
Robert Scoble and Me - strangeloops85
https://medium.com/@quinnnorton/robert-scoble-and-me-9b14ee92fffb
======
Mz
_She was propped up between two of my friends, walked away from the scene, and
looked after for the evening. Both of those guys will have my undying respect
for what they did that night._

Yes, this. The antidote to bad men is good men. It doesn't help to tar all men
with the same brush for simply being male.

 _Once she was outed as a victim, the hate mail, the barrage of nasty
questions, the endless accusations took, such a toll on her. Eventually, she
took her own life. She’d just never been able to put it all back together
after that._

This is one reason a lot of women stay silent: to protect themselves or other
innocent bystanders, not the perpetrator.

 _The demonization of either rapists or victims is what makes the subject
unapproachable, and doesn’t let anyone intercede to get abusive people the
help they need, much less the victims._

This is an excellent piece and I am so glad she wrote it. My utmost respect
for this incredible lady.

~~~
mercer
> Yes, this. The antidote to bad men is good men. It doesn't help to tar all
> men with the same brush for simply being male.

I'll add that there are plenty of otherwise good men who might do bad things
when shitfaced or on drugs, and I can't help but worry that separating men
into bad and good doesn't acknowledge the very real risk of good men
forgetting that they can do bad things too.

(of course this applies to people in general, not just men)

~~~
guelo
Personally I don't put that much weight on the drunkenness excuse. I've done
many stupid things while drunk but, even while black-out drunk, I've never
raped, sexually harassed or even physically assaulted anyone besides a couple
self defense instances when I was younger. In my experience asshole drunks are
asshole sober people too.

~~~
mercer
As far as drunkenness as an _excuse_ I completely agree with you! I did not
mean to bring it up so that we can excuse such behavior.

But honestly I'm a bit baffled that you'd disagree that 1) good people do bad
things, and 2) alcohol has a whole bunch of properties that increase the
likelihood of an otherwise 'good' person doing a bad thing. It seems
blindingly obvious to me.

Or am I misunderstanding you and is it more about the 'excuse' thing (on which
we're definitely in agreement!).

~~~
dEnigma
I think the parent would agree that alcohol increases the likelihood of "good
people doing bad things"; but alcohol won't make a good person do a _terrible_
thing, like rape.

~~~
TheAdamAndChe
Not everyone reacts to drugs and alcohol the same way. Alcoholics often
completely abstain from alcohol because once they have one drink, they can't
stop. That kind of massive inhibition of control can extend into other things.

It's not an excuse, but it can explain uncharacteristic behavior.

~~~
dEnigma
I'm still not quite convinced about this. Sure, you might lose all inhibition
and just do whatever you want. But that would mean that a drunken rapist
_wants_ to rape, even while sober, but usually has the power to control
himself. A _good_ person, in my book, has no urge to rape at all, no matter
the level of self-control he can muster up at any given moment. Does alcohol
really change someone's personality on such a level as to make someone
suddenly _want_ to rape?

~~~
TheAdamAndChe
I suppose this all boils down to what the definition of a "good person" is,
which varies from person to person.

I am of the personal belief that a person's actions determine who is good more
than their desires. If a person walking through a gas station has a fleeting
urge to steal a candy bar, that wouldn't make them bad in my eyes unless they
actually steal it. If a person in the middle of an argument gets an urge to
shove the other person but they suppress it, that shows discipline and
maturity.

I agree that it would be ideal if nobody had bad urges, but I think it's
definitely good that many with those urges are able to control them.

~~~
dEnigma
Yes, I suppose it would be wrong, or at least unfair, to only call people
without any negative urges _good_. It certainly would mean that I myself would
be far from good. On the other hand, given the choice, I would rather be
around people without those urges in circumstances where they might lose their
self-control, e.g. when they are really drunk. I believe such people _do_
exist, at least those without the urge to rape (I would count myself among the
latter, but how can anyone ever tell? At the very least I never felt the urge,
even when black-out drunk or extremely high on psychedelics)

------
dhruvp
If there's one thing to learn I think it's that men can do far far more (like
the intervening guys in the article) to step in and be far less tolerant of
such grotesque behavior. Most men here (of which I'm one) have all probably
witnessed some creepy comments and acts from our guy friends or colleagues and
let it go. I think that has to come to an end. I know personally I can do
better and would hope that if anything, we all demand more from each other.

~~~
0ioI0j-o
I 100% agree.

I also felt compelled to mention that I've witnessed men making what I have
felt are creepy comments / moves on women and they've actually worked (in that
they received positive responses from the woman).

Life is complex.

