
'Fuck ethics. Money is everything' FB employees react to scandal on gossip app - Sonnol53
https://mashable.com/article/facebook-employees-react-teen-spying-app-blind/#X5hGityLeaqd
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askafriend
That app is known for casual unchecked trolling. It's the 4Chan of tech
despite employer email verification. Mashable is trying to make it more than
what it is for easy clicks. I read the exact thread where the employee posted
that comment.

The follow up comment posted by the same employee was this:

"Yup! That's the sign on a loser. Look at my paycheck at FB! That all I have
and I am proud of it. Fuck ethics and morality.

We FBers love to brag about our paycheck size!"

You decide for yourself if that sounds like someone who's being serious. Also
keep in mind that employee headcount at FB is well over 35,000 globally.
People will be people. Sense of humor varies wildly in a population that
large. Again, it's pretty shitty low-class trolling, but trolling nonetheless
in my opinion.

~~~
minikites
>That app is known for casual unchecked trolling.

This is not a very convincing argument. You are who you pretend to be. A large
part of what it means to _be_ a nice/mean person is _acting_ like a nice/mean
person.

~~~
beaconstudios
while that's generally true (I'm a big believer in the idea that belief is
action), trolling is clearly a case where people break away from their usual
behaviour. Though in this case it reads to me like the employee is being
sarcastic in the face of accusations that FB employees are knowingly and
cynically engaging in unethical behaviour. Not that I know for sure, intent is
tricky to judge especially over a text medium.

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drugme
_" Morale is super high," reads the post from a self-described engineer. "We
are paid a ton. Looking forward to my yearly bonus of $100k. Fuck ethics.
Money is everything."_

Sounds like Mark has done an excellent job of cloning his younger self.

~~~
busterarm
I know someone who had this exact attitude while they worked at Instagram
until a few months ago. That's when they left the company and started bashing
Facebook's practices.

~~~
romanovcode
Communist until you get rich. Atheist until plane starts falling down.

~~~
ionised
That's only true for people who had shaky principles and no integrity in the
first place.

~~~
busterarm
So most people. Got it.

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tmp092
FWIW I became $500k richer this year and my happiness has not changed a bit.
Same highish functioning depression.

But purely see money as something that gives you options to do more things,
not as something that allows me to buy a yacht, car, or McMansion. But I
suffer from the paradox of choice and get anxious over feeling like I'm not
making the right choices.

~~~
akhilcacharya
That must be a fantastic problem to have!

~~~
lm28469
Every single goal you have is just the next step on a ladder, as soon as you
hit it there will be another one. You'll forget you even worked to get there,
and focus on the next step, thinking "ah if only I were there, I'd be happy".
It never stops, it gets increasingly harder and depressing unless you are
aware of it. As far as I can tell a lot of people never understand that until
very late in their life.

Most people in the world are living with way less than what you have, it's
just a matter of perspective. If you think material things will help you feel
better you're plain wrong. As long as you have food, a roof over your head and
some sort of community you're good to go.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
The book of Ecclesiastes from (what Christians call) the Old Testament focuses
on this very thing.

Short summary:
[https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldtestament/section12/](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldtestament/section12/)

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yingw787
Good time to post one of Paul Graham's essays:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/mean.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/mean.html)

Most startups have the problem of accelerating into the ground. Facebook has
the problem of accelerating into the ceiling. What do you do when you capture
the social networking market, and investors still expect the same growth rates
as before?

Maybe founders should worry about the "What if I win?" question in addition to
the oft-thought "What if I lose?" question. Taking over the world shouldn't be
the only exit condition; plenty of companies should aim to be happy at some
level below that.

~~~
rgbrenner
Facebook's net income is larger than Google's (15b vs 12b for 2017,
respectively). If investors are expecting such high growth rates, it's because
Zuckerberg refuses to set more reasonable expectations.

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i_am_nomad
The more important news here is, there are Facebook engineers who still post
to Blind, despite their recent leak and awful security.

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simonh
The anti-ethics roadshow hit a speed bump by the looks of it. FB’s developer
certificates for iOS just got revoked by Apple for violating their developer
agreement.

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devereaux
At least the headline is 100% honest.

I'd rather have the company tell me that it's all about the baseline than
pretending it cares.

~~~
drugme
So it's OK to blatantly screw people over as long as you're "honest about it"?

~~~
as300
No, but it's worse to do so while you say you're "making the world a better
place"

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robertrobot
Being honest about malicious intentions does not vindicate your actions.

~~~
CyberDildonics
No one said that it does, you are misrepresenting what you are replying to.

~~~
drugme
Actually that's pretty much the way the original comment (4 levels above
yours) reads:

"I'd rather have the company tell me it's all about the baseline (i.e. screw
people over) and be honest about it -- than pretend that it cares"

~~~
CyberDildonics
That doesn't say anything about absolving bad behavior with honesty, only that
deception and bad behavior is worse than bad behavior alone.

