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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?

#381

Post by Mz »

kolbe wrote: post #380
Mz wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is absolutely nothing inherently morally superior in making it a not-for-profit. Lots of not-for-profits have serious problems. I wish making life better were as simple as "well, just make your business X format and you are suddenly on the moral high ground!" You should not make your business idea a not-for-profit out of the idea that this is somehow inherently morally superior. That is a bad reason to do so. S…

Insomuch as I never proved using a not-for-profit is best for many of the use cases that we are currently using the business model for, you also didn't in any way demonstrate that we are doing it correctly. I think Wikipedia alone offers great evidence that we are underutilizing the nonprofit model. What evidence to you see for companies remaining moral in the face of shareholder pressure for profits? These structure…

Corporation and business are not synonymous. You can own and run a business that is not incorporated, thus there are no shareholders. In fact, most businesses are not incorporated.

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

#383

Post by astrange »

oddlyaromatic wrote: post #73
simplicitea wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the Code for America recommendation, checking them out now

Through the Code For Atlanta group I was able start a project with MARTA to make some things better about paratransit customers' access to up to date ETA info for their rides, which is currently a pain point for many customers. The code for America idea is awesome and stuff really does happen!

MARTA seems like they could use some hardware donations - for years the "next train" screens were broken and the announcement speakers on the station platforms were totally unintelligible. Maybe a better use of time would be starting a guerrilla group that fixes their stuff without asking?

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

#384

Post by erikpukinskis »

droithomme wrote: post #360
erikpukinskis wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct about the starting conditions. A company with no revenue will devote close to 100% of its resources to creating value for customers. But as it grows revenue, shifting resources to protecting its revenue stream starts to become lucrative. Employees spend some of their time providing value to customers, and some of their time protecting the "moat" around the company. The percentage varies quite a lot, b…

"as it grows revenue, shifting resources to protecting its revenue stream starts to become lucrative" I have a lot of nice blue chip stocks that don't do that. Companies that not only pay me dividends far greater than any savings account, but the base value of the stock increases as well. None of these companies are tech or speculative stocks. They are solid big corporations manufacturing real things that people buy…

Soda pop seem like the best possible example of a business that has worked hard to build a moat around itself, to the detriment of its customers. Those companies work hard to make it hard for people to change their lifestyle. I would be surprised if even half of revenues went into the product itself.

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

#385

Post by nowarninglabel »

bjelkeman-again wrote: post #369
nowarninglabel wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Not by design, but by circumstance yes. I'm sure we'd be open to folks joining from other nations though as long as they could travel to our once-a-year in-person meetup.

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

#386

Post by jancborchardt »

My partner is doing an incubator program called Social-Digital Innovation Initiative: https://sdinnovation.org

The basic idea is to bring together a person who knows of a specific social issue, and a tech person who wants to help solve it. Together they are the core team and are helped to work on their project, form a non-profit, get conmections etc.

At the moment the program is piloting in Berlin. It's planned to expand to Hungary, Austria and ideally other areas. If you are interested, drop by at one of the barcamp/unconference events or check out the website. :)

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

#388

Post by afpx »

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…

The fact that this is the 'top' comment made me stop reading anything further. Wow - decadence.

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

#389

Post by stefek99 »

Shameless plug: https://astralship.org

Converting chapel from 1838 into visionary environment to realise human potential and heal the planet.

No more BS jobs but flow state, peak performance, deep focus, quality work on projects that truly matter.

(I did my fair share of man hours stuck in chair, now making conscious deliberate effort to set free)

Another good resource: https://80000hours.org/

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

#390

Post by strokeswan »

> What problems do i work on?

1. identify the main threats to mankind

- degradation of biodiversity, for humans, animals, and flora (climate change, pollution, over-production, you name it)

- nuclear damages (power plants, bomb, wastes)

- natural causes (meteorites, earthquakes, volcanos, solar flares)

2. analyse the roots of those (examples)

- technical limitations

- economically not sustanable

- pursuit of profit

- natural but avoidable

- natural and inevitable

Do a maximum of research for those points, and pick a cause that motivates you the most.

I, as a developper would personally aim to protect the internet, to have a free and truthful network to share knowledge.

With knowledge and science we can aim to have a global awareness of our impact on humankind's future.

I'm striving for a ressourced based economy, and leave that capitalistic aberration that the Gross domestic product (GDP) is coming from the amout of money spent, which means the more you consume (food, equipment, energy, health care, ...) the higher the GDP will be

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