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Comment by smutticus | Hacker News Reader

There's something so particularly American about gaining so much of your identity from your job. American's are so defined by what work they do.

I am not my employer. My employer pays my wage and that's it. I'm not interested in joining a cult. I'm earning a paycheck.

This is not to say I would feel comfortable working for a company like Zynga. Absolutely not. But I also don't doubt there are many people at Zynga who really do not like the company's direction. Don't blame the soldiers for the fault of the generals.

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It's not about your employer being your identity; It's about empathy and whether your choices improve or worsen others' lives.

> Don't blame the soldiers for the fault of the generals.

Since you apparently like military analogies, I'll quote one of the Nuremberg Principles, which---as far as I am aware---are not an American invention:

"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

This is a pretty sensible principle, because it's the soldiers who enable the generals. Similarly, if you're a developer (unless you're really terrible) and you work at Zynga or any other company, you're enabling your employer.

Zynga may have lost all it's glamour and has a bad reputation now but the same goes for Facebook. I don't think employees should be blamed for the decisions of their heads.

In no way, should this be regarded like military service where your job causes fatalities. For me, as long as you're doing something you enjoy with people you like and developing a skill set, that's reason enough to work at a company. Some people work at jobs they hate all their lives because they need to live and support their families. If you have a career where you can work with smart people and do what you like, you're already pretty lucky.

If the company does something you believe in, wow. You're really lucky. How many people get to do that in the world?

You are misinterpreting the Nuremberg Principles: They didn't charge the rank and file of the German army for the crimes committed by the various officers and SS members.

All that was decided at Nuremberg was that if you have committed a crime, the fact that you have been ordered to by your superiors does not innocent you.

So we agree that anyone who did the spammy deeds at Zynga is "evil", whether their boss asked them to or not. But that does not make everyone else in the company (from the backend developer to the cantine lady) evil.

I don't think that's American at all. In all modern societies we first define an individual as which company he works for.

Picture yourself meeting new people. The first question to eventually come up will be "So, where do you work?"

That's so true. In the Eastern philosophy, your work is one part of you, may be a big one, but just a part of you. Your inner being, inner peace is of greater importance. Your friends, family and love matters.

As we can see in Japan because no true Japanese person lets their work take away from their family life.

We can also see this in Foxconn assembly lines, the home of the work/life balance in China.

Judge: Did you shoot the peasants?

Soldier: Yes I did, but I was following orders.

Judge: But, you could have avoided shooting the peasant, right? But you didn't.

Soldier: Yes I could, but I was following orders.

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