Hi Soren, Thank you for the serious follow-up.
At 2025-02-06T17:57:39-0700, Soren Stoutner wrote: > On Thursday, February 6, 2025 4:50:50 PM MST G. Branden Robinson wrote: > > My advice--not that I expect anyone to take it--is that if you work for > > Google, don't talk about it _and_ don't participate in any community > > decision making process involving the company in any way. These are the > > ethical things to do if you're involved with Debian. If the thought of > > this frustrates you, try to salve your feelings by reviewing your latest > > pay stub. And if even that doesn't work, maybe you're not working at > > the right place. > > I respectfully disagree with the above statement. > > 1. It is contrary to the principles for with Debian stands to exclude > someone from participating in Debian solely because of who employs > them. I agree. To be clear, I neither said or implied otherwise. > This includes participating in discussions about Debian policies that > involve their employer. Here I must disagree. I think your statement is equivalent to claiming that "there is no such thing as a conflict of interest", an ethical stance with a poor track record of producing socially desirable outcomes.[1] > 2. It is appropriate for an employee of such a company to disclose > their connection to the company when discussing policies regarding > that company. Then you and I disagree. I think Google employees/contractors are conflicted out on decisions like the one Roberto raised. Whether they support or oppose Roberto's stated position is immaterial. If you think through the scenario of a Google employee _supporting_ Roberto's proposal, but being afraid to publicly say so, then you have deduced why the conflict of interest exists. > Doing so is not a humblebrag. It can be gravy ladled on a juicy conflict-of-interest sirloin steak. > (Doing so when discussing policies that have no relation to the > company would be a humblebrag.) Yes, and this is the more common case. Regards, Branden [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/04/18/trump-says-he-cant-have-conflicts-of-interest-former-business-partner-says-otherwise/
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