~~~
Frondo
You see a guy making a creepy move, you call him out. Simple as that.

You don't know if it's "working" because she's trying to keep him at ease til
she can dash for the door, or why.

See shitty, harassing, abusive behavior, call it out. For too long, we all let
this stand. No more.

Risk your job, risk short-term awkwardness, risk whatever because the women in
the world deserve better than being targets while we stand around like
cowards.

~~~
hycaria
I know that's not malicious, but I'm kind of sick of being paternalized like
this tbh. I can speak for myself, I don't need some _nice guys_ to protect me.
How is that doing any good to the female image, seriously ? "Help ladies out,
call people on their mistakes". We just look like poor helpless victims who
rely on others to be guarded from sexual predators.

~~~
vidarh
If you speak out for yourself, awesome. Just as it's awesome that Quinn Norton
felt able to take on Scoble herself, including threatening violence if he
didn't back off.

But not everyone feels able to, or not everyone are strong enough to be able
to fight off an attacker.

And sorry, but it's not always going to be possible for bystanders to tell if
you're able speak for yourself and choosing not to, or if you're terrified of
someone.

In this case, note that the article involves lengthy attempts at escalating
concern and attempts at defusing the situation during which it is clear that
the first woman is too drunk to know what's going on. After which Quinn takes
direct action. In the former, the person in question clearly was not able to
look out for herself (that's different from whether she the following morning,
after having sobered up, would have liked things to continue), while nobody
else had to stand up for Quinn.

Nobody is saying we should step in instead of you if you're able to take care
of yourself. But we also shouldn't stand by and let you get assaulted if your
for whatever reason isn't in a position where you can. And that's not about
gender - women shouldn't stand by quietly either.

I do agree with you in the limited extent that it could have been worded in a
gender-neutral way: Guys can be victims too. It's not specifically about
helping women, but about stepping in if someone might be in distress or are
unable to meaningfully consent to something.

------
Fricken
The Weinstein thing really opened the floodgates.

There's a guy in my hometown, whom I've worked with in the past, he's a pretty
talented and prolific playwright, actor and director who's been at the centre
of the local theatre and filmmaking scene for about 20 years now, and he's
also a sexual predator, as anyone who's worked with him can attest to.

The day before yesterday he made a long Facebook post under the #metoo hashtag
basically confessing to his sins apologizing profusely, and promising to never
do it again. Today he got fired from _everything_ that he's involved with. The
apology was career suicide.

The fucked up thing is that, just like Harvey Weinstein, everybody knew what
he was up to, it had going on for years and while it made everyone
uncomfortable people just looked the other way. Opening up about it is what
ruined him. Honesty is the best policy something something.

~~~
elgenie
I wonder why Weinstein getting outed as a sexual predator after it being an
open secret in that community for years had this effect and Bill Cosby getting
outed as a sexual predator after it being an open secret in that community for
years didn't.

~~~
pygy_
Weinstein was far more powerful and thus dangerous to his potential
denouncers.

His fall is a signal that abuse isn't tolerated anymore from people with his
stature.

~~~
eternalban
> Weinstein was far more powerful and thus dangerous to his potential
> denouncers.

Really. Interesting. So you claim that e.g. The New York Times was weaker than
a studio head?

 _Sexual deprevity in Hollywood has never been a "secret"_, but it doesn't
help if your "stars" \-- which are then promoted to soft politics propaganda
work -- are shown to be individuals that tolerate anything for fame and
riches. And equally, it doesn't help advancing various social engineering
projects if the heads of studios that push JUNK to your children are shown to
be sexual predators.

The actual question of interest here is what is being covered up that throwing
Weinstein under the bus got the green light.

~~~
creep
This is what I was thinking. The octopus sacrifices an arm to conceal the full
extent of its reach.

