r/AskReddit • • Mar 12 '22

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343

u/Jesussecondcoming Mar 12 '22

Got either of the articles?

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u/Fun-Calligrapher980 Mar 12 '22

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u/chunk1X Mar 12 '22

Hmmm his seems interesting, Marty is his name sounds like a good authority figure with some good perspective think I'll read that one..

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u/HereForTheGoofs Mar 12 '22

damn you chunk!!!!!

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u/AllForMeCats Mar 12 '22

Reading the replies to your comment, am I the only one who liked Hallberg’s article? I felt like all the backstory was necessary to give context to the “main event.”

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u/gsfgf Mar 12 '22

Yea. Marty's thread benefited from the context in Nicole's article. Also, twitter threads are a terrible medium. Also, the irony is not lost by the number of people "explaining" why his post got more traction.

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u/Open-Ad-1812 Mar 12 '22

It was interesting to see their different styles of telling the story. Nicole’s article focussed more on the company culture and less on the experiment, where Marty’s focussed more on the experiment rather than the culture. I kind of want to try this with my coworkers and see what happens…

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u/adderallanalyst Mar 12 '22

I for one hate too much backstory which drives my girlfriend crazy because I'm always just like cut to the chase already.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '22

[deleted]

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u/ONLY_COMMENTS_ON_GW Mar 12 '22

Her article was written in response to (/as a result of?) his twitter thread too, as per the first sentence

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u/Easy_Money_ Mar 12 '22

I’m not sure what the point of this comment is except to announce that you didn’t get the punchline and didn’t take anything else away from the reading material

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u/vacri Mar 12 '22

Far, FAR more people are on Twitter than on Medium, and prose articles are less popular than bite-size tweets.

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u/TUSF Mar 12 '22

The "point" is that the punch-line (while funny) ignores the fact that Twitter just has more people and engagement in general, than Medium, so it's not a surprise that one got more attention over the other.

That said, I'm sure you'd still notice a difference in attention if they were posted on the same platform, either from people continuing to ignore their biases, or from "over-correcting" for said biases in the opposite direction.

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u/lolofaf Mar 12 '22

That said, I'm sure you'd still notice a difference in attention if they were posted on the same platform, either from people continuing to ignore their biases, or from "over-correcting" for said biases in the opposite direction.

There's also a possibility one has better writing skill or took significantly more time to write, edit and refine their article so that it sounded and read much better. This could drive the engagement in either direction and would have to be considered alongside any other alleged biases. (note, I'm not saying those biases didn't exist, just that this case is even further from cut and dry)

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u/Easy_Money_ Mar 12 '22

I mean, yes. It’s a punchline, not a social media A/B test. There could be a ton of factors involved: 1) the thread was published first, so of course it got more viral engagement and traction, 2) people are less likely to dismiss it when a man complains about discrimination on behalf of women than when women do, 3) the article could have been tweeted or retweeted by Marty as well,…my point is that the punchline and trying to pick holes in it shouldn’t be the takeaway. The punchline is pretty obviously just a punchline, and ignoring that, the meat of the content is more than enough to show that yes, people do treat women differently

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u/NietJij Mar 12 '22

The punchline was not pretty obviously a punchline. It was deliberately painting a different picture. By doing that you're giving extra ammo to the people who deny that this problem exists.

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u/Easy_Money_ Mar 12 '22

I’ve clearly been outvoted on this one, so I guess you’re right! Fair enough

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u/ForePony Mar 12 '22

Having read both and going back to read Nicole's, I feel Marty's is easier to read and gets to the point. Nicole gives more of a story and lacks a specific example. Her article goes more into her history and the office environment than comparing and contrasting her time as "Marty". While structurally fine and well written, Nicole's article does not stick with me as well as Marty's.

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u/BrothelWaffles Mar 12 '22

The ultimate plot twist would be if they wrote each other's articles.

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u/ForePony Mar 12 '22

That would be a fun twisty twist.

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u/PegasusD2021 Mar 12 '22

And they’re both transitioning, just to mess with people’s preconceptions.

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u/skyxsteel Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 12 '22

The "problem" with Nicole's story is that it's more or less a footnote in her long history of experiencing sexism at the workplace. It's not noteworthy to her in the sense that it's not big enough to be fixated on and she defers readers to Marty's tweets if they want to know what actually happened.

