pam berkeley

Twitter: the place where people you agree with 99% of the time lose their shit and block you over a single moderately different opinion.

@MathewCarson11 @russell64882258 @ShabbosK @BillAckman I didn't make excuses for it. Learn to read.

@pmberkeley @russell64882258 @ShabbosK @BillAckman Great that you want the system changed, but if you are unwilling to call out the people who created and perpetuated the system that got us here, then you’re not serious about actually changing it.

An open letter to current Harvard faculty, donors, and trustees: I know you hate me. I know you hate President Trump. I know you think the enforcement of federal law is actually a conspiracy to overhaul higher education. I know you think the multiple conclusions of religious discrimination against Jews is a lie. But I am genuinely struggling to understand, irrespective of antisemitism, how the current disastrous state of the University has not resulted in tangible, meaningful reform. I implore you to answer basic questions about how you continue to choose to run Harvard University: 1. Why do you insist on paying Claudine Gay, an actual serial plagiarist who was forced to resign, a salary of $900,000 a year? 2. Why specifically should Claudine Gay of all people be teaching a class on leadership, using Harvard as a case study? 3. What specific merits and talents does Chairwoman Penny Pritzker bring to the table? What is the specific justification for keeping her? 4. For what specific reason is the University refusing to comply with federal law by not sharing the criminal background history of your foreign students to DHS? 5. Does it bother you that 97% of the faculty identify with one particular political ideology? If yes, what are two specific actions you're willing to take to rectify the problem? 6. What specifically have you done to ensure that the few conservative students left on campus aren't self-censoring their work and opinions? 7. Does it bother you that multiple faculty members, such as Professor James Hankins, admitted they or their colleagues were told that white men, in the post George Floyd backlash would no longer be hired if there was a (less qualified) black or gay applicant? 8. Thousands of donors, representing billions of dollars, have refused to give anymore since 10/07. What specific policy overhauls have you implemented to win them back? Irrespective of antisemitism, I'm genuinely struggling to understand why Harvard refuses to get out of its own way. This entire controversy since Day 1 has been entirely self inflicted and avoidable. Poor leadership after poor leadership...

@MathewCarson11 @russell64882258 @ShabbosK @BillAckman You've confused me for somebody arguing the system should continue. Classic is/ought fallacy.

@pmberkeley @russell64882258 @ShabbosK @BillAckman Ok, but when it is pointed out that the sausage machine kept running while everyone went home for the day, and now you have a giant pile of sausage on the factory floor, you don’t leave the sausage machine running, churning out more, and pretend the pile of sausage doesn’t exist.

@JusticeBt1776 @russell64882258 @ShabbosK @BillAckman Sounds like you have reading comprehension issues

@pmberkeley @russell64882258 @ShabbosK @BillAckman Sounds like a concession of defeat wrapped in a pretentious aura.

@russell64882258 @ShabbosK @BillAckman You seem confused about the point I'm making, because you're arguing as if I think it's a good thing. I'm rather somebody who knows how the sausage is made.

@pmberkeley @ShabbosK @BillAckman Pam, 97% ideological purity would be admired by someone like Stalin, but it impedes having your academic work from being rigorously challenged-unconventional questions lead to better outcomes and work. It’s in H’s best interest to attract more diverse thinkers - not just lefties

@realitea88 @ShabbosK @BillAckman No, that is literally what a university is. If you've ever served on a faculty hiring committee like I have, you would know that's exactly what every university is.

@pmberkeley @ShabbosK @BillAckman That would be a commercial company, not a university where a diversity of thought and values should be celebrated, discussed and debated.

@blake658117 @ShabbosK @BillAckman Yes, the more appropriate, more soul searching question would be that. Should you, as a group of people who hire based on politics, receive federal dollars?

@pmberkeley @ShabbosK @BillAckman It’s the same question but maybe to put into context should be followed up with - and should the Federal government fund you over $600 million a year?

