Say I want to apply what I know to better our chances as a species and/or as individuals. What problems do i work on?
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?
#2This 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.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#3OurPath maybe. 23andMe ? Medical / health stuff
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#4The medical world has a lot of uses for software and machine learning.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#5We do that everyday. Maybe indirectly, but we're making a lot of things way more efficient. Information is a huge part of our nature, since the first days, and we're the main collaborators to simplify the access to information.
Said that, you can also think "smaller". Teach someone how to code, and it might be a complete life changer. I run a coding school and we offer free sits for people who need it, and we're greatly satisfied. We've seen students working for McDonald's, for 10 hours per day making just minimum wage, move to a software company with a $+90K salary and changing their lives completely.
Share what you know, try to fix the problems that humanity faces. Don't try to do everything just by yourself. But your "tiny" collaboration ads up.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#6Machine learning is pretty popular right now. With obvious applications in things like biology, you can go into things like gene research (see CRISPR) or AI. Could even go embedded and do medical security things to prevent the next WannaCry.
A recruiter shot a job across my email a few months back about using technology to get people more active in government. Depending on how you feel about government, that could be taken to any number of applications, with some company filling the niche along the way.
I work in education, myself, and I find that pretty rewarding. Being able to use technology to help teachers do something even a little bit easier is a good feeling.
Even though these scenarios are very different, they all help advance individuals and the species in their own micro and macro ways. Tech is useful everywhere, so decide who you want to help, and find companies that exist to help those people and go from there. And if you don't find a company there, then maybe you have your YC interview already cooking.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#7This 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.
> The HN demographic is spectacularly disinterested in the well-being of humanity.
Wait, what?
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#8This 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.
Disinterested or differently-interested?
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#9Local exchange systems.
Mentoring and apprenticeship forums and exchanges.
Grants and sponsorship databases.
Digital permaculture, hydroponics, aquaculture, aeroponics & DIY encyclopedia.
Tools to fight against misleading and inaccurate information and to clarify and annotate ambiguous laws that don't benefit the population.
Better corruption and dark financing graphs about people in power.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#10OurPath maybe. 23andMe ? Medical / health stuff
I agree medical/health stuff is the most strightforward. I would also add some tiny mobile apps that make our life easier and more happy!