------
gsteph22
Holy shit, I was sitting around that campfire. I remember the whole making-out
incident. Buried that in a dunken haze 7 years ago. Yikes.

Foo Camp was fantastic both years I went, and the O’Reilly crew has worked
hard to make things better. We still have a lot of work to do.

------
ar813
I admire the author's willingness to see possibilities for positive change
here, including through restorative justice. It is especially admirable in the
context of the fundamental violations and loss of trust that such harassment
and assault continues to impose on so many women in their professional
careers. I can also completely understand different reactions to this,
including a deep sense of anger and betrayal.

We must all do better, and continuously seek to do so.

In the short term, there is clearly value to outing commonly-known 'secrets'
such as this one, in this and many other industries.

~~~
bertil
I too admire it. Denouncing someone hopefully willing to change to start that
conversation is a good idea.

More importantly, it is necessary. Going on a creep witchhunt has too many
risks of blowbacks.

------
satysin
Also see this comment [https://medium.com/@sarawinge/i-remember-that-
night-17f5bf2a...](https://medium.com/@sarawinge/i-remember-that-
night-17f5bf2a9227)

And this tweet from Tim O'Reilly
[https://twitter.com/timoreilly/status/921124414418182144](https://twitter.com/timoreilly/status/921124414418182144)

~~~
protomyth
Created a Code of Conduct? What the heck is wrong with these people? Full
stop, you call the police immediately. You do not cover it up. Was he raised
by a PR firm?

~~~
rtpg
Reading this just made realize how bonkers it is that we aren't actually
calling the police.

If some guy was smashing people's laptops, this would be an obvious option on
the spectrum of ways to handle it. But here....

Granted, this also means attention to the victim, and given how society treats
people making these claims it can be an extremely scary step forward to make
for them, on top of the experience itself.

~~~
protomyth
The victim got enough attention without involving the police to commit
suicide. Silence netted nothing and I would lay even odds that this wasn’t the
last incident.

~~~
aptwebapps
That was a different victim and the way the story was related it seems that
her identity was leaked to that particular community. Scoble's victim at the
campfire has remained anonymous.

------
jacquesm
She's also calling out either Frankston or Bricklin, kind of weird to leave it
unspoken who it was but to accuse both of them at the same time. Either name
the person or leave it unspecified at least so no shadow hangs over someone
who you know didn't do anything.

~~~
AlexCoventry
Are the references oblique? I don't see them mentioned. Perhaps they have been
removed from the article.

~~~
dredmorbius
"At one of my first talks on body hacking, one of the creators of VisiCalc sat
in the front row and yelled out sexually explicit questions at me while
everyone, not just me, grew increasingly uncomfortable."

~~~
AlexCoventry
Thanks.

------
ComputerGuru
I knew Robert Scoble online 2004 - 2007 during his time as a blogger and an
(unpaid/unofficial, if I'm not mistaken) Microsoft evangelist during the
Longhorn beta days. I remember him as a bully who was not afraid to use his
pedestal to call people out on personal whim and took great pleasure in his
sense of power and fame.

He often blogged out of ignorance on trending topics (TechMeme, anyone?) yet
always got that traffic and those backlinks - one of those people that
believed that if you spoke loudly enough what you said would magically both
become important and true. It worked for him though, that I remember.

He was a bully then and I'm not surprised to hear he still is one now, but
presuming that this article is true I'm very sorry to learn that he didn't
contain his behavior to online only.

What I remember hating the most was just how successful people like him - and
there are plenty - are at being popular. It just felt so unfair how this
unintelligent bloke managed to con everyone into thinking his opinion
mattered, got himself invited to all these exclusive events, and was somewhat
of a mini-celebrity for no discernible reason at all. He wasn't someone you
wanted to call out or cross because he never hesitated to fire back with all
guns at anyone who gave him any flack and you didn't want to be the person
everyone woke up to find shredded to pieces in their RSS inboxes the next
morning.

