Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
I have witnessed a lot of men (and curiously enough, no women) in my social circles, including a number of good friends, saying that the Senate should not consider Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh held her down, groped her, and tried to take her clothes off in 1982, when she … Continue reading How I Think About Christine Blasey Ford’s Accusation Against Brett Kavanaugh
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It’s probably hard for us to imagine, from our modern perspective, how revolutionary these 35 words were. When the Declaration … Continue reading 35 Words
It’s safe to say that Silicon Valley’s reputation hasn’t been having a good year. Uber has reached the point where the number of pages that claim to be “the definitive list of Uber scandals” runs off the first page of Google results, with widespread sexual harassment and discrimination resulting in the termination of over 20 … Continue reading Silicon Valley in the Mirror (a Trump Silver Lining)
On Sunday, I weighed in on the Twitter board controversy: http://bit.ly/1adJT3P My argument then was that there is a dangerous tendency on the part of Silicon Valley’s power players to think that those who have achieved less than they (read: everyone) don’t have the right to criticize them. Then I read an editorial by Pando … Continue reading Stop Shooting The Messenger, Silicon Valley
The contretemps of the day comes courtesy of TechCrunch, where Professor Vivek Wadhwa has published a guest post addressing a Twitter debate he had with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo (now how’s that for meta?): http://tcrn.ch/GD0570 The controversy began with a quote that Wadhwa provided to the New York Times for a story on sexism in … Continue reading The Hidden Assumptions That Neuter Criticism in Silicon Valley
TechCrunch Disrupt is the most important conference for the early-stage startup scene in Silicon Valley. Thanks to the combination of the biggest speakers, and the TechCrunch platform, it generates a huge media spotlight. Which is why it’s astonishing that the conference’s main presentations kicked off with a completely inappropriate and offensive presentation about an app … Continue reading Sexism in tech is a problem of the majority, and has to be solved by the majority
“While nonviolence only sometimes works in the immediate moment, it always works.” (Michael Nagler) One of the reasons I wrote my essay on PyCon is because of a young hacker I’ve worked with. He’s a smart, funny, thoughtful person, and he was quite worked up about the PyCon incident. He was convinced that Adria Richards … Continue reading Why I Write Essays On Controversial Topics
One of the people who commented on my recent post on sexism in high tech made a very good point. Beth noted, “What’s our take away. What do we want, exactly? It’d be easier to speak to both sides if we had a clear objective.” I’m far from an expert on effecting social change. In … Continue reading 2 Concrete Steps To Combat Sexism At Tech Conferences
The big topic of discussion today is the fallout from the PyCon conference. At the conference, former Adria Richards, who, at the time, worked in developer relations for SendGrid, heard two conference attendees behind her making jokes about “forking” and “dongles” in the sort of juvenile way that often happens in the tech industry. Richards … Continue reading Sexism in tech is like an onion–it has many layers and makes people cry
One of the reasons that Silicon Valley has a decent record of overcoming discrimination (though of course it still exists) is that entrepreneurship offers a self-made path to success. If the old boys club thinks women or minorities can’t be CEOs, there’s a simple answer–start your own company. Once there are prominent, successful women/African-American/you-name-it founder/CEOs, … Continue reading Progress Is When The Previously Unusual Becomes Routine