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Reflections on Palantir

(nabeelqu.substack.com)
479 points freditup | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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austinjp ◴[] No.41867353[source]
The article reveals depressing reasons why someone might choose to work for the lines of Palantir: lots of talented people working on hard problems. That's pretty much it. No problem with the business model, just intellectual hunger. I'm sure the pay didn't hurt.

We need to teach our students that the employment they take doesn't exist in a vacuum. Your choice of employee can impact not only yourself but the wider world. There's more to life than intellectual satisfaction.

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clircle ◴[] No.41868249[source]
> We need to teach our students...

Teach your values to your own kids, man

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cambaceres ◴[] No.41868777[source]
The perfect response to this kind of preaching.
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moolcool ◴[] No.41868954[source]
I don't think it's preachy at all to say "Hey, the work you do has impacts on the wider world"
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next_xibalba[dead post] ◴[] No.41869008[source]
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acdha ◴[] No.41869201[source]
If you think ethics is “bureaucracy” and “useless classes”, you’re pretty loudly shouting that you needed that instruction.

The problem with leaving it to parents is that parents are not uniformly qualified or interested in doing so, and it’s in society’s best interests not to leave important things to chance.

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next_xibalba ◴[] No.41872132[source]
Bureaucracy and useless classes are major drivers of the insane increase in higher ed costs. "The average cost of college tuition & fees at public 4-year institutions* has risen 141% over the last 20 years." Student debt was $300 billion in 2000 and it is now closer to $2 trillion. Starting in 2009, the median graduate had more student loan debt 10 years post graduation than at the time they graduated. It beggars belief to claim that administrative bloat and mission drift are not major variables of the current student loan crisis. And your proposal is to do more of it?

In terms of parents not being qualified, who are you, or anyone else for that matter, to say who is and is not qualified to instruct their own in morality? It is an entirely subjective topic and certainly should not be given over to corrupted institutions. Moreover, do you really believe folks like Elizabeth Holmes, Jeff Skilling, SBF (whose mother is a legal ethicist!!), and all the nameless, white-shoed McKinsey criminals haven't received "ethical" instruction in their coursework? And how has that panned out? SBF is a particularly great example as his mother, who you would no doubt have deemed "qualified", reared one of the worst criminals of this generation.

Let the universities focus on the efficient discovery and dissemination of truth, and discard the wasteful, useless mis-education. Fire 90% of the admins, and tie student lending to financial outcomes of students. All of the grievance studies degrees that purport to provide ethical and moral training would vaporize overnight!

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1. acdha ◴[] No.41873267[source]
“grievance studies degrees”? That escalated quickly from “maybe software engineers should have ethics classes like real engineers”.