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Comment by Melkman | Hacker News Reader

Then, as an idealist, what do you expect from other people to reach your goal ? If 50% of the people do 80% of what is needed you're at 40% of your goal. If 10% of the people do 100% you're only at 10% plus you've turned your goal in to an "us vs them" instead of "everybody for the greater good". Voting with your wallet 80% of the time is a valid means to support what you think is right. An idealistic minority doesn't change the world. The majority does.

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Exactly.

I think a more CS way to think about it is shipping out a MVP vs. shipping out a 100% perfect, 100% feature complete, 100% bug free, 100% documented, product.

I think everybody would be happy to start a project and ship out that 100% finished product, but you'll spend your entire life working on this and die without succeeding because it doesn't exist. So the choices are to 1) not bother, 2) do what you can (MVP), or 3) work until you die as a failure. OP would want me to choose 1 or 3, it seems.

Do the things that have a real impact.

Choosing to work for a defense contractor with restrictions on projects gives them nearly as much benefit as without the restrictions. The fruits of your labor are still easily funneled into military projects and at a minimum they are keeping the company alive longer while serving the military.

This isn't someone doing 80% of what's required. It's them doing active harm to a cause while continuing to take credit for pretending to help.

Well done. Great logic. The majority can also prop up a Kim Kardashian and Trump who met in the Whitehouse today and took a nice selfie. Those two idealists are taking your majority for great ride pal.

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