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Oarchyesterday at 5:36 PM4 repliesview on HN

A few years ago I had a date with a backend engineer at Meta.

I asked if they'd ever considered the societal implications of the work they did. They said "Oh wow I've never even thought about it". Probably a solid hire from Meta's perspective.


Replies

nostrademonsyesterday at 7:09 PM

I know an ex-Facebook employee who told me that "Nobody at Facebook ever makes a conscious decision about whether something is good or bad. You are given a metric, and your job is to make that metric go up. If it turns out that making the metric go up has negative consequences [for the business, I don't think it's anyone's job to worry about the rest of society], then somebody else is given another metric to ameliorate the negative consequences of you making your metric go up."

He didn't last all that long, he had a conscience. I've heard similar things, but not quite in such clear words, from several other people I know who have worked at Facebook/Meta.

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kingofmenyesterday at 6:27 PM

Or you missed the eye-rolling sarcasm in the answer they have to give on every goddam first date.

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zeroonetwothreeyesterday at 6:59 PM

You sound fun to date

brabelyesterday at 6:45 PM

That can only be a sarcastic answer, don’t you think?? You really believe people would get a job at former Facebook, after lots of scandals have been exposed, and not even think about that?? Sorry no way.

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