Laura Squire

[GoLongNotShort PhD @FUDHelpdesk]

Ok so I read it and... The article proves the opposite of what it thinks it proves.

Nobody serious is saying you illegally evaded taxes. The point is that the tax code lets billionaire wealth grow almost untouched while wages get taxed immediately.

“Unrealized gains aren’t income” is not a rebuttal. It’s the loophole.

Legal isn’t the same as fair. It just means the people who benefit wrote the rules neatly enough.

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@karpathy Great news! Very happy to hear great minds and hearts work together

[Jeremy Bernier @jeremybernier]

At Meta, 90% of my coworkers were Chinese, and non-Chinese were routinely excluded, disadvantaged, and targeted for layoffs. 6 out of the 7 layoffs I observed targeted non-Chinese despite non-Chinese being the vast minority. Certain orgs like ads and MRS are notorious for being Chinese dominated. I think Americans would be outraged if they knew that their own citizens were getting marginalized and laid off at their own companies, while Chinese promote themselves up, conquer entire orgs, and reap millions.

Imagine if Huawei in Shenzhen had entire orgs and leadership chains completely dominated by Japanese people who brazenly spoke Japanese at work without a care in the world that their Chinese coworkers don't understand, imposed their own work culture without respecting Chinese culture, excluded the Chinese, and laid off Chinese people while promoting their own. I imagine Chinese citizens would be outraged, and never allow that to happen in the first place.

The most blatant and obvious way that non-Chinese are excluded is that Chinese primarily speak Mandarin at work. I'm not talking about one-off conversations, I'm talking about every single conversation. Loudly and brazenly with no respect for others. 10+ teammates and leaders having a group conversation in Mandarin while the 2 non-Chinese don't understand and feel excluded from the team. Although everyone at least has the decency to speak English during formal meetings with a non-speaker present, it was common that right after the meeting ended everyone would immediately switch to Mandarin.

Funny I'm in Korea right now and was just on a double date with 3 other Koreans, and I was shocked that when the conversation would split into two, the other couple would speak to each other in English in my presence just out of respect. A Korean couple on a double-date had the courtesy to speak to each other in English in front of me even though I'd never expect that from them, but my Chinese coworkers did not.

Lunch was another place where non-Chinese were blatantly excluded. Recall that the team I joined was an all Chinese team with only one other non-Chinese person. The Chinese would always get lunch together and never invite us (except for one of them who occasionally would, though at some point stopped). Me and the non-Chinese person would invite them, they'd always refuse, and then shortly after they'd disappear and get lunch together. As a result, it was usually just the two of us getting lunch. (caveat, some of the newer Chinese who joined afterwards also experienced similar treatment. So it's moreso a clique thing than a Chinese vs. non-Chinese thing, though 100% of the clique was Chinese)

On Wednesdays and Fridays I'd often be the only non-Chinese person on my team in the office, and they'd all get lunch together without inviting me. It was depressing, and made me not want to come into the office on those days.

One team dinner we went to a Korean BBQ. I arrived with a non-Chinese coworker and the first table was full, so we sat at one end of the next empty table. Shortly after one of the Tech Leads walked in, and sat at the complete opposite end of our table, alone and not in talking distance to anyone. We invited her over, and she declined. Later another Tech Lead came in and sat across from her. Non-Chinese and Chinese at opposite ends of a long table at a team dinner, and they refused to sit with us. Eventually more people came and the TLs joined our side because I guess maybe it was too obviously anti-social, and they spent the entire dinner speaking speaking Chinese to each other. These were our tech leads.

I could not understand how Meta could have "Tech Leads" that so blatantly excluded teammates. I thought Tech Leads were supposed to uplift the team, and that Meta would hold tech leads to a higher standard.

Now someone might say that it's just lunch or a one-off team dinner, who cares? To that I vehemently disagree. Lunch is extremely important for team bonding, and so much information is transferred through informal socializing. I'm not saying that everyone needs to get lunch together everyday, but if a minority of people are excluded from getting lunch with the rest of the team, and especially the most tenured and senior employees, then naturally that minority is going to feel alienated, disadvantaged, and excluded from opportunities. And the very fact that they're excluded from lunch is reflective of being excluded in general.

