3 ms·

I already commented here but I have an even worse confession - I’ve operated an affiliate payday loan website. For me it was a good paying gig at $100 per appl

I already commented here but I have an even worse confession - I’ve operated an affiliate payday loan website. For me it was a good paying gig at $100 per application. I have no doubt I ruined lives as I was well aware of the types of people who operate those types of businesses. At the time I didn’t really have an alternative and I was much younger. The old me looks back at that time with great shame, something I’d never mention to anyone and I wish I could take it back.

EdgarVerona 8y ago
Thank you for sharing that. I hope that you continue to share this story. I think you can still do good with the situation by doing exactly what you're doing now: talk to other software engineers about this often overlooked duty. Talk to young engineers about the need to examine the ethical implications of the products they are making. These stories of shame are something we need to share with each other, to stress the importance of thinking about the consequences and intent of what we make. I remember first coming into software development, creating software was a rush. I was a junkie, getting high on solving problems and working against tight deadlines. This is a common experience I've seen in many new software engineers: but when you're getting high off of those factors, it's easy to not even realize that you have to be asking yourself questions about what you're making. Stories like yours can be a bucket of cold water, something that helps to wake people up to the other obligations that are part of our duties as software engineers.