Apparently noting Silicon Valley’s success violate Forbe’s Terms of Service

[Executor MaxwellParticipant 591]

A contributor to Forbes wrote a peace noting that Silicon Valley is something of a successful meritocracy where success is being determined by ability. So of course the article is puled down in about 24 hours with other SJW type journalists wanting him to never write again because reasons;…
Presumably ones like the truth is the complete opposite of their narrative and they need it censored for their lies to survive.

https://www.brianshall.com/2015/10/07/the-article-on-diversity-in-tech-that-forbes-took-down/

The Article On Diversity In Tech That Forbes Took Down
OCTOBER 7, 2015

After being live on their site for about 24 hours, Forbes took down my post on “diversity in tech.”

I still do not fully know why.

I do know it received tens of thousands of page views in that short period, had numerous comments, and was re-tweeted thousands of times.

I also know, sadly, that many journalists — can you believe this, journalists — demanded Forbes and others never hire me again. Because I wrote an opinion that differed from theirs. Cowards.

Trigger Warning!

What you are about to read will shock you. It will shock you because it is so completely, utterly straightforward, reasoned and non-controversial. That you may disagree with my position is understandable, but to publicly label me every name in the book and actually try to make sure I never work again in my field for such a straightforward, honest piece that encourages dialogue is shameful on your part. Again, you are cowards.

Yes, I know you are not ashamed. You demand fealty to the sanctioned narrative. Failing that, you want anyone who dares disagree with you to be silenced.

As if cowards like you could ever silence me.

So without further delay, here is the piece that Forbes took down. I have made absolutely no changes.

—-

There Is No Diversity Crisis In Tech

Repeat after me: there is no “diversity crisis” in Silicon Valley. None. In fact, there is no crisis at all in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is doing absolutely gangbusters. Apple has $200 billion in cash reserves and equivalents — and a market valuation of about $630 billion. Amazing. Facebook now garners a billion daily users. This is a nearly unfathomable number. Google is worth nearly $450 billion and has $70 billion in cash on hand.

This is not a crisis. Silicon Valley is swimming in money and in success. Uber is valued at around billion. Companies like Airbnb are remaking travel and lodging. Intel is moving forward into the global Internet of Things market. South Korea’s Samsung just opened a giant R&D facility in the heart of Silicon Valley. Google and Facebook are working to connect the entire world. Netflix is re-making how we consume entertainment.

Silicon Valley is home to the next phase of the global auto industry. Fintech and biotech are transforming banking and medicine. The success of Silicon Valley is not due to diversity — or to any bias. Rather, to brilliance, hard work, risk taking, big ideas and money.

Want to be part of this? Great! Follow the example of the millions who came before you. Their parents made school a priority. They took math and science classes, and did their homework every night. They practiced ACT tests over and over. They enrolled in good schools and focused on English, Political Science and Humanities.

Okay, that last bit is not true. They took computer programming, engineering, chemistry — hard subjects that demand hard work. They then left their home, their family, their community, and moved to Silicon Valley. They worked hard, staying late night after night. They didn’t blog, they didn’t let their skills go stale, they didn’t blame others when not everything worked out exactly as hoped.

Are you doing all of these? Are you doing any of these? Do them!

From all over the world, from Brazil and Canada, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Norway, Egypt, fellow humans come to Silicon Valley to work, create, succeed. And they do. Silicon Valley is extremely diverse.

Of course, the iPhone wasn’t created because of diversity. Nor was Google. Nor Facebook, nor the computer chip, nor the touchscreen. They were created because a small band of super-smart people who worked very hard to create something better than existed before.

Wait. It gets better.

Silicon Valley doesn’t just create greatness, it’s probably the most open, welcoming, meritocratic-based region on the planet. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that disproportionately more Chinese, Indians, and LGBQT succeed in Silicon Valley than just about any place in America. Guess what? Everyone earned their job because of their big brains and ability to contribute.

Is that you?

Then come here! It’s an amazingly inclusive place.

But be sure to bring your computer science degree, your engineering degree, your proven set of accomplishments. Be sure you are prepared to sacrifice “fun” for long hours and hard work. Offer proof of how well you did in school, in math, in physics. These matter dearly as they are fundamental to what makes Silicon Valley succeed.

