I think you are being too harsh on the guy. He says at the outset that this is his first "real" job and it is clearly the first time he has worked on something where he was able to see a larger picture than the one directly in front of him.
When you are doing a problem in differential equations where you are calculating the inflow of a contaminant and water and trying to find the point where the equations solve for a steady state level of contamination. Nobody tells you this is what you do if you want to poison a lake and kill the fish with out killing off possibly other marine life. Its just a numbers problem.
People reach an adult understanding of the world at different times. In my experience and in stories others have told me, it all rings very similarly. Suddenly one's actions in the "real" world have real implications and effects and that opens up an entirely different way of looking at things. It is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying. I think of this as one step past the one where you realize while driving that you could just simply drive into the oncoming traffic and create a huge pileup (and no doubt die in the process, no I'm not suicidal, it is the realization that it is only your will to not do that, that prevents it from happening.) This next step is "what I'm doing in my day to day life can be used to, or enables, this wide range of things, not all of which are good or moral. One of my cohorts at Google (the group of people that all start the same week have a built in social group) came to me in a panic when they suddenly understood the implications of what they were building. (It was an internal tool). And they didn't like it at all, and they were conflicted because they loved the project and the team, everyone was super smart and great fun to work with, but the tool ... that was not something they felt they could be associated with. I shared with them choices like that which came up in my career and how I chose to deal with them. (in general I've been able to tolerate usual and cursory sleaziness but have a line where I won't cross. At that point I choose to work elsewhere). This person transferred to a different group and was much happier, and it must have worked as they are still at Google as far as I know.
So when I read the article I heard someone who was waking up to the realization that "oh crap, the world isn't run by other people, its run by me and my friends here." and being overwhelmed at the sudden responsibility of it all. Give the guy credit for opening his eyes, and offer him a beer as he joins the rest of us trying to navigate life choices knowing that nearly every one we make impacts others in both positive and negative ways.
I like how charitable you are, and that is not meant to be sarcastic. However, he knew precisely who was signing his paychecks. No one pretended he was working in inventory management for the toy section of Walmart.
When you are doing a problem in differential equations where you are calculating the inflow of a contaminant and water and trying to find the point where the equations solve for a steady state level of contamination. Nobody tells you this is what you do if you want to poison a lake and kill the fish with out killing off possibly other marine life. Its just a numbers problem.
People reach an adult understanding of the world at different times. In my experience and in stories others have told me, it all rings very similarly. Suddenly one's actions in the "real" world have real implications and effects and that opens up an entirely different way of looking at things. It is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying. I think of this as one step past the one where you realize while driving that you could just simply drive into the oncoming traffic and create a huge pileup (and no doubt die in the process, no I'm not suicidal, it is the realization that it is only your will to not do that, that prevents it from happening.) This next step is "what I'm doing in my day to day life can be used to, or enables, this wide range of things, not all of which are good or moral. One of my cohorts at Google (the group of people that all start the same week have a built in social group) came to me in a panic when they suddenly understood the implications of what they were building. (It was an internal tool). And they didn't like it at all, and they were conflicted because they loved the project and the team, everyone was super smart and great fun to work with, but the tool ... that was not something they felt they could be associated with. I shared with them choices like that which came up in my career and how I chose to deal with them. (in general I've been able to tolerate usual and cursory sleaziness but have a line where I won't cross. At that point I choose to work elsewhere). This person transferred to a different group and was much happier, and it must have worked as they are still at Google as far as I know.
So when I read the article I heard someone who was waking up to the realization that "oh crap, the world isn't run by other people, its run by me and my friends here." and being overwhelmed at the sudden responsibility of it all. Give the guy credit for opening his eyes, and offer him a beer as he joins the rest of us trying to navigate life choices knowing that nearly every one we make impacts others in both positive and negative ways.