Ask HN: Do you think the software industry has a good culture of whistleblowing?

2 points by general_reveal 4h ago ↗ HN

E.g, do developers from within regularly expose dark patterns and monetization tactics, or wholesale bad ideas (bad spiritually, bad as in you wouldn’t do it yourself if you were in charge …) If not, what do you think is stopping them other than money?

3 comments

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benoau 4h ago ↗

I think most of the whistles to be blown are like paper cuts, nobody's going to sacrifice their job over one papercut but nobody is singularly responsible for them all either. The threshold for something happening if a whistle were blown is very different to my standards too - I wouldn't leave security issues to rot on the backlog, I wouldn't lubricate easy and unlimited spending in a child's app, but a lot has to happen for a company to be accountable for these things.

uberman 4h ago ↗

No industry seems to have a good culture that supports whistle blowing

ggsj 2h ago ↗

Whistleblowing is not magic. Most of the time experienced people already know where the issues are, how long or what it takes to handle issues when everyone is not aligned etc And certain kinds of problems when you push or force people into the "right" position, when they arent ready, all sorts of new problems emerge. Cuz you know people will fake it, lie about it, cover their ass, find others to blame etc. Larger the org more unpredictable the consequences.