如何证明函数有界
重点 (Top highlight)
About a year ago, I came up with an absolutely amazing idea for an app. Details aside, the software would have filled a tiny hole in the existing technology solution space. It would have a very niche market, a really specific customer base, but that was okay — I just had to figure out who my customers were and how to reach them, right? So I signed up for a two-week intensive workshop in customer base research, to be held over Zoom, of course. I was so excited.
一年前的回合,我想出了一个绝对惊人的想法的应用程序。 除了细节之外,该软件将填补现有技术解决方案领域中的一个小漏洞。 它将有一个非常利基的市场,一个真正特定的客户群,但这没关系–我只需要弄清楚我的客户是谁以及如何吸引他们,对吗? 因此,我报名参加了为期两周的有关客户群研究的密集研讨会,这当然要在Zoom上举行。 我是如此兴奋。
Then George Floyd was murdered. And the police brutality started. And, boiled together in the pot of COVID-induced anxiety, unemployment, and collective outrage at governmental systems, the anger around these issues reached a fever pitch. From inside our temperature-regulated, Cloud-encapsulated atmosphere of app development, my workshop cohort and I merely watched.
然后乔治·弗洛伊德被谋杀。 警察开始野蛮行径。 并且,在政府系统中,因COVID引发的焦虑,失业和集体愤怒而一团糟,围绕这些问题的愤怒达到了发烧之势。 从我们的温度调节,云封装的应用程序开发环境中,我的研究小组只能观看。
And as I began presenting my product idea to the rest of the group, as I heard the words coming out of my mouth, I thought, “who cares?” They felt sullied and bitter, like I wanted to spit them out and leave. I spaced out during discussions and while other groups were presenting. When contrasted with pain and suffering of the Black community and the protesters who were being brutalized, my product idea had lost its shiny luster. It felt frivolous and banal. I finished the workshop, but dropped my idea afterward. There was more important work to do.
当我开始向其他人介绍我的产品创意时,当我听到我的口中说出这些话时,我想:“谁在乎?” 他们感到沮丧和痛苦,就像我想吐出来然后离开一样。 在讨论期间和其他小组参加会议时,我间隔了一段时间。 当与黑人社区和遭到残酷对待的抗议者的痛苦与苦难相比时,我的产品创意失去了它的光泽。 感觉轻浮而平淡。 我完成了工作坊,但后来放弃了主意。 还有更多重要的工作要做。
The next workshop I signed up for was in racial justice organizing. And once I started seeing the world in terms of the disparities in power and resources between upper-class, white-dominated arenas and groups hit hardest by systemic racism, I couldn’t stop seeing it that way.
我签署的下一个研讨会是种族司法组织。 一旦我开始看到世界上种族歧视最严重的上层阶级,白人占主导地位的竞技场和群体之间在权力和资源上的差异,我就无法停止那样的眼光。
And now, when I look at the tech industry, I see an abundance of privilege, power, and money, much of which goes to waste.
现在,当我看技术行业时,我看到了大量的特权,权力和金钱,其中很多浪费了。
I regularly receive two tech news curations via email. My Google News algorithm is trained to show me stories about machine learning and AI. And I really can’t believe what I’m seeing. The level of disconnect between news of the tech world and news of the real world is massive. The gap is yawning.
我经常通过电子邮件收到两个技术新闻策展。 我的Google新闻算法经过训练,可以向我展示有关机器学习和AI的故事。 我真的不敢相信我所看到的。 科技界新闻与现实世界新闻之间的脱节程度是巨大的。 差距在打哈欠 。
Tech news is clotted with products of white luxury: Kitchen robots, space toilets, and WhatsApp chatbots. Elon Musk is still trying to get us to Mars, illustrating one of the most grandiose examples of developing technology simply because we can, rather than because we should.
科技新闻被白色豪华产品所笼罩:厨房机器人,太空厕所和WhatsApp聊天机器人。 伊隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)仍在努力使我们进入火星,仅是因为我们能够而不是因为我们应该,就说明了开发技术最宏伟的例子之一。
Searches for news about the tech world and systemic racism return a hit list that is redundant and pitifully short: Some tech company is working on diversity and inclusion. And we’re trying to make AI “less racist.” Come on.
搜索有关技术世界和系统种族主义的新闻时,返回的命中列表是多余的,而且可怜的短:一些科技公司正在努力实现多样性和包容性。 而且,我们正在努力使AI“减少种族歧视”。 来吧。
The American tech industry is massive, taking up 32% of the global share. And yet, there is zero evidence that American tech is doing anything to solve the problems that plague us at home. Why does it matter that AI can now process “at the speed of light” if that technology isn’t being aimed at our most basic, fundamental human rights issues? What’s the point?
