Meatspace is Sarah and Lora’s weekly digest of weird/wack/need-to-know tech news — and our warm takes on all of it.
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Dear friends,
Thrilled to be back at it after a lovely Thanksgiving break, which we primarily spent explaining the concept of “Supreme drops” to our parents // reading every Sheryl situation take on our phones under the dinner table. Especially Kara Swisher’s fire one!!
We also celebrated Cyber Monday, which brought us many joys: an excellent/troubling Daily episode about the human toll of quick delivery; hip brands virtue signaling by telling people NOT to shop; and huge savings on robot friendship in the form of discounted Alexas/Google homes.
But while the whole Turkey Five (apparently, the 5 crucial shopping days between Tgives and CybMon) have flown by, consumerism is forever. Amazon wants to get brands to advertise Alexa voice shopping in their own ads...For Free (in exchange for Amazon metrics)! For example, Tide (in its own ads) would encourage consumers to ask Alexa to send them Tide Pods.
Google Home is also extending its ambitions/tendrils into your life and mind with two new patents. One would allow Google devices to scan your household items to get to know you as a consumer and make suggestions; the other would use cameras and sensors to restrict kids’ behaviors (such as slapping the bag of aforementioned Tide).
And today, we are also introducing a new product: The Meatspace Interview!! This month we interviewed Erika Hairston, who is launching an app that connects underrepresented groups in tech -- and beyond! -- to mentors in the field. It’s called Zimela, which means “representation” in the South African language of isiXhosa (as featured in Black Panther); and it’s going live at the end of the year. Check it out here. Below, a condensed and edited version of our talk. (Grateful for Erika!)
You have a start-up! Tell us about how you started up Zimela.
It started off as my senior project at Yale, where I double majored in Af-Am Studies and Computer Science. In Af-Am Studies, my thesis was about representation in computer science and in Silicon Valley. Having gone through the Computer Science major and feeling like I was the only person who looked like me, I realized it was important for me to … create an app that filled the gaps I found when working on the thesis, and while teaching myself a computer language.
I kept finding mentors and communities that helped me get to where I was by luck or word of mouth, and I kept wishing there was a database or place that knew who I was and my background and could recommend [next steps]. I wanted to turn the ad hoc convos I had in BSAY [Black Students’ Alliance at Yale] and Women in Computer Science organizations I was in into something that was digital.
Who are you hoping to reach with Zimela?
We’ve had about 300 sign ups so far. My sister -- she’s a writer who now works for WeWork -- is also helping me with the app: she’s been doing interviews and spotlighting role models’ journeys to where they are.
It’s a range of people: POC in the tech industry, Black women doctors, LGBTQ in non-profits. We’re looking at who’s on the margins and highlighting all these identities in places we don’t usually see. In general we want to get as many role models on the app as possible! My philosophy is that everyone is a role model to someone: even sharing the story of how you got into college could help someone else.
It's no secret that the tech industry has a diversity problem. Where does fixing this start?
These tech companies are so keen on measuring “key metrics” and moving these metrics. But if they’re putting so much energy on this one metric, why isn’t it moving? Part of me truly believes that if they really wanted to move it, they would.
There’s three parts to how I think about diversifying tech. To me, it’s not a pipeline problem. These pipelines exist: there are underrepresented groups interested in tech, they’re just not always being hired.
So one is making it known that these are options: that’s where representation [ED NOTE: and apps like Zimela!] is so important.
The second piece is looking at what these companies are doing to actually get diverse talent through the door and reduce unconscious bias. It starts not just with the leadership, but with the people hiring engineers. Even though these companies have “diversity first” branding, it’s really the hiring managers in charge of saying yes or no to candidates, and if it’s not getting through to them it’s just a continuing cycle.
And then, making sure you have a culture that makes sure underrepresented groups feel welcome and it’s not a cycle of, you’re the only one.
Yeah, and it’s even harder when that hiring is outsourced to AI, which learns from the biases -- unconscious and conscious -- of human hiring managers, like Amazon did until recently!
With those guidelines in mind, do you think there are any companies that are doing things right??
I honestly haven’t seen a company that’s doing a stellar job. Slack and Pinterest are doing well so far, but could always be doing better.
Code 2040 is a non-profit that matches Black and Latin-x and LGBTQ students with internships in the Bay Area, and they make sure to partner with companies that are thinking about diversity end to end.
Slack has consistently shown up, talked about diversity efforts, and has always tapped into allowing under-represented employees to speak up, holding resume reviews -- tangible things like that. And I’m pretty sure their numbers are way better than most public tech companies.
Same with Pinterest. They have an awesome head of diversity, Candice Morgan. I believe that their numbers are higher than other companies’ [they reported a 26 percent increase in female engineer hiring this year; though their hiring of “underrepresented engineers” reached only 5 percent]; and they’re more vocal about issues.
Who are your mentors and role models?
My personal mentor at LinkedIn is named Keren Baruch, who’s a product manager there. She’s very adamant about closing the pay gap in general, and is a boss—and a force—to be reckoned with.
This is the advice that I give to anyone looking for new jobs: When I was looking to work at LinkedIn I felt comfortable enough to say that I wanted a mentor or boss who was either a woman or a person of color, and is also a huge advocate for those two groups. That’s why they matched me with her. Most people should be able to do that, and a lot of people don’t know they can.
Erika Joy Baker: She’s currently a software engineering manager, who was formerly at Slack and Google. She initiated some of the first conversations about pay equity.
Lea Coligado: She runs Women of Silicon Valley, a major blog and interview project. [Description from Coligado’s site: “an intersectional feminist photo series that celebrates resilient womxn and genderqueer technologists.”] She also wrote a lot about what was happening with the Google protests, how it was affecting her, and interviewing women and making those stories heard.
Here at Meatspace, our goals are both to highlight important voices in tech and also share UNHINGED TECH STORIES!! What is the most unhinged tech story you’ve heard recently??
Lol. Well, Palantir is about to go IPO soon, and they’re trying to get rid of “Palantir Entitlement Syndrome.” They had, like, Lobstergate, where people were arguing over whether they should be allowed to have … 13-course tastings of lobster tail at lunch.
Unhinged, indeed.
THANK YOU, ERIKA! Follow her on Twitter, read more coverage of her work, and watch out for Zimela’s impending launch!
TASTY BITES OF TECH NEWS FROM THIS WEEK:
DJ Khaled and Floyd Mayweather Jr are being charged by SEC for illegally promoting an Initial Coin Offering (Pitchfork)
Jessi Hempel argues that tech companies need to grow out of the concept of Sheryl Sandbergs (ie stop making competent women clean up after tech bro CEO founders) (LinkedIn)
Wages in all but the highest-paying Silicon Valley jobs have gone down (Mercury News)
Sheryl Sandberg asked her staff to research George Soros. Yikes! (NYT)
Work Diary from multi-hyphenate creative/business person Aminatou Sow (NYT).
You can build your own emoji now lol (emoji builder)
Amazon is bidding on sports networks (CNN)
BLOCKCHAIN MAPS are being developed for “spatial verification” aka confirmation that your Amazon package arrives at ur doorstep. But is the commercialization of location dangerous?! (The Atlantic)
We will leave you with this deeply reported Eater feature about why tech bros love baking bread so much. Shoutout to loyal reader David R. for sending this to us: “Do You Even Bake, Bro?”
Yours in getting bread (sorry),
Sarah and Lora