who wrote leisure suit larry? interview them and see how people treat them.
Depends on the degree of the adult content. Some is mild and normal, some, well not so normal.
I don’t think I would work for a company that provided adult content unless I was desparate.
What was the name of that site again?
Brian
for example, a missile guidance system whose sole
purpose is to kill people?
Actually, a missile guidance system’s sole purpose is to kill the correct people, (bad guys) and not kill the wrong people (good or innocent guys.) Or, even better, scare the crap out of the bad people so that they aren’t so bad any more.
That seems a noble pursuit to me.
No, I won’t work anywhere that I wouldn’t feel comfortable promoting the products being sold. It isn’t fair to the employer because I couldn’t put my heart into my work.
I’ve turned down lucrative jobs because I couldn’t morally advocate what they were promoting.
I think I could work for the adult industry as a temp job. Let’s be honnest, everybody needs money and if I can bypass two or three peers by not being ashame of going to an interview I would need, I would go. I consider myself a good programmer, but I’m quite bad in interview.
But I wouldn’t let a stable job like I have now to go there, nor would I plan to work there for months or years. But not for the reason you mentionned. No matter how good is the challenge of coding something, what I like is the feed back of user having a great time using what I did. And some how I wouldn’t like getting feedback from on a adult site experience… 
But in answer to the initial question : Are there any programming jobs you wouldn’t take?
I turned down an interview in a company that build equipment to target enemies in assault vehicule. I would probably have had the job, but I could never work in such an industry.
I was surprised by the conclusion in this post. One of the great things about code is that IT is in fact the lowest common denominator among programmers. Whatever industry one is in you can show a bit of code to someone whose industry speaks a different business language and perhaps has a different set of concerns but damn, code is code and you can understand and appreciate another’s work in a way the guys in suits from different worlds might not be able to. You just took a shit all over that.
I’m not saying that there are moral limits but given that porn probably plays some small part in the lives of many of the people posting here and the, as Jon Warren points out, often cutting edge work these guys do, I think it is a pretty silly place to draw the line. If you are morally against porn that is one thing but if you are just grafting some high level holier-than-though attitude on to the embarrassment you would have for working for such a place then, man, you are just lame.
Wow. I have been reading your blog for a long time, never has one of your posts so close for me and at such a perfect time.
Just yesterday I received an offer for such a job after a couple of interviews.
If you think that is weird or uncomfortable, try working for a gay porn site (and being a straight male).
I’m currently considering it, because although it is strange, my coworkers are all very nice and actually seem to know what they are doing. The owner of the company is actually the lead programmer.
I am currently stuck because they want me to move to that city (it’s a two-hour drive) and I’ve never been alone in my life. They though pay amazingly well , considering I’m only 19, with even better benefits to match.
I will take the job as well because of those technical reasons you stated. It seems interesting to have to get over all those challenges that are inherent in a website like that/
I have worked for a gambling site doing some pretty challenging real time streaming stuff. I would have no problems engineering systems to sell porn.
Carbon credits,government identity card schemes,the inland revenue or some useless taxpayer fleecing Quango… that’s a different matter. I guess it depends on your personal morality.
You just took a shit all over that.
On the contrary. I believe code has the power to change the world. Is your code changing the world for the better or for the worse?
That’s the question.
I think the argument isn’t that IMVU has less value because it’s an adult targeted site, but that it’s an adult targeted site that has little to no class. Their example avatars look like Bratz hookers, which is unsettling at best.
As far as working on systems that guide missiles, it’s usually considered acceptable because very few people actually see the aftermath of a missile. When they hear missile guidance system it usually brings to mind a fairly romanticized image of a big ol’ missile flying through the air bobbing and weaving over the terrain. If you were to say I designed a system that allows the military to kill people or destroy infrastructure at a specific location,” the reaction might be similar. There’s no good euphemism for adult entertainment, because there really isn’t a romanticized image of porn, the person immediately has a vivid image in their head the kind of content your work provides. This is compounded by the fact that, generally, sexuality is considered a far more taboo topic than violence.
Would I work on a porn site? This is the kind of question that I don’t think I could answer until it came up personally for me. Even as a hypothetical, I want to say that I would do it no problem, but I know I’m making the decision based on the fact that I consider myself fairly liberal when it comes to these things. When the chips were down, however, I’d really start to take a look at what’s in my hand.
