Last year, I watched the movie ‘Social Dilemma‘, which portrayed how big tech companies manipulate and influence their users. It was quite a scary business and it raised so many questions in my mind as a consumer.
After reading this book, those questions are popping again in my mind, but this time as a developer. How much is it my ethical responsibility to build technology and products that are helpful to mankind, but not vice-versa? Can I shed away this thought just because I am only an employee?
Even though this book talks about the culture at Netflix, it gave me a glimpse into the vision and ideology on which it is founded. A company that is so cutthroat that doesn’t care about its own employee under the banner “We are team, not a family”, will it care about its consumers? For such companies, users are nothing more than business.
The book talks about a lot of good cultural practices which are great for a thriving workspace but when the vision of the company itself is not resonating, other perks and benefits become a moot point.
And now the question raises that given chance will I ever like to work for this company? My answer is No. Even though I am a mere employee and my contributions are only trivial but still I would like to believe that even the smallest contribution I am making as an engineer in the field of products and technology is towards making life better for someone. And given all the big bucks I will still like to work with a company with a noble vision.
Be First to Comment