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CIA Labs

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31–40 of 141 posts

Re: CIA Labs

#31
post #7

Is there a cicada in the logo?

dragonfly

a little too on the nose for me, especially given the cia's history trying to develop a dragonfly UAV [1] as a listening device. now they're seeking to be approved "flies on the wall" at the top labs in the country. given their history with abuse from tech development, i'm hoping people are approaching this with caution.

[1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/heroic-failures/meet-...

Re: CIA Labs

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...with all the defense sector benefits, some very exclusive. Could you elaborate on that?

Clearance for one.

If you think that's a perk you don't belong doing that work. It's not the james bond life you think it is and the people who think of it that way are insufferable.

Try living in a windowless box for 8 hours a day and having no resume.

Re: CIA Labs

#33
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The point is that you don't take the risk. You have a job. You get a salary. This usually means that you have no risk and no upside. The idea here is that you have some upside, but still take no risk. IDK if this works in practice, but the principle is that.

"Workers aren't putting themselves at risk when they go to work" is a myth.

Ok, if using a scalpel to dissect the statement minutely. The statement could be more precisely that workers have little to no income risk while working. One is paid where they have accepted both the upside and downside risk.

People always combine this point with workers being able to be fired or to have skills outdated. Those are different factors, where an individual should always look & project forward to place themselves in future better positions.

Re: CIA Labs

#34

Do they sponsor civilians for security clearances?

Yes. CIA is a civilian organization. The majority of Americans with security clearances are civilians. The majority of CIA employees (perhaps technically all?) are civilians. DoD "Secret" level clearances are ubiquitous in the private sector; literally millions of people have them. I had one when I worked for a DoD contractor.

Re: CIA Labs

#35
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still take a risk because if your project fails for whatever reason, you're stuck on a CIA salary, rather than a SV salary where you'd probably be making twice as much even if your project fails there too.

Are we talking about founders or FAANG developers? Last I’ve read on HN, most founders are not making “SV salary” because they’re expecting the golden ticket. Here, it appears you get an equivalent salary + job security with a capped upside.

It's a great deal. It's not meant to replicate a startup equity lottery ticket, it's closer to a financial services bonus or RSUs at Big Tech. ~$300k/year total comp and low risk compared to unicorn equity lottery is a no brainer, although if you can hustle and have the talent, you might do slightly better at FAANG.

Re: CIA Labs

#37
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably know. Not because they're the CIA or anything, but because most browsers send referrers. It's really easy to figure out where a traffic spike is coming from.

but also because they're the CIA, you know

And they're just human, why use a top secret tracking tech worth billions when you can use browsers referrers with the same result?

Re: CIA Labs

#38

More information: "Officers who develop new technologies at CIA Labs will be allowed to patent, license, and profit from their work, making 15% of the total income from the new invention with a cap of $150,000 per year. That could double most agency salaries and make the work more competitive with Silicon Valley." : https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/21/1008654/cias-new...

From your article:

“This is helping maintain US dominance, particularly from a technological perspective,” says Meyerriecks. “That’s really critical for national and economic security. It also democratizes the technology by making it available to the planet in a way that allows the level of the water to rise for all.”

Such a skeevy way to paint this picture -- it's not about global democratization to rise the water level, we know from history that the cia cares about the ability to impose controls through more powerful, more distributed tech.

Re: CIA Labs

#40
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You absolutely don't take all the risk of creating a new technology. You get paid an excellent defense sector salary unconditionally, with all the defense sector benefits, some very exclusive. Plus you get tons of resources and the inside track to talk to "the client", you're not working out of your garage.

> You get paid an excellent defense sector salary unconditionally I would imagine CIA officers get a regular civil service salary, which is emphatically not the high salaries that contractors earn.

> I would imagine CIA officers get a regular civil service salary

What is a "regular civil service salary"? Presumably CIA officers are better paid than the clerk behind the DMV counter? Perhaps a CIA officer salary is still "excellent" if not on par with defense contractors?

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