YouSaid · the spoken record

Erica Baker

lines on the record: 86
first: 2015-08-26
most recent: 2015-08-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Like somersaulting drones or drones that didn't fly very high. And I think products like that are really great for people that are just trying to get their feet wet with using drones and don't know if they have know how to fly them and say, oh, I just want to buy one of those cheap little ones and figure out to fly this thing. And then maybe I'll graduate to something more powerful. So my experience hasn't been great with drones. I don't know if it's something that I'll necessarily get into, but what about you? Have you ever flown one? Of course.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I do not have a drone. I do see them quite a bit around this area. I've done in Silicon Valley, and obviously there are a lot of enthusiasts down here, and I see them being flown in hiking trails and stuff like that. I have tried using a couple of little drones. And to be honest, I wasn't super impressed by the experience. I wasn't using drones that had great camera in them. They were just sort of these like.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think he's referring just to the idea of the machine, the Borg, the robot. This is a good question. It depends on the size. But I would say for some of these smaller drones, my vote might be on a swarm of bees. What do you think? I think killer bees always want.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the ones that we have now would be considered personal drones, but it's not hard to imagine there would be drones that someone could stick in their pocket and just carry around with them and basically use this like a tiny little GoPro that they fly out in front of them.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, they can be pretty tiny. I mean, the ones that I think were in question around the California wildfires were maybe like around eight pounds. And you might think, oh, well, how is that going to actually cause a collision with maybe a larger aircraft? I mean, at that point, it's not about the size of it. It's more just about the fact that it's interfering in some way. But there are some really tiny one or two pound plastic little drones. They might not have the best, you know, they might not be heavy-duty quadcopters or have the best camera equipment built into them, but they're pretty, they can be pretty lightweight and pretty nimble.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think so. I think it just, I can't believe people are doing that. Like, what a bunch of idiots. But every day or in America, I have a news story that I'm like, what a bunch of idiots. So how small are these things going to get, though? I mean, they could get super small, correct?”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I just like care. Just really care. And when someone says really something shitty to one of your co-workers about who they are, call him on it and don't give that person shit for calling them on it. For the leaders of Silicon Valley, like do better Pay attention to your employees, talk to the ERGs is what they're called at Google, the employee resource groups, find out what's going on with them. Be active about diversity outside of work. Really try to understand what's happening in the lives of your employees. And I know that's hard from the CEO level, but just try, I don't know, for an hour. Try to understand care.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I feel like in the hiring pipeline where recruiters are involved. They should take out names, schools, ages, that sort of thing to anything to discriminate on. But I think at some point like you have to be you have to have some intention about your hiring into your hiring right like if you stick with recruiting from the same 10 schools that have you know 97 you know white student population or whatever right you're only going to get”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I surround myself right now. I got to the point where I was really just done with it and I decided to surround myself with people who are in or out of tech but who are positive. Aren't so negative And so now I hang out with a lot of good people. And so when I get off work, I can go and be with these good people. And it makes it easier to not be just really angry about things. What changes tech? Empathy definitely changing the boards so that the top is changed and so it trickles down companies like really being Concerned beyond the PR. Perspective.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is that something that has to happen, or just what? I'm trying to get is what changes it, and how do you continue not to be steeped in vinegar about it? At some point, it gets so disheartening that you...”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Though at 12 years old, you'd have told me what this would be like now, I would have probably stuck with my plan to be a lawyer.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It doesn't. Once people like, oh, well, she's just being an angry black woman, they can dismiss you, right? Have to sort of make sure that I am still perceived as not angry black woman, right? And so that my voice and my message can be heard. I stay in tech because I love it.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's sort of a tightrope walk because there is that whole stereotype about the angry black woman. And so I have to sort of like walk this tightrope to not be considered the angry black woman while still speaking up for problems. Oh, yeah.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And if you keep, but they're all so small that they add up to something rather large. Does it totally dishearten you? Do you imagine continue your career in tech or do you are you just going to be so, you know, you have to get into an angry state to keep going?”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's hard for everybody, but Last question What's the toll on you? Because, you know, I think a lot of women I talk to, especially more women, just everybody I talk to in this regard, it's always, I think, I can't remember who I was talking about, microaggressions. And if you say something once in a small thing, then you look like a whiner or a complainer or you're angry or whatever.