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Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by ineedasername on Thursday December 20, 2018 @10:55PM (#18731312)
I'd never checked out Blind before. I just went there and checked out a few of the front page posts & comments. It has some of the most toxic and destructive "advice" I've seen for people asking for help or insight. I'm a bit astounded. Is this typical?
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by sharadov on Friday December 21, 2018 @01:04AM (#18731684)
It's pathetic, you see some of the most depraved, narcissistic members of the tech society there. The quality of the discourse you can guess is shockingly bad, and most people are from the Bay area. Is this an accurate representation of people in the Bay? Or is it just a platform for toxic folk to hang out?
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by foobiekr on Friday December 21, 2018 @01:26AM (#18731765)
Having been on blind for nearly a year, I find it interesting how weak the rumor mill on Blind is. The real rumor mill at most large companies basically knows everything that is going on; blind is mostly junior programmers flaunting often made-up compensation and scrambling to gain a low-tier grade level.

Blind could have been an opportunity for them to get direct and honest insight into how the sausage is made but instead is trolling and leetcode-your-way-to-fang obsessing.

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by sharadov on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:50PM (#18738982)
Exactly my thoughts!
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by marijnz on Friday December 21, 2018 @02:20AM (#18731910)
I spent more time reading the threads than I should have, it's strangely addicting. I now feel naive for thinking that the people working at the big tech companies have a certain base level of "all-round" skills. In no way I expected so much cynicism, narcism and lack of empathy! Isn't this showing up in interviews? Or should it just be seen as online trolling and venting?
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by JustSomeNobody on Friday December 21, 2018 @10:13AM (#18733744)
> Isn't this showing up in interviews?

Probably? I mean, if your hiring process is leetcode hazing by these same people, then it is self fulfilling.

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by dpark on Friday December 21, 2018 @01:04PM (#18735121)
The conversation in Blind is not representative of "most people" in big tech companies. Blind is largely a dumpster fire with occasional pockets of unexpected value. Most people don't spend their time there, because it's such low value discourse.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by yulaow on Friday December 21, 2018 @04:31AM (#18732280)
Sociopaths are extremly good in faking empathy or a friendly personality when in need (eg interviews). To actually recognize them you have to look very close for at least some weeks once they feel they are not risking their initial position anymore. Sadly most companies at that point have no way of managing these guys or to recognize they have to fire them (often because they are still extremly careful to keep faking their personality with the higher ups, while being toxic to those below and at the same level of them)
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by dpark on Friday December 21, 2018 @01:01PM (#18735096)
Most assholes aren't sociopaths. The pseudo-anonymity and "exclusivity" of Blind encourages trolls and assholes to congregate. People say things just to piss others off, and they also say "publicly" the douchebag things they'd normally only say to close friends/family (overt racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc). None of this means they are actually sociopaths, though. Just run of the mill assholes and trolls.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by sharadov on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:57PM (#18739002)
Am surprised as well, its so easy to spot for those traits in an interview - apply some pressure or ask some pointed questions. I've weeded out those folk as an interviewer.My feeling is that the Bay Area has a huge tech engineer shortage and companies throwing absurd amounts of money/benefits has bred a culture of entitlement.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by echevil on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:18PM (#18734729)
> Isn’t this showing up in intervires?

That depends on the interview, isn’t it? In my on-site with one of the companies, I was asked hard algorithm questions in four out of five rounds, and then one system design round. I doubt anything related to personality would show up

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by dbenhur on Friday December 21, 2018 @02:20PM (#18735764)
You can read plenty of behavioral signal from how candidates interact with interviewers while solving hard technical challenges. But many companies don't really invest much into training interviewers how to effectively interview and gather useful signal or calibrating their evaluation to the goals and standards of the organization.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by badpun on Friday December 21, 2018 @09:07AM (#18733350)
> I now feel naive for thinking that the people working at the big tech companies have a certain base level of "all-round" skills. In no way I expected so much cynicism, narcism and lack of empathy!

