Comment by cwsx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cwsx | Hacker News Reader

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Disliking the industry does not mean you can't find a space where you're contributing to something you believe in.

In my opinion, the industry has been downhill since FB blew up and started abusing its power, though I wasn't around for the dotcom/Microsoft era so that's just my experience.

I absolutely loathe the vast majority of large tech companies, and that's only gotten worse (especially in the last 5 years). I outright refuse to work for companies (that I percieve) that are primarily involved in data collection/privacy violations, as I'm sure a lot of developers would refuse to work on weapons systems.

That said, I'm growing more and more jaded, and wondering how best to focus my efforts. This has lead me to take jobs at smaller and smaller companies, heavily impacting my income, but at least I'm not actively working on projects I despise. I've also found myself spending a lot more time on personal or contributing to open source projects that push back on said projects I despise (largely privacy related).

Not to say everyone is in a position to do that, but I do think we should be more conscious of what we're helping to build. Focus your efforts on projects you believe in, and be willing to push back on those you do not. This is not going to solve anything, but as the crowd grows larger we'll hopefully create enough noise for others to take note.

(this is all very subjective, take my comment with a grain of salt)

Thank you for saying this. It's the perfect encapsulation of how I feel.

For most of my career (I'm 48 now), I have loved my work. But the last 10 years have been really revealing in a bad way. I don't want to build information weapons, and that's how I'm starting to feel all the time.

It's unfortunate, and I only see it getting worse, though I'm hoping there's enough of us to influence the velocity. The sentiment seems to be growing, so I'm trying to be optimistic, but it's going to be difficult when up against the resources of "big tech" (for lack of a better term).

For me it ultimately boils down to my personal morals . I am not comfortable supporting these types of companies, even if my contribution makes minimal difference (on either side). I refuse to contribute because I wouldn't be comfortable with _myself_. I hope this decision will be beneficial to more than just myself, but if it isn't I'll at least be happy knowing I did what I could to support what I believe in.

(side note, I didn't mean this to be so subjectively idealistic, but even if you completely disagree with my opinion on tech, I think the introspection and focus of attention would benefit all)

It’s really hard to participate in a system that’s so interconnected without contributing to the bad parts. Chances are, you’re using a cloud provider that belongs to one of the big cos, etc etc.

I work for a company whose product/mission I believe is positive, but with the externalities I’m beginning to doubt whether there’s really any place to contribute positively in for-profit tech.

> Disliking the industry

You also have to remember, that tech isn't an "industry". You can work at Kahn Academy which is an education non profit that is heavily enabled by technology and still really feel good about yourself.

Except you probably pay millions of dollars to AWS every year so they can build drone-strikes as a service or something.

For what it's worth, I'm thinking about getting certified as an electrician instead.

Just had this discussion with my wife yesterday. Plumber sounds fine as well.

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