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> Why does anyone think you can get people to be ethical just by teaching them ethics? Because you can teach ethics in much the same way you teach security bes
by cptskippy 6y ago
> Why does anyone think you can get people to be ethical just by teaching them ethics?
Because you can teach ethics in much the same way you teach security best practices.
Lots of developers practice security theater without actually believing it's all necessary. The same can be done with ethics.
- fallingknife 6y agoPeople who write insecure software typically didn't intend to, so you can teach them. People who do unethical things intended to do unethical things, so teaching is useless.
- cptskippy 6y agoI would argue that Hanlon's razor applies. Most people aren't thinking about ethics, they're just trying to solve a problem. When a product manager asks them to implement a dark pattern to trick users into clicking something, they aren't thinking "heh... fools, I'll show them", they're thinking "Sure thing boss, whatever you say". It's not that these people are unethical, it's that it's never a consideration. I was in a meeting once where business was discussing abandonment and it was suggested that if a user filled out a form 100% but never clicked submit, it was reasonable to assume that after 20 minutes if the window was still open then we should just automatically submit the form because that was their intent. There was no malice in the thought or question of ethics, the person who suggested it thought it was a helpful suggestion and would improve the product and reduce abandonment. When I framed it from the perspective of the end user they quickly shot down their own idea.