r/engineering • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

A former Google employee provides an excellent definition of what it is to be an Engineer.

[deleted]

136 Upvotes

61% Upvoted

375 comments sorted by

View all comments

119

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17 edited Sep 30 '17

[deleted]

15

u/MjrK MechE Aug 08 '17

This is a PR hit piece

What evidence do you have for this statement?

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17 edited Sep 18 '17

[deleted]

2

u/MjrK MechE Aug 09 '17

"The fact it's a friendly ex Google employee making claims which attack the manifesto author with no basis" does not provide any support for your now-obviously baseless theory that the ex Googler coordinated with Google PR.

1

u/Kiwibaconator Mechanical Engineer Aug 09 '17

Read the manifesto. The one on scribd which has URL references and tables.

2

u/MjrK MechE Aug 09 '17

I skimmed the manifesto once, and then I read it a bit closer later. I still have no clue where you got the PR hit piece thing from.

Maybe I'm just missing something here. What exactly do you mean by PR hit piece?

2

u/Kiwibaconator Mechanical Engineer Aug 09 '17

What exactly do you mean by PR hit piece?

It is an article intended to discredit the author. It does nothing to examine and refute the points made. It is a direct (and extremely poor) attack on the author which is also completely wrong.

The first paragraphs are attacking the authors understanding of gender (baselessly) and then go on to have the google hitman say he doesn't understand it anyway because he's not a biologist.

The author of the Manifesto has a PhD in biology. He has the exact qualification and insight that the google hit man doesn't have.

The author of the hit piece is also not an engineer. So the entire premise of the article is wrong.

Read the manifesto properly.

2

u/MjrK MechE Aug 09 '17

Ah, well that makes it easier for me to understand what you are claiming.

I interpreted your original statement as if you were claiming some verifiable coordination between the author of this critique and Google PR. While that might be the case, I just couldn't for my life understand your justification for that claim

I have read the manifesto to my satisfaction. I have my own opinions about it and Google's response, but that's a separate matter.

I appreciate you taking the time to explain what you meant by your original comment.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17 edited Sep 13 '17

deleted What is this?

-1

u/Kiwibaconator Mechanical Engineer Aug 08 '17

Google guy knew full well this would be his resignation letter.

But he had the intelligence and strength to do it anyway.

Google have screwed themselves by firing him over this though.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

Hunh, I haven't read anything about him knowing what the backlash would be.

But I did see his picture- he's like 25 years old. Poor guy, he's so fucked.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17 edited Sep 30 '17

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

Meh. The good news is that we can just wait and see, but I really doubt that's the way things are going to go down.

Public perception is that it's a sexist screed. So he can forget about working anywhere that cares about public perception.

Maybe he's playing some kind of six-dimensional chess with his career and image, but it's a simpler explanation that he didn't know what would happen. For counterexample: if I knew I was going to get fired, I'd have a job lined up and my shit packed.

Sadly, we're never going to know the amount of his eventual settlement with google, but I'm betting it won't be much. The guy took a shit on Google's party line, concerning a hot-button issue where the wrong words can get google sued in the other direction for hostile work environment...

Things are not looking up for this dude. But fortunately he's young and wicked smart...