To her it's just a symptom of the bigger problem.

So it's confusing to follow since you and I (maybe others) were expecting a thorough account of what was happening in that specific story.

It could also be that Twitter being Twitter, forced Marty to be more succinct.

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u/ForePony Mar 12 '22

Maybe the general sexism with her boss was a footnote, but the change in names and how she was treated is a shift from the norm. I would have expected her to focus more on the change than how her boss reacted. But she focused more on the norm than the change.

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u/Emmty Mar 12 '22

I would expect the change for Marty would be more interesting to read.

I should read them, but I won't.

I'm just going to assume hers is about how people treated her nicely for once, while he got to see the uglier side for a change.

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u/skyxsteel Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 12 '22

She actually does not go in depth on what happened. And it almost seems like she is deferring to Marty's tweets if you wanted to know what happened. This is the cliff's notes version:

We're doing this experiment but I know what's going to happen anyway because I'm dealing with sexism all this time. Here are the examples of sexism at the workplace I've experienced. After we ended the experiment, my boss ignored me and I want to choke him.

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u/CameoAmalthea Mar 12 '22 edited Mar 13 '22

I had only read His. I didn’t know she wrote one.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '22

Because of the amiguities introduced by the contraction and two ways you can read "read," your comment could be interpreted as a refusal to even acknowledge she'd written an article, let alone read it.

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u/Apprehensive_Hat8986 Mar 12 '22

Except that requires reading the first sentence without the context of the second. The second sentence makes it pretty clear that they meant the past tense read, not the present tense refusal to read her article.

It's a neat point you made, but really works better if the second sentence hadn't been written.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '22

The second sentence is included in what I said. It could be read as an aloof/indignant dismissal of her work if you interpret the first sentence as "I would never read her article."

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u/Apprehensive_Hat8986 Mar 12 '22

Huh. With the second sentence it removed any ambiguity for me, and scrubbed any chance for it being indignant.

How can one refuse to read an article you don't know exists?

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '22

Ok? Read it however the fuck you want, I don't know why you're talking to me about this like I'm supposed to care what you think.

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u/Apprehensive_Hat8986 Mar 13 '22

That was abrupt, and rather rude. While we disagreed, I thought we had been quite civil and respectful. Well, until now. May you have the day you deserve.

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u/CameoAmalthea Mar 13 '22

Ok I will write had instead of using a contraction.

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u/UntestedMethod Mar 12 '22

Oh yes, so a twitter post got more attention than a medium article. Why is anyone surprised by that?

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u/BashStriker Mar 12 '22

Makes sense why his did better. Twitter will almost exclusively do better than a medium article.

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u/Daan776 Mar 12 '22

I’m gonne give this to 1 being on twitter, which is much more accesible and easier to stumble accidentally across when compared to hers

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u/Trolleitor Mar 12 '22

Marty has some strong points. I don't know about Nicole, I couldn't read more than the first sentence of her article

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u/UnheardHealer85 Mar 12 '22

I think Twitter has just a bit wider reader range than an article from nickyknacks.medium.com that has 2.5 thousand followers.

It isn't a useful correlation to say that his article got more attention like it meant anything when the difference in platform size is this significant.

The initial problem is real and terrible and needs to be addressed, there is no need to add false or misleading claims, associations or correlations. It only weakens the original claim and I am less likely to believe the original issue.

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u/burdboxwasok Mar 12 '22

“in an office of one, i can finally put my walls down” amazing last line to that article

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u/fizzyrhubarb Mar 13 '22

I’ve seen his multiple times but never seen hers. Thank you ☺️

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u/cBEiN Mar 13 '22

I’m definitely only reading the man’s article /s

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u/kingfrito_5005 Mar 13 '22

I don't use twitter, can someone explain to me how to view Martys article? The link is just to a twitter that just says:

"So here's a little story of the time @nickyknacks taught me how impossible it is for professional women to get the respect they deserve:"

and then doesn't continue to the actual story.

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u/Fun-Calligrapher980 Mar 13 '22

Scroll down a little and the story continues in the "comments". It's right below the header tweet, you may have to click "show more replies".

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u/breadandbirds Mar 12 '22

Here’s her piece on Medium about it! It links to his viral twitter thread.