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Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

andrewkelley.me

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Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#111

Post by tav »

wyldfire wrote: post #76
AndyKelley wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, thank you for sharing this. I was not aware of Every.org until today. I checked out the platform just now and am delighted. I love that it is a 501(c)(3) and that it is crystal clear with the promise to remain that way. We desperately needed something like this. I also love that you will mail checks to organizations even if they do not sign up for electronic disbursement. However I will sign up ZSF now of course…

Ok sounds like I can go ahead because you will accept from every.org and you do not plan to publish an address to accept donations directly? I'll match other HNers donations of as much as $100 to a total of an additional $1000. Not sure how to substantiate every.org donations but maybe I'll take HNers at their word. EDIT: scoreboard as of 22:20 UTC: $400 out of $1000 to be matched: easymuffin, slimsag, tav, _hl_. Bec…

Thanks for being so generous! Here's $500 from me:

https://imgur.com/gallery/qGBGwXc

Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#112

Post by 0des »

AndyKelley wrote: post #107
0des wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey just a heads up, you said 1 hour ago "you can donate via their profile here" and then 30 mins ago Andy comments and says he's making an account as we speak.. Did you just solicit donations without them even being signed up? If so, that feels weird, and I'd appreciate at least (as I cant speak for others) if you didn't do that without some heavy disclaimer text making clear that they've shown no interest yet. I lo…

How it works according to their website is that they will mail a check to the registered address of the charity. That's actually an amazing service - even charities which are not aware of Every.org still benefit from its existence. I'm honestly really impressed.

I can appreciate that you derive value from this, however, envision it from Joe Casual walking by, it has in my case discouraged me from using their service because to me this feels dishonest in a lie-of-omission way. I'm not calling them dishonest, I'm not saying anybody lied, I'm saying the marketing and recruitment strategy should encourage people to use it, not use gray patterns like the ones random voip text people do about "claiming your funds" and such. It's just relating my personal experience and perception of it for the purposes of helping them make a better product, that's all.

I have a text message from just today after lunch with a link to click to claim my funds. No name, no context, just a random text that I can only imagine isn't in fact free money waiting for me.

Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#113

Post by 0des »

wyldfire wrote: post #109
0des wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey just a heads up, you said 1 hour ago "you can donate via their profile here" and then 30 mins ago Andy comments and says he's making an account as we speak.. Did you just solicit donations without them even being signed up? If so, that feels weird, and I'd appreciate at least (as I cant speak for others) if you didn't do that without some heavy disclaimer text making clear that they've shown no interest yet. I lo…

Their terms are pretty clear that it's how they work. I don't know that it's dishonest but it is slightly tricky IMO. It seemed like it was the case when I clicked on it and it would be nicer if it were obvious before donating. But bottom line they'd have gotten the money delivered to ZSF anyways.

True, in this case it goes to a worthy cause and it seems as if Andy is thrilled by the ability to get a check mailed, so obviously there's utility, there's no disputing that... It's just you don't need gray patterns to attract people to things that are awesome.

Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#114

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

einpoklum wrote: post #106
dralley wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even disregarding the language entirely, the toolchain innovations that have come out of Zig are pretty exciting and worth the price of admission. I hope Clang and Rustc learn a few tricks from them.

Can you link to an elaboration about this point specifically?

Consider reading this thread and its parent article discussion - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27873193

Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#115

Post by handoflixue »

probably_wrong wrote: post #56
yboris wrote: post #16

Consider joining Giving What We Can - an international community of people who have pledged to give at least 10% of their income to causes that they think are most effective at eliminating what they think are the world's biggest problems. (I'm a proud member for 10 years). https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/

I like the first half of the idea (donating 10% of one's income) but I feel strongly against their definition of "effective" and "biggest problems". This typically happens when someone multiplies a tiny probability by an infinite value like "time till the heath death of the universe". In particular, their top four recommended charities are managed by "Effective altruism funds", with the 3rd best-ranked charity spendi…

I'd strongly recommend looking at GiveWell specifically: They avoid the weird "AI risk" stuff and mostly focus on Malaria prevention and other very well studied, high-value third world interventions.

In particular, they also list where your money is going, so you can just pick and choose which of their causes you want to support (although I personally donate directly to them so they can decide which charity they think currently maximizes impact-per-dollar): https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

> I'd just encourage people to take 5 minutes and choose their own charities instead of blindly choosing their suggestions.

The problem here is that some organizations have a very well proven track record of solving real problems; some organizations instead focus on very nebulous "social messaging and awareness"; and some organizations exist primarily to pay their executives well.

