[cushychicken]

I recently interviewed, and was offered a job at, Draper Labs in Cambridge MA.

The technical work was super interesting. Everyone I spoke to was plainly super sharp, and not morally bankrupt. I fielded similar moral concerns as you, but truthfully, I don't really have much of a personal ethical problem with it. I was a little more concerned at having to explain it to all of my friends, many of whom are substantially more liberal leaning in political views than I am.

Perception, and the pay cut I'd have to take from my current work, ended up being the major things that stopped me from taking it.

[TedDoesntTalk]

First time I’ve heard of someone accepting or not accepting a job based on peer perception. Maybe you should re-evaluate who your peers are if they can’t accept you for your career choices?

[cushychicken]

That's a pretty reductive and reactionary comment, and I feel like I'm succumbing to some of my worst impulses by responding to it four days later. But, clearly, some point in there has touched a nerve, so here goes:

For one thing: it missed (or ignored, but I'll default to "missed") my point about the large pay cut involved.

For another: it stack ranked peer perception as being more important in my decisionmaking than the pay cut. My original comment certainly appears to value perception over pay. That's a huge miscommunication of my priorities, and my fault. I wasn't about to take a 30% pay cut. The fact that I'd also have to withstand the negative scrutiny of my friends and family just made it that much easier to decline.

For a third: we all hope to do work that we can be proud of. Part of that pride is to be able to hold up the fruits of our labor to others and take pride in having participated in it. I don't think I could have done that without thinking twice had I taken that job - and I'm not just talking about the security clearance angle here. Dealing with the negative reactions from my friends and family would have been a problem for me. Not the biggest one, but a problem. Acceptance is a big precursor to feeling safe, and self actualized. I feel the acceptance of a group of peers now. I do not want to trade that for more intellectually challenging work with an ethical component that my friends and family find questionable. I'd apply this reasoning in equal part to a role where I was paid more, but just as questionable. (I don't want to get rich building technology that enables the next Bernie Madoff, for example.)

Perhaps I'm of a weaker intellectual constitution than you are to be so easily influenced by the opinion of other people. However, I view that mental flexibility as a strength. I also trust the opinion (and, by extension, the underlying moral character) of my peers, who have been a positive moral force in my life. Hence, it was important to me not to compromise their trust and acceptance of me, and my career choices.

[DavidVoid]

Or maybe they trust/value their peer's judgement despite the fact that they themselves don't have any strong views on the subject?

[TedDoesntTalk]

Relying on other's opinions to make one of the most important decisions in your life -- where you will spend 40 hours or more week -- is pathetic. It's one thing to "trust/value" their peer's judgement, but it's quite another for their opinions to make your decisions for you. Good luck with that. Haha.