It’s going to depend on how you judge those moral hazards and how much the money means to you and your life goals. It’s a lot to weigh up. Remember though you can always join them quit later if you find it goes against your morals too much.
Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
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Re: Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
#12The most important and irreplaceable asset you have is your time. Think very carefully about whom and how you spend it. You cannot get it back.
Re: Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
#13It’s going to depend on how you judge those moral hazards and how much the money means to you and your life goals. It’s a lot to weigh up. Remember though you can always join them quit later if you find it goes against your morals too much.
^ This. With every reasonable person that leaves Facebook and isn’t replaced, it becomes easier for them to misbehave. You shouldn’t risk your well-being, but it’s worth considering the amount of information you’d gain and potential positive influence you could have.
Re: Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
#14moral hazard - lack of incentive to guard against risk where one is protected from its consequences, e.g. by insurance.
It's unclear what you're asking.
Re: Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
#15These kinds of salaries mean that if you reject the position, there’s a chance someone else without morals will accept it. Anyway, accepting the offer doesn’t mean compromising your morals. You can always be a voice of reason within the company. Plus, having Facebook on your resume can open up a lot of opportunities in the future. If they make you do something morally wrong, you can always quit.
Evil always pays more, because people want to be good; it's supply and demand. Doing evil stuff starts with telling yourself the lie that you can be good without sacrificing anything. And then when you get in the habit of doing stuff, it's extremely hard to react to changing events. I remember a scientist who worked on the atomic bomb project who wrote something to the effect of how everybody was really dedicated to beating the Nazis to the bomb and then all of a sudden it was like "welp, the Nazis are defeated, but might as well nuke somebody". People didn't question it like they could've because of the mental inertia. It's almost impossible to reevaluate what you're doing without being forced once you have invested a large amount into it over years.
You say somebody morally worse could take the job, but then again, that person might be less competent causing less damage to be done.
(I am not especially certain that Facebook is a supremely evil institution, just saying in general)
Re: Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
#16Leadership and power comes from the top and ultimately Mark will continue to make the decisions in his interest. I'd vote with your conscience over the money. Chances are you'd still end up with a great job eating vastly more than the average citizen
Re: Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
#17You've already acknowledged that there are "moral hazards" working for the likes of Facebook.
The only rebuttal of that concept so far is "you can change it from within".
You could choose to believe that, and take the money.
The chances of you being able to make any change at all to how Facebook operates (from a "moral" point of view, disregarding technology) is similar to the chances that I will start shitting out golden eggs tomorrow.
If you choose the money, that's your choice to make, but don't kid yourself, you're choosing the money in spite of the "moral" issues, there is no realistic chance you can take the money and fix the "moral" issues.
Re: Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
#18Having the question is so important. Be glad you have moral struggles, you’ve got morals.
I think you’re brave to ask the community. Not my place to offer advice between morals and currency for anyone. Hope you are happy with your choice in the end.
Re: Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
#19If you put it to good use, I'd imagine the marginal benefit of having a lot of money to do good things with outweighs the marginal cost working at Facebook.
Re: Ask HN: Would you work for Facebook?
#20Yes. In about a decade I would have the ability to retire (not that I would) meaning I could pursue whatever I wanted for the rest of my days. As someone else mentioned, time is your most valuable asset, and being able to spend the rest if your days how you want is in my opinion the ultimate expression of that.