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Discussion on: Developers: Mercenaries for hire?

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

We're in the privileged position as sort of "technical gatekeepers" where, with sufficient information and enough previous experience, you usually get to be pretty selective about where you work beforehand. I think the trouble comes when you've already signed on and you get railroaded by these things after the fact. That becomes a much harder situation to navigate.

I've never done "unethical" work, but I have certainly done some work with people who I thought didn't care about people outside their narrow view of the world, and I find it hard to go to work with these people. Like, you know if there is some ethical boundary, you'll always have to be the one to bring up the issue and it becomes exhausting. It's much better to work with people who are openminded and interested in being ethical in general.

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Arden de Raaij

Thank you for weighing in Ben!

It'll definitely be harder to make the right call when you already drank the cool-aid, knowingly or not. That's all the more reason to continuously think about the service/product and if that agrees with your conscience.

I can happily say I haven't found myself in the situation of working with unethical people yet, but I can imagine that it's not a joy! A bit of empathy goes a long way.

A related question: Have you worked on things that weren't unethical but of which you felt they weren't doing anyone any good either?

For example, I've worked on some action sites of which I could only think that they were a gigantic waste of money and resources. Money that partly went into my pockets though. And I give to charity, so that's about even... ;).