Hasnain says:

This was a great read.

“I’ll close with the slightly cynical observation that I may be entirely overthinking the blue checkmark; it could be that blue checkmarks aren’t really about security, anti-abuse, or mis-/disinformation at all, but rather that they’re just a way to drive more engagement from particular users. Nevertheless, the identity verification problem on social media platforms is real, so I find it interesting to think about how that problem could be defined and solved, regardless of whether social media platforms are tackling it in earnest today.”

Hasnain says:

Great reporting by ProPublica. I learnt a lot more about the NYPD’s past scandals, in particular the ticket fixing scandal I had not heard about (lots of corruption there and some of the officer statements in response are bewildering).

“Jennvine Wong, who heads the organization’s police accountability practice, said that while some might dismiss ticket-fixing as small-bore misbehavior, knowing who is on the full No Fly List is essential to the group’s effort.

“The NYPD made such a big deal about broken windows, how small little infractions can turn into an avalanche of bigger issues with larger, more violent crimes,” she said. “Well, apply that same logic to officer misconduct then.””

Hasnain says:

“One team invoked the lessons learned during QAnon’s moment to warn about permissiveness with anti-vaccine groups and content, which researchers found comprised up to half of all vaccine content impressions on the platform.

“In rapidly-developing situations, we’ve often taken minimal action initially due to a combination of policy and product limitations making it extremely challenging to design, get approval for, and roll out new interventions quickly,” the report said. QAnon was offered as an example of a time when Facebook was “prompted by societal outcry at the resulting harms to implement entity takedowns” for a crisis on which “we initially took limited or no action.””

Hasnain says:

“Changing public perceptions of companies such as Facebook and Google may be wearing on some younger workers, analysts and former workers say.

“A couple years ago if you said you worked for one of those companies, nine out of 10 people are like, ‘Oh, that’s awesome.’ Now it’s five out of 10 people say, ‘That’s awesome,’ and five out of ten people say, ‘Oh really? That company does bad things,” said Brian Kropp, chief of research in Gartner’s human resources practice.”

Hasnain says:

This whole article is worrying. Hopefully a proper investigation can happen and new rules can be put in place.

“There were two misfires on the prop gun on Saturday and one the previous week, the person said, adding “there was a serious lack of safety meetings on this set.””

Hasnain says:

This was a great slide deck on organizational dysfunction and headwinds, and how to keep coordination costs low even as organizations grow and evolve. I found myself nodding along a lot

Hasnain says:

This is some great research (need to read the paper in full) and I hope other studies like this are able to proceed to study the impact of recommendation algorithms on human behavior.

“In six out of seven countries — all but Germany — Tweets posted by accounts from the political right receive more algorithmic amplification than the political left when studied as a group.

Right-leaning news outlets, as defined by the independent organizations listed above, see greater algorithmic amplification on Twitter compared to left-leaning news outlets. However, as highlighted in the paper, these third-party ratings make their own, independent classifications and as such the results of analysis may vary depending on which source is used.”

Hasnain says:

This is some interesting anecdotal evidence on the recent labor market woes and claims. Would be really interesting to see this formalized as a study!

“By the end of September, Holz had sent out 60 applications, received 16 email responses, four follow-up phone calls, and the solitary interview. He shared a pie chart showing his results.”

Hasnain says:

This was an amazing and inspirational story of a man who overcame so much adversity and then generously helped others. I also learnt a lot about the history of north California through this. Including a bit more about the racism that’s sadly still here.

““My sole interest is to work with young Black males,” Clay said while CEO of his company, “to encourage them to learn how to do things well.”

But 43 years after Clay feared for his life by Bailey Pond, he faced death threats again due to the color of his skin when he became the first person of color to play golf at San Francisco’s Olympic Club.”

Hasnain says:

This is a pretty decent article on large scale developer mindset shifts and migrations and has some nuggets of interest when thinking about career growth.

I recommend skipping the first bit though. While stories like this seem ok in hindsight - stuff like this is not okay:

“It’s not that Mr. K had read the doc and then hated it; he literally refused to read it at all. He scanned the first page, circled a bunch of things in red ink, and then just gave up. He put the document down, crossed his arms and impatiently checked his email on his phone while others around him awkwardly continued reading it. He then proceeded to berate me in front of a dozen Directors and Principal Engineers about how much he hated it.”