When 90% of an org and the entire leadership chain is dominated by one ethnicity, naturally their work culture is going to spill through. Chinese culture is completely different from American work culture, and learning to navigate that was a huge obstacle for me. For example I'm the type that tends to question everything and isn't afraid to challenge a "superior", but I quickly realized that my TL seemed to take offense to that, and would punish/retaliate me for it.

I want to make it clear - I have nothing against Chinese people. Most of them are very kind (strong correlation between kindness and not engaging in the kind of exclusionary behavior I mentioned above), and I have many good friends who are Chinese. I get that some barely speak English (though I question how they got hired). I do genuinely believe that most are good people, and not deliberately trying to exclude others. But regardless of intent, the result is that non-Chinese get excluded. The fact that 6 of the 7 layoffs I observed were not Chinese in a 80-90% Chinese dominated org is testament to this. The fact that 90% Chinese dominated orgs even exist in the first place is testament to this.

I might not even be posting about this given the sensitivity of the topic if not for the fact that I've seen and/or heard stories of some very toxic people who I do not believe would otherwise survive if not for their ability to exclude others, throwing others under the bus for the next layoff. The same people do this over and over again, and get away with it because they're part of the "clique" that essentially has immunity.

I think the company needs to take this more seriously. Some ideas would be enforcing English at the office (I've heard of other teams that do this), raising leaders to a higher bar when it comes to team inclusivity (eg. under the "People" axis), investigating potential discrimination cases (eg. layoffs and/or mistreatment disproportionally affecting certain groups) and having a zero tolerance policy around that, having a zero tolerance policy around injustice in general (eg. lying or deliberately throwing somebody under the bus), ensuring more diverse teams, etc.

But to be honest, I don't have faith that much would change so long as the entire leadership chain up to the VP level is dominated by the same ethnicity, language, and culture. Nor does it seem that leadership even remotely cares given that this has been happening in the HQ for probably at least the last decade, and is obvious to anyone who's stepped foot in the office.

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

This is how you build bridges

[Reuters @Reuters]

Péter Magyar created a historic moment when he took the oath as Hungary's new prime minister, inviting Roma children to perform a song in parliament for the first time at its inaugural session

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@ComeAndTakeIt @elonmusk Beautiful

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@regular_niceboy @elonmusk 🥰 Too 🥰 cute 🥰!! 🥰

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

🇺🇸🇺🇸 Welcome home! 🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Roy E. Bahat @roybahat]

Outside Anthropic's office in SF... intense moment!

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@TaylorRehmetTX Congratulations!

[Taylor Rehmet @TaylorRehmetTX]

We’re headed to the runoff!

My billionaire-backed Republican opponents spent MILLIONS, but we were powered entirely by working Texans.

And last night, we proved that when you put people over politics, anything’s possible.

Let’s win this thing!

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@DarioAmodei Thank you

[Pierre @realpepito]

@EmmanuelMacron this is my president

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@EmmanuelMacron That's how it's done! 💯

[Emmanuel Macron @EmmanuelMacron]

We will not tolerate any violation.

This morning, the French Navy boarded an oil tanker coming from Russia, subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag.

The operation was conducted on the high seas in the Mediterranean, with the support of several of our allies. It was carried out in strict compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

A judicial investigation has been opened. The vessel has been diverted.

We are determined to uphold international law and to ensure the effective enforcement of sanctions.

The activities of the “shadow fleet” contribute to financing the war of aggression against Ukraine.

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@ScottAdamsSays RIP

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@MayaArt566 Gorgeous. Enjoy her as much as you can.

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@Allie_Elisabeth My son is there too . I told him to stay home, we have better eartquakes in the Bay Area :-) Happy the impact was small.

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@turkiyetodaycom she was so calm.

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@karpathy Ty Andrej, I feel this, especially since I attended Google's Agentic AI intensive. The complexity has increased in miriad ways for indeterministic tools to be intermingled with the regular engineering ones and it's a mix of fascinating and overwhelming at the same time.

[Laura Squire @laurabsquire]

@SamanthaTaghoy He is what? Oxford Union President? How low has Oxford and Britain got? Shame indeed.