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Ask HN: How can I volunteer my software skills online?

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Re: Ask HN: How can I volunteer my software skills online?

#41

Post by user5994461 »

visakanv wrote: post #33
patio11 wrote: post #15

(Disclaimer: not trolling.) Consider specializing in making money and donating the money to people who specialize in $PICK_A_CAUSE_DEAR_TO_YOU, if your primary concern is about impact and not about personal fulfillment. NGOs are often not well set up to metabolize the labor of developers, and at some things which you think are helpful will be perceived by the organization as a threat (e.g. at many organizations, anyt…

Relevant LessWrong article – Purchase Fuzzies and Utilons Separately: http://lesswrong.com/lw/6z/purchase_fuzzies_and_utilons_sepa... > There is this very, very old puzzle/observation in economics about the lawyer who spends an hour volunteering at the soup kitchen, instead of working an extra hour and donating the money to hire someone... > If the lawyer needs to work an hour at the soup kitchen to keep himself moti…

Disagree with all of it.

Money and time are not interchangeable at all.

One can take 1-2 hours of his time, when he has time free.

One cannot give 1-2 hours of money, when he has to pay for his rent, bills and family.

There is noone who can decide to work one hour more at his workplace and get paid for it, then donate the money to charity.

Re: Ask HN: How can I volunteer my software skills online?

#43

Post by SnacksOnAPlane »

visakanv wrote: post #33
patio11 wrote: post #15

(Disclaimer: not trolling.) Consider specializing in making money and donating the money to people who specialize in $PICK_A_CAUSE_DEAR_TO_YOU, if your primary concern is about impact and not about personal fulfillment. NGOs are often not well set up to metabolize the labor of developers, and at some things which you think are helpful will be perceived by the organization as a threat (e.g. at many organizations, anyt…

Relevant LessWrong article – Purchase Fuzzies and Utilons Separately: http://lesswrong.com/lw/6z/purchase_fuzzies_and_utilons_sepa... > There is this very, very old puzzle/observation in economics about the lawyer who spends an hour volunteering at the soup kitchen, instead of working an extra hour and donating the money to hire someone... > If the lawyer needs to work an hour at the soup kitchen to keep himself moti…

I volunteer over the weekends to build Habitat for Humanity homes. Yeah, I could probably make money if I freelanced on the weekends, writing code, but honestly I need time away from the computer, and working with my hands to build something tangible feels good.

In reality, I think that we do good things as much to make ourselves feel better as to make the world a better place. So with that in mind, do what makes you feel best about yourself.

Re: Ask HN: How can I volunteer my software skills online?

#44

Post by secfirstmd »

Hey,

Over at Security First (www.secfirst.org) our small, non-profit team builds Umbrella App - a free open source tool that helps people like activists and journalists manage their digital and physical security.

We are always looking for people who are able to volunteer some time to help us on things like Android Development, back end work, UI/UX, design, marketing and copyrighting.

Re: Ask HN: How can I volunteer my software skills online?

#46

Post by chrisatumd »

user5994461 wrote: post #41
visakanv wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevant LessWrong article – Purchase Fuzzies and Utilons Separately: http://lesswrong.com/lw/6z/purchase_fuzzies_and_utilons_sepa... > There is this very, very old puzzle/observation in economics about the lawyer who spends an hour volunteering at the soup kitchen, instead of working an extra hour and donating the money to hire someone... > If the lawyer needs to work an hour at the soup kitchen to keep himself moti…

Disagree with all of it. Money and time are not interchangeable at all. One can take 1-2 hours of his time, when he has time free. One cannot give 1-2 hours of money, when he has to pay for his rent, bills and family. There is noone who can decide to work one hour more at his workplace and get paid for it, then donate the money to charity.

> There is noone who can decide to work one hour more at his workplace and get paid for it, then donate the money to charity.

There are plenty of people that can make this exact choice. I'll work extra hours on occasion when my job is willing to allow us overtime, but not requiring it. Admittedly it's generally my stove broke and I need X dollars to replace it, not me donating the money.

Re: Ask HN: How can I volunteer my software skills online?

#47

Post by MaulingMonkey »

user5994461 wrote: post #41
visakanv wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevant LessWrong article – Purchase Fuzzies and Utilons Separately: http://lesswrong.com/lw/6z/purchase_fuzzies_and_utilons_sepa... > There is this very, very old puzzle/observation in economics about the lawyer who spends an hour volunteering at the soup kitchen, instead of working an extra hour and donating the money to hire someone... > If the lawyer needs to work an hour at the soup kitchen to keep himself moti…

Disagree with all of it. Money and time are not interchangeable at all. One can take 1-2 hours of his time, when he has time free. One cannot give 1-2 hours of money, when he has to pay for his rent, bills and family. There is noone who can decide to work one hour more at his workplace and get paid for it, then donate the money to charity.

> One cannot give 1-2 hours of money, when he has to pay for his rent, bills and family.

Hopefully you're also saving for retirement, rainy day funds, etc. - some of these bills are flexible.

> There is noone who can decide to work one hour more at his workplace and get paid for it, then donate the money to charity.

Anyone freelancing can take on more client work. Save less and retire later. Kick more ass at work to get more promotions or other job opportunities. I could take shorter breaks between jobs.

It's not perfectly interchangeable, but the whole point of work is to trade time for money - "not interchangeable at all" is a strong enough phrase I'd argue work-for-pay alone contradicts it.

Re: Ask HN: How can I volunteer my software skills online?

#48

Post by pavlov »

Sounds like you could volunteer for DataKind:

http://www.datakind.org

They're an awesome non-profit that connects your kind of expertise with traditional NGOs that have data and domain knowledge, but typically don't know how to make full use of it.

You can volunteer even for a weekend project, and it makes a real difference.

Re: Ask HN: How can I volunteer my software skills online?

#49

Post by bonniemuffin »

janwillemb wrote: post #32
carussell wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More in this vein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism http://www.jefftk.com/news/giving http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/handwritingwall https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/32lnif/im_peter_singe...

Although "effective altruism" sounds reasonable and should always be considered, it does neglect the human side of things. How many years do we add to the life of a lonely elderly couple by visiting them?

I think the point is that people with a surplus of money can be most effective by well-targeted monetary donations, while people with extra time should be spending it with the elderly. We can be collectively more effective with some specialization.
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