zlacker

I strongly object to characterizing this situation as a PR disaster. The problem isn't that TripleByte is perceived as doing something unethical. The problem is that what TripleByte is doing is unethical.

>>kerkes+(OP)
Just because it is an ethical disaster does not mean it is not also a PR disaster. It looks a lot like both to me, one followed closely by the other.

>>kerkes+(OP)
You’re not wrong, and as far as you and I are concerned, that is the problem.

From TripleByte’s perspective it is a PR disaster, or at least we should treat it as such. Appealing to TripleByte’s internal moral compass is unlikely to succeed since they’ve demonstrated that they don’t have one. So we resort to appealing to their self-interest, since that is something they care about.

>>anewdi+Vh
True, but we're talking about problems here, not things working correctly. The ethical disaster is the problem. An ethical disaster should result in a PR disaster. If an ethical disaster results in a PR disaster, that's not a problem, that's the system working correctly.

I have absolutely no interest in helping companies who pull shit like this recover from their PR disasters. If you do something like this, you deserve all the bad press you get.

>>philwe+mv
I'm not ready to write people off and conclude that the Triplebyte team have no moral compass. Certainly many business people do lack a moral compass, and they show a lot of the signs. But writing off people as simply bad people is a pretty extreme step.

But whether these particular business people have a moral compass or not is irrelevant to whether we should be discussing this as a moral or strategic mistake:

1. If they have a moral compass, then the strategic mistake pales in comparison to the ethical mistake, and they'll get that. We should be encouraging people to listen to their conscience, not teaching them to equate their conscience with selfishness.

2. If they don't have a moral compass, then we shouldn't even be talking to them, we should be talking to each other about how we dis-empower them and remove them from positions where they can do harm. Even if we persuade a narcissist or sociopath that it's in their best interest to do the right thing in one situation, they'll just be presented with a new situation where they think it's not in their best interest to do the right thing. If they really are just bad people, they should be treated as the blight on society that they are.

>>kerkes+ZX7
> I'm not ready to write people off and conclude that the Triplebyte team have no moral compass.

I’m not going to pronounce any absolute judgment or certainty about this, but I think it’s a serious possibility for us to consider.

> If they don't have a moral compass, then we shouldn't even be talking to them, we should be talking to each other about how we dis-empower them and remove them from positions where they can do harm.

I won’t ever use TripleByte again; will you?

> Even if we persuade a narcissist or sociopath that it's in their best interest to do the right thing in one situation, they'll just be presented with a new situation where they think it's not in their best interest to do the right thing.

I never accused anyone of being a narcissist or sociopath. Those are relatively extreme conditions. I’m simply describing people who have bad intrinsic moral character. And the world is filled with these people. As a society, we elicit good behavior out of these people by creating and applying incentives. It turns out that PR is one such incentive. Laws are another.