this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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[–] kitonthenet@kbin.social 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

This is true, but when safety is on the line it actually goes further than that. As an engineer you have an ethical duty to say no to making a product unsafe for end users or the general public.

It doesn’t matter if you get fired, if your boss goes to the media to bitch about you, if your boss threatens to sue you, you as an engineer hold a position of public trust to keep the people that use your product safe. If you don’t respect that and take it seriously, well we see where oceangate ended up.

[–] EthicalAI@beehaw.org 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah my boss has been going back and forth with me on this for months. Wanting to release unsecured products to the general public. I’m getting exhausted with him. I hold the keys and frequently I’ve told him no, and threatened to quit. Each time they just retreat back and hold a meeting how it will “stay on dev for now”. The features aren’t even feasible to release in the near future but I know they will force the issue. My resignation letter is on the table.

[–] kitonthenet@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’ve been there, my boss once interrupted me to ask me to turn our product into a quadcopter

[–] realChem@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is the most management-ass "feature" request

[–] sparkl_motion@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

“Sir, with all due respect, I don’t believe turning a commercial diesel filling station into a quad copter doesn’t seem feasible.”

[–] Deestan@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

It tracks with the zoomers. Make it happen.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

“Sir, with all due respect, I don’t believe turning a commercial diesel filling station into a quad copter doesn’t seem feasible.”

You just need to think outside the box. like these lads did: https://youtu.be/ReAa2WFm8Vc?t=16

[–] dark_stang@beehaw.org 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The number of times I've rejected something because of security flaws (usually database injection), only to see other engineers later approve and merge the pull request is infuriating. There seems to always be an engineer who is willing to make an unsafe product.

[–] kitonthenet@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Yep, it's a damn shame, but we're gonna let them do that because we don't want to be responsible for deaths or security flaws and ultimately there's organizations and people out there who value that if our current jobs don't

[–] chrisn@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

That value is instilled in many types of engineering, but not as much in software engineering.

[–] RandoCalrandian@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Ocean gate hasn’t faced any consequences yet

And neither have FAANG companies for the massive social consequences to ubiquitous surveillance

This moral high ground you think you’re standing on doesn’t exist, and won’t until engineers who push back get the support from society to do so. They currently are very much expected to stand up to a corporation on their own, risking their own livelihood, and that’s plain bullshit