Silicon Valley is not perfect. It’s certainly no utopia. But if you aren’t able to make it here, it’s almost certainly not because of any bias. Rather, on your refusal to put in the hard work in the hard classes, and to accept all the failures that happen before you achieve any amazing success.

Stop demanding Silicon Valley adhere to your desires, or your limitations. Remember, there’s a reason you’re not using a flip phone. There’s a reason you’re not cursing that taxi that never showed up. Silicon Valley is about moving forward. It’s not biased but it is demanding. That’s what makes it so great.

//

[A mirror of this post is available on Medium.]

Edit: fixing links and format error

[AngularParticipant 114]

they are mad because he told them you cant do math and engineering and your f~~~ing unless.

[RoyDalParticipant]

Executor Maxwell wrote:

A contributor to Forbes wrote a peace noting that Silicon Valley is something of a successful meritocracy where success is being determined by ability.

EEEK!! A misogynist!

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[Anonymous 18]

Perhaps one of the most straightforward and to the point upbeat sans victim hood and emotional trigger (I guess SJW types found it rather bland then) piece I have read from a mainstream source.

I guess the part where he said they didn’t blog and let their skill set go stale hit home to the keyboard warriors.

Aside articles like this could very well motivate people to be competitive and work hard only to realize the opportunities are few and far between. It’s better to keep the masses at home dumb so the immigrants can be invited over and diversify the nation.

I always doubted the whole lack of diversity in Silicon Valley argument. Unless they mean women and LGBT, I imagine lots of Asian IT professionals there.

Google, Microsoft has Indian CEOs.

[Anonymous 5]

Angular wrote:

they are mad because he told them you cant do math and engineering and your f~~~ing unless.

That is the only reason I can come up with. The guy spoke the truth. If you are smart and work hard, you can make it. If you are not, you can become a journalist….LOL.

Journalists are butthurt when faced with the truth that they are just glorified bloggers. Anyone could do their job. It is not hard to write some articles about s~~~. You write something halfway decent, spellcheck it, give it to the editor nerd who fixes it up and bam. Done.

I guess they are also mad because he goes against the narrative they are pushing for that the white man rules the world and everyone else is suffering. Can’t have that! We must continue on with the wage gap myth, the rape culture myth, the minorities being held down myth etc.

F~~~en feminist c~~~s.

[NioZenParticipant 856]

Poor little crybaby t~~~s. They can’t handle meritocracy because they just don’t have what it takes.

I used to be an IT manager in a former life, I managed a small but highly skilled team in a very specialist field. When I started there was one woman in the department. At the time it was apparent the department needed to upskill, and through my enthusiasm I built bridges throughout the company so my team could get access to all the knowledge and information required to do the job as the company grew and the products became more complex. My enthusiasm rubbed off on the team, they began really expanding their skillset, but one member of the team couldn’t handle the shock and awe of picking up the pace. Guess which one it was?!

She walked before she was pushed, but turned up one day to collect the rest of her stuff from her desk. She wanted to access her computer when she came in, but since she no longer worked for the company and her computer was set up with a high level of access (which, had she been of a mind to, she could have taken some of our projects offline and cost our clients a lot of money). There was no way it was gonna happen. She threw a massive entitlement fit. She had also become friendly with one of the secretaries, who from then on gave me nothing but s~~~ty attitude – obviously due to the huge amount of injustice I had been responsible for in not readily breeching our security guidelines.

I was intrigued by how upset she had been by my unwillingness to let her access her computer, and more than a little concerned. She was using a windows box, though I’d encouraged everyone to switch to linux so we could run custom scripts and access devices much more easily. She’d also neglected to password the Admin account, so getting in was trivial.

What did I find? After recovering some deleted emails, I discovered that she has been applying for a lot of other positions, sending out her resume on company time from a company machine.

I later found out she got a position in a government department, which probably suited her lazy ass down to the ground.

A few months later one of the chief execs was talking to me about ‘diversity’ within the team. I had been expanding the team recently, bringing in new blood with more skills, which helped to give the existing guys a kick up the ass (which they responded well to, I had an awesome team in the end), so I had a pile of resumes sitting on my desk. I slapped the inch thick wad of paper down infront of him and told him that if women had actually applied for the positions, I would have been more than happy to consider their applications, but since we were still a fairly small company I had no capacity to even entertain the thought of carrying dead wood for the sake of appearances. He declined to push issue.

