You seem to know weird subsets of people at different companies. If we weren't ostensibly in the same field, I wouldn't comment (because of course two random people on HN would know different people at Google). But we are, and the Google security people I talk to are more supportive of the protests; several are now on the job market because of it.

I feel pretty comfortable with how representative the people I talk to are of Google product security and vulnerability research, for whatever that's worth to you.

Yes, it’s definitely me that knows “weird subsets” of people, whatever that is supposed to mean. You’re immune to bubbles, and I am in one, right? Or is that a sneaky way of saying, “The people I know don’t think that, so I suspect you made that up”?

This is a silly thread, but for what it’s worth, I have not talked to anyone at Google in a security role about this issue.

I’ll be more blunt. I am highly skeptical that anyone in security there quit their job over the protests. But, I have no reason to doubt that your sample supports the protests.

Do keep in mind though that most people who don’t support them are keenly aware that going near any activism topic, especially at Google, is personal and professional jeopardy. Many people think they can’t even debate these things without running the risk of being on the receiving end of the scorched earth tactics employed by activists. And I’m not even talking about conservatives (of whom I know very few in tech, if any).

It’s not that they think it’s great that Rubin got dumptrucks of money, but the mentality is that if you take any issue with any of the demands or tactics, or the frequency with which they dominate the focus of employees trying to do their work, you’re suddenly a misogynistic transphobic racist enemy of the people.

The people I'm talking about aren't reserving their true feelings about the protests so as to avoid triggering the libs. They're DM'ing me unbidden about how unhappy they are with Google.

The people I’m talking about are. Both at Google and elsewhere. And they are libs.

Then again, a surprisingly large number of Google employees don’t seem to understand that they work for an advertising company.

There are several people from Google here speaking out in support and literally thousands of people stood with the walkout.

So it doesn't seem like a "small minority" unless you know a hell of a lot of people.

1000 employees is 1%. Even if 10,000 showed up, which they did not, that is still a small minority.

Unfortunately I cannot reveal real numbers to reveal the breakdown, but even a cursory modeling of this with Bayesian techniques suggests more than a tiny minority of people hold the sentiment in question.