100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley

Re:100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley by onion2k on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @08:03AM (#9380323)

I'm streaming realtime events and then running statistical models on the datastream in order to manipulate user behavior.

Having a more diverse team that includes someone with a more emotionally-driven perspective could lead to someone asking the question "Is the way we're manipulating user behavior actually ethical?"

This isn't about finding different technical solutions to problems; it's about finding different problems.

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Re:100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley by yummyfajitas on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @08:18AM (#9380418)

The idea of an emotionally driven person making ethical decisions scares the crap out of me. For example, empathy (a popular mode of emotional decisionmaking in ethics) is known to be racist:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3108582/

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

And most emotionally driven ethical discussions on HN lean towards popularity contests - compare the outcry against online harassment of that gamergate girl to the online harassment of Charles Carreon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Carreon), for example.

But even if you are right, what does diversity in the traditional sense of your post above have to do with it? Are you suggesting that women/LGBTQ+ people are more emotional and less rational?

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Re:100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley by gone35 on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @08:31AM (#9380495)

"Having a more diverse team that includes someone with a more emotionally-driven perspective could lead to someone asking the question "Is the way we're manipulating user behavior actually ethical?" [Emphasis added]

Geez, I really hope that that was just an unfortunate turn of phrase. You can't possibly mean that non-(white-males) have a quote "more emotionally-driven perspective", do you?

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Re:100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley by kweinber on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @09:52AM (#9380927)

I read the post to suggest that the existing team was obviously not very emotionally sensitive since they are explicitly working to "manipulate behavior" which sounds sinister. Perhaps hiring more folks who are both rational AND emotionally sensitive to their users is the diversity they need.

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Re:100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley by yummyfajitas on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @10:03AM (#9381007)

What's sinister about it? If you ever make a design change to increase conversions, you are working to manipulate user behavior. Are landing pages, a/b tests, pretty designs, and pictures of human faces now "sinister"?

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Re:100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley by kweinber on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @10:36AM (#9381231)

Making a nicer product that increases user engagement is manipulating the product to match what the user likes, not manipulating the user. Changing the order and quality of ranked news articles, bending the truth, using behavioral science to promote addictive dependence,advertising products you don't actually make are all manipulating the user.

There is a big difference and yes, "manipulating the user" is sinister.

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Re:100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley by yummyfajitas on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @11:15AM (#9381484)

I specifically discussed putting human faces on the landing page to get more conversions and other design changes (e.g., button color, button copy). These don't change the product, only the landing page.

That's not a lie or bending the truth. It is manipulating the user.

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Re:100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley by kweinber on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @03:35PM (#9383510)

I would suggest you stay away from describing your business practices as "manipulation", though. Almost all connotations of that word in psychology, law, and business imply deceit.

It sounds like you are decorating the showroom to boost sales... I hope it works out well for you. I was thown by the initial desciption that sure didnt sound like faces and buttons: "I'm streaming realtime events and then running statistical models on the datastream in order to manipulate user behavior."

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