this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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It isn't Google Engineers wanting to do it. It's Google engineers being told to do it.
this is what i'm frustrated with. why do all these engineers let themselves be told what to do even if it makes a worse-functioning tool? that's not real engineering.
"because they'll get fired"
not if enough of them do the thing that should've been what got them interested in engineering in the first place.
maybe we shouldn't call them engineers, but something else relating to being the one who does the dirty work for institutions that aim to steal people's attention and decrease their quality of life.
and if they do get fired, then they should join together and make the reasonable company that makes good tools for human use.
A point made by Morten Rand-Hendriksen: We software engineers are not real engineers. Unlike other kind of engineers, we do not have to follow industry code of conudct like meachincal engineers or civil engineers. We are just a bunch dudes that learned to use tensorflow on stackoverflow. That is why our work is dangerous and we can always just "be told" what to do for money.
Airplanes could not be built like that. Calling ourselfs "engineers" is misleading as it suggest we follow some ethics or code of conduct. It will hurt us on the long run.
very interesting point
That's called doing your job though. Do you just regularly... tell your boss to fuck off with their requirements?
In an environment where software engineers are being laid off by the thousands, I don't think anyone's going to hand in a resignation letter just because the prestigious ad company they're working for is... making them force ads on people.
Many of them will also have to go back to India if they quit their jobs. What's that, a 10x difference in income?
Also, it's probably only a handful of people who are implementing this 'enhancement.' It's not like a small team has any real bargaining power.