I’m pretty sure a lot of this would seem very familiar to other guys in similar positions within the industry. IT is a sausage fest not because it’s a boys club, but because women aren’t f~~~ing interested and don’t apply.

We only dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go. - Vivekananda

[AncientwisdomParticipant 6089]

This is unreal. The guy wrote a well thought out and amazing piece with zero bias. Wtf did he do wrong? The SJWs truly are f~~~ing terrorists. This guy was SILENCED because he didnt cry. WTF?

Does anyone have a link to the comments people were making?

Resident cynic.

[Biggvs_DickvsParticipant 3726]

Ancientwisdom wrote:

I’m pretty sure a lot of this would seem very familiar to other guys in similar positions within the industry. IT is a sausage fest not because it’s a boys club, but because women aren’t f~~~ing interested and don’t apply.

I can confirm this. I spent months trying to hire a replacement Linux admin / syseng with the right experience. I got one femal applicant. ONE. Out of dozens or hundreds of resumes.

I interviewed her and her skills were non existent. IT was obvious she had never even set up an apache server before and was trying to bluff her way through the interview. Nevermind the database skills we needed etc. I told her on the spot that it wasn’t going to work and was specific about the required skills she lacked. I gave her advice about where and how to start learning them on her own. Hopefully she took my advice, but I kind of doubt it.

"Data, I would be delighted to offer any advice I can on understanding women. When I have some, I'll let you know." --Captain Picard,

[IGMOW (I Go My Own Way)Participant 2572]

Pardon myself doing a bit of a counterpoint, but I consider meritocracy a myth that really doesn’t happen anywhere, and is usually called for more by disadvantages devas who believe that they are special snowflakes, and only if the world had a different scoreboard, would they get somewhere. Such individuals aren’t likeable, but usually have unique talents they want valued more. NO ONE really wants meritocracy. What about everyone wants is a world that ends up giving you more of what you want, whether you earned it or not (earning it helps placate guilt of getting something unearned, and society is built on favors).

What we have now is a market where you can buy and sell goods and services. Get competent at something in demand, and bargain better, and you do better. Meritocracy is a desire for an authority to end up having a better scoring mechanism which values whomever is the special snowflake. A major problem with meritocracy is that it is a political system, and you still need some enforcer to make sure what everyone gets is fair. In a system where you have a bunch of people who believe in meritocracy is that they ALL believe that they should be the one getting more because they earned it. Such individuals don’t respect whatever the system says is fair, because they keep calling for more and more “fairness”.

Wikipedia on meritocracy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy

I say to work on being content in what you are (being able to have thanks for what you get good and unmerited favor), work on what you can control, live strategically, and bargain a lot better.

Anyhow, that is my take on this. Please carry on and disagree.

"I am my own thang. Any questions?" - Davis S Pumpkins.

[FrankOneParticipant 1443]

Richard: I prefer to be precise and discuss what most people mean when they say meritocracy — meritocracy in the market and workplace — versus meritocracy in politics. It means pay based upon ability/performance. Sure, eventually it also means you’ll be promoted up to leadership so the most able/highest performers move up. I would argue we have much of the former (economic meritocracy), and little of the latter(meritocracy in government), because everybody gets one vote, regardless of how much they paid in taxes or received in benefits. And the electors don’t vote based upon merit, they vote based upon identity politics and their interests.

You don’t need an enforcer for economic meritocracy — at least not a central agency or government. The market IS the enforcer. If I start a restaurant, catering business, IT or engineering consultancy, or simply apply for positions at Corporate plantations, my success or failure will depend upon competence. Let’s say I work in a machine shop. I might be paid piecework over a certain minimum performance. If I don’t perform at some minimum level, I’ll get fired. Sure, there are exceptions (can’t fire the boss’s son or daughter), where we deviate from meritocracy, but that’s generally how it works. The market punishes deviations from meritocracy by lower profits.

I might advance at one company or get fired due to internal politics. But eventually that usually catches up with you. Now, there are sectors where we don’t have meritocracy — government and union jobs, for instance. Where pay correlates to seniority and dead wood CANNOT be fired.

Personally, I want to see MORE meritocracy, and more shaming for people that collect benefits forever. I’d also like more meritocracy in politics (professional city management, vs political hacks). That isn’t special snowflakes; it’s good governance.

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