@aakashgupta Whoa, this seriously conflates those who are competent employees with those who aren't.

The data on neurodivergent workers is so lopsided it looks like a typo. JPMorgan Chase ran an Autism at Work program and found participants were 90% to 140% more productive than neurotypical employees. With fewer errors. UiPath partnered with AutonomyWorks on AI data labeling and reported neurodivergent associates were 150% more productive than non-neurodiverse talent. Hewlett-Packard integrated neurodivergent professionals into software testing teams and measured a 30% productivity gain. EY reported neurodiverse teams were 1.2 to 1.4x more productive and more accurate than comparable groups. At SAP, a single neurodivergent employee’s solution saved the company $40 million. Now zoom out. 15 to 20% of the global population is neurodivergent. One in five adults. Yet only 22% of autistic adults in the UK are employed. And 73% of neurodivergent people don’t disclose during hiring because they’re afraid of being discriminated against. That means the most productive talent pool in the workforce is also the most underemployed and the most hidden. Karp sees this and is building a pipeline to capture it. Palantir’s Neurodivergent Fellowship pays $110,000 to $200,000 a year. The job posting says outright that neurodivergent individuals will “disproportionately shape the future of America and the West.” A Gartner study projects that one in five Fortune 500 sales organizations will actively recruit neurodivergent talent by 2027. Palantir is two years ahead of that curve. The roster of neurodivergent founders reads like a hall of fame. Branson built Virgin with ADHD and dyslexia. Kamprad founded IKEA and invented the naming system because he couldn’t remember product codes. Musk disclosed Asperger’s on live television. Steve Jobs was dyslexic and dropped out. 40% of self-made millionaires in the UK are dyslexic. People with ADHD are estimated to be up to 500% more likely to become entrepreneurs. Karp himself is dyslexic. He built a $370 billion company. And he’s saying the system that filtered him out, the standardized tests, the credential pipelines, the interview formats designed for neurotypical candidates, is about to become even more obsolete as AI eats every routine cognitive task those systems were built to evaluate. The bet is simple: AI commoditizes average. The people who see patterns no one else sees, who obsess for 14 hours on a problem everyone else quit after 2, who build IKEA’s naming system because the “normal” approach didn’t work for their brain, those are the ones who can’t be replaced by a model. Karp is recruiting them while everyone else is still writing job descriptions that screen them out.

NO WOMEN OR GIRLS are being allowed by these male Muslim organizers, in this taxpayer-funded public space. @HarmeetKDhillon this is OVERT gender and religious discrimination using taxpayer money. I pay taxes in Brooklyn. This park is walking distance from where I live. If I (female, Jewish) walked my dog (haram) into that crowd, would I have access to the park? What would happen to us? LAWSUIT NOW. @America1stLegal

I'm really hoping she comes around on this topic like she did on the trans pronoun thing.

@catturd2 @megynkelly Lol

@megynkelly Is this real? 😂😂😂loser.

Holy shit is this real?

@DonpaulStephens @hxxntrr I was not impressed with the SBIR program. I do think there's a lot of waste, and I know a lot of that waste is because of the oversight functions.

FWIW, my company has been awarded a few SBIR/STTR. The program is one of the few avenues which enables small innovative companies to directly engage government clients for solutions which solve necessary problems but lack external funding to fully develop on their own. Many of the government's "small business" programs are basically used for consultants (little to no growth ability) or multi-level resellers (likely pay more). SBIR/STTR enables seed funding for ideas which aren't entirely obvious and trendy for investors. These really should be "contracts" with some flexibility to account for honest attempts to do things which can't be achieved. These have a LOT of oversight and engagement from the departments, thus likely far less waste than many other government programs. Several departments use SBIR/STTR to get development $ to small companies without routing through a prime, with a mix of somewhat flexible topics. The flexible topics are more likely to provide enabling capital for companies with the potential for high growth (thus drive employment) - these are much more competitive. There are too many companies which do these and never commercialize or departments which use these as task orders which should get funded out of other budgets - but it fills a gap where no other option exists. We participate in a program for a department which (was) relying on this program to fund their engagement with innovative small businesses, as this is the least bureaucratic and cheapest path for them to achieve their objectives.

