Back in 2020, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was brutally attacked for a thoughtful blog post announcing a dogmatic focus on his company’s mission. Controversially, this meant Coinbase would not be endorsing activist causes, or tolerating activist organization at the company, which was then, quite bizarrely, the expectation. Sure, Brian was accused of every ism that existed, but the radicals at his company were all forced out, the rest of his employees were finally left to work in peace, and Coinbase flourished. Four years later, following the arrest and firing of a dozen activists who locked themselves inside a manager’s office, Google has finally followed suit with its own “mission” focus, thus marking the end of an era: the crazies lost. Great news, when a deranged former rich kid with blue hair and a septum piercing demands you give them your company, turns out all you have to do is say “you’re fired.” (Read my comprehensive account of tech's 'silent winter' — with exclusive commentary from both Armstrong and 37signals' David Heinemeier Hansson — that I dropped on the site yesterday.)

This week, the UCLA School of Medicine’s DEI leader Natalie Perry has been in the spotlight for allegedly plagiarizing vast swathes of her Ph.D. dissertation, which argues universities should expand their DEI programs. As with Claudine Gay and Jo Boaler, the accusations against Perry appear damning. But why should we be surprised? Does anyone actually think the “research” — most of which likely can’t be replicated and suffers severe methodological flaws — coming out of fuzzy social sciences is credible? Of course not. Gay, Boaler and Perry are scapegoats, convenient vehicles for us to vent our rage at our ruling class’s yearslong identity politics reign of terror. Investigate and expose them, yes. Fire them, sure. But blame the academy for funding, promoting and legitimizing bad research at this scale.

Manish Lachwani, cofounder and former CEO of software-testing startup HeadSpin, was officially sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $1 million for defrauding investors after lying about his company’s financials in an effort to raise more money (and then proceeding to sell off $2.5 million of his personal shares). Back in December, critics at the New York Times jumped at the case — but not only to critique Lachwani. They also pointed fingers at the investors he defrauded for somehow not exercising enough due diligence, spinning the story into a broader indictment of Silicon Valley itself. I don’t know, I guess that makes sense. After all, if she wasn’t wearing that short skirt there wouldn’t have been a problem, right? On the other hand, maybe don’t defraud anyone out of millions of dollars, regardless of whether or not the New York Times happens to hate them.

google concludes (they promise!) a decade of unhinged activism, brian armstrong’s advice for sundar, DHH on his path to mission-first, and the end of tech’s silent winter

a san francisco anti-math zealot's recent attempt to cancel software tutor startup mentava backfired spectacularly — ceo niels hoven is here to tell the complete story

on the pod this week, the pirate wires crew offers thoughts on the new npc leftist leading npr

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