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As Steve Blank said, in 5 years, having FB on your resume will be like Enron. I hope he’s right.

samfisher83 6y ago
I think most people did ok. Enron had a lot of really smart people. Morally bankrupt, but very smart. No different than any of these big tech companies. People like money, smart people will be attracted to it. Companies like smart people so I don't think they will have a hard time getting another job.
- ryanmarsh 6y ago
  As with many corrupt organizations Enron was full of good people who had no power and never did anything morally wrong. A select few held the power or agency to act selfishly and did so. It didn’t become apparent to many employees that something was amiss until shortly before the FBI raided them.
  - dasil003 6y ago
    Of course we can't paint all employees of any company with one brush, but I don't think we should let the majority of Enron employees off the hook so easily. That kind of systemic fraud requires cooperation or at least a large number of individuals to look the other way. I realize some innocent people's reputation will be hurt, but there needs to be some social pressure for whistle blowers otherwise the risk reward is always such that "a few bad apples" will take the risk enabled by the silent majority "just doing their jobs".
- jeffbee 6y ago
  I've interviewed several smart people from Palantir and naturally I did not hire them. They might as well wear a scarlet letter.
  - shostack 6y ago
    So you made a biased decision about a candidate based on where they worked rather than evaluate them on their ability to perform in the role relative to other candidates?
    - jeffbee 6y ago
      No, I evaluated their lack of a functioning moral framework to conclude they couldn't possibly perform a function in my organization because ethics are much more important than the ability to traverse directed graphs in pseudo-code on whiteboards. If a candidate told me they got fired for intentionally sabotaging Palantir's production operations, that would neutralize the issue. So far haven't met that person.
      - esoterica 6y ago
        You seem very confident they won’t find anything morally objectionable with your company and decide to sabotage your operations.
        pmoriarty 6y ago
        If it's so difficult to discern a difference between your company and Palantir, you've got a problem.
        esoterica 6y ago
        You seem very convinced that everyone shares the same moral framework you do. Just because you find your company’s work unobjectionable doesn’t mean everyone else does. I mean, there are Unabomber types out there who think all tech is inherently bad, how do you know the person you are hiring isn’t or won’t turn into one of those people?
        pmoriarty 6y ago
        Clearly not everyone in tech shares my moral framework, or the internet wouldn't be infested with ads, spyware, and malware, thanks to these "prestigious" companies.
tudelo 6y ago
For the qualities that you consider a negative, some may consider it a positive.
esoterica 6y ago
Unless you were part of the small group of people committing accounting fraud, I don't think the rest of Enron had serious trouble finding new jobs elsewhere because of the name on their resume.

I think most people did ok. Enron had a lot of really smart people. Morally bankrupt, but very smart. No different than any of these big tech companies. People like money, smart people will be attracted to it. Companies like smart people so I don't think they will have a hard time getting another job.

ryanmarsh 6y ago
As with many corrupt organizations Enron was full of good people who had no power and never did anything morally wrong. A select few held the power or agency to act selfishly and did so. It didn’t become apparent to many employees that something was amiss until shortly before the FBI raided them.
- dasil003 6y ago
  Of course we can't paint all employees of any company with one brush, but I don't think we should let the majority of Enron employees off the hook so easily. That kind of systemic fraud requires cooperation or at least a large number of individuals to look the other way. I realize some innocent people's reputation will be hurt, but there needs to be some social pressure for whistle blowers otherwise the risk reward is always such that "a few bad apples" will take the risk enabled by the silent majority "just doing their jobs".
jeffbee 6y ago
I've interviewed several smart people from Palantir and naturally I did not hire them. They might as well wear a scarlet letter.
- shostack 6y ago
  So you made a biased decision about a candidate based on where they worked rather than evaluate them on their ability to perform in the role relative to other candidates?
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    No, I evaluated their lack of a functioning moral framework to conclude they couldn't possibly perform a function in my organization because ethics are much more important than the ability to traverse directed graphs in pseudo-code on whiteboards. If a candidate told me they got fired for intentionally sabotaging Palantir's production operations, that would neutralize the issue. So far haven't met that person.
    - esoterica 6y ago
      You seem very confident they won’t find anything morally objectionable with your company and decide to sabotage your operations.
      - pmoriarty 6y ago
        If it's so difficult to discern a difference between your company and Palantir, you've got a problem.
        esoterica 6y ago
        You seem very convinced that everyone shares the same moral framework you do. Just because you find your company’s work unobjectionable doesn’t mean everyone else does. I mean, there are Unabomber types out there who think all tech is inherently bad, how do you know the person you are hiring isn’t or won’t turn into one of those people?
        pmoriarty 6y ago
        Clearly not everyone in tech shares my moral framework, or the internet wouldn't be infested with ads, spyware, and malware, thanks to these "prestigious" companies.

tudelo 6y ago

For the qualities that you consider a negative, some may consider it a positive.

esoterica 6y ago

Unless you were part of the small group of people committing accounting fraud, I don't think the rest of Enron had serious trouble finding new jobs elsewhere because of the name on their resume.