That changes my perspective on them a lot. Well, another lesson taken - don’t jump too quickly onto conclusions.

True, hood point. I remember to have read a study according to which a disproportionate amount of people at the top (aka CEOs) display narcissistic behavioral traits - so it can make sense to suspect the same applies to other personality disorders. It just feels ahhh to me - that these people dont utilize their talents and itelligence to improve the world, but to build up ways to monetize every last bit of your time. Like come on :/

Am I the only one who gets the feeling that this is kinda dystopic? Like come on, this just gets crazy. It amazes me that some people think this is an ethically acceptable way to earn money.

Okay, let me rephrase - for me it sounds that if people work together, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Aka, if I am one of the twenty who sit around and do nothing, stand up, I on my own probably won’t be able to block the policy. But if I stand up, there’s a good chance others will get up as well and do. Or maybe I’ll discover that after I stand up, there are three others of whom I haven’t suspected anything, but who now also oppose the policy. And thus by standing up, you also influence others. If that is successful (aka if you can stop the policy or not), you can only find out afterwards.

Is that right?

Then every single person who takes any action would make a difference in the world and change the situation, which obviousy isn’t true. Lots of people have tried rebelling and fighting against a regime, but failed. So this logic doesn’t apply in every case, does it?

I think the argument is kinda weak, because from my decision to do something (like construct a weapon) the other workers at the factories don’t change their opinion. For these kinds of events to happen, there must either already be a huge grudge in the workforce, so that you’re the “tipping point”, or you have to be as charismatic as a reborn Jesus and convince everyone to follow you. Both of these events seem implausible here. Thus, your decision to make or not make a weapon will not influence others, and the outcome won’t be significant.

However, I’d love to have your input on it. I think the question if for the judgment of an action it is important that it is significant (or not) is a fundamentally important one, so I’d really appreciate your response here :)

Very good criterias! I think OP posted a great question, and your philosophy seems to be a very interesting merge of a virtue-based approach (that A/B is always good/bad) and an utilitarian one. I like it at a lot :)

The urge to comment “I use Arch btw” is overwhelming

Hmmm, I’m just not sure - what qualifies as an active part? I think what for me matters is if your action has signicifact influence. Would you change the situation if you would’ve acted otherwise? I think for these day-to-day cases, I think it is a strong claim to make that “if you wouldn’t have used these apps, the situation for the delivery drivers would be different”. It is different for influences - both in the social media realm and people with money/power, whose actions - or non-actions - actually can change the situation of the workers. But if your action - or non-action - won’t change the situation, then how can one claim that one is actively making it worse?

Yes! I like it a lot as well :)

I think you raise a good point, I agree. Especially that the problem is very systematic.

Okay, makes sense - I fully agree. Just wanted to clarify :)

I dont think so, that isn’t necessarily the case. I think people in capitalist economies can also contribute out of their own free will, because they have fun with the project. To put it so that they only do it not to starve is, in my opinion, too harsh. I do lots of things in this economy because I have fun with them, not because I dont want to starve. However, I think that of course the aspect “I need food” is always a factor and an influence. Just very often not the only one.

Uhhh, that sounds really nice! I think that also explain why I personally dont have the feeling that it is completely derailing, like a lot other companies. In the end, while I’m not the biggest fan of Valve, I’m more than willing to recognise the impact they made, especially for Linux gaming. Without them, we would be in a completely different spot now. I’m sure that these kind of decisions, which oftentimes turn out to be industry-changing, are facilitates by this organisational structure.

So yeah, thank you Gabe for not making the company accountable to shareholders and actually not completely driving your user base against the wall. It is highly appreciated.

True, I probably agree. I’ve thought about it as well. I think it is just important for me to clarify that using the app isn’t bad in itself, but I agree with you - if you don’t tip someone who depends on it, you dont oppose the exploitation of the workers and actively profit from it.

Oh, I’ve never played it - would you rrecommend it?

Movie: Interstellar and Inception. Great mind-changing works, and they really influenced (especially Interstellar) how I perceive the world. Very deep, but also very “on-point”. Book: The Cloud (“Die Wolke”) is a book about the consequences of a radioactive catastrophe. It is written in German and is a young adults novel, and when I read it it really stuck with me. Game: Morrowind - great game, very open to interpretation. It has a lot of very deep sub-tones, but also doesn’t go overboard and stays a game. Big recommendation :) Also Locks Quest as a video game - it is kind of a tower defense game, but also with a character ark. I really like it. Music: The OST from Locks Quest. I always listen to it when I’m stressed, and it is really nostalgic to me.

Second Morrowind. Great game, nothing else came after this. I think not everyone will like it, but the art style is really unique.

I disagree. By ordering via these apps, you contribute to the people who exploit the drivers, but you don’t make the decision to exploit them. It is a very big difference, in my opinion, because by ordering you don’t decide the drivers should be exploited. It is the decision of the CEOs to do it, and while you of course have a part in it, I think it is a strong claim to say that OP is actively making it worse.

But didn’t they had the issue with supporting MQA, which kinda was a scam? As far as I know they now switched to FLAC, but it still feels a bit weird.