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Comment by Seenso | Hacker News Reader

> This attitude of "we know what's good for you" is apparent in more and more modern tech products. I find it pretty gross...

It's even grosser than that. The attitude here is really "we did what was good for us, but we think you're dumb enough to be convinced we did it because it was good for you."

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I think at least some engineers genuinely believe they're doing what's best for the users and that it just so happens to also be either the best for their personal bottom line or the easiest route to go with their product.

As Richard Feynman said: "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool."

(To write something slightly more original than the "will not understand if livelihood depends on it" quote)

If you pay people enough they can easily be brainwashed into believing what they are doing is right.

Also, company cultures get trimmed towards it. "Googlers" are one example. I don't think employees call themselves Facebookers, since that sounds like client for prostitution, but they probably have something else.

It's possible some really drink the kool-aid, but most are just compensated too well to care. The only companies that will try to compete with Facebook on pay are financial institutions like Citadel.

In my experience engineers don't care a whit about users except as a means of revenue, or more specifically as gasoline for the company engine.

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