The Ethical Engineer
summary
Argues that ethics is actionable not vague and gives five practical steps: make time for ethics in sprints, use the designated dissenter role and persona non grata scenarios, run risk workshops with the Data Ethics Canvas and Ethical Explorer, codify specific reversible principles (example: "user satisfaction comes first even over growth"), and prefer collective refusal when necessary; cites Coinbase’s policy that led 5% of staff to leave and shows these methods surface foreseeable harms and let teams mitigate them.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00The Ethical Engineer
- 11:55Ethics is subjective.
- 14:35Ethics is slow.
- 16:31You can't predict the future.
- 20:04The choice not to engage with ethics itself an ethical decision.
- 20:58Make time for ethical discussion.
- 23:08Nominate a colleague to role-play as user who objects to your plans. Rotate the role frequently.
- 27:20Go beyond intuition.
- 33:33Codify your ethical principles.
- 41:01Learn different ways to say no.
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