[liberationtech] Techbrats Goldberg, Shih and Gopman Do Not Represent Technology

[Yosem Companys]

From: *Jason Calacanis* (via Dave Farber <dave at farber.net>)

In 20 or 30 years, what will we look back on and say “That was the issue of
our time?"

I ask hyper-intelligent people this question from time to time, and the
answers are frequently similar: environment, equality, employment and wage
disparity are common.

I believe employment and wage disparity are the critical issues of our time.

Nowhere can this be seen more clearly and glaringly than in San Francisco.
Rents in the city have skyrocketed and social unrest between the haves and
have-nots has reached a boiling point. (Most recently, we saw protesters
throwing a rock through the window of one of Google’s luxurious private
buses.)

It’s hard for people not to hate technologists when faced with the absolute
loathsomeness of three now-infamous industry executives: Peter Shih, Greg
Gopman and Bryan Goldberg.

In three separate blog posts over the past year, these spoiled techbrats
have shown the absolute worst qualities of the elite: a lack of empathy and
class, combined with horrible entitlement -- and the absolute inability to
write.

Peter Shih, a startup founder, wrote that San Francisco is a city with a
“pathetic excuse for a public transportation system,” where 'I pay 80% of
my salary to live down the street from crackheads and meth addicts" and
which is home to “some of the craziest homeless people I have ever seen in
my life” (his solution: “just hand them a handle of vodka and a pack of
cigarettes, it'll save everyone some trouble.”)

Link: http://goo.gl/nT5yJC

His bile was followed by Gopman’s post which claimed:

“The difference [between SF and elsewhere] is in other cosmopolitan cities,
the lower part of society keep to themselves. They sell small trinkets, beg
coyly, stay quiet, and generally stay out of your way. They realize it's a
privilege to be in the civilized part of town and view themselves as
guests. And that's okay…

You can preach compassion, equality, and be the biggest lover in the world,
but there is an area of town for degenerates and an area of town for the
working class. There is nothing positive gained from having them so close
to us. It's a burden and a liability having them so close to us. Believe
me, if they added the smallest iota of value I'd consider thinking
different…”

Link: http://goo.gl/kEHAcj

Not to be outdone, millionaire Goldberg -- the most successful of all these
executives, having sold the widely-regarded-as-spam site Bleacher Report --
did a ‘satirical piece’ that showed a complete lack of awareness,
intelligence or ability to compose satire. Salon dubbed it “rock bottom” in
“tech’s culture war.”

Link: http://goo.gl/j18NDq

[ Click here to tweet this editorial: http://ctt.ec/e2Juq ]

Where to begin.

First, all three of these executives should be thankful they were born in a
time when the ability to write code and understand technology was so
absurdly rewarded as compared to the other crucial work of the world.
Important things like teaching children to be productive citizens, running
into burning buildings, protecting citizens from crime, doing CPR on people
in cardiac arrest, and going to war and risking having your legs blown off
by an IED.

In another age, say one where the ability to use a sword was the most in
demand skill, these specimens wouldn’t have had the resolve to make it out
of adolescence alive.

Second, if you are lucky enough to be absurdly rewarded as compared to the
rest of society, a solid default position is to shut up and enjoy your epic
rewards -- not to taunt and abuse those less fortunate than yourself.

Third, if you have been delightfully rewarded for building websites --
websites!!! -- as opposed to digging ditches 10 hours a day, six days a
week, perhaps you should look at those less fortunate than yourself with
compassion and -- gasp! -- do something to help them?

Fourth, if your ability to write tops out at the Christmas card level,
perhaps it would be wise for you to hone your skills before tackling the
most sensitive and pressing issues of our time?

As my Tae Kwon Do teacher told me in me in my developing years, when I was
prone to speak first and think second, “an empty can makes the most noise.”

These noisy individuals do not represent the technology industry within
which I’ve built my career. No, the technologists of true success and merit
develop and execute strategies to make society more just, fair and joyful
for all.

Bill Gates gave up three or four delightful decades of working on building
one of the great technology empires of all time to do things like eradicate
malaria, provide clean drinking water and reinvent the condom so people
would use them more often.

