#poll for all you beautiful hard working professional computer touchers out there:

Garlic Pickles

@aeva I work in the public sector in an area of government that is almost entirely insulated from the insanity going on with the top of the federal side of things. I'm not willing to divulge the nature of my department on this platform just to avoid sharing too much personal info, but it's something that provides a genuine service to regular folks and isn't something pointless or overly bureaucratic. The pay is crap for the industry, but the culture is generally great and I'm fortunate enough to have no ethical issues to navigate. Things could be worse, for sure.

Robin Neal

@aeva I work for a pointless fintech startup that seems to achieve nothing of any worth as far as I can see.
I can't decide if it's actively making things worse though, as it is:
- wasting a billionaires money
- only being used by about 13 people too

And it does fund my game studio?

Akseli :quake_verified: :kde:

@aeva considering i work on KDE stuff, i hope it's making a better place for all. at least i genuinely believe so.

Angelika Cathor

@aeva I make a website that helps the company sell their tool for making websites. I guess the hidden adjective is "more website-y"? I find the whole situation to be morally neutral.

aeva

@SudoCat this seems like an option 4 type of situation, but it's hard to say

Tom Forsyth

@aeva I'm not curing cancer or anything, but people having fun counts as "better", right?

lina isidora

@aeva the company is not exactly Good but the product is

aeva

@lina god big mood

aeva

@TomF as but a humble toy maker living a simple life, i certainly like to think so

Chris [list of emoji]

@aeva

At least, I haven't yet been convinced that the evil uses of the product might outweigh the good.

0xC0DEC0DE07EA

@aeva “worse” and my mental health would be better if I weren’t aware of that or believed otherwise, surely…

youen

@aeva @TomF I'd say yes, it is better for people to have fun, but I'm also very concerned about the ecological impacts of the video game industry (especially the hardware manufacturing side, which is fueled by power hungry games). If we have fun now, to discover in a few years that we have depleted all useful natural resources, destroyed vital ecosystems, and modified the climate at the same time, maybe we'll not be so happy we had that fun.

youen

@aeva @TomF Of course these problems are not specific to the video game industry, but it's certainly doing its part to make things worse.

So in the end I'm not convinced at all I'm helping to build a better world.

Maybe an exception is games designed to run on 10 years old hardware. If nobody buys hardware to play the game, then ok, its ecological impact is low.

Owl Eyes

@aeva great poll

Harkonnen2

@aeva

I think the secred third adjective should be "irrelevant". My work is in fact overall irrelevant in terms of world condition.

Rupert V/

@aeva I've spent most of the last 8 years trying to crack a monopoly on submitting dental insurance claims. It only reduces the cost of a dentist visit by about $1, though.

Endy

@aeva Gotta love invasive health insurance marketing.

hex

@aeva they started telling me to do what I was told, so I stopped being able to provide value. I'm fine with the situation.

Following instructions from incompetent leadership is indistinguishable from sabotage.

Torbjörn Andersson

@aeva Tricky... on one hand, our product is used in healthcare. On the other hand, the higher ups are really into AI...

Gustavo

@aeva it depends on what my clients do with the buildings I plan. in most cases I hope good things are being done in those places, like children learning and people having homes. at the same time, I have no idea if some of the money from those buildings are going to corruption. well, one of my clients got into the most well known newscast in the country. a building I designed was shown to millions… in a corruption scandal news report