I wisened up at some point and tuned him out. I stopped trying to blog about
how his latest piece was inaccurate and unsubscribed from his feeds, realizing
he simply wasn't worth it, and, to be honest, that it wasn't a game I could
win. The thing about people like him is that they largely live in an echo
chamber. They don't really matter. If you can tune them out and cut them out
of your life, you won't be missing a thing. And if enough people do that, then
they lost at their game. I imagine there are a lot of people that saw this
headline and hadn't a clue who Robert Scoble even was - that wasn't the case
12 years ago. Bullies fade.

~~~
AndrewKemendo
_What I remember hating the most was just how successful people like him - and
there are plenty - are at being popular._

This is really what boggles my mind. There are so so many people who are
"independent consultants or innovators or specialists" but don't code, don't
do product management or sales or any other of the core things that businesses
do. Yet people somehow listen to them as though they are experts - despite
having no expertise or hands on.

I'd love for someone to explain why and how these people get to be well known.

~~~
crygin
The scariest thought to me is a corollary to that idea of looking at the scary
incompetence of journalism regarding a subject you understand, and realizing
that most topic-specific writing is in the same boat -- right now, we are all
looking up to and aggrandizing people who similarly don't produce/work, and
not realizing it. A good reminder to think about the people you follow and
what they've really done.

~~~
tome
This is called the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect (or rather, you're
describing breaking free from it).

[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-
ge...](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-gell-mann-
amnesia-effect-is-as-follows-you)

~~~
dandare
Thanks, I learned something new today.

~~~
icebraining
By the way, the curious origin of the name:

 _" I call it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann,
and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the
effect, than it would otherwise have."_

The full speech in which it appears is interesting:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060827111102/http://www.michae...](https://web.archive.org/web/20060827111102/http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speeches/speeches_quote03.html)

------
mcculley
I’m a little bemused when people say this is a problem in the “tech industry”.
It appears to be a problem in every industry. Tech people with blogs haven’t
worked in other industries, apparently.

~~~
anon1385
It is a problem in the tech industry. It's a problem in pretty much every
other industry as well. It is worse in tech than most other industries because
there are more men in positions of power? Maybe, but I don't think it matters
to how we respond to it. We here on HN are nearly all members of the tech
industry, not other industries. Any amount of harassment is intolerable and it
doesn't matter if it's worse in Hollywood or some other industry. That's no
excuse.

As members of a community/industry we have a collective responsibility for
what goes on; for our own behaviour, for the behaviour we let men get away
with, and for supporting victims.

~~~
mcculley
I’m not arguing against any responsibility to improve the situation. I’m not
convinced it is somehow specific to tech.

~~~
masklinn
> I’m not convinced it is somehow specific to tech.

I don't think I've commonly seen that claim, aside from an "all lives
matter"-style dodge used to try and derail conversation in tech e.g. "tech has
this problem" "not just tech", the original claim was never that the issue is
exclusive to tech, only that it exists in tech.

~~~
mcculley
I've read plenty of tweets and posts that claim that the tech industry is
particularly misogynistic. I'm not convinced the tech industry is more
misogynistic than other industries with which I have experience. I think there
is some cognitive bias caused by the fact that the tech industry has more
bloggers and more free time for drinking around campfires and calling it a
conference.

------
nichochar
I never liked Scoble, I always got a really weird vibe when I saw him live or
in videos.

I'm really sorry to hear that this happened to Quinn, and many others
apparently. I believe sanctions should be very strong. I really hope they are,
it seems to me like this man should go to jail.

------
thebiglebrewski
Wow, I'm sorry this happened to you. That's really messed up. The recent, "Me
too" movement has made me realize even more how pervasive this type of
behavior is. Hoping I can be part of the solution and not the problem. Thanks
for writing this.

------
matt4077
I never understood why the banality that Scoble produced was so popular? It's
been a long time, but I seem to remember most of his articles had the vibe of
"I tried 25 methods to format my USB stick and <this one> is two seconds
faster".

Anyway, I hope Quinn Norton gets all the support, kindness and apologies, she
deserves. And that Scoble finds the catharsis he needs.

~~~
aaron-lebo
Seems like he had a major drinking problem. Groping someone you just met at a
professional meeting isn't normal behavior, seems like he couldn't control
himself - alcohol being the issue. It's possible he's a decent guy but the
demons come out with drink, like a Mel Gibson.

