Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Fired Google Employee James Damore Is An Idiot



Lionel Nation makes some very good points here.

It brings to mind the wise comment made by the Robert Redford character, Jack Weil, in the very underrated movie Havana: "Know who is in charge and how to stay out of trouble."

This doesn't mean you need to support wacko social justice warrior stuff, just that you need to know when it makes sense to keep your head down.

It is really basic economics. There is a cost associated with lifting your head when the cultural Marxists are patrolling, sometimes it may make sense to do so other times it doesn't.

You can't die on every hill.

The bastards need to be taken down, just be smart about it.

Remember, the heroic patriot Patrick Henry may have objected to the US Constitution as being too federalist and that it endangered some freedoms and he may have earlier on said, "Give me liberty or give me death" but he died an old man, retired, on a farm of 520 acres.

   -RW


10 comments:

  1. You're wrong, Bob. James received several job offers before he was even fired (from Wikileaks and Gab.ai). Unlike the diversity hires, this man is smart and talented. This comment at Vox Popoli got a lot of feedback, as it makes more sense than James Damore, genuine geek and known hard-core gamer, is an idiot:

    I'm starting to wonder whether this Damore guy is more calculating than we imagine. The dude is super smart and a student of game theory - (one of his MIT papers was about modeling Red King Theory in parasitic relationships - basically he demonstrates that fast evolution is not always an evolutionary advantage - see the parallel?).

    The manifesto appears to be written with future legal action in mind. And MIT math nerds can't resist a good gamble with a sizable statistical advantage and a huge potential payoff. In other words, he applied game theory, figured out that Google had no other play than to double down, and positioned himself to cash in big.

    Also, he's a tech nerd with background in data mining. He HAD to know he'd be found out. The anonymous posting was obviously a gambit (which he guessed correctly that his managers would bite on).

    I could be wrong, but my spidey senses tell me Damore is playing to win, and probably had mapped out victory before the game even began. Wouldn't be surprised to find out he read Vox's [SJWs Always Lie] book and his analytical gambler's mind saw a 100% chance of predicting his opponent's behavior. Like playing chess with a five year old - one game, 50 million dollars, winner take all.

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    1. I'm not sure about him doing this as a set up, but I would say that it's a good idea in general to advertise who you are, with the result being you end up surrounded by like-minded people. Damore will be glad he did this in the end. On top of that, some serious issues at Google have been exposed, which is a good thing. Maybe even good for Google in the long run.

      I really don't see how Bob comes to this conclusion. Maybe he makes the mistake that many young people do in thinking working for Google is some kind of magical privilege. It's not.

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    2. I haven't read his document, just listened to the interview with Jordan Peterson. It sounds a lot like he was calling the google corporation to the mat on what they practiced. He used their internal systems to issue a challenge to them on this subject. This writing of his was done within structures google set up internally for such expression. A modern form of the game one could play with "anonymous" employee surveys back in the 90s and 00s.

      As to him being an 'idiot' that relies on the virtue expressed by the saying 'the nail that sticks up gets pounded down'. There are two ways of dealing with situations, stick up or keep your head down. I don't see how one is better than the other based on personal experience. However I only played where there was a numerical score of dollars, time, etc. SJW subjects don't have scores and cites to relevant works don't matter. It's a very risky game, but does large risk make someone an idiot?


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  2. Dozens, perhaps hundreds after discovery begins, of Googlers are on record as putting their own interests ahead of their employer's, to the point of willingness to sabotage their projects and colluding with people at other companies to blacklist people (RICO, anyone?). This alone opens up Google (and perhaps even other companies) to massive shareholder suits, even if no government edict has been violated (which is also likely to be the case), in the case of a large eight figure (or more) settlement (practically a certainty at this point; Google does NOT want discovery) or when (inevitably) the stocks starts to decline.

    James is a smart guy. He likely had some idea of what he'd stir up by his action, even if not this specific outcome. In fact, what he did had no real downside to him at all, no matter the outcome. That's called a Thanatos Gambit. Well-played, James Damore.

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  3. While unsure of his motives, his actions kind of remind me of a modern-day Martin Luther.

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  4. Bob, I think your analysis is too narrow.

    The simple law of investment is "buy low, sell high." We are starting to see some cultural push back to leftist PC culture which is creating new opportunities. So the long-run economic decision is are you better positioned as another PC drone at a leftist organization, or as a martyr for the cause of reason and a warrior against totalitarian PC culture? Buy low, sell high.

    As for the implications of your position, we are not yet in leftist internment camps trying to survive and hoping that someone comes to rescue us. This can get dramatically worse than they are now, but there is still room for freedom in this world and to fight back against the totalitarian left. It may be best for the majority of us to keep our heads down for the time being, but to fight back and reverse the trend, it will take extraordinary individuals whose actions can shape society to take action in a very public manner.

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  5. It is now looking like Mr. Damore was genuinely blindsided by the reaction. Nonetheless, he is still an exception that perhaps does prove the rule.

    It is obvious that men of Mr. Damore's level of intelligence and expertise are very rare. Despite his naivete, he was likely still self-aware enough to know that even in the worst-case scenario (of being fired), he would bounce right back. He's anti-fragile, and was no idiot. A typical modestly intelligent midwit (in the 120-135 range) might not be wise to pursue such a course.

    The only real idiot here is Lionel Nation, who jumped the gun on pronouncing a verdict.

    This is no different than Vox's ironclad rule: DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA.

    The idiots (and there are many) respond: But what about X (eg Cernovich, Milo)?

    In summary, Bob, it's good, ironclad advice (keep your head down, if you're not anti-fragile), but there are always exceptions. It became clear within hours of Mr. Damore's outing that he was one. Hence the amusing speculation at Vox Popoli that he was some master genius that anticipated Google's every move.

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  6. Excellent video: Dr. Jordan Peterson interviews James Damore

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEDuVF7kiPU

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  7. It's always like the libertarian to pat themselves on the back for sitting on the sidelines while bemoaning those with the courage to speak out. Shame on you, Robert.

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