This 'Google Ideas' post from the front page appears to be an example of what you're talking about.
Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
31–40 of 55 posts
Re: Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
#32I hate to admit this as an engineer, but the people who make a difference are working at the strategy level and not the implementation level, which is where most of us engineers spend our time. No world-changing startup ever failed because "we couldn't get the code right" -- they fail because they build things the world doesn't want, or they fail to market the things they build to people who want them. The second dif…
Well one big exception being Bitcoin, for some values of "change the world". Without BTC, maybe dark markets wouldn't have taken off, and who knows how many people would go without access to medicines, or deal with quality/legal/violence issues.
People thought of digital money before, but Bitcoin's implementation set it apart, no?
Perhaps the same can be said for Tor, as well.
Re: Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
#33I think as an engineer, you'll learn to 'learn how to build'. Then you can learn to build software, or hardware, or anything.
Then as a software engineer, you'll earn a decent amount of money. And money is what you will need to sponsor your dreams of changing the world. And getting started in software isn't too hard, you just need a computer and internet. Worst case, you can always fail and start again (minus health). So out of any career, I think a Software Engineer one is a pretty good bet. You will at least get a pretty good set of tools to help you out. Then it's up to you and your determination.
All that said, I don't think there's a single 'career' that will make you change the world. Nothing and nobody will make you change the world, it will come from you.
Re: Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
#34I hate to admit this as an engineer, but the people who make a difference are working at the strategy level and not the implementation level, which is where most of us engineers spend our time. No world-changing startup ever failed because "we couldn't get the code right" -- they fail because they build things the world doesn't want, or they fail to market the things they build to people who want them. The second dif…
While what you are saying isn't entirely without merit, isn't that like saying that the success of the Apollo missions lie with the bureaucrats rather than the engineers and astronauts?
Sure many individual engineers are remembered, such as Margaret Hamilton: https://medium.com/@3fingeredfox/margaret-hamilton-lead-soft...
But nowadays projects are built by hundreds if not thousands of engineers. They are all necessary but no individual engineer is irreplaceable or particularly important.
Re: Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
#35I hate to admit this as an engineer, but the people who make a difference are working at the strategy level and not the implementation level, which is where most of us engineers spend our time. No world-changing startup ever failed because "we couldn't get the code right" -- they fail because they build things the world doesn't want, or they fail to market the things they build to people who want them. The second dif…
While what you are saying isn't entirely without merit, isn't that like saying that the success of the Apollo missions lie with the bureaucrats rather than the engineers and astronauts?
I'm saying that man wouldn't have set foot on the moon without John F. Kennedy declaring it would be so, but man would probably still have walked on the moon if the Apollo engineering team were slightly less skilled. (Probably would have taken longer and had more deadly failures, so thank God for the highly-skilled people who worked together to make it all possible, but engineering skill adds incremental improvement because efficacy becomes more dispersed the further down the pyramid you go -- that's just the nature of human organizations, the implementers are fungible.)
Re: Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
#36Sometimes I think we software engineers are really arrogant. Can a plumber change the world? Can a teacher? Can an architect? Can a civil engineer change the world? Yes they all can, but you'll only hear a software engineer ask a question like that.
Anytime I see an article saying something along the lines of "Big data can cure cancer," I just laugh. All occupations help the world in their own way. Software just happens to be really trendy right now.
Re: Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
#37I hate to admit this as an engineer, but the people who make a difference are working at the strategy level and not the implementation level, which is where most of us engineers spend our time. No world-changing startup ever failed because "we couldn't get the code right" -- they fail because they build things the world doesn't want, or they fail to market the things they build to people who want them. The second dif…
While what you are saying isn't entirely without merit, isn't that like saying that the success of the Apollo missions lie with the bureaucrats rather than the engineers and astronauts?
There is a very strong case for that line of thinking. The bureaucrats and politicians created an environment where society valued the work on Apollo as well as a very significant budget.
Without the politics, the Apollo missions wouldn't have happened.
Re: Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
#38I think we are living in a age that most of things that are changing our world is related to technology which are built by people like computer scientists and software engineers.
just look at google. i think it has really changed our world drastically and there more examples like google.
Re: Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
#39Here's an opportunity to make an impact using software development [0]:
> International Development Design Summits (IDDS) Lahore is a hands-on design experiences that brings together people from all walks of life to create low-cost, practical innovations to improve the lives of people living in poverty.
(you can apply before July 1st, and participate in Lahore, Pakistan).
The impact may be small, but certainly significant for many (things that have come out of these summits are water purification and monitoring technologies, sanitation technologies, healthcare information through SMS, and many more)
Re: Ask HN: Can a software engineer help change the world?
#40Here is a (hardware engineering) example of how a group of volunteers are helping make the world a better place:
http://www.unite-to-light.org/