Comment by Shank | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Shank | Hacker News Reader

Just for once, I'd like a story like this to turn out positively. Not in that James wins or loses this lawsuit, but that something could be positively gained in his life from this experience.

Being fired from Google has been traumatizing. He's gone farther and farther into the "unrecoverable from a PR standpoint" zone, and that's really horrible. 10 years from now, he's going to have a hard time finding employment or basic living possible. He's still a human though. If he committed himself to being humble and actually trying to work on himself, it would be really positive. Even the PR thing can go away -- everyone loves a redemption story.

The problem is that moves like this just deepen the hole. A lot of people are cheering for his demise, and seeing that hole get bigger is eye candy. But again, he's still a human. He still has hopes, dreams, fears, etc., just like the rest of us. Maybe positive encouragement to change is a better route to go than just watching him keep digging. In no way do I support his ideas -- quite the opposite -- but is it fair to characterize someone as fully a lost cause this early?

> 10 years from now, he's going to have a hard time finding employment or basic living possible.

I just feel like this is a wishful thinking on the part of left. There are plenty of fields which do not care about his opinions. There are plenty of technological ventures who explicitly look to hire people who are 'uncucked' (term a recruiter used when reaching out to me) run by people HN and left in general absolutely hates (Occulus guy, Pharma bro, Peter Thiel). Plus the job of technology is such that as long as you're writing code, and pay taxes, you can make a decent living.

Not to mention the numerous developers blockchain industry hires, nearly nobody there cares about it, because majority of them are located outside US.

The technological right has money, and not everyone in technology needs to maintain an image like Google, Netflix, Apple, Microsoft etc.

10 years from now, he's going to have a hard time finding employment or basic living possible.

Given today's tight labor market, he has plenty of options. If he was good enough to get into Google, at the bare minimum he could do fine in corporate IT. In a lot of red states, his past might even be an asset. If he's willing to keep his head down and feign contrition, he could probably work just about anywhere except the top tech companies.

The right wing and egging him on did not help him. It probably contributed to him not realizing the mistake he has made.

Saw an interview with him and saying he needed to have his GF filter what he writes. I was thinking no that is not the issue. Instead do not share these things if they are in your head. Swear him saying that just made it worse. He clearly still does not get it.

He did nothing wrong.

Obviously he did. Weird that is not obvious. But Google does not need a reason.

BTW, the fact that a former Google engineer is sitting at home unemployed would suggest he did do something wrong.

Because Google unjustly firing somebody is obviously impossible.

Google is a US company. In the US when someone does what Damore did you get fired. It is just how it works. It might not be fair.

It is also why Damore is at home unemployed. Nobody would hire him.

I think part of the confusion on this matter is employment is very different in the US versus many other parts of the world.

In the US and CA you can be fired for farting in a meeting.

We'll see if the courts agree with you.

I think Damore's firing was more due to

1. The memo being leaked.

2. After being leaked, misrepresentations and even outright falsehoods about the memo being promulgated online.

Remember, the memo was being circulated within google for a month before his firing. This suggests that Google did not see the need to take punitive action against Damore due to the memo, but rather that it was the reception of the memo by the media that made Google fire him. Anecdotally speaking, most of the people I've encountered that read the full memo (as opposed to articles about the memo) think it wasn't worthy of firing.

I don't need to work at Google to know that circulating a memo at work about how your female coworkers are less qualified because of genetic factors is a stupid idea.

This statement was never made in the memo. The notion that it was stems largely due to point #2 in my comment above.

He did several things wrong, and simply _stating_ that he did not does not make it true.

Saw an interview that he now has his GF filter stuff he writes. Why do people that think he did nothing wrong think he now does this?

He did nothing wrong, and simply _stating_ that he did does not make it true.

He can get a job at a semi-big software company, that is not trendy, maybe in the midwest or in any other country pretty much, he might not make SV-pay, but surely can still pay his bills.

Maybe this will even lead to something good for everyone, like more ethical diversity practices.

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