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Clive Da
Clive Da

Posted on

Can you separate DEV from POLITICS ?

IMHO the short answer is NO ! BUT whats your opinion ?

Some recent examples

  • GitHub & ICE
  • Google & Weaponisation of AI

Some long standing +VE (dev/tech/political?) campaigns

  • ONE - Join the fight against extreme poverty
  • RED - Join the fight against AIDS

Top comments (2)

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard • Edited

whenever you have humans with different goals that are not oviously compatible, you have politics, i.e. some kind of processes to resolve the contradictions inside the society

those process are typically not very efficient and satisfying, but they are way better than the Brute Force alternative that will inevitably follows if no process is in place to resolve the contradictions. Brute Force is not an algorithm here, it's something that you should take that seriously and literally.

back to your question:

you can have software without politics if what devs do doesn't really impact anyone in some negative important ways. you do a tool that is valuable to your users and that others don't care about.

you can have software eating the world and disrupting everything

but both together? that's laughable

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jenc profile image
Jen Chan

I guess a significant part of the early group on here may say no as they've worked hard to create an inclusive environment... which means learning how to deal with differences in opinion and being critical about how dev work is helping/not helping the world, and being (if fluidly or precariously) part of tech class in some way shapes us.

I'm reading more books around developing better technical acumen in the last few years, and I'm getting the impression there is an institution and a history of focusing just on building great software and solving problems most efficiently, but maybe not so much on the nuances of intergroup work dynamics or cultural effects of tech. (my studying background comes from the latter)

(Ps. My own opinion around this, is no.)