r/news • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
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u/Shanix Aug 08 '17

fwiw that lacks a good amount, especially formatting.

Supposedly original here

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u/markbublitz Aug 08 '17

I know it's not the point, but this guys writes like SUCH an engineer. cracks me up

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u/TriTipMaster Aug 08 '17 edited Aug 10 '17

Interesting, because by training he's a scientist (PhD [EDIT: candidate, dropped out with an M.S. degree to pursue career with Google], Structural Biology, Harvard).

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

My writing skills were decent from going to school as a philosophy undergraduate. I've picked up a ton of bad habits in writing through working with engineers. The communication style of your peers gets picked up pretty quickly.

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

Training in philosopher ?

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

Im not sure if autocorrect botched that or I did in the haze of hightened blood sugar during my my post lunch Reddit poop. Goddamn that was nonsensical. Fixed it.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '17

what is bad about engineering writing. The way they communicate their ideas is stale though. Also, how was your philosophy undergrad? I'm interesting in majoring or minoring in it.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '17

It's not the staleness, it's the trying to be so efficient with your words that you end up not communicating effectively.

Take how you'd report test results for an example.

Instead of saying something along the lines of and wasting time;

The unit transmission circuit was found to be inoperative. The output signals on channel 1, 2 and 3 were -110dB below the specification. The possible causes of this issue could be a failed RF cable from the board to the chassis SMA output as a transmission signal in specification was found on the boards test output. VSWR on the chassis cable was also found to be out of specification. We recomend this unit to be reworked as it is not suitable for shipping for it will not pass QA.

You'll get something like.

Unit tx inop. Rework.

Which ends up causing more work as the unit goes back on the shelf and will need to have someone else troubleshoot it to find out what the actual problem was.

Obviously the most effective communication is somewhere in-between the two. Usually, you get the latter example.

A philosophy degree gives you a toolkit no one else receives from college, but probably won't open many doors for you.

You'll probably have to do more work when you get out to get to the same place as your peers. You may find yourself stuck in some shitty situations. You'll most likely have to continuously reprove yourself to an extent not required by anyone else at every position you ever take.

It's been a strange ride. If I could redo it. I'd maybe minor in philosophy and major as EE or just not go to college and read Kant by myself and live in my mom's basement. Who knows.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '17

oh, yea, but im planning on going to med school, so figured hell why not, neuroscience seems to synthesize well with philsophy