stop applying for bank loans like a normal person there are $2.3 billion in government grants available right now that you never have to pay back not loans. not credit. free money from the federal government sitting in databases that 99% of business owners have never opened grants.gov has 1,900+ active grant opportunities RIGHT NOW. the SBA has grants. the USDA has grants for rural businesses. the department of energy has grants for clean tech. state governments have their own programs. cities have their own programs. there are grants specifically for: women-owned businesses (SBA Women's Business Centers + Amber Grant: $10,000 monthly, $25,000 annually) veteran-owned businesses (StreetShares Foundation, VetFran) minority-owned businesses (MBDA grants, National Urban League) businesses in rural areas (USDA Rural Business Development Grants up to $500K) businesses in specific industries (SBIR/STTR grants for tech and research: $275K-$1.5M) businesses creating jobs in underserved areas (Community Development Block Grants) nobody applies because the application process is intentionally intimidating. 20-40 page proposals. budgets. timelines. impact statements. most business owners see the requirements and close the tab that's exactly what they want. fewer applicants means less competition means higher approval rates for the people who actually submit SBIR grants (Small Business Innovation Research) give tech startups $275K in Phase 1 and up to $1.5M in Phase 2. the acceptance rate for Phase 1 is around 25%. one in four. that's insanely high for free money. most people assume it's 1% and don't bother USDA Rural Business Development Grants go up to $500K for businesses in rural areas. if your business operates outside a major metro, you might qualify. population threshold varies but generally towns under 50,000 population. a huge portion of America qualifies the Amber Grant gives $10,000 every month to a woman-owned business. the application is one page. one page for $10,000 in free money. they've given away millions and the applicant pool is embarrassingly small relative to eligible businesses btw, the application is not about your business. it's about their mission. every grant-making organization has specific goals. job creation. innovation. community impact. environmental improvement. your application needs to show how YOUR business accomplishes THEIR goals. frame everything around impact, not revenue hire a grant writer if the grant is over $50K. professional grant writers charge $2,000-$5,000 and have 40-60% success rates. spending $3,000 to access $275K is the best ROI in business apply to 10-15 grants simultaneously. it's a numbers game. the people winning grants are applying to everything they qualify for, not just one and praying now combine this with 0% credit: get $150K in 0% business credit to fund operations TODAY while your grant applications process (grants take 60-180 days). if you get approved for a $275K SBIR grant, the grant money pays off the credit cards. you've been operating on free capital the entire time and now have $275K in non-dilutive funding with zero debt even the government wants to give you money. you just never asked (we build full capital stacks: 0% credit + grant positioning + SBA. link in bio for business owners doing $250k+/yr)

@MrsCMFrancis Do your kids eat a lot or very little added sugar?

Ok the thing about brushing teeth keeping cavities away seems like it might not be true cause we are very bad at regular brushing until like age 5/6 and not one of my kids has ever had a cavity….

Boys have to be 15 to be executed in Iran. Girls only 9. Child brides are often sentenced to death. Iran is also the world’s leading executioner of women. Think of that when you hear anyone support the regime.

How long before AI disrupts the tax filing industry? Any guesses? I'm thinking a year or two.

You clearly know what you're talking about! And to make it worse, the government deliberately cultivates this ecosystem of grant leeches and even incorporates it into the grant requirements and neglects to make tools that would facilitate grant compliance. Eg they make you take a startup course for the SBIR where they pay the people, and the people tell you useful nuggets like "startups aren't the same as established businesses, use contractors as much as you can to avoid employee liability traps in the early phases" and then the grant requirements make that advice basically impossible to implement. Or the accounting and compliance requirements have a legalistic long confusing document instead of a simple clear flowchart you could use. And on and on. I just saw in this thread that the SBIR program was paused pending congressional renewal and I'm considering petitioning my representative and senators to dropkick the program. I normally advise that programs like this be reformed, but the delight I got at hearing it was terminated makes me think maybe it isn't salvageable. There's very few grants that seem to be good for their intended purpose. I know quite a few farmers who truly benefited from USDA grants for farming equipment. But beyond that... no.

