I was recently testing the water with some Facebook engineers about switching companies because of privacy related concerns. There was some sympathy wrt the company going in a bad direction, but by and large they were staying put because they enjoyed the technical challenges presented to them and pay. I think stories like this are mostly fluff. Most engineers simply don’t care.
Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
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Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
#92> Facebook engineers are quitting or trying to transfer to Instagram or WhatsApp I find trying to transfer into another product hilarious: it seems to me that they just don't want to have the stigma of working for "Facebook, the product", without really solving the issues working for "Facebook, the company".
Transfer to Instagram had been a hot thing within FB for quite a while...
Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. And I doubt it's a mass exodus either. If you read "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman", the author clearly states that when making the bomb, they had a lot of fun. Lots of budgets. Only smart people. Working on the coolest projects. He even plays with the censorship and security practices. They never really thought too hard about the ethic part of it: they need to end the war, and that's it. They really said "…
The bomb was initially built against the Nazis, and with the understanding that they would be building something similar. Japan came later. Also the group was sequestered to a remote lab (Los Alamos?) and working under strong secrecy. You either try to keep a good atmosphere or you go crazy.
Yep -- Los Alamos. You should read "Surely You're Joking," by the way. It's worth it just for the story about finding a hole in the fence, then walking in the guard gate and out the hole again and again until someone noticed.
Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
#94This is sort of surprising information, from my view. The information about their business model and data practices which people seem to be so surprised by was/is common knowledge among people who work with these technology stacks. Going to work for Facebook seemed like it would have meant supporting and abetting those practices; they were very clear about what they were doing, and the roles were in no way ambiguous.…
yeah but it wasn’t in the cultural zeitgeist to care about these. Now that it’s popular, many people will want to virtue signal and leave the company so others see how much principle they have.
Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. And I doubt it's a mass exodus either. If you read "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman", the author clearly states that when making the bomb, they had a lot of fun. Lots of budgets. Only smart people. Working on the coolest projects. He even plays with the censorship and security practices. They never really thought too hard about the ethic part of it: they need to end the war, and that's it. They really said "…
> While skilled, I doubt than more than a small fraction of FB work force is close to Feynman's IQ. In fact Feynman's IQ was merely "above average" according to Feynman himself, who got a look at his score after taking the test in school. But if you're using "IQ" as a proxy for actual, you know, intelligence then yeah, I agree :-)
Just a figure of speach of course. Feyman doesn't use "fucked up" either :)
Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The cynic in me wonders if these employees are just responding to how others are starting to view their positions, more than ethical or moral quandaries. I think you hit the nail on the head. I doubt it has to do with moral qualms as employees. More to do with your friends and family giving you crap for working at a company that's getting bad press.
The best way to summarize FB employees, from @numair from 8 months ago: > Having known so many people involved with Facebook for so long, I have come up with a phrase to describe the cultural phenomenon I’ve witnessed among them – ladder kicking. Basically, people who get a leg up from others, and then do everything in their power to ensure nobody else manages to get there. No, it’s not “human nature” or “how it work…
The issue is people who in the past would have went to wall street are now going to Silicon Valley solely for the money and it has poisoned the culture. Tech companies shouldn't have pushed the coolness factor so much and instead let people continue to think tech was for nerds
Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
The bomb was initially built against the Nazis, and with the understanding that they would be building something similar. Japan came later. Also the group was sequestered to a remote lab (Los Alamos?) and working under strong secrecy. You either try to keep a good atmosphere or you go crazy.
Yep -- Los Alamos. You should read "Surely You're Joking," by the way. It's worth it just for the story about finding a hole in the fence, then walking in the guard gate and out the hole again and again until someone noticed.
It's one of those rare books where you laught while reading it. The whole reason he ends up in Brazil is just so relatable to me, pricesily because it's absurd and so realistic at the same time.
Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
#98Can we stop feeding these accounts? The submitter is a new account whose submissions are mainly facebook articles. It's not contributing anything useful to HN. Why is this account posting so many FB related articles? Do they have some other motive that HN is falling for? At this point I feel like HN has turned into a FB news dump since it makes the people who "quit facebook and never looked back" feel good. Where are…
I found the discussion on the topic interesting.
Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
#99This is probably FB people sitting on a few million bucks who have stayed due to inertia. Now being at FB looks icky to their friends and they have enough $ to say fuck it.
Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Silicon Valley is turning on Facebook. Employees are realizing this and do not want a tarnished resume. If you actually believe this is for ethical reasons then you're not equipped for the world.
Working for FB itself during this controversy won't tarnish your resume anyway.
But it will tarnish your ability to do virtue signaling, which is the basis of many peoples identity today.