There is no such thing as ethical production under capitalism.
Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
141–150 of 201 posts
Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two caveats to this approach: - The work you're doing to make that 300k doesn't happen in a vacuum; it has an impact on the world too. Make sure it's not doing more harm (including the political donations that might get made by the owners you're making richer) than your donations are doing good. - People aren't robots; intrinsic motivators are important for some. In some cases it can be worth making a smaller impact…
And if you are in a FAANG, remember that you probably have a very negative impact in the world. There's no money you can donate to compensate the amount of disinformation in YouTube or Facebook or WhatsApp.
> There's no money you can donate
I understand you don't mean that literally, but (to minimize disinformation among others): There is absolutely some number of lives saved which would compensate for that.
https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities
Before writing off an entire industry, I beg you to consider that $45,000 could save 10 lives and improve many more (Yes; it's not precise. No; it's not out of their ass - read their extensive discussion of the calculations)
Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
#143If you want to work at positive impact companies, Khan Academy is one that comes up in my head. But take it from me, someone who has volunteered for civic tech organizations and have participated in ground work for political campaigns. The most positive impact you could possibly make is money. Political campaigns need thousands of volunteers. But someone who has no skills or education can volunteer. The supply pool i…
If your skills are relevant and good, you ought to be able to have way more impact on a political campaign than a 17k donation, which at most levels of developed world politics barely scratches the surface and isn't going to teach you anything about politics either. It's a little different if the volunteering is something low impact or something you're way out of your depth in, or if the cause wanting money has a way…
Have you ever donated 10s of thousands to a political campaign? For anything congressional-level or lower, this gets you calls from the politician, face-to-face access, emails, meetings, and up-to-date info. You will soon be fielding calls from people you haven't donated to, who think you may donate, and they will also listen to you.
And this is for congressional-level. For state senate, state house, local gov, etc. I imagine this could go even further. City councils and mayors have lots of impact but little donations.
Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish there were a way to volunteer some of my spare time to civic stuff (as a technologist) instead of having to make it my primary employment. I'd do that in a heartbeat, and I bet lots of others would too
If you're US based, there's Code for America which is exactly that - https://codeforamerica.org . There are many local, typically city-based chapters who meet up regularly and are formed almost entirely of part time volunteers contributing whenever they have time, to whichever project match their skills and interests.
This looks awesome, I'll check it out
Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
#145Bloomberg LP is essentially a revenue generating arm for Bloomberg Philanthropies with >80% of revenue getting donated. The volunteering culture at Bloomberg LP itself is also fairly strong, compared to other medium/large tech companies, so there's a lots of opportunity to give back beyond knowing your revenue is going towards good projects. See [1] below for more info. Aside from donating time and money, the company…
Must be of profits, no? But agreed, Mr. Bloomberg seems to be a prolific giver (although he also did drop $1b on a vanity run for President, not sure how effective a use of funding that was, but generally his donations are very well thought out and high impact)
Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
#146For focusing on the world's most important problems in effective ways, please look into 80,000 Hours (an organization named after the approximate number of hours of work in a typical life-long career). https://80000hours.org/ & https://80000hours.org/job-board/ They are aligned with Effective Altruism which is focusing on effective ways to do the most good - https://www.effectivealtruism.org/
I strongly second this; their guides and advice have helped me focus my career and delve into potentially high impact pathways. They do skew a bit longtermist (think AI safety), but they have guides and jobs for all sorts of high impact roles.
Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
#147You said "company". Have you considered working for your local civil service? I've worked on things which have had a positive contribution to society. It can be something as "simple" as making a confusing form simpler, or it can be something as complex as advising on national technology policy. The salary may not be as high as a private company (although you'd be surprised) - but the pension is usually pretty good. Y…
I wish there were a way to volunteer some of my spare time to civic stuff (as a technologist) instead of having to make it my primary employment. I'd do that in a heartbeat, and I bet lots of others would too
Send me your cv and let's see if a suitable project or task comes up.
jobs@openup.org.za
Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish there were a way to volunteer some of my spare time to civic stuff (as a technologist) instead of having to make it my primary employment. I'd do that in a heartbeat, and I bet lots of others would too
If you're US based, there's Code for America which is exactly that - https://codeforamerica.org . There are many local, typically city-based chapters who meet up regularly and are formed almost entirely of part time volunteers contributing whenever they have time, to whichever project match their skills and interests.
Also TechCongress, Presidential Innovation Fellowship, and a few others that have popped up with similar missions/goals. OpenPhilanthropy may do a tech policy fellowship again, if you're in the UK I believe there's a No10 fellowship
Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
#149[dead]
Sounds like a cool place to work! I interned at SpaceX in undergrad and worked at ONERA while getting PhD. I work as Data Sci now. I see an open Data Sci position that looks like good fit. Do you think I could negotiate for being remote or is the on-site policy pretty strict?
Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well said. I agree with everything you say except perhaps the focus on politicians. It's a group of people self selected for the ability to sell us a vision with only a distant, vague prospect of realizing it. On the other hand, there are non-profits with readily visible outcomes.
> It's a group of people self selected for the ability to sell us a vision with only a distant, vague prospect of realizing it. That's unnecessarily and destructively cynical. There are plenty of politicians (and others working for governments) at all levels who are there to do a good job. The showboats and bad actors (which are almost coextensive) of course by definition get most of the press. Don't let them distrac…
> There are plenty of politicians (and others working for governments) at all levels who are there to do a good job.
The statement was about how they're selected. They're selected by their eagerness to be in politics, and their ability to talk a good game.