Teach coding to children and those who want to learn it.
Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
41–50 of 394 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
That there are worse companies than Uber doesn't make Uber good, or even worth working for.
But pointing it out makes OP look like he just read some clickbait titles two weeks ago and is now some cringey Anti Uber SJW.
I think it makes the point that there are some cases where the cost of negatively impacting society is not worth the benefit of making more money to give to charity.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#43https://socialcoder.org/
You can find a project that you can contribute to.Can even boast it on your resume!
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ummmmmm but Uber made the world a better place? (for me anyway)
Did it make your world a better place, or just add a bit of convenience whose cost was distributed to people you don't know?
Well, the benefits are also distributed to people I don't know, so this type of accounting is tough.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The HN demographic is spectacularly disinterested in the well-being of humanity. Wait, what?
You can see it in the many comments claiming that working at an ordinary day job or donating your income to charity is akin to the social good asked for by OP. It's a failure of imagination to assume that you can do more good for the world as programmer #9001 at Facebook who donates some of his income to effective altruism than as a programmer who adds all of her value to some other cause. A good programmer making 10…
> You can see it in the many comments claiming that working at an ordinary day job or donating your income to charity is akin to the social good asked for by OP.
If OP doesn't see donating to charity as interest in the well-being of society then let's just admit that the parent isn't so much concerned about whether or not HN is interested in the well-being of society so much as if HN wants to contribute to the well-being of society in the same way the parent would. Thus, parent really should say, "HN doesnt seem to agree with my particular persuasion as to how one creates well-being in society."
Donating to charity is, almost by definition, interest in the wellbeing of society.
Also, if you're going to be paid $100k at Facebook that means the value you provide is >= $100k to Facebook. It does not mean that your work is objectively worth $100k anywhere you could go. There's some correlation, of course, but I think given the context it's an important distinction to make.
As an aside, it's entirely possible for me to imagine a scenario in which the most beneficial thing one could do for society is utilize the scale and reach of Facebook. I doubt that the vast majority of the work at Facebook is that specifically, but it's certainly possible to imagine.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#46OP here, actually floored by the rapidity and variety of responses. Thanks HN.
I'll take this opportunity to float an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a long time.
The premise is to:
1) (this is almost certainly the easy part) build out a platform that is like a two-way khan academy - teacher and student, with at least the teacher having a tablet and a stylus that function well, sharing a digital blackboard, with a video chat optional -- where a student of something in a relatively privileged situation teaches a student of the same thing in a relatively less privileged situation -- where the sessions are stored and rewindable, both video and blackboard input.
2) the hard part; selling it as something to invest in and driving it to a point of having an endowment behind it, like Harvard's endowment, that allows the service to pay for moderation of student-teachers something like $12.00 USD an hour to teach, while subsidizing well-chosen students to have to pay something like $2 an hour to learn
it's been an idea for a passion project for a while
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#47Volunteer for DataKind (http://www.datakind.org/), a charity that connects "data professionals" (in the broad sense of the term) to charities who have problems to solve and the data to solve them, but not the resources to do it!
They organise different types of projects: DataDives, which are hackathon-type events and focus on data exploration and analysis; and DataCorps, longer term projects (a few months), where a team of volunteers will team up on a more project for the client charity.
They are looking for volunteers for a wide range of roles, including data scientists, programmers with experience with ML, dataviz experts, project managers, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#48I would love to have the opportunity to explore the concept of hyperlocal. Using the web to help bring local communities closer together. Never really had the opportunity yet. I myself, work mainly on projects related to museums, culture, green economy... In the projects I accept I try to find a balance between money I can get and how I view it as work for the greater good. A very hard balance and a very subjective o…
Do you have any recommendations for exploring what you call hyper-local work? I currently cook food for a living but even that, with it's immediate (feedback lol) to the local community, is a service that comes as a premium to people who don't need help. Where do you look for projects that fit your worldview as a programmer? Are there any groups of people based in Seattle that you'd recommend getting in touch with?
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#49Honestly, I think the most effective thing to do is find an organization doing social good, who is hiring programmers, and go work for them. There are plenty of non-profits and governments that do a ton of good, and employ developers to work on their web sites and infrastructures. A good friend of mine is a developer for the ACLU, for example. There are also organizations like Code for America that do open source wor…
Thank you for the Code for America recommendation, checking them out now
Re: Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming?
#50You don't. The idea you can _do anything_ to _help_. Is mostly a myth people repeat so they don't constantly feel like shit for doing nothing in the face of mass social injustice by which they are (partially) the benefactors. If you want social change, you need social action. Anything short is just rationalizing your guilt.
I'm sort of intrigued at your belief in the existence of "social action" that somehow manifests without any individual doing "anything" to "help". As if it is some sort of ontological force that exists independent of the individuals participating in it?
I incorrectly worded my post. And placed too much focus on the individual, when I was as attempting to stress the individual AS A software developer.
But nonetheless I do agree with the final output.
An individual is largely incapable of doing anything ALONE. Only thought organized and mass action are things accomplished on societal scale.
Change requires work... this is physics. A large change requires a lot of work. If your force is too small (an individual). You may never over come friction.
If you want social change, you need organization.