tbh i don't think its at all morally defensible to work in engineering/development for google, amazon, microsoft
@spacekatia emphasis on the h because i'm not a professional yet
@marie_joseph @spacekatia That's a good point. Of course that takes more work to get started and involves more personal risk, but that seems like a good trade off for a better conscious. Working independently, you're likely going to have to take work supporting people/enterprises you don't really want to support. But eventually you may be able to say no to what you don't want to support, which you probably can't do in a big company.
@be @marie_joseph @spacekatia I've been saying no to Google, amazon, etc… since the very start of my freelance career
and because my first employer was an online betting company, I've also been saying no to gambling, and ad business
and on principle: fuck the police and the military
all of these are very lucrative, but i would feel like shit working in those industries
@spacekatia @frostotron unless you're like, actively sabotaging shit, same
@spacekatia
I would buy the "change from within" argument under one condition:
Timnit Gebru returns to Google.
Specifically her, specifically Google. Doesn't matter if she wants to return or not. That was absolutely the last spark of plausible deniability. At that point it's about destroying them, not improving
@spacekatia if you're good enough to work for them, you're definitely good enough to make a living working for someone else, imho