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Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

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Re: Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

#101

Post by puredemo »

pclark wrote: post #83
jhdavids8 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm...while I don't necessarily agree with the original comment, just because a company has 'numerous people' who have worked really hard does not mean you should be sympathetic to those companies or people. Hell, Enron, Lehman Brothers, and numerous others had hard-working people...doesn't make their cause noble nor does it mean they should receive sympathy for their hard work.

The different seems obvious to me, we are a community.

They were communities too.

I agree overall though. Some of the criticisms here have just been needlessly venomous. If I was in YC I would definitely appreciate feedback that was more professional.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

#103

Post by marcoi »

Many great comments. It is most commendable to want to maximise one's own positive impact on the world, but figuring out how exactly to do that is incredibly complicated - as the variety of opinions here demonstrates. In truth, many (or most) of the people or organisations that try to help out make virtually no difference, and sometimes make things worse. And to make things trickier, the best way to make the world a better place is incredibly personal, and depends on your skills, motivation, life stage, connections, preferences, etc. Yet, that doesn't mean that it's impossible.

I've been there: now I am working on launching my own tech start-up (how unoriginal), but prior to this I worked in Africa and Latin America.for 4 years, designing projects to create sustainable jobs and to increase long-term income of small farmers. And I've seen so much waste, and incompetence, and worse... and a few pearls in unexpected places.

In short, it's not something one can improvise, creating something genuinely good is probably the most difficult thing in the planet, definitely not a little side project. So, the best I can suggest is: read a lot, be suspicious of simple blanket solutions, develop your own opinions, and, most importantly, find 1-2 people with experience you can trust (not necessarily techies!), and learn from them.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

#104

Post by sgt »

BasDirks wrote: post #73
pclark wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Numerous of your comments have a very mean tone, can you remember that the companies you list each have numerous people all of whom have spent many years of brutally hard work to get to where they are today, in fact, can you just be much nicer?

Parent could have just quoted the slogans without further comment and it would have implied the same. Let us not be nice simply because folks work hard, a certain Adolf had very good work ethics. Even though I think parent has a point, I do not think said YC start-ups are obliged to give a fuck about what I, or parent think. I hope they succeed. Criticism and even a spoonful of cynicism does not kill dreams. If they…

Godwin's law!

Re: Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

#105

Post by [deleted] »

BasDirks wrote: post #73
pclark wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Numerous of your comments have a very mean tone, can you remember that the companies you list each have numerous people all of whom have spent many years of brutally hard work to get to where they are today, in fact, can you just be much nicer?

Parent could have just quoted the slogans without further comment and it would have implied the same. Let us not be nice simply because folks work hard, a certain Adolf had very good work ethics. Even though I think parent has a point, I do not think said YC start-ups are obliged to give a fuck about what I, or parent think. I hope they succeed. Criticism and even a spoonful of cynicism does not kill dreams. If they…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

#106

Post by robryan »

chailatte wrote: post #45

Careful, you might make new YC companies' head explode. (YC S11) Interviewstreet is disrupting the recruitment space and create a place where the best hackers get the best jobs (YC S11) Splitterbug private beta: track expenses with friends from your phone Munch On Me (YC S11) Helps You Discover Tasty Dishes Stypi (YC S11) Is Etherpad Reborn Parse (YC S11): A Heroku For Mobile Apps Envolve (YC S11) Launches An API For…

I don't get why internet start ups should be expected to change the world. The vast majority of businesses ever created don't really do anything most would consider truly meaningful or world changing.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

#107

Post by Fargren »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #85
edw519 wrote: post #27

Please don't fall into the trap of believing that your daily work and working for the greater good are mutually exclusive. You may not realize it, but you are often contributing to the greater good on a daily basis simply by doing your job. It's sometimes hard to visualize this because we are often many degrees of separation away from the "end user". You don't actually have to be physically building that home for the…

Wow, that makes one of us. Most[1] of my day jobs over the past eight years have been: - Make sure Visual Studio 2005 doesn't look like shit. - Make sure Visual Studio 2008 doesn't look like shit. - 'Something something, dead Microsoft product.' - Make sure we can ship this product in order to get a 'B' round of funding. - 'Something, something dead startup.' And, on that depressing note... On the other hand, if you…

I'm sure a kit if people who made great thing with VS are overjoyed that it doesn't look like shit.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

#109

Post by karambahh »

kamens wrote: post #10

We'd love to have anyone passionate about changing the world of education apply to Khan Academy. http://www.khanacademy.org/jobs

Sorry to hijack OP's post, but I'd like to take this opportunity to ask you a few things about Khan Academy. All I know about is based on a piece that appeared in Wired US august issue.

To me, your method relied on a)having kids learning a lesson at home b)drilling exercises.

On a), I must say that it surprised me much. It means that kids must all have computer available at home (which is clearly not the case, even in western countries) and it also means that their home is sufficiently stable so that they can listen to a lesson (which is probably not doable if mom & dad fight each other every night, whereas doing small exercises is doable in between fights?).

Then, there's this part about creating a school, costing upwards of 10k$ a year. Call me a socialist or whatever, but seriously, paying 10k$ a year to get primary education, wtf?? Shouldn't a not for profit org seek to open such a school for free?

Please do not see this msg as completely negative: you're doing stuff to find other/better ways to teach kids, which is definitely awesome.

Re: Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

#110

Post by Qa8BBatwHxK8Pu »

You're trying to make your problem at home look bigger and more significant by using third world problems you guys used for hypocrisy. US is still the vanguard of human economy.

Your existential crisis is nothing more than a product of typical shift in international economic power balance.

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