Mark Cuban dedicates his time to investing in startups that will never
return even a small fraction of his wealth, while silently helping wounded
soldiers and the poor (the details of which are largely unreported).

Elon Musk risked his entire fortune -- and pushed himself personally to the
brink -- to get us off carbon and he’s still driving himself at an inhuman
pace to “back up Earth” on another planet. (I’ve encouraged him to pace
himself many times, but it’s just not how he is wired.)

Jeff Skoll has produced media -- at great loss and risk at times -- in
order to expand people’s consciousness about important issues. Fast Food
Nation, An Inconvenient Truth, Food Inc, Darfur Now, and his new TV
network, Pivot, which aims to package up serious issues for millennials.

The list of technologists doing great things for humanity is endless, but
the media is obsessing over these pathetic, visionless grandstanders-- and
I don’t blame them. This level of stupidity and vileness is editorial manna
from above. How could the media not focus in on it?

A society can best be judged by how the most privileged regard and treat
the most vulnerable and weak.

I have a challenge for these three individuals: invest in HandUp, a
wonderful startup trying to actually help the homeless and distraught
individuals in San francisco (and eventually beyond, I’m sure). If you each
invest $10,000 in Handup I will match each of you. (Note: I’m already an
investor, having invested on the spot during my talk with Rose:
http://youtu.be/h9PSGHg2Vl0).

more: http://angel.co/handup

[ Sidenote: It’s a B (as in ‘benefit)’ corporation similar to stuff like
Tom’s Shoes or Ben & Jerry’s, which aims to build a sustainable business by
making a platform to help organizations focused on the homeless and poor.
It’s “kickstarter for the homeless” and I say that with pride, not as a
joke. Note: any profit I make from this investment I will donate to the
homeless. ]

It takes only a cursory amount of reading -- start with the mayor’s offices
multiyear study on the cities ~6,000 homeless -- to understand that a large
percentage of the homeless are suffering from depression, mental illness,
substance abuse and/or the elimination of their jobs.

And keep in mind that the “disruption” that is so lauded in our industry is
largely one that removes inefficiencies, frequently defined as a “humans”
working in “jobs.”

I’d argue that society’s issues around job loss are largely attributable to
the massive change brought on by the technology we are building, and the
wealth we are creating for a small subset of society.

This fact is indisputable and I believe it puts the responsibility for the
weakest in our society on us -- the technologists and investors -- who not
by happenstance are benefiting from this change.

On a strictly pragmatic basis, if you’re rich and privileged in our
violently changing society, ask yourself if the last couple of bitcoins or
homes you own are worth having a brick thrown through the window of bus
you’re riding on.

It is completely possible that in the next 10 years, the streets of San
Francisco and Manhattan will be filled with riots and protests by
disenfranchised individuals--oh wait, that was the last three years:
http://youtu.be/8yXSC0U9M6c

What is the point of this ever expanding “long boom” if we leave so many
behind?

What a shallow victory we will have wrought if so many suffer so greatly
while we benefit so exorbitantly.

all the best, @jason

http://www.twitter.com/jason

PS - Sorry to have not written the followup piece to #googlewinseverything,
but I felt that this piece needed to come now--before another ‘techbro’
decides the world needs to know how stupid and insensitive they are.
Second, I’m on deadline for the Jan. 23rd launch of www.inside.com, as well
as the LAUNCH Hackathon (Feb 21-23) & LAUNCH Festival on Feb. 24-26th (
http://festival.launch.co).

PPS - If I get a moment I’ll follow up on this piece by expanding the final
two points--or perhaps someone with the ability to write like @paulcarr,
@lons, @jasonpontin, @karaswisher, @hblodget, etc. could take on these two
concepts:

a) What responsibility does the Tech Industry specifically have to the
people it has made redundant?

b) Wouldn’t it be a better world for everyone if we used just a small
portion of the massive profits being made to ensure that everyone had a
place to live and eat, so our cities weren’t overrun with poverty, hunger
and desperation, making American cities like Los Angeles essentially Third
World nations?
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