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I personally have no doubt that the world is better off with Amazon than without it. I think people tend to have this skewed perception of reality where they tend to believe things used to be much better than they are now. While there are undoubtedly exceptions, it is pretty clear that in almost every conceivable metric, humanity is much better off today than during any other period in history. If you’re interested, Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of our Nature” makes a very good case for this, though not strictly from the point of view of technology usage.
That said, unless you don’t have any viable alternative, I would prefer working at a company I believe in. If you don’t feel comfortable where you work, you’ll have a hard time deriving a sense of purpose from your job.
People themselves and their bad choices are ruining their lives, not technology.
Technology improved out lives so drastically and in so many ways. Anything good can be misused by bad intended or stupid people. And our companies are not bad intended. They provide good intended tools and solutions.
Should an electrician that brings power to a house feel a moral dilemma because somebody may decide to dry their hair lying in a bathtub and accidentally drop the hair dryer into the bathtub in the process?
No. Not smart people should keep making their not smart choices. It’s a part of nowadays natural selection. The best that we have.
I agree, nothing can improve lives faster than technology (up to a certain satisfaction point where coverage of basic needs and cultural participation are granted).
BUT: we can't neglect that the first time in history, technology interacts with our brains with a feedback loop that sophisticated that the manipulation (desired or not by the engineers of that tech) is unconscious, even for people that are trained to understand the patterns of our brains like the reward cycle and misuse it in a way we can't resist. I recommend books/talks from Yuval Noah Harari on this topic. Very worrying indeed.
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What makes you think it is ruining people's lives? Perception is everything.
Technology helped a lot of people finds jobs during pandemic. Delivery (food, package, whatnot), remote learning, remote work are some that come to mind that are not even in the tech sector itself.
Without it a teacher or a barber would have nothing to do at home.
There are times when we're iterating or brainstorming new ways to capture and keep user attention for longer...and in those times, yes I feel a moral dilemma
I think it’s probably an extreme position to say that technology is ruining people’s lives but it’s also an extreme position to say that technology is totally positive or neutral in its impact on people’s lives or society as a whole.
All technological development comes with benefits and drawbacks. That was true with the printing press, or the assembly line, or anything else. To choose some lightning rod examples, ad targeting creates incentives for companies to capture attention with dark patterns and breach privacy boundaries but it also allows small companies to get off the ground and sustain themselves. Amazon allows people to get essential things they may not be able to get otherwise (I wouldn’t want to think about what early Covid would have been like without Amazon) but it also creates terrible working conditions for the warehouse and delivery workers to make it happen and creates real problems for local businesses.
The question isn’t whether technology has done good or has done bad. It’s about given where we are now, what are you most motivated to do about the downsides that are now clear?
I choose to work at a tech company that is actively trying to solve problems related to equity, inclusion, and belonging. I’m sure if we’re successful, our technology will solve the problems we are trying to solve and create others. And then other people can try to solve those problems given what has been learned in the interim.
But if you’re feeling bad about working on tech that you worry makes people worse off in specific ways you care about, then why not switch to a company that you truly believe is trying to solve them?
There’s more to working conditions than salary but yes, even that point isn’t black and white.
I feel the same, to be precise, I am very worried about how technology/the internet is being transformed into a tool for censorship, surveillance, and control. That being said, it depends on the company. There are still plenty of companies that use technology to do good things. But I broadly agree with you: things are not going in a good direction.
I see technology as something that is improving people’s lives.
I love working for a technology company precisely because technology is improving peoples lives and I love contributing to this mostly (but not entirely - as almost everything in the universe) positive impact
Yes, it's unfortunate because technology is such a great tool that is constantly evolving the way we live for the better. But there's a dark side to it that I don't appreciate and i know my company has a huge hand in it.
I think that by posting on this platform your audience is limited to beneficiaries. Not going to get any first-hand opinions against it, only armchair anthropology
Pretty broad statement to say technology as a whole is ruining lives. Anyway, I disagree. Even if you're referencing over use of a mobile device or the negative mental impact of social media and social media addiction, to say it's ruining lives is extreme. Just about anything can be abused negatively, just look at medicine. If you worked for a pharmaceutical company (maybe not the best example when discussing ethics and morals, but for the sake of my point....) that produced an anti-cancer drug, but that drug also got you super high and was abused by some, would you have a moral dilemma over curing cancer? Probably not. That being said, Facebook is literal cancer so if you work for a company that has questionable morals or spreads disinformation that's a different story, but to lump technology as a whole as ruining lives we're over-reaching.
I often have this feeling. I read math destruction book, it made me feel worse haha
Taking a class where that is required reading. Feel you.
No…
Not even remotely cause I think my company has had a massively positive impact on the world, with very few downsides
Yes. I refuse to work for any company that takes Department of Defense (DoD) contracts to help end lives.
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/22/697110641/microsoft-workers-protest-army-contract-with-tech-designed-to-help-people-kill
Google 1, while I don’t work at a company in that situation, I expect that when folks object to DoD contracts it’s because they disagree with the types of conflicts that the DoD chooses to engage in.
So while those folks may agree in principle that it is worthwhile defending their country against those who intend to do it harm, they don’t truly believe that is what will happen with the technology in practice.
not at all. i get value out of the relationship in terms of compensation and benefits. then i can chose to reinvest that in causes and people that i care about. if anyone wants to earn more at some of the best companies to work for in the tech space, feel free to reach outt o me on linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanjstein/
Facebook employees looking at you!!!
I don’t believe technology helps improve or worsen someone’s life; most technology is a tool that needs to be employed to impact someone’s life. Tools are not good or bad but a hammer can break a knee cap or build the frame of a house. Twillo is an amazing technology that helps most of my apps two factor authenticate me but it also results in a lot of fake calls at dinner time about my car warrantee.
I'm fortunate enough to work on a product that I don't have any ethical issues with. Fortunately I don't work for marketing surveillance or anything like that.