Tech Workers Now Want to Know: What Are We Building This For?

“In June, more than 100 students at Stanford, M.I.T. and other top colleges signed a pledge saying they would turn down job interviews with Google unless the company dropped its Project Maven contract. (Google said that month that it would not renew the contract once it expired.) “We are students opposed to the weaponization of technology by companies like Google and Microsoft,” the pledge stated. “Our dream is to be a positive force in the world. We refuse to be complicit in this gross misuse of power.”

This is an incredibly powerful message. I don’t know how I missed hearing about this. A bunch of students getting together brought Google to its knees.

Now these brave students must stand up to Facebook and its rapidly shrinking signing bonuses before they move too fast and break reality again.

Money, people. You're building this for money. Not everything has to be glamorous and inspiring or for a greater cause. People like garbage men live with the fact that their job isn't "Instagrammable". Tech has been the exception.