美国的科技产业非常庞大,占据了全球32%的份额 。 但是,没有零证据表明美国技术公司正在采取任何措施来解决困扰我们国内的问题。 如果AI技术不是针对我们最基本,最基本的人权问题的,那么AI现在可以“以光速”进行处理为什么很重要? 重点是什么?
Tech has begun to suffer from the problem originally posited by the iconic Dr. Malcolm character in Jurassic Park, which is that companies have become “so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should!” Tech is building up to its Dr. Malcolm moment: so distracted with trying to determine the limits and capabilities of our technology that the question of “so now what?” has never come up. Tech’s uncharming tendency to over-appify everything stands as a testament to this problem.
科技已经开始遭受最初由侏罗纪公园的标志性马尔科姆博士角色造成的问题的困扰,那就是,公司“变得过于关注是否可以,他们不停地思考是否应该这样做!” 技术正在逐步发展为马尔科姆博士时期:试图确定我们技术的极限和功能而分心,以至于“现在怎么办?”的问题 从来没有出现过。 Tech过度采用一切的引人入胜的趋势证明了这一问题。
Based on my own experience, I will assert that tech has a pet social justice cause, which is increasing the representation of women in its ranks, and that’s a good thing. But the need to address gender bias is an easier social justice pill for Tech to swallow than the need to address systemic racism. Gender-based workplace equality is an easier hurdle to jump for them, partly because more progress has been made in this regard: Women take up 26% percent of computing jobs, while Black people take up 1% of jobs at software companies.
根据我自己的经验,我会断言高科技是一种社会公正的宠物事业,这正增加了女性在其队伍中的代表性,这是一件好事。 但是,解决性别偏见的需求比解决系统种族主义的需求更容易被Tech吞噬。 基于性别的工作场所平等对于他们而言是一个较容易的障碍,部分原因是在这方面已取得了更大的进步:女性占计算机工作岗位的26% ,而黑人占软件公司工作的1% 。
Additionally, due to the higher visibility and representation of women, gender equality may feel more urgent when people (namely, white men) see it every day. It’s easier to notice that women are underrepresented when you walk into a room and only see a few of them. It’s harder to notice that Black people are underrepresented when you walk into a room and don’t see any. That issue can stay comfortably off the radar. And because women are more present than Black people, the white men who tend to dominate Tech are going to be held more accountable to women because they have to interact with them regularly. People of color, however, remain a distant problem.
此外,由于妇女的知名度和代表性更高,当人们(即白人)每天看到性别平等问题时,性别平等可能会变得更加紧迫。 更容易注意到,当您走进一个房间并只看到其中的几个女人时,女人的人数不足。 很难注意到当您走进一个房间而看不到任何东西时,黑人的人数不足。 这个问题可以轻松解决。 而且由于女性比黑人有更多的身分,倾向于主导技术的白人将对女性承担更多责任,因为她们必须定期与她们互动。 然而,有色人种仍然是一个遥远的问题。
There are plenty of industries that are doing nothing to help with systemic racism, like banking and finance. But I’m not looking at those industries because I don’t expect better from them. They are, and always have been, openly self-serving and profit-driven.
许多行业都无济于事,无法帮助系统性种族主义,例如银行业和金融业。 但是我没有关注那些行业,因为我不期望他们有更好的表现。 他们一直(而且一直)是公开地自我服务和以利益为导向。
But Tech? Tech was supposed to do better, man. This is the industry that treats its employees so well, whose leaders value individual creativity and freedom and work-life balance. Tech enjoys its image as being progressive, futuristic. Humanistic. A legion of mechanical consciousness-expanders who envision the complete realization of our collective human potential. They’re they ones trying to optimize your life. Why the hell aren’t they trying to optimize society?
但是技术? 技术应该做得更好,伙计。 这个行业对待员工非常好,其领导者重视个人创造力,自由和工作与生活的平衡。 科技享有其先进,未来的形象。 人文主义。 一群机械意识扩展者,他们预见了人类集体潜能的完全实现。 他们就是那些试图优化您的生活的人。 他们为什么不尝试优化社会?
Why aren’t leaders in Tech building social networks to connect the BIPOC community with people and companies who have the resources to help them? Where is Black Amazon? Where is Google Solutions? Where is Affordable Apple?
科技领导者为什么不建立社交网络以将BIPOC社区与有资源帮助他们的人和公司联系起来? 黑色亚马逊在哪里? Google解决方案在哪里? 经济实惠的苹果在哪里?
Instead of making facial recognition less racist, why aren’t they building AIs to profile police officers and predict which ones are most likely to behave violently? Any of the “Big Five” tech companies all have more than enough money to develop something like that and give it away for free.
