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My biggest professional regret is not joining Mullvad when their founder emailed me. A seriously large chunk of their values aligns with my own, and it's woefu

by dijit 3y ago

My biggest professional regret is not joining Mullvad when their founder emailed me. A seriously large chunk of their values aligns with my own, and it's woefully few technical enthusiasts that continue to place liberty over convenience -- meaning most of us tend to use hyperscaler cloud providers under the purview of the US Government. -- and before anyone mentions it; yes that has been an issue for me in my professional career as the cloud providers must adhere to US sanctions, meaning if you are from Cuba, Iran or Crimea you can't play the games I made. -- which is annoying because you could buy our game legally in Russia and Ukraine, but if you happened to be in occupied territory then no play time for you. Sidetracked a bit, but it's really refreshing from the outside to see a company that isn't scummy that values liberty.

rvnx 3y ago
[flagged]
- lnxg33k1 3y ago
  What are you doing about western governments pursuing journalists who reported war crimes in iraq? This moral superiority about expecting people from other places to do what we don’t would be hilarious if it was completely outrageous We’re expecting normal people to stand up against armed regimes while around the world our governments commit the worst human crimes while we’re zapping on netflix I have absolutely no words, I’m terrified
  - apples_oranges 3y ago
    If you tallied it all up in an excel sheet you would probably be shocked about the abuse going on “here and there”
- dijit 3y ago
  The world is not as black and white as you paint it, taken from an outside perspective the US has also done many things that we would likely go to war for if it was anyone else, including chasing journalists across borders, forcing down diplomatic aircraft and spying on allied governments (Merkel in particular). Regardless; your enemies are not my enemies. Even then: Sanctioning occupied territories only serves to push the occupied territory further into the occupiers hands.
- dancemethis 3y ago
  I mean, I'm super against supporting hostile government countries, but a lot of stuff is made in the US. It's hard to avoid money going there.
- jasonvorhe 3y ago
  Hostile to Western interests. Sanctions are nothing but legitimatized bullying of the strong over the weak. Thanks, but not. Multi-polarity is coming.
  - apples_oranges 3y ago
    Isn’t trading with certain states like sanctioning of how they treat their population? Withholding trade seems fair. We don’t want to deal with you because you start murderous wars for example seems fair. As for “multi polarity”.. seems so far like the catchphrase of shitty governments and unhappy people here that dream of some radical change.. It’s a false word somehow
    - rvnx 3y ago
      The only time I've heard the expression about multipolar was from Chinese and Russian Foreign Minister playbook. Add "NATO", "Russophobia", "Nazis", "Western" and other keywords in the soup and you have the perfect anti-Western speech. It's not even a Western tool. Sanctions are a tool to refuse to trade with opponent regimes, and it works both ways (China has sanctions on the West too, for example on semiconductors. Russia has sanctions too against the West). It's not perfect, and it has side-effects, but overall it deters other countries / terrorist organizations to follow the same path of taking an hostile posture against you. If you let people go around sanctions, then becoming hostile will simply have no consequences. If there are no consequences to actions, and there is a big prize to win, then the politics will do it, no matter what.
      - jasonvorhe 3y ago
        If all you read is propaganda by one empire or another, it's no wonder you immediately associate a term with propaganda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity_%28international_relations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity_%28international_rela... Interesting quote: > In April 2023, the Australian government released their 2023 national review where it is outright stated that the age of American unipolarity and primacy in the Indo- Pacific is effectively over, paving way to great power competition and a more fractious world order. It's new to me that Australia is known to spread Russo-Chinese propaganda either.
unixhero 3y ago
It is probably not too late
- codetrotter 3y ago
  Last time I was in Gothenburg in Sweden, about one year ago, I even saw advertisements on the trams about Mullvad hiring people. If you want to work for them, reach out to them. Maybe they need more people like us still :)
euazOn 3y ago
Sidenote: I know a bunch of people from Crimea and many things we take for granted are surprisingly complex for them. People from Cuba or Iran at least have the certainty of which country they are in.
- varispeed 3y ago
  Crimea is in Ukraine.
  - dijit 3y ago
