To Giving a Second Thought
You signed an offer at Zynga? Props to you man. With the company recently filing for a $1B IPO, you're going to make some serious money.
But to be honest, I wish you didn't.. You are one of the smartest programmers I know, why would you sign your soul away to them?
You know all too well there's a strong bully/prison experiment vibe to those companies. You get used to abusing people because all your friends are hi-fiving you about being good at abusing people. The High Holy developers sit around thinking up ways of manipulating people into addiction. The developers and management get positive social reinforcement from co-workers and the board when they find another hook into people's brains--"Your character will DIE unless you come back RIGHT NOW!" or "You haven't visited in 18 hours, VISIT NOW FOR FREE GIFT!".
Reinforcing shady practices of individuals (It's not unethical, it's funethical!) over time makes developers and management banish any thought of wrongdoing. But hey, users are just an abstract ID anyway -- an abstract ID with access to a credit card. If someone wants to spend $10,000 per day buying purple carrot pixels, why shouldn't we milk them dry?
You have a SKILL that very, very few people have. We programmers have a very special power. It's in our realm to solve so many of society's problems. Why waste your gift catering to women in their 30's? Save the world.
But to be honest, I wish you didn't.. You are one of the smartest programmers I know, why would you sign your soul away to them?
You know all too well there's a strong bully/prison experiment vibe to those companies. You get used to abusing people because all your friends are hi-fiving you about being good at abusing people. The High Holy developers sit around thinking up ways of manipulating people into addiction. The developers and management get positive social reinforcement from co-workers and the board when they find another hook into people's brains--"Your character will DIE unless you come back RIGHT NOW!" or "You haven't visited in 18 hours, VISIT NOW FOR FREE GIFT!".
Reinforcing shady practices of individuals (It's not unethical, it's funethical!) over time makes developers and management banish any thought of wrongdoing. But hey, users are just an abstract ID anyway -- an abstract ID with access to a credit card. If someone wants to spend $10,000 per day buying purple carrot pixels, why shouldn't we milk them dry?
You have a SKILL that very, very few people have. We programmers have a very special power. It's in our realm to solve so many of society's problems. Why waste your gift catering to women in their 30's? Save the world.
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