[predaking]

For me, here's a common thread going through everything that's happened to Basecamp in the last several days and in laser focus today.

Today 1/3rd of the employees left Basecamp.

Also today: DHH is back to tweeting and fighting with Apple like nothing of note happened and it's just another day.

The original situation that sparked everything was brought about largely by dismissive and irresponsible leadership that disrespected and devalued the feelings of the other people the leader served.

Today's reaction is more of the same. To project to the public - whether pretending or legitimate - that 1/3rd of the company leaving barely registers with you? It's that same devaluing and disrespect, just shown off in a different form.

[randomsearch]

I noticed this too, but I couldn't imagine what dhh could post about this that wouldn't add fuel to the fire and enrage some more people.

What would you post if you were dhh?

[predaking]

So to preface this response a bit...I don't know that for me as a leader, it should or would be about adding fuel to the fire or enraging more people; if I'm DHH, it's not the feelings of Twitter that I'm concerned with today*, it's the feelings of the people who have left my company.

My top answer here would be "nothing". =) Several hours after 1/3rd of your workforce leaves isn't the time to start going after Apple again like nothing of note happened.

Hypothetically (and this is off the cuff) if I had no choice but** to post something on Hey or Twitter - it would be something to the effect of:

"You've likely heard that a large number of people left Basecamp today. They were very talented people, great contributors, and I want to thank all of them for contributing to this company.

I still strongly believe in the changes we are making, but I respect that the people who have left today don't agree with those changes and have exercised the option to leave. As promised we have provided them with 3-6 month severance packages and wish them all the best in the future."

Again, I think the best thing would have been for David to have been quiet today instead of going on a blocking spree and posting about cancel culture the night before the all-hands; but at least this statement would indicate some degree of respect for the people that had given a lot of their time to Basecamp.

* and clearly from his rampant blocking behavior (to the point that "dhh block" is the second autocomplete suggestion of twitter), he definitely cares a bit too much about it today ;)

** again, there's always a choice =) Some of the best advice I ever received was "Before you hit send, sleep for at least 8 hours."

[randomsearch]

You've convinced me, I agree that they should have said nothing.

Don't think there's anything they could have posted that would have made it better. Does feel disrespectful that they didn't just refrain from posting for a day or two.

[chubbyish]

I think SV lives too much in a bubble.

The company got lots of free press from this. There will be many who will agree with Basecamp’s stance.

Basecamp will easily hire new people.

There are many who would love to work at a top SV company with strong values and a good culture where they do not have to worry about being cancelled by their fellow employees for not towing the progressive line.

Other companies would have similarly good results proposing similar measures I would expect.

There is a large contingent of SV developers who are just plain toxic. They make themselves feel better and avoid feeling with their own personal issues by targeting others.

They problem is they do great things for the software community because they have a drive sustained by trying to fix everything around them instead of things they can’t fix about themselves.

So we need them, and enable them, but suffer the consequences. Which is where I think DHH and Freid got cut by the double edged sword.