Google has had an unofficial motto for many years: “Don’t be evil.” It came up as a joke during a meeting (including, among others, Paul Buchheit and Amit Patel) seeking a mission statement. A particular Googler liked it and went around anonymously doodling it on whiteboards until it became a permanent part of the culture. Although it was not originally intended for distribution outside the company, it became known, and was explained in Google’s 2004 IPO documents.
Part of the humor of the slogan is that it shouldn’t need saying at all. It’s satisfied by having the tiniest modicum of ethical achievement; almost nobody is evil according to the moral code they aspire to live by, except, perhaps, for comic-book villains, Jeffrey Dahmer, and certain pedophile priests. The only reason it’s even worth mentioning is that Google was born in a world dominated by Microsoft and Doubleclick, which were generally agreed to actually be evil, and Google aspired to do better. “Do no evil” is a distortion. ----------------------------- The slogan has always been a serious irritant to certain people --- mostly, the most cynical, those who think “good” and “evil” are merely hypocritical terms used by the powerful to conceal their pursuit of their own interests; but perhaps there are some sincere people irritated by it too, those who are disappointed by Google’s choices and priorities. Of those rankled by Google, a few have been so dishonest as to rewrite the slogan as “Do no evil”. This may appear to be a small difference, but it’s not. Almost none of us *are evil*, but every moral agent does *do evil* from time to time. Doing no evil is an impossible goal except for the dead. You’d have to be incorruptible and probably omniscient. Perhaps certain critics of Google would like to paint the company as a hubristic, arrogant know-it-all. But the ones who have a real case to make don’t need to resort to lying about it, and the ones who are lying about it probably don’t have a real case to make. “You can make money without doing evil.” ---------------------------------------- Some critics might point to this quote, from [Ten things we know to be true][], to show that the company really does think it can “do no evil”. I don’t think that’s what it means. You can debate different interpretations, but in context, I think it refers to avoiding *net* evil, more evil than good, not avoiding the merest taint of evil. [Ten things we know to be true]: http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/tenthings.html Summary ------- “Do no evil” is an aspiration to godlike perfection. “Don’t be evil” is something anyone can do, and should. The distinction between the two could hardly be more pronounced. Anyone who brings up “Do no evil” as a supposed slogan of Google is trying to trick you because telling the truth would undermine their points. Conflicts of interest? ---------------------- I have never worked for Google and probably never will. For ethical reasons, I don’t keep my email in Gmail, even though it’s a pretty good mail service. Google is a big proprietary software vendor, even though they’ve made important contributions to free software. But lots of my friends, family, and Burning Man campmates work at Google, and even more have in the past. I’ve eaten lunch at Google headquarters any number of times. In short, I don’t hate Google, but I don’t love it either. But I want whatever criticism it receives to be deserved. -- To unsubscribe: http://lists.canonical.org/mailman/listinfo/kragen-tol
