Precisely. The Overton window for this topic seems to have shifted pretty far. The default position should be one of positive consent and assumed privacy. But then again, I think it’s all moot considering that Facebook’s existence is predicated on them collecting data. Asking them to do less of it is like asking a plant to stop photosynthesizing. That is to say: it’s their whole raison d’être, which means they won’t change it without a little encouragement from third parties.
It has to be Quicken, right? They're the largest outfit I can think of. They’re obviously not primarily software, but I think they employ most of the tech workers downtown.
> The trip, which took place on a luxury bus outfitted with a supply of vegan doughnuts and coal-infused kombucha, was known as the "Comeback Cities Tour."
I live in Detroit. It’s a city that has been pushed to the edge of oblivion... and then into oblivion for several decades. It's fantastic that thers investment, but at the same time, stuff like this feels so incredibly patronizing. "It's nicer than San Francisco!" Yes, there are, in fact, nice buildings outside of San Francisco, even in Detroit.
Midwestern cities don't exist solely to make money, and I'm rather disturbed that they're seen more and more as nothing but investment vehicles. Detroit is 80% black. We didn’t even have working street lights until a few years ago (shout out to the Public Lighting Authority). I just look at San Francisco and the entire Bay Area, and I think to myself: "we don't want that here". Detroit isn't just cheap rent and exposed brick. It's grit and soul and pain and culture and 300+ years of history. I'm sure these investors got a lovely tour. Did they talk about the 1967 riots? Did they show them northwest Detroit, where entire city blocks are basically becoming urban prairie? Did they talk to the regular folks living and working in the city for generations? They’re lovely people, and they live here too. They're as much a part of Detroit as the Madison Building or New Center or Dan Gilbert or the rotting houses or the rich history.
Thing is (I'm a native, black, 3rd generation Detroiter, and a serial founder who has lived in the Bay Area) none of that (unless and until it does) has anything to do with starting startups or making startups succeed.
And impertinent. That's the thing: people want the side effects of startup success here but they don't care about successful startups or the things that make startups succeed. The Genius loci is huntin 'em and killin 'em here. I live it everyday. Maybe, just maybe a place like Detroit could overcome the premier network effects of the Valley if people here cared about startups. They don't.
In some ways it's unfair but true. In the same way that people with families should not start startups.
"This one is real. I wouldn't advise anyone with a family to start a startup. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that I don't want to take responsibility for advising it. I'm willing to take responsibility for telling 22 year olds to start startups. So what if they fail? They'll learn a lot, and that job at Microsoft will still be waiting for them if they need it. But I'm not prepared to cross moms." ~ http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html
I refuse to let a simple phrase like that become verboten just because a certain configuration of it was used by someone that our circles of friends dislike. Personally, I think it’s a funny reappropriation.
But either way, this isn’t particularly germane to the conversation, and you could even argue that it wasn’t done intentionally considering that Medium used to be readable.
Anyway, Medium is annoyingly hard to read now, and I’m glad someone’s done something to fix it.
>just because a certain configuration of it was used by someone that our circles of friends dislike.
I'm going to stand on the side of this issue and argue it's more than that the configuration of "Make X Y Again" was used by people circles of my friends dislike, it was a rallying call, a point of campaigning, to cause a deliberate division of people at the expense of individuals whose mere presence makes America less than great according to some-on deeply superficial grounds.
But yes, not really relevant to the discussion.
I will ask this though: In what ways is Medium difficult to read? Personally speaking it's one of the easiest sites to read, just curious what that experience is like for other people, clearly it's pronounced enough for someone to make a browser extension. Just wondering.
Edit:
I do hate the amount of clicking that has to go on just to read "Network" responses, however.
A little nihilism legitimately helps me. One day, the sun will expand and, most likely, engulf the inner planets. Save for a few hunks of metal and bursts of energy, all that was, is, and will be of earth will be incinerated, and rather spectacularly, I might add. We’ll (most likely) be long gone by then, but I find comfort recognizing that my life is but a short blip on the cosmological timeline, and as such, I shouldn’t take life too seriously. Live well, if you can. Be kind to others, love as much as possible, but remember, as they say: you can’t take it with you.