He's apparently stopped drinking so hopefully he stays sober.

~~~
amunicio
I have been drunk before; probably more often than my fair share (I went to
college). While alcohol has disinhibited me, it has never prevented me from
distinguishing between right and wrong.

While alcohol has caused me to overestimate my dancing abilities or to tell a
friend things that I regretted later, it has never made me say things that I
did not believe or made me do things I knew were wrong.

Sorry, but alcohol is not sufficient to explain groping or Mel Gibson's rants.

~~~
troupe
> While alcohol has disinhibited me, it has never prevented me from
> distinguishing between right and wrong.

The whole reason that Quinn got involved was that there was a drunk woman
making out with a drunk man and the sober people standing around thought that
the woman had so much to drink that she could not distinguish between right
and wrong.

~~~
matt4077
That's... a different kind of right and wrong?

To use the parent comment's example: almost everyone will be more willing to
dance or sing really badly, or maybe kiss the wrong guy. Only a tiny fraction
of people commit crimes under the influence.[0]

But you aren't completely wrong: Criminality just has a very low prevalence,
so even if alcohol were to double it, it'd be rare to see. But from my
experience it seems to be a very specific effect, making some people rather
aggressive, for example, while having absolutely no such effect on others.

The difference just seems to be that some people have traits of
aggressiveness, and alcohol stops them from controlling it.

Is that an excuse? Legally, it sometimes is: If you get blot-out drunk and
shoot your wife in the head trying to reenact Wilhelm Tell, it's not murder,
because no intent.

At that point it all depends on what you could reasonably expect yourself to
do when drunk: If this is your third wife and the third Apple you missed, it
starts looking quite different.

In this case, it appears Scoble had a history of such behaviour. Not only was
he possibly behaving similarly even when sober (see the anecdote from her talk
at the beginning), he had the chance of protecting people by avoiding such
situations altogether.

[0]...although my singing may qualify
[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Vollmer#Death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Vollmer#Death)

~~~
b1daly
I think you’re mistaken, simply by observing the incredibly high amount of
drunk driving that goes on in my city. It’s indicative that alcohol can have
very strong effects on inhibition and judgement.

------
Ensorceled
A few years ago a read a good article about how sexism, homophobia, and racism
is everywhere, is happening every day all around you. It pointed out that
simply being aware and then saying something when you observe bad behaviour is
helping but also will make you more aware of how often it happens.

This was life-changing. I now simply say "That was inappropriate" when
somebody says something discriminatory or "This is inappropriate" when there
is something on going. I'm not an SJW, I don't make a big deal of it and I
don't give speeches, I say the phrase and move on. But it's simple and
powerful and, frankly a little depressing, because at some point you're saying
it pretty often and realizing that, as a white guy, I don't have to deal with
this crap.

I was also kind of depressing to realize how much I had been marginalizing
both the amount and impact of this behaviour that hasn't directed at me.

------
ForFreedom
Another Woman Has Accused Robert Scoble of Sexual Harassment

[https://www.buzzfeed.com/doree/woman-accuses-robert-
scoble-o...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/doree/woman-accuses-robert-scoble-of-
sexual-harassment?utm_term=.fpEv1XAQQ#.hlkWj6wvv)

I wonder how many more will come forward in the tech Industry. The Weinstein
saga did open the gates.

------
avitzurel
In case you are interested, he is going to make a statement about it : [1]

[1]
[https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/posts/1015578291863465...](https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/posts/10155782918634655?comment_id=10155783150444655&reply_comment_id=10155783326114655&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R1%22%7D&pnref=story)

~~~
minimaxir
> I will make a statement about this at midnight tonight on live video here on
> Facebook

Huh, _scheduling_ your crisis management for maximum views (as opposed to
getting out a statement ASAP to control the narrative) is a new one.

~~~
jasonmp85
If you’ve been exposed to him at all over the years you should expect nothing
less.

------
Spooky23
Is this type of behavior more pronounced in tech than other areas?

I have heard above incidents like this from women that I’m close to either by
relation, personal friendship or professional relationship. But not from my
accountant or teacher friends.