他们为什么没有建立AI来描述警察并预测最有可能表现出暴力行为的人,而不是减少面部识别的种族主义? 任何一家“五大”科技公司都拥有足够的资金来开发类似的东西并免费提供。
I think back to my product idea and what a tiny tweak on the existing technology it was: how much startup capital could have gone into a minuscule improvement. How, even though there was not a glaring need for this product, I was willing to tie myself into knots trying to suss out a potential customer base and convince potential investors that the problem it stood to solve was, indeed, a real one.
我回想起我的产品构想,对现有技术进行了微小的调整:可以将微不足道的改进投入多少启动资金。 即使对这种产品没有迫切的需求,我还是愿意结成束缚,试图建立潜在的客户群,并说服潜在的投资者说,它所要解决的问题确实是一个真正的问题。
And that’s the very problem with how Tech makes progress. Tech companies try to eke out some little tiny corner of a predefined problem space, rather than think to step outside of that space.
这就是Tech如何取得进步的问题。 科技公司试图消除预定义问题空间的某个小角落,而不是考虑跳出该空间。
We don’t need tweaks upon tweaks upon tweaks. We don’t need one more redundant app, a ridiculous amount of startup capital aimed at an entire product that makes minimal, incremental improvement over the last. We don’t need Grubhub and Uber Eats and DoorDash and Postmates. We don’t need Poshmark, Mercari, and thredUP. We don’t need employees paid to develop software that makes a few milliseconds worth of improvement over the last version. We need big solutions to big problems.
我们不需要反复调整。 我们不需要一个多余的应用程序,这是可笑的启动资金,目标是针对整个产品,在最后一个产品上进行最小程度的增量改进。 我们不需要Grubhub和Uber Eats以及DoorDash和Postmates。 我们不需要Poshmark,Mercari和thredUP。 我们不需要付费的员工来开发与上一版本相比可以改进几毫秒的软件。 我们需要大问题的解决方案。
The tech industry, in prioritizing small progress, has exposed how out of touch it is. Do we need a new version of an existing app that automatically imports the user’s social media contacts? Do we really need privileged, white people’s lives to be just slightly easier, slightly more convenient? Sure, we keep getting faster and faster, but are we getting better? Why are tech companies not measuring success by their ability to address the greatest, most gaping needs in society, rather than the smallest?
在优先考虑小进步方面,科技行业已经暴露出它与时俱进。 我们是否需要新版本的现有应用程序,以自动导入用户的社交媒体联系人? 我们真的需要特权的白人人民的生活稍微轻松一点,更加方便一点吗? 当然,我们继续越来越快,但我们变得更好 ? 为什么科技公司不能通过满足社会上最大,最紧迫的需求而不是最小的需求的能力来衡量成功?
There is some awareness of racial discrimination and the ill effects of systemic racism in Tech, and some efforts made by software makers to address these issues:
在Tech中,人们已经意识到种族歧视和系统种族主义的不良影响,并且软件制造商为解决这些问题做出了一些努力:
Tech for Campaigns connects tech workers with political causes and campaigns, enabling them to volunteer their skills “for good.” But the onus to change the world shouldn’t be put on individual workers. Entire tech companies should be signing up for projects like these, and paying their employees to work on them.
Tech for Campaigns将科技工作者与政治事业和竞选活动联系起来,使他们能够“永远”志愿服务自己的技能。 但是改变世界的责任不应该由每个工人承担。 整个科技公司都应该注册此类项目,并付钱给员工以从事这些项目。
Tech companies like Vault Platform and Syndio make products geared to minimize discrimination in the workplace, which is a good thing. But the barrier to the efficacy of this product is that a company must decide to do some self-examination and purchase the software platform. And it only stands to benefit women and people of color if they already have a job.
Vault Platform和Syndio等高科技公司生产的产品旨在最大程度地减少工作场所的歧视,这是一件好事。 但是,此产品功效的障碍是公司必须决定进行一些自检并购买软件平台。 只有有工作的妇女和有色人种才能受益。
When people within the tech industry talk about being part of the solution, they mention creating change from inside their companies, promoting diversity and having “difficult conversations.” In terms of generating a company identity, they talk about embracing a set of company values, claiming that consumers “vote with their wallet.”
当技术行业中的人们谈论成为解决方案的一部分时,他们提到从公司内部创造变化,促进多样性并进行“ 艰难的对话” 。 在产生公司形象方面,他们谈论拥抱一套公司价值,声称消费者“ 用钱包投票 ”。
But isn’t that just about marketability and creating shareholder value? When contrasted with the tools that tech companies could build for long-lasting impact, that could change the lives of people everywhere, not just the ones who work for them, rhetoric like this starts to sound an awful lot like lip service. When tech executives talk about “doing their part” by generating change from inside their companies, they are sending the message that the only minority members worthy of benefiting from anti-discrimination tactics are the ones lucky enough to have made it into the insular world of tech.
