Yup. I’m Bo7a.
I would bet we have a lot of the exact same thoughts on why this happens, and probably how to solve it. My only disagreement - and it is not a strong one - is the impossibility of forgiveness.
If they mature and leave, or even better, commit to being a monkey wrench for a bit before leaving… I think I can find space for them in my community.
I haven’t either. But I can see how a young person without a lot of knowledge of the world and the impending weight of 50 years of work ahead of them, possibly with a family to feed, or an extended family to take care of due to the inherently predatory healthcare system where they were born, might make that choice. And I understand it, regardless of “forgiveness”.
How do you go from « saying no to cash » to « c-levels are the issue » in the context of ethical considerations for engineers that enable AI in military industrial complex?
I am not sure I get what this word soup is saying. No offense intended but maybe try re-wording this if you want to discuss.
PS: foundry is not an AI platform, the engineers I am talking about are usually 20-ish year old java and python devs, and it is easier to understand how someone in that group might not even know how evil evilcorp is.
Devil’s Advocate (damn near literally this time around)
Try being a young engineer at the top of your game and saying no to an offer where the yearly salary makes google engineers jealous. Not everyone can say no.
Palantir offers like 400k/year to run-of-the-mill forward deployed engineers for foundry (Civilian platform) where the job is 99% actually helping customers with interesting engineering problems.
I can’t even imagine what they are offering folks working on gotham (govt/military side.)
I guess what I’m trying to say is that while a ton of those engineers are soulless sociopaths, some of them just took a job that pays super well and they don’t personally align with the goals of the C-levels. And in fact - a ton won’t even know what those goals are.
Remember - Our enemy is the c-suite, not the level 1 support agent. Even at evilcorp. Thankfully I am in a position where my kids are grown up and the money treadmill isn’t set on hardmode for me anymore. I can say no. But even for me it is sometimes difficult.
I alias h to history | grep