Why? These companies are like Wall Street, they pay the most, so they attract people who are predominantly interested in money. These kind of people tend not to be the most upstanding.

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by otalp on Friday December 21, 2018 @01:21AM (#18731747)
Blind is to Silicon Valley what 4chan is to the internet
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by gurumeditations on Friday December 21, 2018 @01:49AM (#18731833)
I just browsed through some threads and you are spot on.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by nathanvanfleet on Friday December 21, 2018 @08:28AM (#18733134)
I think that because it's basically unmoderated you either get: 1. Posts that are usually removed elsewhere stay 2. People who would otherwise go elsewhere (because their posts are removed) stay. But it is incredibly problematic.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by ineedasername on Friday December 21, 2018 @08:29AM (#18733136)
I hope it's just where the toxic find their voice, an echo chamber for a hopefully small minority of the total population. It's really depressing to think that so many well-educated people are so narrow minded and lacking in empathy. It would however explain the systemic irresponsible behavior present in some companies such as Facebook and Uber. It's easy to believe that even a minority of such people could be the bad apples that spoil the rest.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by creaghpatr on Friday December 21, 2018 @08:48AM (#18733247)
>It's really depressing

It's also very useful, if accurate.

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by Cd00d on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:58AM (#18731668)
First time for me too. The relationships section was shocking to me. I'm a physicist, and thought I knew nerds well, but the lack of spousal empathy directly trending towards divorce on the top end of that page made me... sad.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by JustSomeNobody on Friday December 21, 2018 @10:17AM (#18733768)
Oh, yeah, if you're an uber-nerd you can't have a spouse that even remotely challenges your intellect. They need to be just smart enough to obey.

At least according to Blind.

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by angarg12 on Friday December 21, 2018 @07:04AM (#18732843)
The general tone of the discourse is so depraved that you can either cry or laugh. I choose the latter. The relationship advice is a particularly dirty source of entertainment.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by jarsin on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:00AM (#18731516)
Wow each post is like an episode of the jerry springer show.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by Xeronate on Friday December 21, 2018 @03:27AM (#18732078)
I read it for a few days and then had to uninstall. It has an astoundingly horrible user base.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by jogjayr on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:15AM (#18734233)
Same - I have friends telling me about Blind but had never looked at it until now. Just the comments on the top posts are awful.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by imsofuture on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:05PM (#18734639)
I agree that there's a lot of toxic stuff, especially in the general communities. I do think it's a net benefit for company-wide chatter though. There is good and useful perspective in there, it's just harder to find than all the garbage.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by mrep on Thursday December 20, 2018 @11:00PM (#18731328)
Examples?
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by SolaceQuantum on Friday December 21, 2018 @08:54AM (#18733282)
My first look at Blind rated cities to work in by how hot/available women were there (e.g. comments like "SF sucks, you have to settle on dating uglies" or "NYC women are so much hotter than SV women, no contest where to live"). The question asked to the Blind community was just "where would it be better to live long term" or something completely not to do with dating or women, but the majority of responses were about the hotness of women dates.

Later on, I found unsavory relationship advisement going on, and further than that, outright racism against Indians in particular. None of these comments were downvoted, many encouraged and agreed upon. (EDIT: Not downvoted, criticized, sorry.(

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by vonmoltke on Friday December 21, 2018 @09:28AM (#18733472)
> None of these comments were downvoted

Blind doesn't have downvotes (which could be part of the problem there).

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by SolaceQuantum on Friday December 21, 2018 @10:38AM (#18733929)
Sorry, let me clarify (I sometimes use words inappropriately). None of the responses were critical.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by thtowawayt on Friday December 21, 2018 @10:15AM (#18733754)
> outright racism against Indians in particular.

Racism is not illegal and should not be suppressed. It does should also not be encouraged, however.