Anywhere I’ve worked has had zero tolerance for bullshit like this, as in you
will be put on leave and terminated or banished from the premises. Maybe
that’s unique?

~~~
justinlilly
It being stated that it's zero tolerance and "well, give him one more chance
b/c he's a top performer" [especially in small orgs with young employees
</bias>] aren't quite the same thing. People are willing to make exceptions
for their implicit biases.

~~~
cwkoss
Stating zero tolerance and giving someone 'one more chance' is called being
complicit.

------
desireco42
I was hoping this article is not "me too", but it is. And it is more serious
then I could imagine. It pains me to read this about him, but don't doubt it.

However unpleasant (to put it mildly) we need to go through this process and
clean our act. I always saw tech as a forefront of human thought, so clearly
we need to be better people.

That is all.

------
hi41
I am so to hear this happened to you. I used to follow Robert Scoble's blog on
Google Reader, Rackspace videos, Google Plus. There was one incident that made
me very proud of him at that time. I think he did not blog for one entire week
to support Kathy Sierra who was harassed online. From your article, I now know
that he himself harassed you and other women. I feel so sad that I held this
man in such high regard.

What I am trying hard to understand is human nature. How can a person protest
online harassment and turn around and harass another person at a party? I
think fame, alcohol and drugs change a person for the worse. Lot of things to
ponder about in your article.

~~~
SolaceQuantum
I feel it’s a lot easier to identify when someone other than you is harassing
someone. If you are harassing someone you can justify those actions to
yourself that you’re just trying to get what you want, they’re not that bad,
the other person is overreacting, etc.

------
brlewis
Not sure I get this part:

 _I realized I was part of the problem that night — a woman’s safety in her
career environment shouldn’t require credible threats of violence._

I could understand saying she wasn't part of the solution, but to me "part of
the problem" makes a non-zero contribution to the problem. What she did was at
worst neutral, no?

~~~
wiredfool
What she's saying is that there's really no reasonable way that a threat of
violence should be part of a professional interaction in the tech field. (or
any, outside of boxing and perhaps hockey)

It's similar to what I teach the kids: He started it doesn't make it right,
you know it's not ok to hit your brother.

What she did was what she felt like she needed to do at the time. What she's
doing now is second guessing it, and trying to turn it to a generally more
positive approach on all sides in the future.

~~~
aaron-lebo
The threat of violence is an appropriate response in any situation to someone
drunkenly groping you and refusing to back off.

~~~
rhizome
Which also shouldn't be a part of a career environment.

~~~
icebraining
I don't think anybody is disagreeing with that.

------
chirau
Robert Scoble has responded and said he will make a statement over the weekend
after speaking to his wife.

[https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1015578381743465...](https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155783817434655&id=501319654)

~~~
minimaxir
...and he deleted it, which is very uncharacteristic.

Screenshot:
[https://twitter.com/minimaxir/status/921265767282221061](https://twitter.com/minimaxir/status/921265767282221061)

~~~
chirau
Ha! You're Max Woolf! Awesome, I have heard good things about you. I might
want to pick your brain on something one of these days :)

------
xutopia
I'm really happy this was written... It's almost as if there could be a
positive way forward with all we are learning about consent.

~~~
jasonmp85
Wait what? “all we are learning about consent”?

We aren’t learning a damn thing about consent. We are learning there is a huge
segment of men who flagrantly don’t care about it.

------
KKKKkkkk1
> At one of my first talks on body hacking, one of the creators of VisiCalc
> sat in the front row and yelled out sexually explicit questions at me while
> everyone, not just me, grew increasingly uncomfortable.

Who is it?

------
skc
Wow, there's a name I haven't heard in years, literally. Never understood his
appeal, particularly because I felt he was pretty bad at whatever his job was.

He knew just enough about the technology he covered to convince non techies
that something was cool I guess.

I know he's publicly stated before that he had a drinking problem and was
seeking help for it at one time.

Sad to see he's actually one of these toxic people.

------
youdontknowtho
Scoble. Jeez. I never understood the appeal of this guy's writing.

It sounds like drinking, along with being "a star" went to his head. That's
the only way you do something like that and think it's ok.

I think you will hear lots of women come out about this guy. I wonder how much
of this occurred while he was married?

