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Comment by 8_hours_ago | Hacker News Reader

Wow.

I am completely torn between really wanting to work for the NSA because they have the ability to do really awesome analysis like that with huge amounts of data, and being deathly terrified. Nothing in that article should be a surprise to me, or anyone else who can half-guess the NSA's capabilities, but it is still shocking to read. For some reason, knowing that the NSA has information on literally everyone stored in some database isn't that frightening to me, but seeing specific details that they could have (and probably do have) is very scary.

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Yup. Unfortunately, I'm one of those foreign alien nobodies, so I can't. Also, most US-ians are totally cool with the NSA spying on me, just not on them. shrug

Playing Devil's Advocate: how do you feel about your country's intelligence services spying on Americans?

Love it.

The scene[1] in Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon tells the NSA to beat it is probably in line with how a lot of us feel. Interesting work, but the end result is too much to live with.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOZllbNarw

http://fixyt.com/watch?v=UrOZllbNarw

>really wanting to work for the NSA because they have the ability to do really awesome analysis like that with huge amounts of data

How about wanting to help your country? I thought that's the main motivation behind for most people who join the NSA.

That worked out pretty well for Snowden...

No brainer: join to move the needle in a sensible direction.

That isn't how bureaucracies work. The parent can't join the NSA and hope to advance if they (openly) hold views fundamentally contrary to those of their superiors.

I believe there is a notable and recent case of how this actually plays out. What was it? Towden? Mowden?

Mr Bowden was amazingly successful at the work he did, actually.

See also Schindler's List for an example of how a contractor of the enemy can undermine it.

The impact that Rowden has had on the NSA has come from his actions outside of the NSA, not his work within it.

I have not seen Schindler's List, but he also acted against and outside of the organization, rather than "move the needle," yes?

As amazing as Schindler's actions were, they ultimately had little effect on the overall scene, such was the scale of it. He fought the monster and survived, not fought the monster and brought it low.

Schindler saved a thousand people through some pretty ballsy actions. But for scale, the battles of Stalingrad, Leningrad, and Moscow each had total casualty rates for both sides of 1-2 million people apiece.

One man can only do his best. Every man that stood against fascism was still only one man. And yet they won.

Also, there is some indication that Schindler sabotaged the bomb parts he made so he saved more people than is immediately obvious.

Downvote? Any clues why?

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."

-Nietzsche

Power at the NSA would be concentrated towards the most shameless bastards. It's not really within the power of random employees/contractors/grunts to fix. Snowden would be the example to follow here, but you really have to work outside the box.

>sensible

Sensible in that place means catching terrorists.

It's easier to justify injustices if you can rationalise it by saying you are saving lives.

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