I was away when the great storm blew up in Google around the memo written by James Damore, and his subsequent sacking, and I had to rely on the various musings of the liberal right and liberal and illiberal left commentariat for views (I tend not to read what the illiberal right tries to say).
It was confusing. I (along with a lot of other people, I guess) never saw Damore's original memo, but it's here c/o Gizmodo if you really want to read it. I've had an interest in these issues for some time, and I was hoping for some enlightenment from on-line notes and musings, but what I got tended to be comments from entrenched positions.
Then the Economist weighed in with a memo that Larry Page might have written (but didn't). It begins:
Created on: 15 August 2017 at 15:15 (Delivered after 1 seconds)
From: Larry Page <*********@google.com>
To: James Damore <***********@hotmail.com>
cc: <all-staff-worldwide@google.com>
Subject: Re: “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber”Dear James,
....
See what you make of it. If you get to the end there are a number of links to studies and comments on the problem which is more widespread than Google – a search engine, let me say again, I do not use on principle. Personally, I think it's a pity they took the easy step of sacking him, rather than use the opportunity for some open, in-house discussion about their problems. Ah, well, ...
Respond