Live data from Hacker News

I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

facebook.com

301–310 of 493 posts

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#301

He’s standing up for what he believes. You can disagree with his convictions, but you should admire anyone who risks personal and financial consequences for sticking to their guns. That’s what actual morality is—not just a “belief” that is talked about but acted upon even when the results will be costly.

It’s a highly privileged position to be in to make a personal stand and leave your $250,000 job for another $250,000 job. Not judging this way or that, just saying.

> Not judging this way or that

I can’t help but think this actually is a judgement.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#302

I wouldn't hire this person. But I'm glad he found a job.

Can you please explain why would you not hire this person?

Because US companies do not have the employee union as a board member, so perverted protectionist ideas run rampant.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#303
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporations using their power to silence an elected government official is pretty much the corporate-fascist dystopia I thought we were all against.

it's a tough problem to solve or reason about. i personally don't have any answers around this, but do you allow hate to spread and then be reactive about it and deal with the consequences? or do you nip it at the bud proactively allowing for potentially something that you wrote? some sort of censorship. how do you deal with it?

Is it wrong to think that people elected to lead should be treated differently during their tenure in office? Regardless of better/worse, harder/softer, etc, I don't necessarily think that's immediately an indictment of Twitter to have POTUS say something outlandish and have nothing done, and have a bot account say the same thing and get banned. For all we know at noon on Jan. 20th Twitter will ban Trump's entire family.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true. I realized recently that social media makes me think that I hate people that I actually like! You get a quick hit of superiority, but it's the problem the most effective tool I've ever seen to divide us.

Did you get a quick hit of superiority when you agreed that "those" people are stupid, or did you consider that divisive?

This comment chain is mildly toxic and (ironically) proves that HN is similar to social media. Any political post seems to have the same divisiveness that traditional social media has.

That being said, HN does have logical and helpful technical discussion that does not resemble the kind of social media that people are talking about when they say "social media". The incidence of toxicity is much lower. That is why I believe HN is social media yet much healthier than, for example, facebook.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that simple or easy. Many of these guys are giving up tends of thousands of dollars in benefits (stock options/ bonuses). Also, the assumption that everyone with a good paying job at Facebook is going to be able to quickly pick up a comparable job in a short amount of time is a huge stretch. Ultimately developers leaving and people refusing to work for Facebook, drive up Facebook's costs and speaks to their…

It's not really a huge stretch, his post on LinkedIn [0] has 200K+ reactions, and it's an understatement to say he'll have no trouble _at all_ getting a job within a few weeks. [0]: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/timothy-j-aveni_blacklivesmat...

Google and Amazon won't touch him with a barge pole, considering how many problems they already have with internal dissent. I'm sure he'll find something, but it might well be less cushy than the big-co job. It is a sacrifice. Not everyone can be like St. Francis, but a sacrifice is a sacrifice.

I think he's doing the right thing and I wish more people could feel like they are in a position of walking the walk, every day.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#306
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporations using their power to silence an elected government official is pretty much the corporate-fascist dystopia I thought we were all against.

it's a tough problem to solve or reason about. i personally don't have any answers around this, but do you allow hate to spread and then be reactive about it and deal with the consequences? or do you nip it at the bud proactively allowing for potentially something that you wrote? some sort of censorship. how do you deal with it?

How about don't remove anyone or anyone's post unless it's illegal?

Certainly don't target certain politicians while leaving others alone.

When you can't win your argument on merit, you censor.

It's up to the politicians and constituents to call out lies, why should some Ministry of Truth decide what's a lie?

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#307
post #49

I don't understand why doesn't Facebook just: -Allow all posts -Allow users to customize what they want to see (e.g. "dont show me posts that glorify violence" or "only allow covid posts that match WHO guidelines" or "allow exceptions from political figures or of historical significance") and allow users to ban hide posts that are found untruthful by third parties (snopes, etc). To me effectively everyone wins. Faceb…

> I don't understand why doesn't Facebook just: -Allow all posts [...] To me effectively everyone wins. "Everyone", including racists, terrorists, drug cartels, human smugglers, child pornographers, scammers, phishers, hackers, gun nuts, anarchists... I know you say you'd be fine with all that stuff, but if I write long enough I'll find something you're not OK with. And everyone else has a different something. Findin…

>No one wants that. And the proof? You're making the point on a heavily moderated forum.

That's terrible argument. HN already works pretty close to what mchusma proposes. See "showdead" option in profile setting.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#308
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Listening to that argument is a clear “catch 22”. If he quits his job, it’s not much of a stance but obviously staying is not a stance either. What was he supposed to do? I think that in a capitalist country we choose who we buy from and who we work for. These are two powerful choices that can shape society. He’s doing the right thing.

> He’s doing the right thing. He worked at Facebook, let's not get carried away. Working at Facebook and then leaving because of the non-intervention wrt to the President is a bit like manufacturing landmines quite happily, but having a change of heart because you saw a dog stepping on one. You've still been manufacturing landmines all that time, making money and not giving a damn.

Beating people up for not having your morals is not a great way to get them on your side.

Facebook has been on my list of companies not to work at for a long time, but I have friends who work there. Accepting that other people value different things and being willing to interact with them on a basic, human level is a lot more likely to build bridges and lead to constructive conversation about important matters down the road than casting people aside because they don't conform to your worldview today.

I'll grant you that Facebook, among others, enables exactly the sort of thing I'm advocating against. I'll grant you that it seems to promote people yelling at each other over the internet instead of building the relationships that enable difficult conversations in time. And I'll grant you that they do it to sell ads for shit we mostly don't need.

But that doesn't make everybody who works there bad, and it doesn't mean that people who decide that continuing to work there is no longer consistent with their values should be equated with merchants of death when they publicly leave.

You're castigating somebody for voting with their feet, but presumably mostly because they didn't do it as soon as you did.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#309
post #237

If you like it or not, free speech works in two directions. A private company censoring the president is not the right approach. It's our job as a society to not blindly follow what is being said by politicians and more importantly, to take action with our vote.

[deleted]

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#310
post #215

He just hit one year according to his linkedin. I wonder what he vested into last week.

Viewed another way: If he waited to vest, that means he took away a substantial sum of Facebook's money. It is a good thing when thoughtful people have resources.

By that logic, he could have taken even more money by continuing to work.
Post reply on HN