this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Some software engineers are fine with temporarily casting aside their morals in exchange for a north of 200k USD salary.
That's like someone saying "I didn't make the rules" while enforcing them. It removes exactly zero responsibility.
"I was only following ze orders"
Exactly.
If you have a skill set that lets you choose between working an for an ethical company for 100k and working for an evil company for 200k, it's on you if you choose the latter.
What if I pick the 100k one... then get sick, have medical bills, can't work anymore, and end up in debt? Because, let me tell you, being ethical only got me more insomnia.
What if I pick the 200k one and have to live with the fact that I made the world a worse place for everyone else? Being selfish is fine of course, but I don't even earn 50k, 100k would already be ridiculous. I can't imagine the difference between 100k and 200k being that big of an improvement to one's life to justify increasing the suffering of others so much.
Well, I figure out the difference between 100k and 200k in how many years would it take me to get those extra 100k... like, right now, some extra 100k would solve all my financial problems for the foreseeable future, even possibly for life (yeah, I might not have all that much life expectancy left).
Had I been more selfish when I had the chance, I'd be much better off now. The way things are, I'm also suffering while others are... suffering the same, just someone else got more selfish in my place, we won nothing.
Then how would the 200k job magically make things better? The kind of medical bills you're talking about aren't payable unless you're a 1%er. You're screwed either way. And I say that as someone who also has chronic insomnia.
100k is slightly more than what I'd need right now to stop worrying. Had I got that several years ago, chances are I wouldn't even get this sick in the first place, meaning that would likely be several times extra 100k... and it clearly didn't stop others from taking the high pay road, so being more ethical only screwed me, didn't even prevent others from getting screwed.
BS. Meta engineers can work anywhere they want. It is absolutely their fault that they choose to continue enabling Meta. Meta couldn't survive without them.
Many other professions have ethical standards. Software engineering should be no different.