Completely, these ‘service providers’ charge a lot of money for extracting the templates from the instructions … and telling you to do what the instructions said - maybe plopping in an hour of actual work - and expecting a cut of the project (which they have no deliverables on) Furthermore, they try to tell you can be recouped from the grants… when in reality the grants normally end up covering just a portion of the actual expenses. So.. no - YOU pay these people, and in doing so signal to investors that you spent thousands in lieu of doing your own work… investors take this as a signal that you pick the wrong person to copy answers from on a test… The grants can be a lifeline and provide some technical validation, but should be avoided if you can’t align them EXACTLY to your roadmap… as they require a LOT of overhead which is entirely unnecessary for venture backed companies Assume at least 30% of the money goes to overheads which only exist due to the grant legislative requirements. E.g. you need a government compliant cost accounting system, additional set of accountants, audits for that system, reporting requirements for IP disclosures - which likely drives the need to file patents earlier than otherwise necessary. Many program people are great, but they have their own sea of red tape to navigate. They can help, but only use sparingly… this is actually one of the most expensive forms of capital available

It's literally in their religion to NOT do this. I found this out sometime last year and it really made it all make sense. Since 9/11 I have been hearing Muslims repeat the mantra that they shouldn't be asked to answer for the problems in Islam, since it was not them doing the bad thing. This stance is their religious belief. I think it's toxic.

@sappholives83 @GrahameParkGirl Germans feel bad about the holocaust but do not ban people from speaking about it. Muslims need to STFU, STFD and _listen_ and feel remorse for the heinous crimes of their kind. Who the fvck said they were exempt from accountability? No one.

In 2014, when Nadia Murad was 19, ISIS came to the village where she and her family lived. They demanded that the villagers, who were Yazidi, convert to Islam. When their demands were refused, the killing began. Men and boys who were older than 14 were shot or burned alive; younger boys were taken to be trained as terrorists. 6 of Nadia’s brothers and stepbrothers were murdered for refusing to convert. Her mother, like the rest of the older women, was killed because she was too old to be desirable as a sex slave. 600 people were murdered, while Nadia and the other young women were taken into captivity. As one of the 6700 Yazidi girls captured by ISIS in 2014 alone, Nadia was kept as a sex slave in the city of Mosul, where she was beaten and raped and burned with cigarettes by her ISIS captor for months before she was able to escape. After she regained her freedom, Nadia campaigned tirelessly for the release and protection of Yazidi women and girls. In 2018, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Dr. Denis Mukwege, a renowned humanitarian. Together they founded the Global Survivors Fund, which works to gain survivors access to reparations and compensation so they can rebuild their shattered lives. In November of 2021, the Toronto District School Board, which is the largest district in Canada, banned its students from attending a meeting of a girls’ book club that focuses on female authors because Nadia was scheduled to discuss the book she wrote about her ordeal. Superintendent Helen Fisher ruled that students in her school district could not attend because the details of the book would “offend” Muslim students, and “promote Islamophobia.” I find it interesting that neither Ms. Fisher, the school board, nor local Muslims were able to distinguish between ISIS and the Muslim community as a whole.

@sappholives83 @SteveSkojec Imagine “Canadian school cancels Anne Frank book club because German students and community might be offended” or “Cancels Frederick Douglas book club because Southern whites might be offended.” Yeah no. Doesn’t work those ways either.

@sappholives83 @LawnShock People tell on themselves all the time

@F530Josh @hxxntrr Nope, the federal government actively incorporates these people into the process.

@hxxntrr In before this dude ends up in some massive law suit or prison in the next 3-5 years.