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Amazon is such a special place. And also people can learn to be empathetic. I mean, if you can put yourself in the shoes of someone else and see things from their side, stuff gets really hard to ignore. Like you can't ignore that someone is feeling, you know, like they can't succeed in your company. For example, if you put yourself in their shoes. But empathy is hard for a lot of people. It's hard for everybody. But some people don't like to try even.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that you have to make a business argument about it, though. Like, hey, successful people do it. I mean, because you could look at Amazon like this week in the news about the things. I mean, they're tough. They don't seem to like anybody”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, he does immense words. Also, Video Off from Salesforce? Yeah. If enough Leaders of successful companies start making this a priority. I feel like once the tide shifts, then people will sort of join the bandwagon. Because everybody in the valley sort of about cargo cultting. Cargo culting is like just copying whatever. I see. So if they see a successful company doing these things, maybe we'll copy that and then it becomes the norm. So if diversity...”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Some days I think we can fix it with the right people. Making the right calls, I guess. I like a lot that Stuart is very outspoken about diversity”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They aren't thinking deeply, and I think many of them just don't really care. Just don't care. They care to the point where it is a PR problem for them. But beyond that, it's not really a concern of theirs.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But it seemed an acceptable tolerance versus discussing anything that was difficult. And it immediately went to whatever you think of Ellen Powell, her difficulty, and not the larger issue, which I thought was really indicative of people that aren't thinking deeply enough.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Why don't they do this? Why do you think they don't? Is it just thoughtlessness? They're moving so fast. Because you see it again and again and again. And it starts to, it's so obvious to you and I. What was really interesting around us is when we were doing this stuff around gay issues, when there was Ohio and everybody moved together and gay marriage and things like that, the tech industry moved very quickly and everyone was like, let us give you a quote. It was fascinating. Everyone was falling all over themselves to give us a quote about it. But when we came to Ellen Power, diversity or anything else, everyone was like, I can't talk about that. I can't talk. It was fascinating. And I was like, okay, the gays are okay now. Mm hmm.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, level four. And meanwhile, like the guys who started at the same time, they started are level five and level six, like start tracking that sort of stuff, figure out why people aren't being promoted.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Start looking at promotion rates and why women who have been at a company for the same time as these dudes. Only level four is while these guys are moving up to level four.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The workplace start tracking Publishing or acknowledging things besides the pipeline and hiring, right? Start paying attention to the retention, stop settling harassment cases out of court and giving people gag orders because that's the thing that happens a lot.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What should happen, I think, is more VCs should get more women and people of color partners. So that they can put those people on boards and boards can stop being all white men. Because so much happens in the boardroom that directs what happens in a company. And if you have a board full of white guys, you're not going to have any sort of real interest in diversity so much.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because I think most people do have, many people have good into not overt that it's more problematic. Because overt stuff, you kind of can deal with. Right. It's laziness. It's pure laziness on some level of lack of rigor. And then it's pattern matching. This is who I'm comfortable with. Not about the best for the business or anything else.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Without ever occurring to you, and then they go into the argument about well, we don't want to have token people, which is a word I can't stand. It's like, well, you have token white people, white guys. So it's really interesting. And so, you know, what happens is one is an embarrassment, I think.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh my goodness. So, what do you imagine has to happen? Is there anything that can happen? Because what happens is a lot of pattern matching. Years ago I wrote The Men and No Women of Facebook, for example, and I just put pictures up. And I remember Zachar getting mad at me. And I said, I'm just putting up your management list. I want people to see it, physically see it. Did the same thing the men and no women of 2.0 boards, Web 2.0 boards. And I spent a lot of time with the Twitter board because there were 10 white men. And again, people are like, oh, don't attack that. I'm like, but it's mathematically impossible to get to that number.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Who's still one of my good friends loves him, and said, oh, is he here? And I was like, no, can I help you with something? Oh, can you just tell him blah, blah, blah? I was like, oh, I'm a support tech too. I'm an exec tech too. Oh, I thought you were his admin. No, I'm not his admin.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's just like I can't think of many off the top of my head, but those are ones that come to mind right now. There's a lot that I experienced while at Google. Just being made to feel different. I remember being the one black woman on my floor and people would walk by and stare. I don't know. There's asking if I'm security, asking if I'm the AA. Someone very high up at Google, I'm not going to say who they were because it would be a problem. But when I moved to Mountain View, I was an executive support tech. One of the people I supported walked in to my office that I shared with my white dude co worker.