Just took it b/c I need the money. Knowingly writing illegal spyware because “I needed the money” is no different than purloining people’s credentials and sell

Just took it b/c I need the money. Knowingly writing illegal spyware because “I needed the money” is no different than purloining people’s credentials and selling them on the black market, “because I needed the money,” and or emptying their bank accounts, because “I needed the money,” or breaking into corporate servers and selling confidential designs to their competitors, “because I needed the money.” I am not lecturing you from Mount Olympus. I have made many mistakes in my life, some far more serious. And I am telling you this: Lose the excuse. It’s a rationalization you tell yourself as a mechanism for not seeing your choice as a choice. You are trying to frame it as if you have no choice, as if the company is exploiting your financial desperation. Mental health and self-respect flow from finding a way back to the place where you see yourself as making informed choices of your own free will. You can choose to walk away. It might be painful, but you can do it, and if you do, years later you will look back on that choice as the day you put yourself in charge of your life, the day you wrested control from the little voice in your head that says you have no choice but do do things you are ashamed of. Just walk out, and optionally turn them in if you choose. Or there’s another thing you can do. Embrace your choice. Tell people like me to GTFO when we criticize your choice. But own the choice. No more “I need the money” talk. I’d prefer the former to the latter, but both represent steps out from under the shadow of self-victimization. And it’s not up to me: It’s 100% up to you. Good luck.