3 ms·
I quit my job at Raytheon right after I was assigned to the JLENS program . Every day there were meetings with f-bombs being exchanged between managers and empl
by Axsuul 11y ago
I quit my job at Raytheon right after I was assigned to the JLENS program . Every day there were meetings with f-bombs being exchanged between managers and employees. The environment and culture became extremely toxic. Safe to say I didn't want to have anything to do with the defense industry after that.
- snogglethorpe 11y agoNathaniel Boronstein has interesting take on this. You might describe him as an old-school left-winger, as anti-war as they get (ok, that's my description, not sure if he'd agree!), but somehow he ended up consulting for NATO, right smack in the middle of defense-contracting madness. He found the experience rather surprising in many ways, and you might say his viewpoint was a bit more nuanced afterwards.... http://guppylake.com/~nsb/WarSpy/SpyInHouseOfWar.pdf http://guppylake.com/~nsb/WarSpy/SpyInHouseOfWar.pdf
- RyJones 11y agoThat was a great read, thank you. His observation about the corrupting influence of military money on researchers was interesting - it's obvious in hindsight that the AI researchers were only interested in taking positions that aligned with the "someday" goal of getting AI into combat, if only to secure funding. That his harshest criticism is reserved for fellow academics and the cadre of contractors wasn't what I expected to take away.
- tormeh 11y agoHis description of the contractors was really scary.
- engi_nerd 11y agoAnecdotally, you are now the fifth former Raytheon engineer I either know personally or have seen online say they left the company due to out of control meetings and managers. Of course, not all of the defense industry is like that, but I certainly understand why that experience would be enough to turn you off. I have similar reasons for staying away from rockets.