    Yet, if you lived there you would be issued a Russian passport, your official documents would be from the Russian state; your police would be Russian. And; if you lived in Laos, Cuba, Cambodia or Afganistan: you would currently be taking the opposite stance. We owe it to ourselves to not permit the affectations of propaganda to convince us that we are consistently right, the truth on the ground is much more complicated. I certainly believe Crimea is an invaded territory of Ukraine, but I cannot pretend that it's a wise notion to demerit the entire conflict down to "Crimea is in Ukraine". It does nothing to help the people there, and is completely meaningless in the face of my initial comment: that while I could sell games to Ukrainians, I could not allow them to play from within Crimea... a territory you claim; is Ukraine. The implicit argument you just made is that we have created sanctions against Ukraine itself.
    - Entalpi 3y ago
      Crimea is de jure in Ukraine per international consensus. Crimea is de facto occupied by Russia. These are orthogonal statements are both valid. Everything else you listed derives from these premises.
    - varispeed 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - leesalminen 3y ago
        Are you saying these passports can’t be used for travel? If they weren’t, then why would anyone bother going to get one?
GoToRO 3y ago
[flagged]
- pc86 3y ago
  "The people" value different things depending on who they are. I'm sure you can find Russians who value liberty and peace, and I'm sure you can find Americans (or Germans, or Canadians, or Australian Aboriginals) who don't.
  - GoToRO 3y ago
    Yrs, there are russians that value liberty, I'm just dissapointed by how few there are.
- antihero 3y ago
  Bit of a generalisation there, how many of us in the west were against and protested against the various wars we’ve been involved in and been basically just ignored because the government just does what it wants?
  - GoToRO 3y ago
    Not many but two wrongs don't make a right.
- dijit 3y ago
  I am speechless; I can think of a dozen or so glib responses to put down this line of reasoning in a combative way. I will do my best to go against that instinct and instead say; 1) I don't believe necessarily that Crimeans are "Russian" 2) I don't believe that we can talk about a countries people as being homogeneous. 3) I don't believe we should be deciding what liberty people should be entitled to, that feels decidedly totalitarian to me, it would be very easy to decide that you dear reader are not entitled to liberty either, since you implicitly support *gestures broadly*.
  - GoToRO 3y ago
vasco 3y ago
I also got upset when I had to implement geoip tracking to block specific countries and thought about the people that wouldn't have access to the free service we were providing, which I thought could help someone bootstrapping their small business and potentially improve their lives. That being said, many people consider sanctions as an act of war[0] and if you think of them like that, well obviously it sucks, it's war and war-like consequences always suck for the people on the ground. Just make sure when your boss asks you to implement geoblock bans for sanctions, do what you need to do and not more like trying to block VPN users or other shenanigans. Don't break the law but don't make it harder for people on the ground to use their right to internet access. [0] https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/06/29/economic-sanctions-as-an-act-of-war/ https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/06/29/economic-sanctions-as-...
PentiumBug 3y ago
Yup. As a Cuban, sometimes it is annoying and sometimes go beyond that. Some cloud providers are totally off limits for us, some are fine with us (the minority and less known), some let us use some services but no others, some even have valid OFAC licenses but still deny access (because ACL complexities, I suppose)... it's all over the place. That's why I'm 95% of the time on crappy VPNs both to escape/evade US sanctions and my own country censoring mechanisms. The thing is, I somewhat understand why the sanctions were placed decades ago, but... is that rationale still valid? Anyway, and sadly, the sanctions affect "regular" people like me the most. The ruling elite? Not at all. Thank you for your position, BTW!
- leesalminen 3y ago
  > Anyway, and sadly, the sanctions affect "regular" people like me the most. The ruling elite? Not at all. This confirms my secondhand knowledge of financial sanctions. It seems to universally be this way and makes me wonder why we still tout them as if they were effective. They sure don’t seem to be.
  - actionfromafar 3y ago
    That’s a very broad statement, almost automatically untrue. All countries, all situations, all financial sanctions?
    - pessimizer 3y ago
      It obviously isn't too broad, because instead of this comment you could have posted a single counterexample to disprove it.
      - actionfromafar 3y ago
        The onus isn’t really on me, I’m not the one making blanket statements.
  - GoToRO 3y ago
    The idea is that "the many", the poor, will overthrown the elite.
2OEH8eoCRo0 3y ago
What caused you to pass on that opportunity?
- dijit 3y ago
  It was before (or during the beginning of) COVID and it required on-site in Gothenburg. I was firmly planted in Malmö (3hrs train away) and had just signed to buy an apartment.
worldsayshi 3y ago
FYI it seems they are still looking for people. They are advertising on buses here in Gothenburg.

by dijit 3y ago

rvnx 3y ago

[flagged]

lnxg33k1 3y ago
What are you doing about western governments pursuing journalists who reported war crimes in iraq? This moral superiority about expecting people from other places to do what we don’t would be hilarious if it was completely outrageous We’re expecting normal people to stand up against armed regimes while around the world our governments commit the worst human crimes while we’re zapping on netflix I have absolutely no words, I’m terrified
- apples_oranges 3y ago
  If you tallied it all up in an excel sheet you would probably be shocked about the abuse going on “here and there”
dijit 3y ago
The world is not as black and white as you paint it, taken from an outside perspective the US has also done many things that we would likely go to war for if it was anyone else, including chasing journalists across borders, forcing down diplomatic aircraft and spying on allied governments (Merkel in particular). Regardless; your enemies are not my enemies. Even then: Sanctioning occupied territories only serves to push the occupied territory further into the occupiers hands.
dancemethis 3y ago
I mean, I'm super against supporting hostile government countries, but a lot of stuff is made in the US. It's hard to avoid money going there.
jasonvorhe 3y ago
Hostile to Western interests. Sanctions are nothing but legitimatized bullying of the strong over the weak. Thanks, but not. Multi-polarity is coming.
- apples_oranges 3y ago
  Isn’t trading with certain states like sanctioning of how they treat their population? Withholding trade seems fair. We don’t want to deal with you because you start murderous wars for example seems fair. As for “multi polarity”.. seems so far like the catchphrase of shitty governments and unhappy people here that dream of some radical change.. It’s a false word somehow
  - rvnx 3y ago
    The only time I've heard the expression about multipolar was from Chinese and Russian Foreign Minister playbook. Add "NATO", "Russophobia", "Nazis", "Western" and other keywords in the soup and you have the perfect anti-Western speech. It's not even a Western tool. Sanctions are a tool to refuse to trade with opponent regimes, and it works both ways (China has sanctions on the West too, for example on semiconductors. Russia has sanctions too against the West). It's not perfect, and it has side-effects, but overall it deters other countries / terrorist organizations to follow the same path of taking an hostile posture against you. If you let people go around sanctions, then becoming hostile will simply have no consequences. If there are no consequences to actions, and there is a big prize to win, then the politics will do it, no matter what.
    - jasonvorhe 3y ago
      If all you read is propaganda by one empire or another, it's no wonder you immediately associate a term with propaganda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity_%28international_relations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity_%28international_rela... Interesting quote: > In April 2023, the Australian government released their 2023 national review where it is outright stated that the age of American unipolarity and primacy in the Indo- Pacific is effectively over, paving way to great power competition and a more fractious world order. It's new to me that Australia is known to spread Russo-Chinese propaganda either.

unixhero 3y ago

It is probably not too late

codetrotter 3y ago
Last time I was in Gothenburg in Sweden, about one year ago, I even saw advertisements on the trams about Mullvad hiring people. If you want to work for them, reach out to them. Maybe they need more people like us still :)

euazOn 3y ago

Sidenote: I know a bunch of people from Crimea and many things we take for granted are surprisingly complex for them. People from Cuba or Iran at least have the certainty of which country they are in.

varispeed 3y ago
Crimea is in Ukraine.
- dijit 3y ago
  Yet, if you lived there you would be issued a Russian passport, your official documents would be from the Russian state; your police would be Russian. And; if you lived in Laos, Cuba, Cambodia or Afganistan: you would currently be taking the opposite stance. We owe it to ourselves to not permit the affectations of propaganda to convince us that we are consistently right, the truth on the ground is much more complicated. I certainly believe Crimea is an invaded territory of Ukraine, but I cannot pretend that it's a wise notion to demerit the entire conflict down to "Crimea is in Ukraine". It does nothing to help the people there, and is completely meaningless in the face of my initial comment: that while I could sell games to Ukrainians, I could not allow them to play from within Crimea... a territory you claim; is Ukraine. The implicit argument you just made is that we have created sanctions against Ukraine itself.
  - Entalpi 3y ago
    Crimea is de jure in Ukraine per international consensus. Crimea is de facto occupied by Russia. These are orthogonal statements are both valid. Everything else you listed derives from these premises.
  - varispeed 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - leesalminen 3y ago
      Are you saying these passports can’t be used for travel? If they weren’t, then why would anyone bother going to get one?

GoToRO 3y ago

[flagged]

pc86 3y ago
"The people" value different things depending on who they are. I'm sure you can find Russians who value liberty and peace, and I'm sure you can find Americans (or Germans, or Canadians, or Australian Aboriginals) who don't.
- GoToRO 3y ago
  Yrs, there are russians that value liberty, I'm just dissapointed by how few there are.
antihero 3y ago
Bit of a generalisation there, how many of us in the west were against and protested against the various wars we’ve been involved in and been basically just ignored because the government just does what it wants?
- GoToRO 3y ago
  Not many but two wrongs don't make a right.
dijit 3y ago
I am speechless; I can think of a dozen or so glib responses to put down this line of reasoning in a combative way. I will do my best to go against that instinct and instead say; 1) I don't believe necessarily that Crimeans are "Russian" 2) I don't believe that we can talk about a countries people as being homogeneous. 3) I don't believe we should be deciding what liberty people should be entitled to, that feels decidedly totalitarian to me, it would be very easy to decide that you dear reader are not entitled to liberty either, since you implicitly support *gestures broadly*.
- GoToRO 3y ago

vasco 3y ago

I also got upset when I had to implement geoip tracking to block specific countries and thought about the people that wouldn't have access to the free service we were providing, which I thought could help someone bootstrapping their small business and potentially improve their lives. That being said, many people consider sanctions as an act of war[0] and if you think of them like that, well obviously it sucks, it's war and war-like consequences always suck for the people on the ground. Just make sure when your boss asks you to implement geoblock bans for sanctions, do what you need to do and not more like trying to block VPN users or other shenanigans. Don't break the law but don't make it harder for people on the ground to use their right to internet access. [0] https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/06/29/economic-sanctions-as-an-act-of-war/ https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/06/29/economic-sanctions-as-...

PentiumBug 3y ago

Yup. As a Cuban, sometimes it is annoying and sometimes go beyond that. Some cloud providers are totally off limits for us, some are fine with us (the minority and less known), some let us use some services but no others, some even have valid OFAC licenses but still deny access (because ACL complexities, I suppose)... it's all over the place. That's why I'm 95% of the time on crappy VPNs both to escape/evade US sanctions and my own country censoring mechanisms. The thing is, I somewhat understand why the sanctions were placed decades ago, but... is that rationale still valid? Anyway, and sadly, the sanctions affect "regular" people like me the most. The ruling elite? Not at all. Thank you for your position, BTW!

leesalminen 3y ago
> Anyway, and sadly, the sanctions affect "regular" people like me the most. The ruling elite? Not at all. This confirms my secondhand knowledge of financial sanctions. It seems to universally be this way and makes me wonder why we still tout them as if they were effective. They sure don’t seem to be.
- actionfromafar 3y ago
  That’s a very broad statement, almost automatically untrue. All countries, all situations, all financial sanctions?
  - pessimizer 3y ago
    It obviously isn't too broad, because instead of this comment you could have posted a single counterexample to disprove it.
    - actionfromafar 3y ago
      The onus isn’t really on me, I’m not the one making blanket statements.
- GoToRO 3y ago
  The idea is that "the many", the poor, will overthrown the elite.

2OEH8eoCRo0 3y ago

What caused you to pass on that opportunity?

dijit 3y ago
It was before (or during the beginning of) COVID and it required on-site in Gothenburg. I was firmly planted in Malmö (3hrs train away) and had just signed to buy an apartment.

worldsayshi 3y ago

FYI it seems they are still looking for people. They are advertising on buses here in Gothenburg.