A quick 5 minute search won't really yield a lot of information on effectiveness, but an organization like GiveWell can afford to hire actual researchers to answer these questions.

(I'm sure there's other decent sources to help evaluate that question, of course. GiveWell is just the one I'm most familiar/fond of)

Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#116

Post by easymuffin »

wyldfire wrote: post #76
AndyKelley wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, thank you for sharing this. I was not aware of Every.org until today. I checked out the platform just now and am delighted. I love that it is a 501(c)(3) and that it is crystal clear with the promise to remain that way. We desperately needed something like this. I also love that you will mail checks to organizations even if they do not sign up for electronic disbursement. However I will sign up ZSF now of course…

Ok sounds like I can go ahead because you will accept from every.org and you do not plan to publish an address to accept donations directly? I'll match other HNers donations of as much as $100 to a total of an additional $1000. Not sure how to substantiate every.org donations but maybe I'll take HNers at their word. EDIT: scoreboard as of 22:20 UTC: $400 out of $1000 to be matched: easymuffin, slimsag, tav, _hl_. Bec…

Thanks everyone. Donated $100 https://i.imgur.com/BasBMKg.jpg

Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#117

Post by slimsag »

tav wrote: post #111
wyldfire wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok sounds like I can go ahead because you will accept from every.org and you do not plan to publish an address to accept donations directly? I'll match other HNers donations of as much as $100 to a total of an additional $1000. Not sure how to substantiate every.org donations but maybe I'll take HNers at their word. EDIT: scoreboard as of 22:20 UTC: $400 out of $1000 to be matched: easymuffin, slimsag, tav, _hl_. Bec…

Thanks for being so generous! Here's $500 from me: https://imgur.com/gallery/qGBGwXc

Matched you $100 https://i.imgur.com/AIimbak.png

Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#118

Post by exochrono »

wyldfire wrote: post #98
jacques_chester wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, skimming the terms: This not a surprising term. By accepting donations to be passed on to someone else, they become trustees, which comes with hefty legal constraints. By having terms saying "we will try our best, but if we fail, we will try to honour your intentions", they can avoid winding up with little piles of money that can't be repurposed and simply ... exist.

No, I don't think it's surprising and I'm glad it's there. But it's the reason that I was nervous about donating absent an affirmative response that ZSF would claim the money. It's nice they'd try to apply it to similar projects but I'd prefer it go to Zig or nothing (or I can donate to another project of my choice).

Just to note - unless we can't reach you, we usually end up just crediting the donor's account with a balance that they can use to support any of the other nonprofits on the platform, so usually you do get to donate to another project of your choice :)

Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#119

Post by scarmig »

loeg wrote: post #77
vorpalhex wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But he will also qualify for a higher SS payout since his income is higher, if my understanding is correct.

SS contributions cap out at around $143k (indexed with inflation). Beyond that, extra income has no impact on your eventual SS payout. Even below that threshold, returns on Social Security tax associated with higher income are pretty small once you meet the 40 credit threshold for any benefit[1]. [1]: https://rootofgood.com/early-retirement-social-security/

~$400k in lifetime earnings fills out the 90% AIME bracket; ~$2M in lifetime earnings fills out the 32% bracket. I think that, so long as you're still in that 32% bracket, you're more likely than not getting (small) positive returns from paying SS taxes.

Though I agree, it'd be silly to continue working or to declare higher income purely for that.

Re: Why I'm donating $150/month (10% of my income) to the musl Libc project (2019)

#120

Post by handoflixue »

einpoklum wrote: post #104
yboris wrote: post #16

Consider joining Giving What We Can - an international community of people who have pledged to give at least 10% of their income to causes that they think are most effective at eliminating what they think are the world's biggest problems. (I'm a proud member for 10 years). https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/

Does it count if you work part-time for pay, and write FOSS the rest of your time? I mean, you're contributing over 10% of your potential-employment time instead of over 10% of the higher salary of a full-timer.

Per https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/pledge/:

"Our pledges are in no way legally binding. They are commitments made voluntarily and enforced solely by your own conscience."

"Our pledges do not restrict you to give to registered charities, specific organisations, or organisations working in a particular cause area. The only requirement is that you give to the organisations which you sincerely believe to be among the most effective at improving the lives of others."

---

So, if you think you genuinely believe working in FOSS results in a better world than pulling in a paycheck and donating to charity, I'd say: yes, absolutely?

It's certainly not the default expectation, mind you. I think you'd probably get less out of the community since they focus in a different direction. But if you still see value in being part of the pledge, I'd definitely encourage you to take the leap and count that FOSS work :)

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