------
camus2
Ouch, Robert Scoble, the guy that has a podcast on Techcrunch? or somebody
else?

~~~
minimaxir
Scoble never had a podcast on TechCrunch, but he was a contributor on the
Gilmor Gang (and left after things got political)

He was mostly an evangelist for Rackspace. His biggest claim-to-fame is the
infamous Google Glass Shower pic:
[https://www.theverge.com/2013/5/15/4333656/larry-page-
teases...](https://www.theverge.com/2013/5/15/4333656/larry-page-teases-
robert-scoble-for-nude-google-glass-photo)

------
0xbear
When I read these accounts they read to me like they’re from another planet.
I’ve been in the industry for 20+ years, and not once have I been in a
situation with my coworkers where such a thing would even be _feasible_, let
alone acceptable. Maybe I don’t get invited to the “right” events? I don’t
know. But all of this seems completely alien to all environments that I’ve
ever worked in.

~~~
untog
I've spoken to a few of the women I've worked with about this before, and
honestly you'd be shocked how much absolutely does go on, right under your
nose, and you don't notice it.

How did everyone get home from the last happy hour the team had? Who shared
taxis? Do you remember who shared with who? I certainly didn't. I was pretty
drunk and what does it matter anyway? Well, turns out that after one night one
of the managers shared with a subordinate and made a totally inappropriate
move on her. Turns out he has a habit of doing it. I had _absolutely_ no idea.

~~~
0xbear
I’m not saying it’s not true. I’m just genuinely wondering if I simply don’t
get invited to the kinds of gatherings where such things could possibly
transpire, and why that is. I don’t think I’m quite _that_ boring or
unattractive.

~~~
pavlov
I don’t get it - are you saying sexual harassment happens to exciting,
attractive people only?

The point is that it happens to women everywhere, also (and perhaps even
mostly) in ordinary settings where other oblivious men think it couldn’t
possibly transpire.

~~~
0xbear
You’re feigning outrage. You get it perfectly well. All I’m saying is I
apparently don’t get invited to social gatherings where such things happen.
Anything else is a fruit of your imagination.

~~~
kalleboo
The point is, even people who get invited to social gatherings where such
things happen don't realize they're happening, so they also think they don't
get invited to social gatherings where such things happen. So maybe you're DO
go to such events but you just don't realize it.

I mean, women get sexually harassed on _trains_. You've never ridden a train?

------
DonHopkins
Eeeeeew, this didn't age well:

Why Google Glass Will Be A Hit. The High School Girls Love Them.

[https://soundcloud.com/scobleizer/why-google-glass-will-
be-a...](https://soundcloud.com/scobleizer/why-google-glass-will-be-a-hit)

~~~
underwater
What's wrong with that interaction?

~~~
DonHopkins
Didn't South Park do an episode where Robert Scoble took a photo of himself
wearing nothing but Google Glass in the shower, or did that really happen?

~~~
on_and_off
I vaguely remember the photo but not the South Park episode (it might exist
though)

~~~
DonHopkins
Well I can also distinctly remember watching Bob Dylan and The Band performing
Too Much of Nothing on the Muppet Show, but I couldn't find any proof it ever
happened on google, so maybe I'm confabulating it, or google's covering it up.

------
cwkoss
Scoble should be entirely blacklisted from attending any tech conferences.
Boycott anything he touches. His entire livelihood is based on the fact that
he has an audience and can promote things: he is very vulnerable to public
opinion.

Let's destroy his career. Everywhere he posts, remind people that he's a
sexual abuser.

Hopefully, if we can proverbially put his head on a pike, it will scare other
potential abusers from committing crimes like these.

EDIT: Wow, seems like this post is making the rape apologists feel insecure.
It's raining downvotes.

~~~
omegaworks
That's exactly the opposite of what the author of the article hoped to
accomplish:

>I’m very mixed on this. I believe if we don’t provide paths of redemption for
badly behaved people, we enable abusers as much as we do by remaining silent.
I also believe we need to talk about these things plainly, and we need to seek
to help and elevate the victims.

>The demonization of either rapists or victims is what makes the subject
unapproachable, and doesn’t let anyone intercede to get abusive people the
help they need, much less the victims.

~~~
cwkoss
I appreciate the author for writing this article and respect her courage, but
I disagree with the proposed solution.

