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by john_strinlai 51 days ago
>I don't know why or how anyone would EVER think Google is going to do something good for the web or humanity.

i dislike google as much as the next guy, but sometimes it can be good to remember that actual humans work at google. some of them want to improve things for people. some of them even have a conscience.

one immediate "good" that comes to mind, from google, is the project zero team.

5 comments

It doesn’t really matter what the people working there want. It matters what the higher ups say, as they control the cash flow and consequently where resources are spent.

And, surprise surprise, the higher ups are generally the ones fucking things up because they also need to see those numbers and lines go up, regardless of actual impact on people’s lives.

So yeah, there surely are good people working for Google, but Google itself is not a person nor is it a “good” company. It is evil, end of. And, unfortunately, when you work for Satan, you don’t get to go around doing charity work.

So is it reasonable and helpful to see the same comments over and over again any time Google/Microsoft/OpenAI/Meta is mentioned in a comment - "X is bad, money drives all their decisions, they are anti-user, etc. etc." or should we actually expect to see relevant comments discussing the topic at hand?

It's inane and annoying to have to wade through the same, predictable, might-as-well-be-copy-and-paste comments on every post.

What do you have to say about the Prompt API specifically?

This same point should have been made to the grandparent as well... claiming some good people are working inside the system at a bad company is also a tired trope.
Nothing myself, a great innovation but with wet teagbags google/microsoft/apple et cetera running the show. How is Digital ID going?
Seems like the only thing rational to do then is for the human beings working there to use their labor as leverage.
Sure actual humans work at Google. These actual humans are actively choosing to continue doing a job that makes the web worse. I don't see how "but they're human!" means automatic forgiveness of their actions.
>I don't see how "but they're human!" means automatic forgiveness of their actions.

it doesnt, if the actions are bad.

but if your blind hatred makes you think that google will not "EVER" produce something of value to the web or humanity, then you are just being obtuse.

i have already provided one example of something good that is directly attributable to google. there are several more examples, i am sure.

I'm not the other guy you think I am. I didn't say that. But congrats on finding the one teensy tiny good thing Google has done. I'm sure that exonerates the other 99%. I mean, it's not like they scrapped "don't be evil" as a guiding principle or anything. Oh wait...
Maybe it's also helpful to point out that all evil is done by actual humans, and that google will actually fire humans who don't do what google wants them to do.
Working for Enterprise 101: you are a pawn. Unless it's for the company, your just a engineer for their machine.
That some trees in a mudslide veer to the left does not mean that your house isn't going to be plowed down the hillside.

The momentum of the mass-entity that is Google simply cannot be overridden by some outliers trying to change direction.

You probably meant "conscience" instead of "conscious"
i sure did. thanks.