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.
显示更多
DeepMind's Andrew Trask on why the scaling laws are pushing AI from one big model toward a protocol:
"The zoomed-out picture is that in the end, AI is gonna be a protocol instead of a program. We're seeing that evolution start to really gather steam as the scaling laws constrain how much data, compute, and talent one company can bring together."
"When you combine models from multiple different providers, you're implicitly combining the data, compute, and talent that they trained on. So you can get better, faster models for a lower price, which is pretty crazy when you think about it."
"If you want the absolute most accurate model, ensembling the top models is always going to win, you'll get higher scores than any single model. And if you want the best accuracy relative to any unit of price, ensembling some open and closed models is likely gonna own that Pareto frontier quietly for a while."
"It won't be until there's a leaderboard that widely recognizes ensembles as comparable to individual models that we start to really see it. Then in 12 to 18 months, that saturates a bunch of benchmarks across the space, and the harnesses pick it up, routing you to the best combinations of models on the fly. That's when the market really starts to change in terms of how people buy intelligence."
@iamtrask @openminedorg
显示更多
Ferran Torres’ Explosive Interview Bombshell 🔥
Interviewer: Ferran, there have been endless rumors and agendas circulating about your personal life for a while now. Care to set the record straight?
Ferran Torres: Look, I’ve been waiting for the right moment to say this. I’ve always been gay. I honestly don’t know why it took everyone so long to piece it together the signs were there if people were really paying attention.
I’ve seen all the deadbeat stories and whispers flying around online, trying to expose me or paint me in some negative light. At first it bothered me, but now? I’m done hiding.
I used to wonder if being gay would ruin everything I built in football. But I’ve reached a point where I realize… it doesn’t have to. Yes, I’m gay. I’m a proud member of the LGBT community, and I stand by that 100%. This is who I am, and I’m finally owning it.
Interviewer: How are you feeling now that it’s out there?
Ferran Torres: Free. For the first time in a long time, I feel free. The game is still my passion, but I’m no longer carrying that weight alone. If my story helps even one young player out there feel less afraid, then it’s worth it.
显示更多
Ella arrived at Newark Airport from Bellingham, Washington, in the middle of the night, January 2007. We were there waiting to welcome her, comfort her, and clean her off after a cross-country flight that changed her and our lives forever.
She was a part of our family before we even became a family. Ella joined us before we married, before our son grew up, before our daughter was born, before we added four more dogs.
She was a little chocolate brown labradoodle, who proved her strength and fierceness early on when she brought a dead baby bunny back into our house.
She was, as my wife called her, my “constant companion.” Long before the pandemic and even after it, she quietly sat in my office, hearing every conversation, watching every live shot, knowing all the news before it was reported. She didn’t care what the stories were; she just was happy being with me.
When she did leave my office, she loved walks and car rides. She always knew which button to push to lower the window so she could stick her head out and feel the wind in her face.
Over the years, the rides and walks became more infrequent. She lost her vision and hearing. She developed doggy dementia, which led to seizures and breathing issues. She was in diapers. Her dark chocolate brown coat turned gray. But as much as her life changed, she was most happy in our arms or in our bed, laying with us, licking our faces.
Yet Ella’s good days dwindled, and as tough as it was – and we agonized over it -- it became time to let her go. We did that Thursday, an all-time sad day.
For the third time in just over 18 months, we lost one of our beloved furry friends, our other children. We lost Benny in January 2025, Bailey this March, and now Ella. It’s too much. We now are down to two dogs, Apple and Brady. Our house feels empty and our hearts feel broke. Ella’s pain has been transferred to us.
Ella lived almost 20 years – she would have been 20 in November - and was a part of our graduations, celebrations, happy and sad moments. We know what we had and what she meant. But for all the time we had together -- and it was more than most get -- it still wasn’t enough.
We always will remember and love our little Ellies.
显示更多