he represents the feelings of many others and he's willing to learn/ be convinced. That's all you can really ask for.

For a long time, the popular belief in SV was that a lack of diversity actually helps an early stage startup.

We've probably all heard the story about how Paypal rejected a candidate that aced his engineering tests because he said he "likes to play hoops" in his free time. They decided that a guy who likes to play basketball would not be a good culture fit.

So, if that was the thought process that the Paypal Mafia left the nest with, it's not hard to see how we ended up in the situation we're in regarding diversity.

Side note: Like others, I also wonder how age gets left out of this diversity debate. That's pretty interesting...

I'm glad that the Chromebook has forced Windows to bring better value to the lower end of the market. That;s a win for the consumer. However, it's clear that the author really doesn't understand Chrome OS so I found his comparison lacking. A few points he missed...

a. Due to several reasons, Chrome OS is basically a virus free platform. That's huge for a large % of the market - kids, the elderly, casual computer users, etc...

b. Due to its architecture, Chrome OS does not get bogged down the way Windows machines do. My 2012 Chromebook runs at the same pace as the day i got it without having to maintain it. Chromebooks can run on weak processors because the OS doesn't require the same resources that Windows does. I can only imagine what a $250 Windows machine runs like on month 6 of regular use. How about year 2? Unless you are taking proper precautions (that the target demographic usually doesn't take), this this $250 Win machine will be a slug in no time.

c. Chrome OS also updates itself and in the rare instance where you need to reinstall the OS, it's a 5-10 minute process where all of your software and settings can be instantly restored vs spending hours on a PC and then having to find and reinstall your software and settings. Again, I'm speaking for the "normal user" the author refers to.

I could go on but I'll stop there. He's missing the point completely...