Yup and add intelligence to the list as well. Smart means nothing if you can’t back it up with being an amoral pile of shit that takes advantage of people every opportunity you get.
I feel like that has got to be pretty difficult unless you include jobs where you are personally isolated from and ignorant of the harmful things the company you contribute to is doing
I mean every company probably has some bad effect on the world, but there’s also benefit. You have to weight the benefits vs the harm. I don’t feel like I have to be personally evil in my job or that it’s a net negative on society. I think things are better in the world because of my work. Not all things, but better on balance.
Your other comments in this thread seem to contradict that a little, at least the idea that these harms or benefits would be visible enough to you to evaluate, since you claim to have switched positions when they started becoming more visible and something you would have had to engage with directly. For software in particular, you empower your users to do whatever they happen to choose to do with it.
Which isn’t to say you’re doing the wrong thing. I just see the economy as a whole as an inherently cannibalistic system we have little choice but to be a contributing part of one way or another, with the main form of meaningful available agency being to minimize involvement rather than choosing how to be involved.
The economy as it is both provides and causes problems, but without the advanced economy we have today the majority of the world’s people would starve to death. And yes, technology can be used to bad ends, but I’ve seen a lot of applications of ours and mostly it’s just mundane “getting the job done” stuff that helps everyday people keep functioning.
Yes, there are evil people in my organization, but I feel like I’ve stood up for my principles where it counted. Yes I’ve been demoted for that, and I was much happier afterwards. Someday it may cost me my job, but I will keep losing jobs until I find one where I can be myself.
All things in life are a balance of good and bad, you just have to evaluate whether you are more on the good side or bad side. There are a lot of jobs out there that are just helping people do the stuff they need to get done, generally good. Yes some evil capitalist takes most of the profit and hoards it for their evil purposes, but for me it’s enough to know that I provided things needed by others and helped them to make it through their lives in some small way.
Hence why I’ve been at the bottom of the org chart most of my 30 year career. I moved up one rung once, but after I refused to do some shitty things to people, I ended up moving back down ;-). No regrets.
Yup and add intelligence to the list as well. Smart means nothing if you can’t back it up with being an amoral pile of shit that takes advantage of people every opportunity you get.
If you are smart, you can afford the luxury of not being a complete piece of shit if you get into the right career.
I feel like that has got to be pretty difficult unless you include jobs where you are personally isolated from and ignorant of the harmful things the company you contribute to is doing
I mean every company probably has some bad effect on the world, but there’s also benefit. You have to weight the benefits vs the harm. I don’t feel like I have to be personally evil in my job or that it’s a net negative on society. I think things are better in the world because of my work. Not all things, but better on balance.
Your other comments in this thread seem to contradict that a little, at least the idea that these harms or benefits would be visible enough to you to evaluate, since you claim to have switched positions when they started becoming more visible and something you would have had to engage with directly. For software in particular, you empower your users to do whatever they happen to choose to do with it.
Which isn’t to say you’re doing the wrong thing. I just see the economy as a whole as an inherently cannibalistic system we have little choice but to be a contributing part of one way or another, with the main form of meaningful available agency being to minimize involvement rather than choosing how to be involved.
The economy as it is both provides and causes problems, but without the advanced economy we have today the majority of the world’s people would starve to death. And yes, technology can be used to bad ends, but I’ve seen a lot of applications of ours and mostly it’s just mundane “getting the job done” stuff that helps everyday people keep functioning.
Yes, there are evil people in my organization, but I feel like I’ve stood up for my principles where it counted. Yes I’ve been demoted for that, and I was much happier afterwards. Someday it may cost me my job, but I will keep losing jobs until I find one where I can be myself.
All things in life are a balance of good and bad, you just have to evaluate whether you are more on the good side or bad side. There are a lot of jobs out there that are just helping people do the stuff they need to get done, generally good. Yes some evil capitalist takes most of the profit and hoards it for their evil purposes, but for me it’s enough to know that I provided things needed by others and helped them to make it through their lives in some small way.
What’s the “right career”?
For me it was enterprise software
I work in that myself, which allows me to be a step or two removed from being a complete piece of shit, but still pretty close to the shitscape.
Also, in that field, being an asshole without empathy gets you further up the org chart than being smart or good at your job, so my point stands.
Hence why I’ve been at the bottom of the org chart most of my 30 year career. I moved up one rung once, but after I refused to do some shitty things to people, I ended up moving back down ;-). No regrets.
It might mean money and success.
I know plenty of moral smart people who are doing very well in life.