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Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

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Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

#361

Post by 3131s »

pc86 wrote: post #153
falcolas wrote: post #24

Warning - strong opinions ahead: Provide services and tools without the strings attached. That is to say, provide email services that don't mine data for profit. Provide a social interaction space that doesn't attempt to manipulate moods, opinions, or sell its user's eyeballs. Provide an aggregation service with strong filtering tools in place of strong moderation. Provide a code repository with great tooling that do…

Is "Facebook without advertisements" really the bar for social good now?

If an ad-free, privacy-friendly social network actually managed to replace Facebook, that would be an enormous social good.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

#362

Post by Houshalter »

vivekd wrote: post #148
nyargh wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are going to shit on the parent comment - but honestly, anyone with more than a few years of experience in a tight tech job market is going to easily be in the top decile of earners. The highly-committed individuals that do the brutally hard work on the ground for non-profits or NGOs make a pittance in comparison. Committing a quarter of your salary would pay the entirety of theirs. Consider that for a moment.

I'm suspicious of the notion that throwing money at problems can solve them.

But it's pretty hard to solve a problem without money. There are a lot of people out there already trying to solve problems. But not enough giving them the money they need to do so.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

#364

Post by 3131s »

unclesaamm wrote: post #302
peacetreefrog wrote: post #188

Just read all the top line comments here. Interesting that no one had mentioned the one thing that has probably done the most to "better our chances as species" in the last few hundred years, and has helped hundreds of millions in India and China get out of backbreaking poverty and accumulate some wealth. And that is... Work hard, accumulate skills, and become better at your normal job. Even if you're not writing ope…

This is the most neoliberal thing I've ever read. No, doing nothing will not make the world a better place. And no, our mindless slide into capitalism-in-all-things is not actually good for most people. For one, see the Clinton Foundation's disastrous neoliberalization of Haiti (touted as a success because it "raised people out of poverty"): http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/clinton-found... In fact, by…

Exactly.

> you're creating value and "bettering our species" just by doing something that someone is willing to pay you for

^^^ The thought process that lets HNers sleep at night.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

#365

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

NoGravitas wrote: post #2

This is almost certainly the wrong place to ask this question, unfortunately. The HN demographic is spectacularly disinterested in the well-being of humanity. Try /r/socialistprogrammers or /r/anarcho_hackers on Reddit.

I just took a quick look at these communities: how exactly are /r/socialistprogramm and /r/anarcho_hackers furthering the well being of humanity? For what i see its all about fringe politics (meaning that they keep themselves busy)

Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

#366

Post by zubairq »

Programming is only a SMALL part of doing social good. Find a problem you care about first.

For us we wanted to help people who were skilled, but ended up washing dishes, as they did not understand the Danish culture. We made NemCV.com to make them CVs in 2011. The website is now defunct, but since we cared about helping people we turned into a real life event to help people and has helped 1000s of people into a better life here in Denmark, and continues several times a month to this day:

https://www.meetup.com/get-your-dream-job/

So, find the problem first, and then spend time helping and make an IT tool IF needed!

Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

#367

Post by Jabanga »

cestith wrote: post #342
Jabanga wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows contributed to global productively enormously.

It didn't do that by being Windows. It did that by being nearly ubiquitous so that software could be written to a known thing. That could have turned out to be OS/2, but Microsoft played unfairly there. It could have been one of the Unix platforms, but AT&T, Microsoft, and others played unfairly there. It's really the IBM PC platform, IBM's willingness to sign a non-exclusive contract for the OS, and the success of t…

Windows was also much more usable than what was common before it, ubiquity aside. The Office productivity suite was also very good for the time, and represented a major advancement in the state of the art. It's easy to take what Microsoft provided the PC world for granted and assume another company would have provided it if it never existed, but I don't think it's fair.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

#368

Post by bjelkeman-again »

tacostakohashi wrote: post #12

Work as a programmer for whoever will pay you the most. Invest, and donate money to causes you care about.

One can do that. But I'd like to believe that I make a bigger impact in actually applying my skills directly to the problem.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

#369

Post by bjelkeman-again »

nowarninglabel wrote: post #338
asciimo wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50% is a conservative estimate. If you are a software engineer in the SF Bay Area you can expect a 75% pay cut or more.

Hmm, depends on the non-profit, but in tech-forward non-profits we are often only about 20% below market for most positions: https://www.ctosforgood.org/

Is CTOs for good US only?

Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?

#370

Post by [deleted] »

nowarninglabel wrote: post #338
asciimo wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50% is a conservative estimate. If you are a software engineer in the SF Bay Area you can expect a 75% pay cut or more.

Hmm, depends on the non-profit, but in tech-forward non-profits we are often only about 20% below market for most positions: https://www.ctosforgood.org/

[deleted]
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