Blah what are you doing that’s so great? SO is ok but sheesh Digg and similar sites are much more popular and they aren’t considered great programmers or curing cancer; you sure aren’t. In fact, you’d probably be against doctors getting the knowledge to cure cancer, after all, medicine is hard, let’s go shopping. Learn to be a little more self critical rather than rest on your laurels as if you are the Mark Twain or T.S. Elliot of programming blogs, because that you ain’t.
I work for an industry almost as shady as the adult entertainment industry -heck, it might be worse. I work for a large insurance company. Our customers pay us the srew them, and it is the kind of screwing that doesn’t make you want to light up afterwards. It’s the kinda that makes you take long showers in the fetal position. I mean really… which industry is worse? It really troubles me how people are suffering and denied treatment for stuff they desperately need, and every year, their premiums go up. At least in porn, your customers get what they paid for.
Working in the games industry has a lot of stigma attached. Not from other programmers but from the general public who think I have it easy and play games all day.
Jeff, why does adult entertainment == lowest common denominator? That kind of thinking doesn’t come from rationality or logic, but from the ignorant fear of (for instance) the 16th century Catholic church. It’s funny, this blog entry has had the opposite effect of what you described for me: for all your programming prowess and excellent writing ability, I now think less of you because of your close-mindedness and prudishness.
And for the record, I don’t work in the adult entertainment industry, or know any one who does, or anything like that. I just used to read Regina Lynn’s WONDERFUL sex tech column in Wired, and it’s helped me appreciate that there’s nothing wrong in selling products to adults that let them have some fun once the kids have gone to bed. You should check out some of her old entries (she no longer blogs for Wired), if you’re willing to open your mind to the possibility that there’s nothing wrong with combining brilliant engineering and getting off.
Interesting post. I probably wouldn’t accept a full-time programming gig in the adult industry, not because I have personal issues with the industry, but because I know there are a number of people who do and I wouldn’t want to straddle myself with guilt-by-association, at least not unless I were desperate for a job.
However, I also probably wouldn’t hesitate to accept a contract job from an adult industry company. At this point in my career, I can’t put my all my projects on a resume anyway, and I’m sure that the work could pose some interesting technical challenges and I’m not particularly prudish or easily offended.
On the other hand, I’ve done some work for the Defense industry and the military over the years, and I wouldn’t go back to that industry right now unless I had absolutely no other choice. Not because it’s an industry centered around killing people, but rather because it’s a horribly inefficient, oversized bureaucratic monstrosity that wastes taxpayer money like there’s no tomorrow and I just felt dirty working in and around that industry.
But to answer the original question, if push came to shove and I needed to feed my family, there are probably very few legal programming jobs I wouldn’t accept. I’m lucky enough right now that I have the luxury to accept interesting jobs and turn down ones that aren’t. But, being picky is a luxury I haven’t always had and may not always have, so I’m not about to list jobs I wouldn’t take, because someday, I might be in a different situation.
If you don’t consider the content that your software will be delivering then would you work for a spammer? For a captcha breaker?
They both need high performance software that runs on the clock to maximize profits.
I wouldn’t mind working for some porn sites I guess, as long as I approve of the content.
Sorry to hear that, but what about blogs? Blogs are used by the adult part of the net, too.
Don’t forget that the online age verification was invented because the adult part of the net needed it… and now not just this part… ebay? amazon?
Have talked on parties to people who work for the adult part, but they nice and charming like any other guy I talked to.
The only thing that wonders me is, if I want to have fun with my girl friend when I see porn 9h a day 
@jeff Atwood:
On the contrary. I believe code has the power to change the world. Is your code changing the world for the better or for the worse. That’s the question.
That is so pompous. Why do you condescend the commenters? Clearly people find value in pornography, they certainly pay for it. It’s not world peace or a cure for cancer, but neither is SO. Neither is fake plastic rock (read: used with derision). Nevertheless, people enjoy games, read essentially non-technical blogs, porn, and various and sundry other activities. The commenter knew what your silly insinuation was, you just chose to ignore his criticism.
What a bunch of losers would get upset with someone for working for the porn industry
Here’s an experiment.
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Ask 100 people what they would think of you if you told them you were a pornographer.
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Ask those same 100 people if you can inspect the contents of their hard drives.