79 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
79 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: post
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title: Farewell GitHub, Hello Immersive Computing
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---
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{{ page.title }}
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================
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<p class="meta">21 Apr 2014 - New York City</p>
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Today is my last day at GitHub. Recent events have given me a lot of time to
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reflect on what's important to me, and I've decided to switch gears and focus on
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building something from scratch again. Since visiting the Oculus VR team at
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their office three months ago, I've come to believe that immersive computing
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(aka virtual reality) is poised to rival the personal computer, the web, social
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networking, and mobile devices in its impact. While the timing is more abrupt
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than I had intended, with everything that's happened, I think now is the right
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time to do this, and I'd like to explain why.
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First, I want to address the serious accusations that were made against me and
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my family over the past month. With every decision I made at GitHub and in every
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interaction I had with employees, I tried to treat people better than they
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expected and to resolve conflict with empathy. Despite that, I've made mistakes,
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and I am deeply sorry to anyone who was hurt by those mistakes. It devastates me
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to know that I missed the mark, and I will strive to do better, every day.
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That said, I want to be very clear about one thing: neither my wife, Theresa,
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nor I have ever engaged in gender-based harassment or discrimination. The
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results of GitHub's independent investigation unequivocally confirm this and we
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are prepared to fight any further false claims on this matter to the full extent
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of the law. I believe in diversity and equality for all people in all
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professions, especially the tech sector. It's immensely important to me and I
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will continue to do my very best to further that belief.
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Unfortunately, the investigation and all the attention surrounding it have me
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concerned that remaining at GitHub would be a distraction for both me and the
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company. I'm incredibly proud of what I've helped build at GitHub and I don't
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want the events of the past month to jeopardize that. I care too much about the
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company and the people here to let that happen. The GitHub team is incredibly
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strong, with fierce vision, and I have no doubt they will continue to
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revolutionize software development for decades to come. Founding and building
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GitHub has been the greatest adventure of my life. I've been so lucky to be on
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this journey with such amazing, helpful, talented, and real people. I'm going to
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miss working with such a great team, but I'm also insanely excited about the
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future.
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Since the early days of GitHub, I've wanted to create a different kind of
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business. One that was [Optimized for
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Happiness](http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/10/18/optimize-for-happiness.html)
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and built atop a [Framework of
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Happiness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0FzgvYxdvk). One where great people
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could work on hard problems together to create unbelievably good products. I
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believe I was able to achieve a great deal of success with that model at GitHub,
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even if things didn't always go perfectly according to plan. All of this has
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been a tremendous learning experience for me.
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Last January I stepped down as CEO and handed that role over to cofounder Chris
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Wanstrath so I could focus on future-facing R&D projects with small teams. This
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kind of rapid, team-based innovation is what I live for. During my time away
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from GitHub I started experimenting with Go, OpenGL, and Unity with an eye
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towards the software side of immersive computing. It felt really good to get
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back into a code editor and challenge the deeply logical and analytical part of
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my brain. I've enjoyed the challenges of learning how to lead a company with
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hundreds of people, but it's very hard for me to deny the allure of coding a
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system that could once again change the course of history.
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I'm telling you this because I think stealth mode is bullshit and if you feel
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the same way I do about immersive computing then I want to talk with you about
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it. For the next few months I'm going to be living in Manhattan. My wife,
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Theresa, is currently participating in Techstars NYC as their very first
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nonprofit. Her startup, [The Omakase Charity](https://omakasecharity.org/),
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helps donors learn about and support nonprofits that are changing the world with
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technology. She's one of the strongest and most thoughtful women I know, and I'm
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hoping to help her succeed with her mission while I'm here.
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Thank you to everyone that reached out to me over the last month, including the
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generous team at Andreessen Horowitz. Your support has made a huge difference
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and I'm truly excited for what's next.
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