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At least in my opinion for this on HN, you get downvoted very quickly on HN to have such an opinion. I work for FAANG. I generally dont comment on HN but recen

At least in my opinion for this on HN, you get downvoted very quickly on HN to have such an opinion. I work for FAANG. I generally dont comment on HN but recently I read every thread about FAANG to have a thread that read like you should be ashamed to work there. I replied, Even before i worked there, I used their products to keep in touch woth my family/friends, at a startup I worked at we used open source tech from these companies, I also have always benefited from owning the stock in my retirement account via index funds. So why is it that working for the company is not ok but being a consumer, investor etc ok. And also asked if there's an acceptable list of companies to work at without moral judgements. Pointed out that people have strong feelings about big tech, big pharma, big oil etc etc. As you'd imagine, I was downvoted pretty soon and you realize trying to convince a stranger on the internet is pointless and gains you nothing.

wintermutestwin 5y ago
FWIW, I own stock in a lot of companies that are net-negatives for society directly and through index funds. When these companies succeed in the market I get a consolation prize. In our modern market, I don't believe that my owning FB stock is contributing to their success. If I were to work for them I would be.
devilduck 5y ago
People on HN do not influence anything significant
hncurious 5y ago
A lot of people on HN downvote for disagreement, which I think creates a chilling effect, reinforces groupthink and results in a warped view of reality. For what it's worth, I try to balance that out by upvoting gray'd out comments that are sincere or well argued regardless of whether I personally agree with the statement or not. One of the things I appreciate about HN is seeing positions that challenge my existing ideas.
ploum 5y ago
The fact is that working for a company is investing a lot of your time and energy to make this company more powerful. Your work count. Really. So your work should be as much as possible aligned with your moral values. Lot of people blind themselves with the salary and weak justification. I find that complete hypocrisy. Now, is the company you are working for aligned with your own moral values? Only you can answer that ;-)
- hdhdbid1 5y ago
  Its funny, lot of the responses for this thread are investing my retirement money and profiting off it is fine, using products/services of such companies is fine, but working there, that's where I draw the line, that's just morally wrong. Its a lot of I'll draw the line where I want to and belittle others who do it differently.
  - circlefavshape 5y ago
    How about working there and doing a bad job? Is that a moral postion?
  - hetspookjee 5y ago
    Well I think there’s quite the difference any. A regular user of Facebook is worth roughly tens of euros. But working there rewards you with a salary that’s easily upwards of 200k. Given that they’re not losing money if you, you could consider yourself as one of the few power users around by providing a value to evil corp north of your salary. So I think you can definitely differentiate between a regular user contributing 50euro of value, or contributing >200k of value. Making numbers up here but suffice to say you’re talking about an order of difference north of 100x. Definitely something to think about I reckon, and definitely something reasonable to draw the line at. Imagine hyping the evil corp and adding 100+ users would equate to a year of working there, roughly.
    - naivsdaya 5y ago
      So it is morally wrong but only above a $ amount? :) Anyway, the irony is interesting, some people on HN unable to control the urge to tell a stranger on the internet that he/she is morally inferior without considering how it makes them feel, while blaming another platform for similar effects and how it negatively impacts people.

wintermutestwin 5y ago

FWIW, I own stock in a lot of companies that are net-negatives for society directly and through index funds. When these companies succeed in the market I get a consolation prize. In our modern market, I don't believe that my owning FB stock is contributing to their success. If I were to work for them I would be.

devilduck 5y ago

People on HN do not influence anything significant

hncurious 5y ago

A lot of people on HN downvote for disagreement, which I think creates a chilling effect, reinforces groupthink and results in a warped view of reality. For what it's worth, I try to balance that out by upvoting gray'd out comments that are sincere or well argued regardless of whether I personally agree with the statement or not. One of the things I appreciate about HN is seeing positions that challenge my existing ideas.

ploum 5y ago

The fact is that working for a company is investing a lot of your time and energy to make this company more powerful. Your work count. Really. So your work should be as much as possible aligned with your moral values. Lot of people blind themselves with the salary and weak justification. I find that complete hypocrisy. Now, is the company you are working for aligned with your own moral values? Only you can answer that ;-)

hdhdbid1 5y ago
Its funny, lot of the responses for this thread are investing my retirement money and profiting off it is fine, using products/services of such companies is fine, but working there, that's where I draw the line, that's just morally wrong. Its a lot of I'll draw the line where I want to and belittle others who do it differently.
- circlefavshape 5y ago
  How about working there and doing a bad job? Is that a moral postion?
- hetspookjee 5y ago
  Well I think there’s quite the difference any. A regular user of Facebook is worth roughly tens of euros. But working there rewards you with a salary that’s easily upwards of 200k. Given that they’re not losing money if you, you could consider yourself as one of the few power users around by providing a value to evil corp north of your salary. So I think you can definitely differentiate between a regular user contributing 50euro of value, or contributing >200k of value. Making numbers up here but suffice to say you’re talking about an order of difference north of 100x. Definitely something to think about I reckon, and definitely something reasonable to draw the line at. Imagine hyping the evil corp and adding 100+ users would equate to a year of working there, roughly.
  - naivsdaya 5y ago
    So it is morally wrong but only above a $ amount? :) Anyway, the irony is interesting, some people on HN unable to control the urge to tell a stranger on the internet that he/she is morally inferior without considering how it makes them feel, while blaming another platform for similar effects and how it negatively impacts people.