Humans and tech companies

​​I was catching up with some of the news about Facebook, Google and the other big tech companies the other day. As is often the case the news was a bit depressing. I’m not going to get into the details here but the TLDR is that companies give zero fucks about user privacy and well-being. They only care about profits.

Now, that is obviously not surprising. That’s what capitalism and the pursuit of endless growth does to a company.

What made me sad is the thought that those companies are made of people, like you and me. There are countless great developers working at those companies that are lending their talent to develop software that is slowly tearing society apart and fucking up peoples’ lives. That is the part that is making me sad.

​​The fact that the the people at the top are willing to do despicable things is sadly somewhat expected. But the fact that the people at the bottom are willing to go along with the plan, that’s what saddens me the most.

​​If you’re one of those people working at one of those companies, would you mind telling me why you’re doing it? I’d be really curious to know what motivates you to still work at Facebook or Google.