HanziMaker

Welcome to The Future of Memory

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What is your name? <<textbox "$name" "default name">> [[Wake up for your first day at work! ->PRE-Getting ready]]

<div class='getting-ready'> It's your first day of work at The Future of Memory! You're feeling nervous and excited. It's a huge deal to have this job. You've worked hard at your previous company. This new job at The Future of Memory is a huge upgrade for you. You get out of bed and walk to the fridge. Inside the fridge are some fresh berries, oat milk, and granola. </div> [[Look out the window ->PRE-Getting-ready-2]]

<div class="text-message-phone"> $name baby!! I'm so proud of you. Thank you so much for the presents you bought me for my birthday. I love the iPad. your brother says he's very jealous of how much you're making and asks if youll buy him a new car. His keeps breaking down on the way to work! hahaha. So excited you are Product Manager at the Future of Memory!!!! I keep telling all my friends and your aunts!!! So proud of you love you have a good first day. We are good over here. Nothing to complain about. Trying to stay positive with everything going on. </div> You smile and sit at your kitchen counter with your laptop and a cup of coffee. [[Open up your work e-mail->PRE-Open up your work e-mail]]

<div id="onboarding-email"> Dear $name, We are so excited you are joining the Content Curation Engineering team at The Future of Memory, with the official title of Product Manager. Our founder, Riley Singh, started The Future of Memory after he graduated from Stanford, in hopes of bringing people across the world closer together. The Future of Memory is more than just a social media company — we connect over 2.5 billion users across the world into one of the largest networks on Earth. People from anywhere in the world can build communities through shared interests, events, photos, and posts. Our name comes from Riley's dream of the internet as the future of memory, by storing the moments and information that stitch together our common humanity. As part of the CCE team, one of your biggest priorities is to support the Community and Public Policy (CPP) team in the decisions they make around content curation. Your team ensures that the policy decisions made by the CPP team are translated on the ground, to the 500 million posts per day created by our users worldwide. Your team is directly responsible for making the internet a better, safer place, and it plays a crucial role within the Future of Memory. Your team makes sure our users are happy, entertained, and delighted, receiving the information and content that appeals to them, balancing product direction with user needs. In addition to supporting the Policy team, your team also provides tooling for our incredible staff of content moderators. Staying connected is at the core of The Future of Memory. We believe that when you allow everyone to have a voice, and you give everyone the power to speak, the world ends up in a better, more understanding place. The Future of Memory is the social infrastructure that allows everyone in the world to participate on equal terms — in their families, communities, and politics. The CCE team ensures that all content follows the guidelines set by the CPP team. Note that we are the Content Curation <b>Engineering</b> team. As a result, we're always trying to find ways to optimize content curation. We're so excited that you'll be joining us to help build and scale curation in new ways, aiding in the growth of the most cutting edge tools the world has ever seen. It's no small challenge to build a global space for conversation, at a time when the world needs it more than ever. We're thrilled that you'll be joining us. Attached is your handbook and your 30-60-90 plan. You'll be interfacing with Jenna from the CPP team and reporting to Roy, VP of product. Devon is the technical lead on your team. Your onboarding point of contact is Katie, in case you have any questions about company culture. Welcome to The Future of Memory! Patti de Mateo Chief Product Officer at The Future of Memory </div> <<audio "fom-theme" play>> [[Open up your 30-60-90 Plan->PRE-Open up your 30-60-90 Plan]]

<div id="30-60-90-plan"> <h2>Objective:</h2> As part of the CCE team, one of your biggest priorities is to support the Community and Public Policy (CPP) team in the decisions they make around content curation. Your team ensures that the policy decisions made by the CPP team are translated on the ground, to the 500 million posts per day created by our users worldwide. Your team is directly responsible for making the internet a better, safer place, and it plays a crucial role within the Future of Memory. Your team makes sure our users are happy, entertained, and delighted, receiving the information and content that appeals to them, balancing product direction with user needs. In addition to supporting the Policy team, your team also provides tooling for our incredible staff of content moderators. <h2>30-60-90 Plan</h2> After 30 days, you will have finished: - Reading the Santa Clara Declarations on Moderation Transparency - Understand how automated moderation can impact users - Understand how the vastness of our global reach - Interact with a few of our CMs (content moderators) in understanding how they do CM work and what impacts it has on them After 60 days: - Successfully support CPP team on 1 curation case - Help increase product revenue by 50% (company goal) - Reach <div class="tooltip">KPIs</div> set by VP of product - Increase hiring on the team - Generate positive public feedback on FOM as a social media network that delights After 90 days: - Help establish broader content curation processes - Help refine our curation pipeline and tooling - Successfully support CPP on 3+ curation cases simultaneously - Actively be able to anticipate and help shape overall product by suggesting improvements to the rest of product team </div> [[Look at the Employee Handbook->PRE-Look at the Employee Handbook]]

<div id="employee-handbook"> <div id="handbook-intro"> <<script>> UI.alert("Don't forget to check your Slack messages after reading!"); <</script>> <b>The Future of Memory</b> Founded in 2006 by Riley Singh and a group of his friends in their Stanford dorm room, The Future of Memory has always been a champion of using the internet to create a better, more connected world. As a result of our progressive values, The Future of Memory has been pivotal in numerous political events throughout the world. From the toppling of dictators to parents recording their child’s first steps, all of humanity’s memories are stored, shared, and distributed on The Future of Memory. </div> <b>Our Values</b> We value honesty, transparency, and using technology for making a positive difference in the world. We believe that when the world is connected and everyone has a voice, the world is a better place. As a result, our working processes are open, transparent, and we have a "flat" hierarchy. Anyone at FOM should feel empowered in speaking up, expressing an opinion, or offering feedback on a product. This gives us the ability to move fast, break things, and invent new possibilities every day. <b>Office Equipment</b> As a full-time employee, your comfort is our priority. If there’s anything we can do to make your work-from-home situation more comfortable, please let us know. The laptop, headphones, iPhone, and standing desk are all property of The Future of Memory. Upon leaving the company, you will return all equipment. <b>Remote Work</b> Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be working remotely for the foreseeable future. You will receive $300 a month as a work-from-home stipend. Please contact Cathy from Operations if you need more, including any stipend you might need for household, childcare, etc. during this unprecedented time. <b>Performance and Salary Reviews</b> We do performance reviews every quarter and salary reviews every year. We also do 360-degree reviews, which means you review yourself, those under you, and your manager. <b>Compensation and Salary</b> As Product Manager, you are making $160k, which is currently the industry standard. We have per diem and reimbursement procedures. Contact Cathy from operations if you have any questions. You also have 6000 stock options, which will vest annually, with a 4-year cliff. These are managed by carta.com. We do 401k employee matching. Please enroll through our employee benefits portal. Health, vision, and dental are covered for all Future of Memory full-time employees and one dependent. If you have other health circumstances and need additional funds, especially if they impact your job performance, file a reimbursement report in the benefits portal. We offer unlimited paid time off and 6 months parental leave to all our full-time employees. <b>Anti-Discrimination</b> The Future of Memory encourages reporting of all perceived incidents of discrimination or harassment. It is the policy of The Future of Memory to promptly and thoroughly investigate such reports. The Future of Memory prohibits retaliation against any individual who reports discrimination or harassment or participates in an investigation of such reports. <b>Miscellaneous</b> To increase team bonding, we have virtual happy hours every Friday. Please join us! </div> [[Open up first Slack alert]] <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>>

<div class="slack-alert"> <div id="anne-slack"></div> Hey $name! This is Anne, I'm from the Community and Public Policy team. Welcome to the company. Wondering if you want to grab a virtual ☕ some time? Excited to get to know you! A little about me: I work closely with Jenna closely on the CPP team. I've been counsel here for over 5 years, came here right after law school, and haven't looked back since. You'll have to talk to Michael, our Senior Counsel, as well. He's great and can brain dump a bit on Riley's future-oriented thinking. What's your cal like? </div> [[Open Up Second Slack Alert]] <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>>

<div class="slack-alert"> <div id="taylor-slack"></div> Hi $name! I'm Taylor, junior engineer. Let's do a virtual hangout soon. Is your cal up to date? I am also a huge fan of my Vitamix — I've been making a lot of nut butter in it. Looking forward to chatting. In the meantime, I wanted to show you the content moderation tool that our content moderators use. <div id="cm-ui"> <img src="https://xrw-xrw.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fom-game/content-moderation-screen.png" id="cm-ui"> </div> This is the content moderation tool UI. On the left is a feed of flagged content, usually images. On the right is an analysis of what might be in the content — if it's politically sensitive or maybe a conspiracy. This is generated through our sophisticated computer vision system, and there's a confidence score for each class. Below that, the content moderator can click whether something is "Sensitive", "Not sensitive", or if they are still unsure, they can flag it for a manager. That's the gist of it. Let me know if you have any questions! </div> [[Open up Slack alert from Devon]] <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>>

<div class="slack-alert"> Hi $name !!! It's Caitlin from accounting. WOW I am so excited to work with you!!! </div> [[Open up Email from Roy, VP of Product]] <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>>

<div class="roy-email-1"> Hey $name! It’s time to get started on the User Relationship and Content Moderation Annual Report! Please work with Jenna and Devon to finish outlining: - The impact of content moderation on user growth, acquisition, and retention - Do our users stay with us, even though they know their content is being moderated? - Does being known as a company that does content moderation help with user growth and acquisition? How does it hurt or hinder relationships with advertisers and users? - The impact of content moderation on user engagement - Do users notice content moderation? - Can we maximize user engagement using content moderation? - Does content moderation of sensitive topics affect overall user engagement? - The impact of content moderation on average user lifetime value - Does content moderation affect the number of ads a user sees? Thanks! Roy </div> [[Next day]]

You think about Roy's questions and work with Jenna and Devon to get the report out the door. [[Turn in the User Relationship and Content Moderation Report->Jenna Message1]]

<div class="email jenna-email-1"> Hi $name! Great work on the 2020 User Impact and Moderation Report. The VPs really loved it, and it helped clarify some of the goals WRT profits this quarter. I wanted to bring your attention to a scale situation that's coming up. We've gotten a huge surge of users over the past two quarters, and we're trying to figure out where to put engineering resources this next quarter. We have two options. The first option: Work on the moderation tool that our content moderators are already using. As you know, content moderators receive potentially sensitive posts with this tool. There’s a “feed” where they go through and manually mark posts as “sensitive” or “not sensitive”. Upgrading the moderation tool would include things like one-click word and image blurring in posts. We would also address usability and user interface issues to speed up the content moderation process. Right now, the content moderators are facing a really big backlog of content.If we go with option one, we could hire some additional moderators but might have to contract out more. The second option: Put engineering resources toward cutting-edge automated moderation. We'd like to invest in some of the latest machine-learning technologies. We'd start off with keyword filtering, just tackling automated moderation on text posts and then eventually expand to images. Riley is particularly excited about this because it's also a way for us to get a patent under our belt. There’s a couple of other companies, like <a href="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/74/e3/62/359458853baa9a/US9582786.pdf" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/fe/99/84/c7cfde1872fc4d/US8639765.pdf" target="_blank">Microsoft</a> that already have patents out for automated filtering, so it’ll keep us competitive. We're not going to delete posts that violate sensitive words as defined by the policy team, but we're going to float posts with sensitive keywords to the bottom. How does that sound? What do you think we should do? </div> [[Option 1: Let's build better moderation tools for our content moderators! ->Option-Manual-Challenge1]] [[Option 2: Let’s build some automated moderation systems, and get that patent! ->Option-Auto-Challenge1]]

Ok! Great. I'll let folks know. Want to update me with some engineering milestones soon? [[Sounds good ->Chall1-ManA]]

Ok! Great. I'll let folks know. Want to update me with some engineering milestones soon? [[Write up the engineering milestones ->Auto-Chall1-A]]

You update Jenna with the engineering milestones for automated content moderation. <div class ="github-ticket"> $name and Devon’s checklist for automated content moderation milestone 1 - Use existing content moderation decisions by human content moderators as training data for machine-learning model to examine context of a sensitive word - Use “sensitive topics” list from the Community and Public Policy team to generate other words related to the topics that might also indicate that a post is sensitive - Validate and test content moderation model for 1 month (called content moderation model RoboSuperCM) - Unleash RoboSuperCM in the world - Sink posts identified as “sensitive” to the bottom of peoples’ feeds and float non-sensitive posts to the top - By next quarter, RoboSuperCM will allow us to re-organize the content moderation team to use less human moderators </div> You send this to Jenna, she says it [[looks great ->Auto-Chall1-B]]

Days pass. You, Devon, and the engineering team steadily work away. Weekly meetings via Zoom, one-on-ones with Jenna. You take breaks, walking up Twin Peaks by yourself, stopping by the community garden down the street. Sometimes you swing by The Ruby to get a bottle of wine. When evening falls, you text a few of your friends who are still living in New York. Jess and her girlfriend are now engaged. You think to yourself: I guess the pandemic makes people realize that life is short. No time to waste. [[Keep working ->Auto-Chall1-C]]

Finally, after 6 weeks of hard work, you release RoboSuperCM, and the patent lawyer at Future of Memory helps you file the group patent. [[Open up a Slack alert. It's a message from Jenna ->Auto-Chall1-D]] <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>>

Hey $name! Just wanted to give you an update! We are SO THRILLED by the work you, Devon, and the team have done on RoboSuperCM! It’s a huge success. Riley’s really happy, and the patent is truly huge. The shareholders are happy too. At the next all-hands meeting, would you mind pre-recording a little video of yourself telling us about RoboSuperCM? I think everyone across the company will love it, and it’ll be a chance for everyone to recognize you. Also, I know it’s not the end of the quarter yet, but just to let you know, Riley and Roy are really psyched about your performance. Be on the lookout ;) Congrats on your FIRST BIG WIN!!! [[Open up a text message from your mom ->Auto-Chall1-E]]

<div class="text-message-phone"> $name!! It’s mom!! We love you!!! Congrats on finishing your big project!! Your brother says hi he’s starting school on the internet this year. We are ok. Still hanging in there. Thank you baby for sending the gift card for groceries. </div> [[Take a break after your first big win ->Auto-Chall1-F]]

You feel so thrilled, alongside a little surge of confidence. Roy reaches out to you directly and tells you to take a few days off. “You’ve been working so hard, you deserve a break”, he says. And you don’t even have to file it as vacation days 😉, he says. You head to the beach to see the big blue Pacific. At the nearby coffee shop, you grab a latte. You flip through your Bumble app, catching up on messages. Maybe you’ll even meet someone this weekend. [[Sit by the beach, open up your phone to take a picture ->Auto-Chall1-G]] <<audio "ocean" play>>

As you sit by the beach, you scroll through your personal FOM feed, catching up on news from friends. Ads and stories from news outlets occasionally fill your screen. It’s cool to see the new features of RoboSuperCM in action. The top of your feed is filled with happy stories. Stock markets are up. They’re close to finding a COVID vaccine. Scientists are working hard. As you continue scrolling, you start to see some other news articles posted by friends. All the way at the bottom, you see your friend Laurie, who always posts political stuff, usually US-politics related. Except this time, Laurie is posting about an unfolding situations in Myanmar and Thailand. You don’t really know why Laurie’s post is all the way at the bottom. Maybe it's sensitive content. But it's fine. You shrug to yourself. RoboSuperCM as a machine learning model is designed to learn, and the more training data it has, the better it will become. And besides, any topic word flagged as sensitive by the Community and Public Policy team is definitely going to be floated to the bottom. The team knows what they are doing, and you don’t need to question how they’re doing their jobs. You head home and go to sleep. [[Wake up for another day at work ->Challenge2-Prompt]]

Hey $name! How’s it going? You hanging in there? Wild times. Things are heating up on FOM... there’s some users who are somehow sending secret messages to each other in The Future of Memory. They’ve figured out that their posts contain sensitive words and that we send sensitive posts to the bottom. The users are bypassing our system by using all kinds of symbols, “Martian language” which they made by shifting character encoding, even new phrases they have made up, slang, and flipping text upside down to bypass the optical character recognition in images...Making words look senseless to the algorithm. They’re also hacking the algorithm, having the same senseless phrase repeat across posts, and those posts get pushed to the top for "trending". We have two options, I think. Option A: Have human moderators monitor the situation, flagging any posts with encoded words. Devon can build tools that help the moderators decipher and examine the encoded words manually. Option B: Incorporate text matching into RoboSuperCM's machine-learning model. You and Devon can take sensitive words and topics from the policy team and have your engineers transform those words and topics in “Martian language” and other variations. You could then train RoboSuperCM to examine the text. What do you think? [[Let's go with option A and bring in some humans ->Chall2-Man-A]] [[Let's go with option B and make RoboSuperCM better ->Chall-2-Auto-A]]

You spend a few days typing up the engineering milestones, and meeting with Devon, the technical lead to see what’s feasible. You send Jenna and Roy the milestones: $name and Devon’s proposed engineering milestones for better content moderator tools: - Fix bugs and UI Currently, a number of bugs are part of our internal content moderation software, as you can see in the screenshot. Sometimes, videos freeze up the software, other times the video doesn’t embed correctly and content moderators have to manually visit linked videos - Implement onboarding sequence and practice sessions for contractor content moderators Currently, our content moderation tool requires a lot of onboarding and training - Implement a new feature where all images and videos are blurred and include a content warning - Posts with sensitive keywords are currently sent to moderators in this UI. Make sure this process is faster [[Get to work ->Manual-Chall1-B]]

Days pass. You, Devon, and the engineering team work away, steadily. Weekly meetings via Zoom, one-on-ones with Jenna. You take breaks, walking up Twin Peaks by yourself, stopping by the community garden down the street. Sometimes you swing by The Ruby to get a bottle of wine. When evening falls, you text a few of your friends who are still living in New York Jess and her girlfriend are now engaged. You think to yourself: I guess the pandemic makes people realize that life is short. No time to waste. [[Snap out of your it, get back to work ->Manual-Chall1-C]]

After a few days, Jenna messages you to let you know that the content moderation team has grown, to include more contract workers located remotely, across the Philippines and India. You wonder if the new hires are being treated well, and being treated fairly. <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>> [[Open up a message from Jenna ->Firing seq 1]]

You decide to go with the manual tactic of human moderation. After all, what if some of the posts are not about sensitive topics? Don’t you want your users to have a good experience? And hey, why put even more moderators out of a job at a time like this? [[Get to work ->Chall2-Man-B]]

You decide that you and Devon will allocate engineering resources to implement text matching. It’s better for the long-term. You can’t always have people going through things manually. After all, optimization is the key to building a good tech company. And you’re a tech company, not a human resource management company. There’s a reason why The Future of Memory is a globally known social media network located in Silicon Valley and not just another “data-servicing” company in the Phillipines. It’s a hard decision, and some moderators will have to find another job, now that FOM will need them less, but that's the way of the world. [[Keep working on the updated algorithm for RoboSuperCM ->Chall2-Auto-B]]

Finally, after 4 weeks of hard work, you release the new features on the content moderation tools for the moderation team. You and Devon are so excited. You make a big announcement on Slack. A few days pass and you don’t hear anything. [[You hope things are okay...->Chall2-Man-C]]

After a few days, Jenna messages you to let you know that the content moderation team has grown to include more contract workers located remotely across the Philippines and India. You wonder if the new hires are being treated well and fairly. <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>> [[Open up a message from Jenna ->Firing seq 1]]

Hey $name! Just wanted to give you an update! We are SO THRILLED by the work you, Devon, and the team have done. Riley’s really happy, and we think we have another patent down the line! Congrats on this BIG WIN! <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>> [[Open a Slack alert from Roy ->Chall2-Auto-C]]

You wander around your apartment, thinking through the past few weeks. You felt like moving to San Francisco would be a fresh new start. Maybe you'd meet someone. Maybe you'd fall in love. Maybe you'd finally learn how to adult. Being inside all the time is definitely not what you expected, but you're enjoying walking around the empty city. It feels a little weird to be starting work remotely, but you can't complain. You stand in your living room, still staring at the fog, the sweeping, large sky, the houses dotted along the hill and Sutro Tower blinking a lonely little light. This is a new life, here. Your phone shows a text message from your mom. [[Open your mom's text message->PRE-your mom's text message]].

$name! Roy here. It’s clear that you are really aligned with the values of The Future of Memory. We’re super excited by all the work you’ve been doing. Hope you enjoy the cake :) [[You hear a knock and walk to open the door ->Auto-Chall2-D]]

You hear a knock on your door. It’s a delivery man with a big cake. “Congrats $name!” says the icing. You text your mom and brother a picture of the cake. “Another big win at work,” you write. [[Take the evening off, relax with a nice walk through Bernal Heights ->Challenge-3-Prompt]]

<div class="email jenna-email-1"> $name! How’s it going over there? Things are pretty quiet in Redwood City. I'm trying to stay healthy, trying to staying sane with all the kids at home, doing online school... Anyways, just letting you know that RoboSuperCM is doing a fine job, but we’re encountering some new issues. We’re wondering if you and Devon can improve upon the ML model? We’re seeing a large number of memes come through. You know, memes, images, text in images. I don’t know if there’s cool new computer vision stuff that you guys can implement into RoboSuperCM? The other solution would be to contract out more human moderators. That could be a permanent or stopgap solution, and the upside is we’re giving people jobs and ensuring some things don’t get deleted. What do you think? Oh, finally, the Community and Public Policy over here would like to start to slowly delete any sensitive posts instead of just floating them to the bottom. It’s a headache and data liability for us to store all of them. We don’t want to get subpoenaed, you know 😉. It’s hard being literally the future of memory... Tangential update on our company data retention policies: Riley went on a vacation to Bali for a few weeks, just to escape everything going on here with the pandemic and all (I know, sounds nice, right?) and he had this vision. The Future of Memory is not only home and a place for everyone's memories, but it’s also the history of humanity — the history that we want our children to remember. Which is why we have to be careful of what we present to the next generation. Oh, and a heads up that the Community and Pub Policy team over here is starting to think about the upcoming election. We’re trying to balance the needs of our advertisers and users alongside some disinformation models. It’s a sticky situation. We’re getting flak from both sides of the aisle in DC, but nothing you and Devon need to worry about yet. Our counsels are doing a great job. Anyways. What do you think about new features in RoboSuperCM? Should we update the model? Or should we just hire more contractors? </div> <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>> [[Let's update the machine learning model->Chall3-Auto-A]] [[Let's hire some contractors->Chall3-Man-A]]

You decide that you and Devon will allocate engineering resources to implement new features in RoboSuperCM. It’s better for innovation. You recall what Riley said at the most recent all-hands, company-wide meeting. “We’re shifting our company to be focused on strategic opportunism… We’re a tech company here to build and make software. We recognize that people can change the world for the better, if they have the best tools and algorithms on their side.” And you want to keep building those tools and algorithms to help people. You and Devon spec out some of the engineering milestones for implementing text recognition and object recognition in images. The team also files a patent for the object recognition system. [[Keep working on RoboSuperCM! ->Chall3-Auto-B]]

Two cycles of work pass. Laundry stacks up in your room. Empty takeout containers. Missed messages from your friends, your mom, and brother. Finally, the big day comes. You, Devon, and the rest of the curation engineering team get on Zoom and ship the new features out to production. <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>> [[Open up Slack message from Jenna ->Chall3-Auto-C]]

$name! Riley and Roy are THRILLED! I just got off a call with them. They said it’s an unprecedented occasion at The Future of Memory and never thought all this good stuff would come out of the Content Curation Engineering Team! No offense, lol. Anyways, there’s huge amounts of press coverage about the new features in RoboSuperCM, about how we’re using the most cutting edge artificial intelligence. Job applications to Future of Memory have increased by 10x. IT'S WILD. Everyone wants a piece of FOM. The shareholders are enormously excited. We’d like to offer you a promotion, given your past few big wins. Title TBA, but let’s just say few new hires have been able to ramp up like you have. It’s HUGE. [[Jump for joy ->Chall3-Auto-D]]

You log off Slack for a moment, and sit there, smiling. This is big. Things feel on track for you — all the dreams you had for yourself. You don't feel so behind all your friends and classmates anymore. You're successful now. Valued. You sit there and decide to post to The Future of Memory. You write an update for your family and friends. “Exciting LIFE UPDATE! I’ve just been promoted at The Future of Memory! It’s been a wild ride, and here I am, sitting out here in San Francisco, a couple weeks into shelfer-in-place. Haven’t seen a lot of people IRL but I’m loving my co-workers. I know it’s a crazy time out there for everyone, but I just wanted to share some personal news. Hope everyone is staying safe and sound.” [[Send a text to some friends ->Chall3-Auto-E]]

You text some old friends the good news and make plans to video chat with them over the weekend. You pop open a bottle of wine and stare out at the fog rolling in from the Bay. It truly feels good to be recognized and appreciated for your work. [[Go to sleep, hang out with a friend the next day ->Hangout]]

<div class="slack-alert"> Hey $name. Devon here, I'm technical lead on the Content Curation Engineering team. Look forward to working with you, let's grab a virtual coffee sometime! </div> [[Open up next Slack alert]] <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>>

Hey $name! How’s it going over there? Just checking in. I’m going on vacation for a week with the family soon, by the way. I know it’s a risky time to travel, but we’re going to drive down to Palm Springs, rest and relax in a cute little bungalow. We just need to get out of here for a bit, you know? Cabin fever. Before I head off, I was wondering if you and Devon could ship a feature out on RoboSuperCM? We’ve noticed users making an entirely new, made-up language to “hack” RoboSuperCM. Some people are calling the new language Trisolaran, I guess after some sci-fi novel. The Community and Public Policy team has flagged a lot of these words as sensitive. It’s not great for the community, you know? A lot of these posts are sensitive and have topics that might be too extreme for the community. Plus with everything going on, our advertisers are pretty stressed and want to make sure their ads are reaching the communities they need. It becomes impossible when we have this new made-up language adding noise into our training data. Advertisers want to make sure their dollars per click make sense, that ads are being served to a stable social network ecosystem. What do you think? Do you have time? [[You respond "yes" and keeping working. After all, you don't have much else to do]]

Finally, after 6 weeks of hard work, you release the new content moderation tools to the moderation team. You and Devon are so excited. You make a big announcement on Slack. A few days pass and you don’t hear anything. <<audio "slack-alert-sound" play>> [[Open up a new message from Jenna ->Manual-Chall1-D]]

Hey $name! I just wanted to sync up with you. I'm sorry it's a bit weird to go through this via text, but I just wanted to give you a heads up that this is coming down the pipeline... Roy is going to give you some details, but we're going to have to put you on a performance improvement plan. He'll talk about the PIP in detail with you. Just wanted to message in case you're not surprised. [[Open up an email from Roy ->Firing seq 2]]

Dear $name, Hope you're doing well in these unprecedented times. As you know, innovation is in our blood at The Future of Memory. We have to say, we’re a bit disappointed with your recent product decision to focus engineering resources on more manual work rather than automating moderation. We see this as a huge learning gap in the onboarding process. We accept that this was not your fault; it was our failure to encourage a spirit of risk-taking and technical innovation. Due to your decision making, we have had to increase the number of moderation contractors. It’s costing us a lot more money. Quite honestly, we’re a technology company, not a human resources company. Riley feels like with the increased number of contractors and the mangers needed for them, we’re almost like a click farm or temp agency. Many of these new contractors are unable to keep up at the pace we need them to. This is a huge bottleneck, and additionally, the policy team has to constantly debrief with moderation managers so that the context of the posts are understood. Our advertisers are unhappy that the number of ad views promised to them are falling short. Other rival media companies are filing multiple patents this quarter. Shareholders are unhappy. We value you enormously as an employee and would like to offer you the option of a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). During this time, we’ll suggest you watch some of these videos below, read some of the articles, and try to understand where we come from in our technical solution-based approach to mediating global conversation. After looking at this material, we know that we will be closely assessing your performance on your next assigned project. Thank you for your hard work, Roy <a href="https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/how-automation-and-technology-ensure-business-growth-58f9d04187ff" target="_blank"> How automation ensures business growth</a> <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/283345" target="_blank">We are a tech company, NOT a tech-enabled company</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/05/14/the-invisible-line-between-tech-and-tech-enabled-companies/#5cbd1e2a500f" target="_blank">Understand how profits are greater for a tech comapny vs a tech-enabled one</a> [[Sign the performance improvement plan ->Firing seq 3]]

You go on your performance improvement plan (PIP). Days pass by. You check into work every day, but you feel nervous. You've worked so hard to get this job, and now your big chance feels like it's slipping from your grasp. Little things start to pile up. All the perks that felt exciting to you in the beginning now feel a little weird. It’s lonely working at home. It’s hard to stay motivated, trying to please Riley and the VPs, when you've never met any of these people. Everyone is just a floating head on your video screen. You get a Nintendo Switch and start playing games. The only thing you really look forward to is Legend of Zelda after work. What’s the point of anything? It feels like there’s really no future. You moved out here to meet new people, but because of the pandemic, everyone is inside. [[Stick with it, you're not a quitter ->Things are changing at work]]

You keep working. One morning, your mom texts you. [[Open text->A]]

Days pass. You work with Devon to scope out tickets for the engineers, keeping Jenna and Roy updated. The Future of Memory has taken over every minute of your waking hours, even your sleeping hours. Some mornings, you wake up after an anxious nightmare that you have let Jenna and Roy down or that Devon secretly thinks you don’t have enough technical knowledge to be a product manager. Or even worse, that Riley is disappointed with you, and you no longer can send your mom money every month. Maybe it’s tiredness, but you start to feel burnt out. The loneliness is getting to you — when you read the news and look outside, things feel pretty bleak for the rest of the world. At home, you drink every night, you order takeout from Caviar, things seem pretty okay. But it’s like your brain is drained of dopamine. No matter how hard you try, it feels like the adrenaline that kept you going no longer works. You have lunch with an old college friend, Kelvin, in Dolores Park. When you see Kelvin, you remember how naive you were in college, how hopeful. How you and Kelvin both wanted to make a difference out in the world. Kevin’s from the Bay Area and currently working as a middle school information science teacher in Oakland public schools, living out of his parents' garage in San Francisco. You feel like a sell-out when you talk to Kelvin. “But that’s stupid,” you say to yourself. “I’m taking care of my family with what I’m making at FOM.” [[It's complicated ->You want to be out there]]

One evening, when you’re sitting at home in Potrero Hill, staring out onto the lights in the distance, you wonder what happened to you. All the work you do feels so disconnected, so abstract. You want to be out there, working on the ground, like Kelvin. [[You're not one to make any sudden changes->Chall-5-last]]

You decide to keep your head down and keep working. [[Wake up to another day of work at The Future of Memory ->World Burns 1]]

There’s still a nagging anxiety at the back of your mind. It’s been building up over the past few weeks as friends forward you articles about the doubt surrounding The Future of Memory. Somehow months have passed since you started the job. Journalists are whispering about how The Future of Memory is causing widespread problems in the information landscape. The “radical” or “sensitive” keywords were never directly told to you — the Community and Public Policy team always directly fed those words into the system. Some journalist manages to get a copy of the sensitive words and what you read shocks you. It reminds you of everything dug up on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/facebook-files" target = "_blank">Facebook</a> awhile ago. Some people at work try to organize, try to sign a letter telling Riley to step up, to take a stronger ethical stance, given that The Future of Memory has the memories of the world and the future of the world in its hands. "There's so many ways..." one section of the letter says, "that we can do better... we can change our funding model... we can vet users, like professor Sarah T. Roberts <a href="https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2020/09/21/the-risk-makers/" target="_blank">suggests</a>, we can prioritize quality over user growth..." Everyone signs the letter, presenting it at the most recent all-hands meeting. You sign the letter too. Riley doesn’t respond. [[Keep Working ->Keep Working 1]]

<div class="text-message-phone"> $name, call us this weekend when you have time? I know youre busy at work. Your brother had to get tested for covid twice this week, he’s still waiting for his results. He thinks he just has a cold from working at the cafe but he can’t go back in until he gets negative result. I think I am ok, your aunt posted about this new pill that prevents covid on FOM (your website!!) and I have been taking that. So I will be fine. Ok love you have a good day. </div> [[Put down your phone ->B]]

You try to continue working but can’t concentrate. You go for a walk down your street, to the community garden near your house. It’s located on top of a hill. This morning, the houses are obscured by a mix of fog and smoke from wildfires nearby. [[Look out into the smog ->C]]

The world is literally burning. Your feel a weight on your shoulders, a pile of contradictions. You feel crazed, boxed in. This morning, reports and messages flooded your inbox. Slack messages piled up from co-workers with negative press about The Future of Memory’s newsfeed algorithm and community policies. Dissent from Hong Kong and China being stifled on FOM. Censorship in Belarus after Riley’s directives to the Policy team, white nationalists in the US being amplified because of the algorithm. Protest movements being censored on FOM. All your Slack channels kept lighting up so fast that you couldn't keep up. Apparently Riley is trying to hire more human content moderators all of a sudden as a stopgap until the negative press dies down, even though that's what you suggested at one point. Even though your suggestion got you in trouble at work. You realize that all along you had no real transparency with anything at work. You realize when people talk about "solutions" at work, you're not sure what it's the solution to. [[Is there anything you can change? Are you able to do anything?->D]]

It feels really good to be taken care of. The last job you had was community management at an online marketplace, which was fine, but the work culture was really toxic. After long hours at the office, you would trudge home to your shared apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Your only roommate, Jess, would always be hanging at home with her girlfriend, so it was really like you had two roommates. It was nice most of the time, but it occasionally felt really lonely, especially watching Jess and her girlfriend be so lovey-dovey. Would you ever meet someone that you loved so much? The cold New York winter came and went. One day, The Future of Memory, one of the world's biggest social media companies, recruited you directly. You jumped at the opportunity to move out to SF. You left New York at the end of February, and now you feel pretty lucky to be in California, in your own apartment as the pandemic seems to show no sign of abating. [[Brush your teeth, charge your phone ->PRE-Getting-ready-3]]

The Future of Memory. You remember Riley’s words: “All of humanity’s memories are stored, shared, and distributed on The Future of Memory." In some strange way, you never thought that online language would change in response to your technical decisions. As you look out into the thick fog you realize the future is not something distant from you, it is something you are part of shaping. Because you are here. All along you thought you were just a steward, a technician, someone who assists in saving and storing. Whether you like it or not, as a living being, you are in this world. And the future is made up of one thing: The actions of people, happening here and now. That includes you. You take a deep breath. You know what you have to do. <<audio "fom-theme" play>> <div class="end-text">End</div> <a href="https://thefutureofmemory.online/toolkit/" class="end-text-link">Look at the online toolkit that inspired this game</a>

