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Comment by siren2026 | Hacker News Reader

siren2026

One of my good friend "Metamate" argument is that "if he doesn't do it, another engineer will do it. Might as well take the money".

But at least they all seem to acknowledge it is a terrible company and they know they are working on something terrible (which is beyond me why you would accept to do that).

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Your friend's argument holds no water. None at all. That's not how morality and ethics work.

It doesn't matter, money is money. Without it your pretty much screwed in this world.

Of which Meta is but one source of, among a sea of countless other places to obtain it.

When was the last time you applied for a job and got an interview?

I was on a salary of $550 a day with a bank. I left because how grim banks are. I have yet to find another job that pays that much outside of a banking circuit.

If meta is paying you high-end why would you give it up for something that pays you less?

>If meta is paying you high-end why would you give it up for something that pays you less?

Sure, because I don't value high-end living. A modest living is enough to keep me happy. If I can provide a happy, comfortable life for my family, we're good.

It would irk me deeply to set aside my values for the sake of a boatload of cash that I don't actually need.

Everyone says this, and then rushes out to buy the new iPhone, subscribe to Netflix and post about it to X or Facebook.

Everyone is addicted to unnecessary luxury. If I suggested that you take a principled stance, your lifestyle would be offended.

I don't have the latest iPhone, my Android is years old and I'm genuinely considering a true-to-life dumb ol' flip phone for my next purchase. I hardly use the damn thing.

We don't have a tablet in the house, or the latest video game consoles. You should've seen how outdated our TV was before we upgraded a couple of years ago, but I didn't go posting about it online.

I don't subscribe to most streaming services, preferring to sail the high seas. Sure, we used them for a while, but then the experience began to become subpar. Even then, my collection is fairly small, limited largely to my favorite films and a small smattering of television shows I occasionally re-watch.

My musical hobbies all involve old gear that I've not upgraded in two decades.

I don't have social media and don't feel the need to show off to others.

My car is terribly old and has none of the modern luxuries of today's vehicles, but it still chugs along nicely.

Little Free Libraries are a delightful way for us to find new books and put books we love back into the community. Other than a few specific books related to our hobbies, that's where most of the books in our house come from. The children's books we have, most of them are hand-me-downs or gifts.

We value vacations in wilderness over hotels and fine dining - it's a lot cheaper, keeps us in touch with the natural world, and as a bonus, one doesn't have to have TSA fondle you prior to cramming yourself into a metal tube with a bunch of strangers for five to ten hours. And, no, we don't go camping with the latest-and-greatest gear.

I'm quite happy with all of that, and genuinely don't feel like I'm missing out on anything, or a connection with the people that matter in my life.

You talk about how everyone is addicted to unnecessary luxury, but that's an absolute that's simply not true. There are plenty of people out there who try to live a life as free of material attachments, luxury worship and whatnot as possible. The broader culture might be that way, but it's not everyone.

I've built my life around my core values (or "principled stances" as you put it), I wouldn't preach it if I wasn't trying my damnedest to practice it.

A normal non-FAANG tech salary will support such sybaritic luxury as busying a phone and using Netflix.

That's not the issue. The problem is financially supporting unprincipled businesses while virtue-signalling your conscientious objection.

Because principles are more important than a paycheck.

That doesn't apply to most people in the bay area (And especially at Meta).

This is the same argument I hear about too-fast AI rollouts. "If we don't adopt AI, then we will lose to the business that does."

It is so obvious how competition dynamics naturally ends up as a fight to the bottom, and yet so many people are happy enough clocking in to this grind, then trying to forget about it the moment they clock off.

I totally understand this from a survival standpoint - but choosing to work at Meta is likely not "the only job you could get"

> "if he doesn't do it, another engineer will do it. Might as well take the money".

You should introduce your friend to Kant. He’s taken a situational excuse and turned it into a general principle: ‘If someone else would do it anyway, it’s okay for me to do it.’

It's kinda like.. Kant's whole 'thing'.

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