[OJFord]

Not GP, don't work in ads (actually I think my former colleagues probably think I left because our role pivoted that way) but I'm of the view that 'if I don't someone else will', and so in a way I'd rather learn more about it, maybe be the inside voice to say No this is way too far etc.

It certainly doesn't particularly interest me - maybe there are interesting problems if your big on ML - but I wouldn't turn down the best offer I had just because it was in adtech and I wish it didn't exist to go to anyone.

[tablespoon]

> but I'm of the view that 'if I don't someone else will', and so in a way I'd rather learn more about it, maybe be the inside voice to say No this is way too far etc.

I can't remember where I saw it, but I once read a rather convincing article that made the case that's the exact attitude the allows immoral things to happen, especially at scale. Basically "participate, but try to change it from the inside" pretty much simplifies into just "participate." You give them your talent, and either your attempts at change fail or are so small to be pointless (e.g. winning the fight to not pack Jews in so tightly in the boxcars that are still going to the concentration camp).

[OJFord]

I'm not saying I'd be actively trying to blow things up from inside, my job wouldn't last long, and my whole point was that I'm not an activist about it: someone's getting paid for it and it may as well be me (if I don't have a better offer).

In your horrible analogy, I suppose what I mean is something like (but come on, not remotely close to!) 'why are we burning books and looting art, this is terrible, oh well someone else will if not me, and hey, I like art', but then 'you want to do a holocaust?! No, that is absurdly too far, whistle blow'.

[tablespoon]

> someone's getting paid for it and it may as well be me (if I don't have a better offer).

And maybe that person is worse at it than you, or without you they don't have enough people with the right skills to succeed.

> In your horrible analogy, I suppose what I mean is something like (but come on, not remotely close to!) 'why are we burning books and looting art, this is terrible, oh well someone else will if not me, and hey, I like art', but then 'you want to do a holocaust?! No, that is absurdly too far, whistle blow'.

Fat lot of good whistle-blowing would do in that example.

There's also the aspect where the last step was too far for you, but you helped take every step before that which enabled that last step to be taken without you.

If your attitude is "someone's getting paid for it and it may as well be me," you probably should just drop idea that you could change things from the inside, since it amounts to a BS rationalization to take the money.