Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 888 posts

Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

#321

Post by oceanplexian »

notyourwork wrote: post #93
onion2k wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

doing business with the second largest economy in the world isn't an expendable venture Google could continue to operate profitably without doing business in China, so what makes your statement true?

Businesses are not in the business of simply being profitable, they are usually in the business of increasing revenue and profits beyond the current state.

Is there even a market for Google? The median income in China is like $12k, and most Chinese net worth is tied up in property that's widely considered to be in a massive bubble. Not sure it would be profitable at all for Google. I work in the industry and we don't even waste our time in China, Russia, etc, since the advertising dollars are worthless.

Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

#323

Post by cjustice »

kevmo wrote: post #166

I morally judge (not condemn) people who work at Google. If you can get a job at Google, you can get a job almost anywhere. There is tons of great work out there for you. People who work at Google are choosing to aid in the suppression of human freedom.

To some extent, I believe all tech companies are capable of moral failures like this. It's impossible for the profit motive to always align with ethics. It's all a question of scale, really.

Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

#325

Post by senderista »

Puer wrote: post #38

I considered working at Google last year after a recruiter reached out to me, but their decision to backtrack on their promise in China changed my mind. I do not morally condemn anyone who works at Google. I have many good friends that are both bright engineers and undeniably good people that work there. I just feel that as someone who's family is Taiwanese, I cannot in good consciousness support the company. I let t…

OTOH, AMZN and MSFT have never even hesitated to accommodate the Chinese govt's demands. Which other companies do you think would be more ethically conscious than GOOG in these circumstances? (I don't work there.)

Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

#326

Post by Veen »

SirLJ wrote: post #312
prolikewh0a wrote: post #288

I also feel like they've changed search so much for profit purposes that it's impossible to find certain things without receiving pages of irrelevance. I've been using Google since the early 2000's and it's so easy to tell Search has dropped in quality. Certain words & phrases I know would produce legitimate useful search results in 2008 will now just pull pages of unrelated ads. It's still the best, but the profit m…

It actually distorts the reality... different results on mobile vs pc, VPN, different users, etc...

Which reality is it distorting? Is the old desktop search reality? Why is it more real than mobile results? In truth, none of them are reality. Google Search is an algorithmicaly curated list of web pages - it’s an unfortunate error to believe it represents any reality other than Google’s opinion of what its users want in that second.

Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

#327

Post by rashomon »

projectramo wrote: post #240
nimbius wrote: post #33

Pretty bold. A lot of people are saying this wont work, but speaking from my own experience, you'd be surprised what companies are amicable to when it comes to business. Im an engine mechanic by trade, and our shops handle bids for cash strapped local governments that outsource their motor pool maintenance. We do things like fire trucks and police cars, but we were working on a new regional idea as a "service center"…

Not to be cynical, but did another company take over that work for them? Did the police get their MRAPs?

If that one employer made it public that they chose not to deal with MRAP repair, I would wholly choose to do business with them and spread the word that they have are a responsible corporate citizen like wildfire.

Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

#328

Post by senderista »

kevmo wrote: post #166

I morally judge (not condemn) people who work at Google. If you can get a job at Google, you can get a job almost anywhere. There is tons of great work out there for you. People who work at Google are choosing to aid in the suppression of human freedom.

How about people who work at MSFT, which capitulated to Chinese censorship with nary a whimper (and hence no publicity)?

Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

#329

Post by jkaplowitz »

RangerScience wrote: post #318
alangibson wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You deserve massive credit for striking a blow against this madness. A great example of how working people have more power than they think if they're willing to risk dollars and cents for matters of right and wrong. I say that fully realizing that not everyone is in the financial position where they can risk a fight with their employer. You can't expect everyone to be Ghandi.

- if they're willing + if they're willing and able FTFY

Agreed. But this many Google employees acting collectively, including some very senior and long-tenured Googlers, meet that additional condition.

(Disclosure: having worked at Google I know some names on that list personally, and respect them greatly. I haven't worked at Google since early 2015.)

Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

#330

Post by geezerjay »

kevmo wrote: post #166

I morally judge (not condemn) people who work at Google. If you can get a job at Google, you can get a job almost anywhere. There is tons of great work out there for you. People who work at Google are choosing to aid in the suppression of human freedom.

> People who work at Google are choosing to aid in the suppression of human freedom.

Taking a stand against collaboration with an oppressive totalitarian regime is much more effective than simply giving up and moving onward.

Things change when people act, not when people move on.

Post reply on HN