# Dear God, Please Do Not Resign In Protest * By [Kabir Kumar](/users/kabir-kumar) * 2026-09-07 21:55:39Z * 154 points * Frontpage * Comments: 79 * Post URL (HTML): [/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest](/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest) * Post URL (Markdown): [/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest](/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest) * Comments URL (Markdown): [/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments](/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments) * Post URL (Markdown, compact): [/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest?compact=1](/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest?compact=1) Just refuse to work on bad things and see if they fire you. There's not much time left for resumes to matter. Also, firing someone for refusing to work on bad things is actually very costly. If it's not obvious that you're working on bad things, but the company is obviously doing broadly bad things, consistently, just refuse to work at all until those change. E.g. if at Anthropic or OpenAI, refuse to work until training runs stop Some, such as Mateusz [may say](/api/post/TfqMs3AarsHnHiwai?commentId=bzoeDpf2i8hfK5F5y): "They would fire you after a month or two and the firing wouldn't have the same social effect as voluntary quitting of, say, Daniel Kokotajlo or Richard Ngo." I understand why it may feel that way, but I disagree very strongly, I predict it would have much *more* of a social effect. "They fired him because he refused to help AI capabilities" "They fired him because he didn't want to work on bad policies" etc, much bigger headlines. Also, I think you may not be factoring in the extent to which there is a *cost* to the company executives to be *seen* as firing someone. Especially someone who is refusing to work on moral grounds and has already proven themselves to be high status, respected, etc. And *especially* how it would look to the other employees if they refused to even *listen* to the striking employee before firing them or refused to even negotiate at all. The company leadership try to present themselves as very thoughtful, sincere, doing their best, etc. This is a large part of why many of the most talented people are there. Imagine for a second that one of the people on *your* team said "Mateusz, everyone else on the team, **I'm not going to work** on this because I think it's morally wrong". And then you fire them. What would the other teammates think? What would they think of *you*? What would happen to their trust in you? What would happen to the trust that *investors* have in you? Or funders? Obviously bad things. So obvious that you wouldn't even do it. You'd talk with them instead, see what could be changed, so that they feel better and this is less of a risk. So something would actually change in the company, to better reflect the employee's values, or you suffer a huge blow to your image and your employees trust in you. And this would then mean that the other teammates know *they* can also do this. Some may ask "would this give teammates courage or 'set an example'?". Even if it 'sets an example', it will do so in the short term, until the next moral outcry comes, where people get some courage again. And, more critically, they would much less believe in the nice things that the leadership say, the moral image they build. And even better than quitting - there's a much, much lower chance of the protesting employee, who has moral courage, being replaced by one who has less moral courage. Also, this is a much, much, much costlier signal. It's much harder to get funding to start a new lab, join Anthropic, etc, if you're known to be someone who might just stop working one day because you don't believe in it. And this matters. People see that. Your colleagues see that. Journalists see that. Regular people see that. Think of Daniel Kokotajlo refusing to sign the NDA and losing out on a lot of money because of it. It was a very very costly signal. And it's mattered and been trusted more because of that. Refusing to work and taking on expensive cost and risk every day that you do so, is a much bigger cost *and* signal. Top Comments Index ------------------ ### Comment by [cata](/users/cata) * 2026-09-09 02:12:27Z * Karma: 95 * Voting system: namesAttachedReactions * Approval votes: 34 * Total votes: 34 * HTML permalink: [/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/PvKd9Sg6nPRThyAXK](/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/PvKd9Sg6nPRThyAXK) * Markdown permalink: [/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/PvKd9Sg6nPRThyAXK](/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/PvKd9Sg6nPRThyAXK) Reactions (whole comment): * important: 1 * strong-argument: 1 Reactions by quoted text: * "and that alone" * disagree: 1 ### Comment by [habryka](/users/habryka4) * 2026-09-08 05:54:46Z * Karma: 89 * Voting system: namesAttachedReactions * Approval votes: 58 * Total votes: 58 * HTML permalink: [/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/TDgntB8KQLHrqHm6n](/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/TDgntB8KQLHrqHm6n) * Markdown permalink: [/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/TDgntB8KQLHrqHm6n](/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/TDgntB8KQLHrqHm6n) Reactions (whole comment): * goodpoint: 3 * agree: 1 * disagree: 1 Reactions by quoted text: * "Ok, but they probably just won't fire you." * disagree: 1 ### Comment by [Neel Nanda](/users/neel-nanda-1) * 2026-09-08 00:56:45Z * Karma: 79 * Voting system: namesAttachedReactions * Approval votes: 47 * Total votes: 47 * HTML permalink: [/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/S5bCppBZHxi3sb9cY](/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/S5bCppBZHxi3sb9cY) * Markdown permalink: [/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/S5bCppBZHxi3sb9cY](/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/S5bCppBZHxi3sb9cY) Reactions by quoted text: * "the main reason to quit is because you think you can have more impact elsewhere (or can have a bunch of impact in the act of quitting)" * addc: 2 ### Comment by [Raemon](/users/raemon) * 2026-09-08 04:20:51Z * Karma: 55 * Voting system: namesAttachedReactions * Approval votes: 32 * Total votes: 32 * HTML permalink: [/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/vrp2cBkobwfk2BcYW](/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/vrp2cBkobwfk2BcYW) * Markdown permalink: [/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/vrp2cBkobwfk2BcYW](/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/vrp2cBkobwfk2BcYW) ### Comment by [Richard_Ngo](/users/ricraz) * 2026-09-09 14:48:13Z * Karma: 52 * Voting system: namesAttachedReactions * Approval votes: 21 * Total votes: 21 * HTML permalink: [/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/bny5o5hvXEGdukrnw](/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comment/bny5o5hvXEGdukrnw) * Markdown permalink: [/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/bny5o5hvXEGdukrnw](/api/post/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-protest/comments/bny5o5hvXEGdukrnw) Reactions by quoted text: * "I am open to the idea that something like Kabir's proposed strategy is a good idea (though I currently think it's a pretty bad strategy)." * thumbs-up: 1 ### Navigation * [Front page](https://www.lesswrong.com/api/home) * [Markdown API documentation](https://www.lesswrong.com/api/SKILL.md)