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There is the sort of exclusion. I don't know, I remember one situation shortly before I left Google where I was like, oh, I love to play poker. There's this like weekly poker game. Can I be invited? And it's like, I had to pull teeth to get invited to the poker game. Right. Okay. Right.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, and to be fair, I don't know what I'm doing sometimes. Neither do they. Yeah, exactly. Nobody knows what they're doing.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You have to hit a higher mark. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. There are so many hurdles you have to jump over as a woman and a black woman that other people don't have to deal with.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But that's why you were hired. Yeah. And it's like maybe you should talk to the person who hired me and find out that I. Finish the 45 minute interview in 15 minutes. I'm really good. Right.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Those people, okay, fine, unconscious, but the people who actively say, oh, you only got hired because of affirmative action. Like, no That's completely incorrect, but there's no”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, there are occasions, I think, where people don't know that they're being incorrect because whatever upbringing they have. There are a lot of things that people say about black people in the South that, you know, You can't really fault someone for thinking. Until they're taught differently, right?”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The word they're using now, which I think is really interesting, which I hate, is unconscious bias I think it's an excuse for laziness, and they do it. I just had an interesting Twitter exchange. Someone's like, well, people don't mean it. I go, no, they mean it. They actually mean it or they do something different. It's like, you know, they mean not to go to the bathroom on the street. They mean not, you know, you have all kinds of intentions. Especially wording around women, wording around minorities is very different. And if they thought about it, but they used like to use the word unconscious, meaning it's not my fault.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's interesting that people, when they're talking about diversity and inclusion, they say, Women and people of color. Right, there's like there's this whole section of us that. Overlaps that.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's being different and being unusual and having to fight against People's expectations of women. You know, you have to prove that you're good at your job twice, three times just to get the same respect that a guy will get. It's lack of promotion. It's lack of acknowledgement that you're a person. There's no empathy, really”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, you know, they claim they can't hire, but there's some study that said that like 4% of the people coming out of colleges with CS degrees were minorities. Yeah, and Meanwhile, there's Facebook hiring”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah, there are a lot of women who just drop out after, I think, what is it, the seven-year mark? Yeah, it's like you can't do it anymore. And nobody seems to focus on why that is.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the problem is. Of multi pronged. There are definitely problems with recruiting. But there's so much focus on that that nobody really pays attention to retention. Which is the”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. Should know my place. And the first peer review he did when I got there, it was like below expectations or whatever. You know, I was like, really? Like, I was just spent a month moving to New York, like moving my entire life. I left everybody in Atlanta. I just moved to New York where I know nobody and I'm trying to like adjust to this whole place, which is crazy. Like, I've never lived in the big city before. And he's like, oh, below me. So I was like, all right, okay. It didn't leave room for humanity. It didn't leave room for being a human.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I first got there, it was very interesting and I don't even understand how it happened. My manager, when I got there, was the manager of the guy from Atlanta who was. Being not kind to me, so you know. I feel like he might have already had a chip on his shoulder regarding me because I caused trouble”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In New York? Yeah. Oh, yeah. There are definitely some good people. Like friends I have to this day I made while working there. It was still Google”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not going back. Yeah. I didn't want to be in the cold, but you know, it was like I didn't want to leave Google. And so. Moved to New York.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and I reported it to my boss because instead of reporting to HR because I thought, okay, my boss is going to handle this. Like he knows what to do. And my boss essentially, you know, said well. You can deal with it, or you can move to New York. And so I moved to New York”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, out of the gate, like one of my co-workers there was. Really unkind. He said a lot of things that were not at all appropriate, you know, intimating that my boyfriend beat me, that my parents beat me, you know, yeah. He was not a nice person.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So excited about it, you know? Like, I mean, in 2006, Google was like the golden child, the darling. Everybody wanted to work at Google. And I was really excited to just go there and be there and work at the best company I work for in the world.”
2015-08-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ex-Googler Erica Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT