| ▲ | soulofmischief 5 hours ago |
| I've left jobs paying that much over ethical concerns. My soul is not for sale, and neither should yours be. |
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| ▲ | DHolzer 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| look, i dont want to work at any of those companies anyway. I am with you - i was trying to say that money can break most of us. I appreciate you being so farsighted by leaving such a position, but for many other people that would be unthinkable - And that does not make them monsters. At this point I would be more worried about working for a US company, than which one exactly - (not totally serious of course, but also not entirely inaccurate) |
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| ▲ | soulofmischief 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | I had no safety net and nearly became homeless after draining my savings helping a family member in the months after this happened. I come from a very poor background and have no family to rely on. I spent several years as a teenager and in my early 20s homeless, without parents or anyone to help me financially. I starved and was very ill. I say this to make it clear that I didn't make this decision free of consequences, and it was unthinkable at the time for many from better backgrounds than I. I have experienced worse conditions than most of my peers ever will and my soul is still not for sale. There is no excuse. Selling heroin on a street corner is more ethical than what is going on at Google and Meta. | | |
| ▲ | DHolzer 11 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I did not mean to imply that you did not face any consequences. Sorry if that came across that way.
But my point stands. While I heavily disagree with almost everything Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, etc. stand for, I cannot hold the developers in these companies to the same level of judgment as I would politicians, lobbyists, and managers.
You may compare selling heroin on the street to whatever stuff is going on at these companies, and I might agree or disagree. But the fact is — selling heroin on the street is illegal, while training a recommendation model is not. Quite the opposite. And the complacency and failure to put reins on this situation 15 years ago is a deep failure of our civilization. As long as we train people at university for these positions and pull them in with such incredibly high salaries, I can't not forgive them to a large degree. I do not forgive the policymakers that enable this madness, however.
I understand that's just moving the blame to a higher level — that's not the intention. It's a systemic failure, and it needs systemic change. |
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| ▲ | bayindirh 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| > My soul is not for sale, ... This makes two of us. Nice to see a similar-minded person. Cheers to you! |