I think he also misses a consideration in the opposite direction. The original letter seems to basically assume that being a polluting company means the company is a net bad thing. But just because they are causing some negative externality doesn’t mean that externality outweighs their positive impacts. The author doesn’t explain exactly who he is opposed to, but my guess is a proper analysis would suggest that the direct consequences of [working for] these firms are much less bad than the author expects. This is similar to how I think 80k overstated the harms of several ‘bad’ careers (e.g. this).
Great article, thanks for writing it. I think all your points are basically correct. (Internet Archive link to the underlying).
I think he also misses a consideration in the opposite direction. The original letter seems to basically assume that being a polluting company means the company is a net bad thing. But just because they are causing some negative externality doesn’t mean that externality outweighs their positive impacts. The author doesn’t explain exactly who he is opposed to, but my guess is a proper analysis would suggest that the direct consequences of [working for] these firms are much less bad than the author expects. This is similar to how I think 80k overstated the harms of several ‘bad’ careers (e.g. this).