Timnit Gebru was fired over the power of words and the fear they can bring. These opinions are solely mine, informed by my observations, and does not represent any investment advice whatsoever.
If I told you that one of the world’s most powerful, valuable, and influential companies fired a prominent Black female employee for calling out an environmental risk and then attempted to gaslight the whole thing, you might think I was crazy! Yet somehow that’s the precise journey Google has been on since early December 2020.
After working on a paper on how language models were inefficiently trained, leading…
How Leaving the Paris Climate Accord is Impacting Your Retirement Options
On June 23, 2020, the US Department of Labor (US DOL) made a bold proclamation. Namely, a formal accusation against ESG as a sound financial investment when it comes to retirement options.
“Private employer-sponsored retirement plans are not vehicles for furthering social goals or policy objectives that are not in the financial interest of the plan,” said Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia.
This statement creates a tangent between socially responsible values and profits artificially while counter to recent data about the movement.
Since 2005, Capital Markets firms have been thinking about ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) and how those…
The first time I met Bill, my father-in-law, was over 20 years ago. Looking back, I think I had been preparing for his death since the minute I met him. A bizarre sentiment to be sure, but I was in college, dating his daughter, and there he lay in a hospital bed after a heart attack.
I remember thinking to myself, “Man, if he ever gets better, I am probably in for it.” Bill was a pretty big guy, ex-Navy and lifelong farmer. He was over 6 foot tall and broad to my under 5 foot 5 inches and skinny…
Generation X was largely defined by failing institutions, shared cultural experiences and change. Is history repeating itself?
Tell your story…this is how Medium prompts you to start writing, but this isn’t a story about me. This is a story about Generation X and how the events that shaped this generation, of which I am a member, are at play again and how a post-Millennial generation is going to completely reshape the world.
First, let’s cover the basics. Generation X (Gen-X) is a small generation between Baby Boomers and Millennials, comprised of people born between 1964(ish) and 1981 (we’ll leave Xennials out of the discussion). For those in sales and marketing, Millennials are the ‘generation of the moment’…
Say what you want about Facebook’s apology ad, fresh on the heels of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but it hits on one important point — the internet has a lot of promise and, like the Charlie Brown’s that we all are, we’ve ruined it. It has gotten so bad that in May 2017, the New York Times reported that ‘The Internet is Broken.’
Yes, despite the amazing potential for discourse the internet could foster, we’ve lowered conversation to its most base levels through echo chambers of infotainment and curated social media circles.
The end result has been bad actors taking…
Feel free to copy this letter to write to your representatives.
You can reach them online by visiting:
Battle for the Net
EFF Action
Find Your Representative
Please make sure you are educated about Net Neutrality before voting against it. This isn’t a regulation over-reach, but an over-reach by the telecom companies and a shirking of duties by the FCC.
Net Neutrality ensures that all traffic is treated equally on the internet. Keeping it in place ensures that no one is regulating the traffic and that citizens can reach whichever website or service they choose.
Back in 2014, the FCC outlined the 3 simple rules for an open internet. These rules protected the internet from broadband providers, who control your network connectivity to services. Whether you’re playing Xbox, streaming Stranger Things, listening to Weezer on Spotify or shopping online, these rules make sure your content is delivered the same.
- Transparency. Broadband providers must disclose information regarding their network management practices, performance, and the commercial terms of their broadband services.
- No blocking. Fixed broadband providers (such as DSL, cable modem, or fixed wireless providers) may not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices. …
Admittedly, I’m late to the game. Not quite as late as the Pennsylvania budget however, as the deadline was July 1st. While the budget passed, it is unbalanced, leaving many issues on the table. This budget cycle, Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania introduced the idea of a “technology tax” against technology service providers to help address the $3B state budget deficit.
For context, the Pittsburgh Technology Council has a list of the NAICS codes impacted based on the Pennsylvania Independent Financial Office’s (IFO) report, Analysis of Revenue Proposals FY 2017–2018 Executive Budget (page 22).
As you can see below from…
Social media has changed the way companies engage with their customers. These platforms can accelerate customer satisfaction, uncover operational issues, and allow a company to easily (and algorithmically) reach every customer on the planet. Social media has revolutionized modern marketing and spawned entire new industries, processes and companies.
While businesses can impact individual consumers, an individual has a lot of power to influence not only their own experience, but businesses as well. Here are two real world examples of the power which individuals have through social.
The needs of the consumer are immediate
As technology continues to intersect with reality…
My family and I were lucky enough to spend a week down in Orlando on vacation this year. While I thought it was going to be a stressful vacation, it was actually glorious, largely in part due to the technology that Disney has integrated into their parks.
I write a lot about technology and Digital Transformation and clearly, Disney has embraced both. For example, their Magicbands serve as the key to my resort room, my pass to the park, my FastPass, my PhotoPass and even my credit card for purchases.
Somehow Disney was able to tell where I was riding…
Matthew Sekol
English major working in technology | dad | geek | runner | writer All writings are my own opinion!
