The reckoning of Big Tech
119: Is big tech just a socialist paradise?
Well it’s Monday again.
Crypto is down, it’s freezing, and I don’t feel like walking to work but we trudge on.
We’ll cover market movement in the middle of this Holiday week but we wanted to kick off Monday with another spicy take on big tech.
If you’ve worked in tech, want to, or if you’re in another industry watching the Twitter debacle unfold this piece could be for you.
This post is sure to ruffle some feathers but I think it’s incredibly important as we hit this large juncture between tech companies, censorship, and some of the developments that have taken place both at the company level and in broader markets.
If you guys remember we wrote a long piece on the phenomenon that nobody wants to work anymore a few months back.
Recently we’ve seen the tech industry undergo a series of high profile stock tanks, scrutinization of work structures, and most notably the complete culling of ranks by Elon Musk at Twitter.
For a very long time tech was the place to be as Silicon Valley’s dominance of the developed world spread far and wide. Massive base salaries, equity packages, and perks awaited anybody that could somehow navigate the opaque and woke interview processes.
Getting a job in tech was as much about what race you are and what your sexuality is as it was about you actually possessing the skills to do the job effectively and contribute to the company. Diversity quotas, woke politics, and far left - potentially socialist dogma permeated throughout many of these companies who became exemplars of their virtues and commitment to being inclusive and diverse.
The Elon Musk takeover of Twitter to me is highly entertaining for a variety of reasons we will elaborate on later.
In my short stint in tech, I noticed several things - and keep in mind this was after 4-5 years of being a trader banging phones, stretching spreads, and virtually running an entire mini business (my book) by myself - including contracts, legal, trade confirms, sales, prospecting etc etc.
Reason I make that distinction is I worked at a smaller shop, at larger firms you have (or should have) back up for all those functions. At boutiques you typically own the entire process. Great for experience and learning and it makes you sovereign within companies because you don’t have to rely on every department to get shit done. The rugged individualism I developed was not received well in tech.
Now it’s no secret tech is sometimes seen as chiller or better work life from folks coming into it from finance but some of the changes to me were quite absurd.
The things I noticed in tech were as follows:
it wasn’t uncommon to have many many pointless zooms and meetings all week
some were for dumb shit like sharing weekend plans, personal goals, and other non work related items
Woke, SJW, semi communist language was appreciated and encouraged
Aggressiveness and assertiveness was frowned upon, double frowned upon if you were a white straight male
“Feelings” “inclusion” “culture” were more important than efficiency and sometimes even closing business
Younger employees had a completely warped sense of what a job was - lazy, socially inept, many breaks, vacations, mental health days etc.
mid management and even upper management was alarmingly useless. Credentials were laughable in many instances at best.
Vague and unclear answers were given to shirk responsibility and avoid ownership at every turn
Big Kool Aid drinking vibes - everybody would have some stupid smile on their face and “took it easy” on themselves for mistakes or poor performance. Calling those people out would make you the bad guy. Any fuck up resulted in opaque feedback from managers like “what can you be doing better” or “what does this say about you”
High school games and politics
Promotions based on race and gender and not quality of work
Management out of touch with how many clients use the products or view the value of the offering
SEVERE REDUNDANCY at every level
Redundancy within tech stacks, processes, and software
General culture of entitlement
I could keep going but I think you get the point. The tech industry within the United States has largely transformed into a communist nanny state where showing off your woke virtue is more important than actually performing, profiting, or doing good work.
Outside the market moves that have recently murked once hot tech stocks, I also think we are seeing the consequences of years of poor management, over hiring, woke/socialist agendas, and ineffective management structures.
CBS News, and countless other companies have already announced they will be leaving Twitter.
Think about truly insane this is lmao. Not to mention how incredibly soft it is.
Free speech? Not an echo chamber for our woke trash? We’re leaving!!!!!!!!!!!
With all of the madness and misleading information out there we wanted to drill down into some of the main problems that are leaking as a result of the Elon Twitter takeover and other public management shifts, events, and leaks from within the tech industry.
Our opinion is that for a long time the tech industry was the end all be all for young professionals, disgruntle former finance bros, and hard working engineers but has sine transformed into nothing more than an extension of the far left political machine.
We do deep dives just like this every week for our paid subs. Less than the cost of a soyflix subscription or train ticket to see your psycho ex girlfriend on Long island.
Let’s start with what’s beginning to manifest in the tech space as thousands and thousands lose their jobs.
“When it comes to the culture wars, the goal of a corporation is not to maximize profits, but to minimize losses.”
—Vincent Harinam, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge