Reflections on Palantir

Post by borski » Sun, Feb 02, 2025, 3:00 AM UTC

kjkjadksj wrote: post #56

borski wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thrill of working with and being surrounded by brilliant people who are breaking new ground and building things that people really find useful is a hell of a drug. It doesn’t require a megalomaniac at the helm. It just often happens that way.

There are so many avenues to do that today that don’t involve working to advance the coming dystopia.

I don’t disagree. I was explaining why one might want to. The “electricity” in the air when you are working and surrounded by brilliant people who really are passionate about what they’re doing is addictive and extremely fulfilling.

That is often how you get brilliant people to work on things that are otherwise potentially bad for humanity. You appeal not to their humanity, but to their excitement and passion for building.

Post by musicale » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 2:21 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #44

madeofpalk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish the morality section were more direct - either admitting that the author has no issue with "grey areas" (a euphemism if I've ever seen one) or that money outweighs their moral concerns. That would feel more intellectually honest. When it comes to the morality of work, I think it's okay to be selfish with your ideals - whether that means prioritizing money over ethics or refusing to engage with something that c…

A lot of technical people seem to have no trouble with casually glossing over the ethics and morality of what they work on. Even here on HN, I regularly get downvotes for suggesting maybe developers should have some kind of ethical baseline below which they will refuse projects. Nope. Technical complexity, challenge, opportunity to learn a new technology, opportunity to do cutting edge research, and of course a fat s…

> people seem to have no trouble with casually glossing over the ethics and morality of what they work on

Sinclair's law still applies: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Which I thought was interesting to see at the end of: https://cacm.acm.org/opinion/i-was-wrong-about-the-ethics-cr...

(Sinclair's law likely applies to ACM and to other technical societies that accept money from big tech.)

> Gotta do what boss tells me to do

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders

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