I used to think so; loved it, helping people. Fixing the broken things. Technical challenges, helping people learn, and fulfillment. Because I hate myself, it filled me up, but I don't know how to care anymore.
Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
21–30 of 45 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
#22I just quit a job with an oil company. Couldn’t do it. Felt wayyyy too shitty
My first job was with a pharmaceutical manufacturer, I wouldn't go back to those type of institutions, healing materials need to be handled way differently.
I don't think I would do very well working for an oil company either but I did end up in oilfield services for a while, even though my motivation is completely toward alternative energy.
One of the interesting things I noticed was that the toxic atmosphere of the refinery enviromnent began to be abated quite a bit earlier than the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1990, largely due to the newer oil company employees being more aware of their position in a lucrative industry which could actually afford to operate more cleanly. To the extent the more environmentally-aware employees have had an impact, in hindsight it appears to be more effective than the actual regulations were.
You should have smelled it before.
And I know what kind of materials I am smelling.
Sometimes more effective change can be made from the inside.
Re: Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
#23My current job is in biotech, writing cloud software which helps clinicians (and researchers) gather supporting evidence for their diagnoses. The install base is small, so it'd be hard to claim it makes the _world_ a better place. But it's a start.
I'd love to do more with it, because the software could actually help discover and refine the biomarkers which would inform diagnoses, instead of the other way around. But the FDA (and other similar regulatory bodies) have strong opinions on the distinctions between Clinical Decision _Support_ software, and _Diagnostic_ software. I think this job could have a much larger impact, but it's going to take the industry another 10 years worth of iteration to get comfortable with how modern cloud software changes medical device development.
My job before this was in ad tech. Another poster said everything I would, so I'll just say No, nothing in ad tech makes the world better.
Before that I was a teacher at a for-profit university. This is a harder call. I had a measurably positive impact on students, who have turned around and had their own positive impacts on the world. (I regularly see at least one former student here on HN.) But I left the job, at least in part, because the financial burdens the students were bearing wore down my enthusiasm.
Before that, I worked for a company which made office and art supplies. We had some pretty good school supply programs, and I got to see kids light up when we brought in boxes of paints and clays. Arguably, this job made the world better, albeit in a small way.
Re: Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
#24Yes. My work is designed to make the world a better place. Each product tends to have fairly small install bases, but makes the world better for a significant number of people.
However, it's been making my life worse. I assume could make far more money with almost certainly less stress and hours helping track people around the internet and selling ads (or something equally horrible). Is it particularly hard to swap from the do-gooder life track to the "I got more money and time for toys and fun" life track? Have people gone that way or (or the other way?) Am I deluding myself?
Re: Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
#25Nope, but in fairness, it doesn't make it particularly worse.
Re: Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
#26I'm a code monkey at a power company. Don't mess with the SCADA or anything that deals with power directly, but I'd argue I could be doing worse for the world.
Re: Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
#27Well, we're reducing paper use. An unnecessary amount of AI and blockchain went into this, but we'll probably save about 40 trees from being cut down.
Re: Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
#28No. People don't need another enterprise solution which is just a repackaged version of last-year's, someone-else's enterprise solution.
Re: Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
#29If the world were a better place, my job wouldn't need to exist.
Re: Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place?
#30At university every single one of our research grant proposals claims that we will make the world better. I mostly cannot believe the stuff I am writing myself. It is part of the public funding game. I am actually happy to work there, because at least we mostly do not do too much harm to the world (except maybe for lots of unnecessary traveling).