I think fear is the only emotion sexual abusers will be deterred by. If the
treatment of Scoble doesn't make other powerful sexual abusing sociopaths fear
for their livelihood, they won't change their behavior.

Total scorched-earth ostracism seems like it would have more impact than any
other option.

~~~
_mhr_
The problem is to assume that he's a sociopath, but I'm inclined to think not,
particularly in light of this comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15512398](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15512398).
It's possible to have empathy for someone whose actions are disgusting. The
world isn't black and white.

------
tryingagainbro
Adios Robert Scoble, our very own Kim Kardashian.

As per sexual harassment, even after Weinstein most women will keep quiet.
It's a much better _career_ move, unless their attacker is on the ropes.
(Unless he's outed he can not be in the ropes, I know).

Many people with money and power do feel entitled to everyone, not to just
those that go after such men.

------
justinjlynn
Well, that quickly went where I wasn't expecting it to go. I would, at the
very least, appreciate a mention of the fact that the article linked has
accusations and explicit descriptions of sexual harassment and assault in the
title, please. Or, if that's not manageable, at least tag the thing NSFW.

------
handsomechad
This is an extremely touchy subject but something always pops into my head
when I read stories like this and I haven't seen it brought up. I'm hoping
this doesn't get buried; I really don't have an axe to grind here, but I want
to hear how people think about this dynamic. It is something that's hard and
not PC to discuss publicly.

Do women react to alcohol differently? It seems like our culture and our legal
system treat an inebriated woman differently than an inebriated man when
assessing a situation. It seems like if a woman is wasted and making out with
a guy "consensually" she is being victimized because she _cannot_ consent when
she is drunk. But what if the guy is also inebriated and _he_ cannot consent
or decipher consent. I, for example (I'm male), would have to be _extremely_
drunk to PDA like that in a professional setting. Even then it's hard to
imagine. What if it's just two really drunk people hooking up? Is it one of
those "I know it when I see it" situations? This is fine for me, but it seems
like it is only applied with women being the victim and a man being the
aggressor. Maybe that is because of the natural sexual dynamic of the onus
being on the male to seduce the female. By saying that the woman had no
control because she was inebriated, but Scoble did, aren't we denying the
woman of her agency? Unless of course Scoble plied her with alcohol/drugs a la
Bill Cosby?

To be clear, and this goes without saying, I am NOT condoning Scoble's
actions, I really don't know anything about Scoble other than this story but
from what it sounds like he has a pattern of transgressions, including a
completely inappropriate groping of the author in this story.

I'm also not trying to deflect off of the serious issues at hand here, but the
other comment threads are doing a good job of covering those.

But I also don't think I am "victim blaming" either. Unless we grant that
women inherently have less agency than men. Now this Scoble situation might
have been a black and white case, but it seems to me there is a lot more grey
area in these situations than we let on as a culture, and I am just wondering
what the "rules" are.

~~~
Mz
"Do women react to alcohol differently?"

Yes, actually. Women metabolize it differently, plus size matters. Men are
typically larger than women. They can handle more liquor and be less drunk. So
a hetero couple that are consuming alcohol together at the same pace typically
causes dramatically greater impairment for her than for him and more quickly.

Alcohol is the single most common date rape drug and is a factor in the vast
majority of date rapes.

Additionally, highly sexually aroused women lose certain cognitive functions.
This is not true for men. I strongly suspect this element is a significant
factor in many social norms that establish different expectations for male and
female sexual behavior.

Women literally have their judgment impaired by high arousal. I think this is
part of why society as a whole is pickier about the need for women to pursue
more cautious strategies when choosing a sex partner.

~~~
mercer
> Additionally, highly sexually aroused women lose certain cognitive
> functions. This is not true for men. I strongly suspect this element is a
> significant factor in many social norms that establish different
> expectations for male and female sexual behavior.

I did not know that! Do you have any references at hand?

~~~
Mz
No. I saw it on a TV show years ago. I am on a phone. I am in no position to
provide a citation.

~~~
mercer
No problem, Google will also work :).

~~~
Mz
You might try searching for studies where they did MRIs or other brain scans
of people masturbating to orgasm. I think that was the study I saw on the TV
show. But it has been a few years.

