Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by themodelplumber 1424 days ago
Interesting q. I thought about this a lot after watching a relative quit work for a defense contractor. His job was to make sure bombs landed in the right spot, from what I understand. Eventually he burnt out and left because he needed to switch to what I guess you could call creative-offense. Green energy projects, that kind of thing.

IMO it's important to keep in mind a proportional balance within the individual's life & energy expenditure. Within that total energy expenditure there's necessarily a system of personal values or even passions, and within that is Ukraine for example, and within that there's "working to directly support outright warfare" among other things like humanitarian donations etc.

For this reason I think 1) it's important to process and decide, 2) it's important to take change over time into account, and 3) it's important to embrace the change and make even experimental changes to one's standpoint when those changes come.

Flexibility is key, but also there's this holistic look at one's focus and interests that is really important.

If you're referring to something like code, and how your code is used, it may be more a matter of a specific license change or a license-time proclamation for example. In this direction I'd offer that it's a good idea to be flexible in making changes to a license over time, as needed. The first big changes in any given direction will always tend to be swingy and generally need adjustment.

1 comments

You raise good points. I feel like I should contribute, and I have experience and domain knowledge that would be useful, but up until now I didn't feel that the goals justified the means. But there has been wars all my life, and there will likely be wars after the war in Ukraine is resolved. Am I fine with my work being used in warfare for future wars, where I don't necessarily agree with the use of force? I'm having a hard time figuring out which route would lead to most regret - doing too little, or doing too much.