但这不只是关于可销售性和创造股东价值吗? 与科技公司可以建立长期影响的工具相比,这可能会改变世界各地人们的生活,而不仅仅是为他们工作的人们的生活,这种言辞听起来像是口头上的服务。 当技术主管谈论通过在公司内部产生变化来“尽自己的一份力量”时 ,他们传达的信息是,唯一值得从反歧视策略中受益的少数群体成员是幸运的,他们有幸进入了孤立的世界科技
Tech companies need to be building tools that level the playing field outside of the tech world, that increase the probability that minority members will make it up to the starting line in the first place. Until then, vowing to “do better” within their own companies sounds like little more than a branding ploy.
科技公司需要构建能够在科技世界之外扩大竞争环境的工具,从而增加少数族裔首先将其提升到起跑线的可能性。 在那之前,发誓要在自己的公司内“做得更好”听起来只不过是一种品牌策略。
It may sound naive, but it’s disappointing to realize that the tech industry is behaving no better than any of the rest of them: that if any product is pitched under the pretext of human betterment, the hidden, coded subtext is “something that people need so badly, they’re willing to pay for it.” The sentiment of optimizing humanity always comes in deference to shareholders’ pockets.
听起来似乎很幼稚,但令人失望的是,认识到技术行业的表现并不比其他任何行业都要好:如果以人类改善为借口推销任何产品,那么隐藏的编码潜台词就是“人们需要的东西”。太糟糕了,他们愿意为此付出代价。” 优化人性总是要尊重股东的利益。
The onus now falls squarely on the tech world to reach outside of its comfortable, affluent community and figure out how to address widespread social ills using the resources at their disposal. And it’s not enough for big tech companies to pledge to minimize their participation in systemic racism. The tech industry is possibly the nation’s greatest nascent stockpile of white privilege and money, and it squanders the opportunity to leverage those assets where they’re most needed.
现在,举足轻重的责任落在科技界,以达到其舒适,富裕的社区之外,并弄清楚如何使用可支配的资源来解决广泛的社会弊端。 大型科技公司承诺将其对系统种族主义的参与降至最低是远远不够的。 科技行业可能是美国最大的新生白人特权和金钱储备,它浪费了在最需要的地方利用这些资产的机会。
Tech works meticulously to foster a reputation for having a vision for Star Trek-level egalitarianism and realization of potential, and the hypocrisy of this image is laid bare in their turn-a-blind-eye obliviousness to social ills. It’s not enough for big tech companies to withdraw their use of racist facial recognition software until it harms fewer POC. It’s not enough for Twitter to censor our Racist-in-Chief. These companies need to develop technologies that actively dig into and become part of the solution, not just shy away from the ugliness of the problem.
Tech精心工作以树立星际迷航级别的平等主义和实现潜力的眼光,树立声誉,而这种形象的虚伪则掩盖了他们对社会弊端的视而不见。 大型技术公司仅在减少对POC的危害之前,就放弃使用种族主义面部识别软件是不够的。 Twitter仅仅审查我们的种族主义酋长是不够的。 这些公司需要开发积极探索并成为解决方案一部分的技术,而不仅仅是避开问题的丑陋性。
And here’s what we can do, as white people inside the tech world:
作为科技界的白人,这是我们可以做的事情:
Organize within our companies, starting with peers at our own level. Acknowledge the need for action and change.
在我们公司内部进行组织,从我们自己的同行开始。 确认需要采取行动和做出改变。
Organize across companies. Reach out to friends and professional acquaintances at other tech companies in our cities, towns, or local communities. Agree on a goal.
跨公司组织。 与我们城市,城镇或当地社区的其他技术公司的朋友和熟人接触。 达成目标。
Organize longitudinally within our companies. Go to the company leadership with our proposals, or, if they’re not accessible, go to the person in the highest-ranking role who is accessible.
在我们公司内部纵向组织。 去公司领导与我们的建议,或者,如果他们无法访问,去的人到底是谁访问的最高级别的角色。
- Develop a strategy for reaching out to communities of color to determine what their needs are and how those needs could be addressed using technology. 制定一项策略,以接触有色人种,以确定他们的需求以及如何使用技术解决这些需求。
Members of the tech world have a huge opportunity in front of them. We must rise to the occasion.
科技界的成员在他们面前有巨大的机会。 我们必须抓住机会。
如何证明函数有界