Yup. The company I work for is creating solutions to help utilities better integrate renewable energy onto the electrical grid. The environmental benefits are huge and I get to work with some really cool tech
Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
51–60 of 86 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
#52The meaningful aspect of my bootstrapped startup project is I believe that honest, trustworthy products improve the quality of peoples lives. Removing friction on teams so they can build products people can trust is what my tool does, so that's meaningful work to me.
Re: Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
#53Working in Healthcare/Education is pretty rewarding knowing the products we put out are helping people (both improving education for new doctors and improving clinical care). Sometimes working in Healthcare is annoying (Changes are slow and there are legal restrictions everywhere, e.g. any time you mention the word "cloud" the C-level folks yell "but HIPAA!" and refuse to listen), but it's still good to know we're do…
"e.g. any time you mention the word "cloud" the C-level folks yell "but HIPAA!" I worked for a former healthcare project manager in a completely unrelated industry and I would say 80% of her time was spend worrying about our industry's version of HIPAA. She viewed all new tech projects and software releases through the lens of "How does this violate our industry security standard?". The results were stagnated project…
That's true - I guess every industry has their version of HIPAA that can frustrate developers/stagnate projects.
I don't think that HIPAA or these other regulations are a bad thing, just that maybe the way that some (older, entrenched) management approaches how projects work with those regulations is poor.
Re: Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
#54As a JavaScript developer... no.
I love the language and how expressive it is while it can also be very concise. Unfortunately, JavaScript work is typically relegated to entry level developers and 90s era business requirements. Since the business often believes this is lesser quality work the requirements around craftsmanship and quality are often irrelevant.
In my line of work quality is poorly understood. Code style, as in how to write code, is exceedingly important. Code style is basic literacy. This is a newb thing.
Actual quality is defined objectively outside the code. Does it execute quickly (performance)? Do blind people receive the same level of convenience and understanding from your product (accessibility)? Does the application fail frequently, leak data, or use a bunch of third party analytics (security)? Does the application have mountains of frameworks and dependencies (portability)?
Most places I have worked the developers are barely code literate and really don't give a shit about quality. They care about personal success (however they choose to define it) opposed to product success. That is extremely unfulfilling.
Re: Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
#55[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
#56Sure. I write code that implements features for a desktop application that is well known in its' niche domain. The code I write with my tens of colleagues is directly related to how thousands of professionals create new things throughout the globe.
Basically I write C++ that must provide mathematically correct end results, must not crash and must be fairly efficient.
It's a boring 9-5 job and there is nothing sexy about the field but I would find it very hard to call my work meaningless when I see the things the users of my employers application do.
As our requirements change I get to implement and learn new things.
As long as the end product provides concrete value, and/or there are new things for me to learn there is a definite meaning to what I do.
Re: Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
#57I used to think so. My career has been of the type many dream about: started a game company in high school, in the early 80's, C-64 & Vic-20 games. Then I was a beta tester and original 3rd party developer for the Mac. Then I worked in 3D Graphics research, right when ray tracing started. I worked for Mandelbrot. I was an OS developer for the 3DO and then the first PlayStation. Worked in games for years, then switch to VFX and feature film production. My specialty is creating production systems / process task pipelines. Then I wrote "the" global patent on automated actor replacements (called Deep Fakes now). Tried and went bankrupt creating a technology company around digital actors and personalized media. Now I'm in facial recognition as a lead developer at a global FR leader.
I used to think my work was important. It is not. Ultimately it just pays the bills. I like my work, clearly, but I don't idealize it. Perhaps if it was not ultimately put to capturing and controlling society like a stupid herd, I'd feel different. I love entertainment, and our current entertainment industries are producing stunning human achievements. Switching to the security industry after 30 years in entertainment technologies has been enlightening, but continued a vein I was aware in entertainment.
I've spent my career in the United States, grown up here, and from my experience in all these "great jobs", the "metoo" movement is barely tapping the employee abuses and interpersonal abuses everyday people exhibit constantly. The anti-intellectualism of the US is a serious problem, perhaps the root cause of our worse problems.
If people really want meaningful lives, respect of everyone around you, up and down your social/power hierarchy is the path. Then it will not matter if you are the janitor, because within a respectful collection, everyone's needs are recognized and then this shitty disrespectful place that is the current United States will not be so crappy.
Re: Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
#58It's my first job and it pays well for a first job. I'm working in the enterprise container space, so maybe I'm contributing to a more seamless cloud orchestration future (open source). I don't know if that means much to me, but it's a pleasant way to achieve my goals.
That is meaningful, but it's not a furtherance of the causes I really care about, but it is slowly putting me in a position to improve my own life and get into a position where I can try to work meaningful(as opposed to token) and lasting change in those causes that I do care about.
Re: Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
#59It is for me. It's interesting work, some of it is behind the scenes, some of it is very public. I like the people I work with and the people I work for. So yeah, it's meaningful and fun most of the time. I work remote, which makes it even better.
Re: Ask HN: Is your work meaningful?
#60Yes, I work with a company that makes self-control appliances (BAIIDs) and operates in 48 States in the US. They serve over 100,000 customers and prevent estimated thousands of accidents per year.