from Hacker News

Ethics can’t be a side hustle

by MattRogish on 3/20/17, 7:47 PM with 1 comments

• by JoshTriplett on 3/20/17, 8:30 PM

  This is a good point, and I think it's critical to remember; you shouldn't work on something you consider ethically wrong. Do consider the moral implications of your work. But I also think it's missing something: not everyone working on such things considers them ethically wrong, and not everyone shares the same ethical principles.

  This article seems like a good way to reach people who are doing something they already consider wrong, to get them to stand up, stop, object, blow the whistle.

  But I would guess that the majority of people working on projects that some consider unethical don't actually consider themselves or their project unethical. Whether by rationalization, or by differing values and principles, people working on such projects may well think they're doing the right thing, improving the world.

  Not everyone working on something you consider evil thinks they're doing evil. You need a different strategy to reach people who think they're doing something right than to reach those who already think they're doing something wrong.