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by Towaway69 104 days ago
What’s the last principled thing you did? Drive less to save the environment?

Easy to point fingers, harder to practice what you preach.

I know, this isn’t about you but then again it’s not about this one person who resigned either nor the employees of openai nor about anyone else.

I’ve provide an alternative PoV for why folks might not quit their jobs for their principles. Each to their own.

2 comments

> What’s the last principled thing you did?

Leaving a job for one that paid 3x less. And they weren't making automated killing machines (at least at the time, who knows now).

> Easy to point fingers, harder to practice what you preach.

Quite easy to practice what you preach, if you indeed have principles.

99% of people with families and mortgages manage to do so without OpenAI comp packages. It's a meaningless excuse, completely irrelevant.

I agree with you on non judgement but would push back - if you'll violate your principles for a cush job, they aren't really principles you have.
Even though I strongly agree with the other person about reasons why people wouldn't leave...

I agree even strongly with what you just said: "if you'll violate your principles for a cush job, they aren't really principles you have."

The reality is, I don't think people really understand what a deeply held principle is. It's often a non-negotiable.

And then sometimes you have to question your principles and perhaps let them go. This can happen, for example, when children grow up and become adults. Their parents _should_ do a lot of letting go.

Perhaps folks involved with electronic devices are too used to a black & white decision world. Computer says no or computer says yes, there is no maybe. The real world of principles, morals, emotions, humans etc is filled with maybes and that can become hard to navigate for computers.

Agreed. But in that case, it's no longer a principle because, as you said, it's been let go.

The point above was about prioritizing something above the principle one still keeps.

I work in marketing, nothing black and white about it.