You feel powerless. You wonder if The Future of Memory is doing all the good it says it is doing. You told yourself yesterday that if you weren’t here working as a Product Manager, someone else would be. That you’re just doing your job. That there are good things that come out of FOM, that it connects people. There is no way to calculate a net positive or net good. Yet still, you feel caught up in a trap of your own mind, going between one extreme to another. There must be another way... You think of your college friend Kelvin, and what he said about building new systems. Building a community. That maybe the old systems no longer work and we need new ones. New ones that value people, not money. New systems that don't concentrate power into companies, private corporations that decide the future of memory. Maybe you’re just scared, you think, because you’ve spent so much time building old systems — the old systems that rewarded you. [[What should you do? ->E]]

You look out your apartment window in Potrero Hill, San Francisco. The hills are shrouded in fog. It's the second level of a two-family home. This is the first time you've ever managed to not have roommates, and it's the best. The Future of Memory treats its employees really well, so you've already gotten relocation costs covered (including your shiny new Casper bed) and a signing bonus, which you spent on gifts for your mom's birthday last week. [[How did you end up here? ->PRE-How did you end up here?]]

You keep working, but things don't feel quite right. [[Things are changing at work]]

[[30-60-90 Plan|30-60-90 Plan]] [[Employee Handbook|Employee Handbook]]

<div id="30-60-90-plan"> <h2>Objective:</h2> <<back>> As part of the CCE team, one of your biggest priorities is to support the Community and Public Policy (CPP) team in the decisions they make around content curation. Your team ensures that the policy decisions made by the CPP team are translated on the ground, to the 500 million posts per day created by our users worldwide. Your team is directly responsible for making the internet a better, safer place, and it plays a crucial role within the Future of Memory. Your team makes sure our users are happy, entertained, and delighted, receiving the information and content that appeals to them, balancing product direction with user needs. In addition to supporting the Policy team, your team also provides tooling for our incredible staff of content moderators. <h2>30-60-90 Plan</h2> After 30 days, you will have finished: - Reading the Santa Clara Declarations on Moderation Transparency - Understand how automated moderation can impact users - Understand how the vastness of our global reach - Interact with a few of our CMs (content moderators) in understanding how they do CM work and what impacts it has on them After 60 days: - Successfully support CPP team on 1 curation case - Help increase product revenue by 50% (company goal) - Reach <div class="tooltip">KPIs</div> set by VP of product - Increase hiring on the team - Generate positive public feedback on FOM as a social media network that delights After 90 days: - Help establish broader content curation processes - Help refine our curation pipeline and tooling - Successfully support CPP on 3+ curation cases simultaneously - Actively be able to anticipate and help shape overall product by suggesting improvements to the rest of product team </div> <<back>>

<div id="employee-handbook"> <div id="handbook-intro"> <<back>> <b>The Future of Memory</b> Founded in 2006 by Riley Singh and a group of his friends in their Stanford dorm room, The Future of Memory has always been a champion of using the internet to create a better, more connected world. As a result of our progressive values, The Future of Memory has been pivotal in numerous political events throughout the world. From the toppling of dictators to parents recording their child’s first steps, all of humanity’s memories are stored, shared, and distributed on The Future of Memory. </div> <b>Our Values</b> We value honesty, transparency, and using technology for making a positive difference in the world. We believe that when the world is connected and everyone has a voice, the world is a better place. As a result, our working processes are open, transparent, and we have a "flat" hierarchy. Anyone at FOM should feel empowered in speaking up, expressing an opinion, or offering feedback on a product. This gives us the ability to move fast, break things, and invent new possibilities every day. <b>Office Equipment</b> As a full-time employee, your comfort is our priority. If there’s anything we can do to make your work-from-home situation more comfortable, please let us know. The laptop, headphones, iPhone, and standing desk are all property of The Future of Memory. Upon leaving the company, you will return all equipment. <b>Remote Work</b> Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be working remotely for the foreseeable future. You will receive $300 a month as a work-from-home stipend. Please contact Cathy from Operations if you need more, including any stipend you might need for household, childcare, etc. during this unprecedented time. <b>Performance and Salary Reviews</b> We do performance reviews every quarter and salary reviews every year. We also do 360-degree reviews, which means you review yourself, those under you, and your manager. <b>Compensation and Salary</b> As Product Manager, you are making $160k, which is currently the industry standard. We have per diem and reimbursement procedures. Contact Cathy from operations if you have any questions. You also have 6000 stock options, which will vest annually, with a 4-year cliff. These are managed by carta.com. We do 401k employee matching. Please enroll through our employee benefits portal. Health, vision, and dental are covered for all Future of Memory full-time employees and one dependent. If you have other health circumstances and need additional funds, especially if they impact your job performance, file a reimbursement report in the benefits portal. We offer unlimited paid time off and 6 months parental leave to all our full-time employees. <b>Anti-Discrimination</b> The Future of Memory encourages reporting of all perceived incidents of discrimination or harassment. It is the policy of The Future of Memory to promptly and thoroughly investigate such reports. The Future of Memory prohibits retaliation against any individual who reports discrimination or harassment or participates in an investigation of such reports. <b>Miscellaneous</b> To increase team bonding, we have virtual happy hours every Friday. Please join us! </div> <<back>>

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