At the end of he day, people do not have the right to feel good.

> My first look at Blind rated cities to work in by how hot/available women were there (e.g. comments like "SF sucks, you have to settle on dating uglies" or "NYC women are so much hotter than SV women, no contest where to live").

It may be off topic the original post, but is most definitely relevant to the users. Nothing wrong with rating women. People do it all the time. It's about time it is made less taboo.

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by mistersquid on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:06AM (#18734148)
> Nothing wrong with rating women. People do it all the time. It's about time it is made less taboo.

In the current context of rampant sexual discrimination, there is everything wrong with "rating women". To be very clear, when "rating women" I presume you are talking about the snap judgements made based on stereotypical beauty attributes relating to physical appearance.

The problem with "rating women" in this way is that ranking people according to a very small set of "desirable" attributes neglects or diminishes other very important aspects of what makes a person worth knowing and loving. Appearance becomes a top priority over and against other perhaps more important attributes including loyalty, kindness, and intelligence.

Additionally, "rating women" along such lines reinforces the sense that people are fungible sources of (aesthetic) value rather than worthy individuals in their own right. None of this even touches upon the social and psychological problems that result when people are judged on such a small set of shallow traits.

While people do judge each other based on appearance all the time, such tendencies are to be resisted and questioned because, for one, the standards of physical beauty are well-known to be shaped by the imperatives of advertising which have established that making people feel insecure drives sales.

In fact, it's not taboo to judge people on appearance at all. "Rating women" is a social norm. Not judging women based upon on their appearance is actually the rare exception.

EDIT: add preposition; remove duplicate word; delete extraneous space.

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by zozbot123 on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:40PM (#18734910)
> The problem with "rating women" in this way is that ranking people according to a very small set of "desirable" attributes neglects or diminishes other very important aspects of what makes a person worth knowing and loving.

That's not just a problem with "rating women", or even with rating men (which happens a lot more than most people would be comfortable admitting!) for that matter. It's a basic failure mode in human psychology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect

And yes, marketing and advertising exploit this too. Associating a product with conventionally-attractive people is one way of manipulating us to make us feel better about it.

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by SolaceQuantum on Friday December 21, 2018 @10:40AM (#18733943)
Please note this is in response of a request for examples of toxic/destructive behavior and advisement, and I provided. Your response indicates you do not understand the context of the conversation (eg. replying to portions of my post in a manner that has nothing to do with the conversation) and thus I cannot reply in a manner that is on-topic.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by kjeetgill on Friday December 21, 2018 @08:00PM (#18738149)
Vouched. If we're going to talk about Blind of all things (and the kinds of sentiments it reveals, incites, or amplifies) we can't bury those perspectives.

Sure I'd rather keep most of HN clean of vitriol, but a thread about it? We need to challenge, understand, and dissect these perspectives, not disregard them.

Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by skrebbel on Friday December 21, 2018 @01:34AM (#18731781)
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by khyryk on Friday December 21, 2018 @02:42AM (#18731964)
First time taking a look at that site and I'm pretty sure a lot of it is trolling. Lots of threads starting with something semi-ridiculous or controversial to solicit lots of responses to which the OP spends an unreasonable amount of time responding to. Classic flame baiting.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by jetcata on Thursday December 20, 2018 @11:39PM (#18731453)
The state of our industry?
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by grumpykitten on Thursday December 20, 2018 @11:22PM (#18731392)
Really typical. It’s worse than reddit and hardly has anything useful. I was an early user when it first started but got turned off by the number of spammed posts that were so toxic.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by thetricia on Friday December 21, 2018 @10:12AM (#18733737)
Uh, really wish I haven't seen it. Not exactly surprised, but I forgot how many people in the industry (and the world at large) are like that.
Re:At Blind, a security lapse revealed private complaints fr... by filmgirlcw on Thursday December 20, 2018 @11:49PM (#18731485)
Yes.