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Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

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131–140 of 162 posts

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

#131
post #55

Stephen Covey gives a useful framework: Do the intersection of your ability, the existing need, your interest, and the important. Ask yourself, "What can I do (ability) that other people value (need), that I like (interest) and that I feel is ultimately important? Also, before you embark on saving the world, you might want to study a little Austrian economics. A lot of charity work and government programs are ineffic…

Well, a problem with the Austrian framework in this context is that there are things we need to finance as social goods (desired outcomes by society at large) that can never be structured to be profitable.

This is, incidentally, the classical economic case for both governmental provision of public goods, taxation, and regulation.

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

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hah, thanks :)

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

#133
post #131
post #55

Stephen Covey gives a useful framework: Do the intersection of your ability, the existing need, your interest, and the important. Ask yourself, "What can I do (ability) that other people value (need), that I like (interest) and that I feel is ultimately important? Also, before you embark on saving the world, you might want to study a little Austrian economics. A lot of charity work and government programs are ineffic…

Well, a problem with the Austrian framework in this context is that there are things we need to finance as social goods (desired outcomes by society at large) that can never be structured to be profitable. This is, incidentally, the classical economic case for both governmental provision of public goods, taxation, and regulation.

You can take the idea of non-coercion and private property pretty far, without even considering the role of charity. See Rothbard's Ethics of Liberty(1) for ideas of how it might work.

Also people are naturally motivated by more than commercial self-interest. This is why charities exist.

1-http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/ethics.asp

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

#134
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…

> Please don't fall into the trap of believing that your daily work and working for the greater good are mutually exclusive.

a great talk about it

TEDxWarwick - Noam Kostucki - Making Money From Doing Good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gRaHyHJjrg

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

#135
post #81
post #55

Stephen Covey gives a useful framework: Do the intersection of your ability, the existing need, your interest, and the important. Ask yourself, "What can I do (ability) that other people value (need), that I like (interest) and that I feel is ultimately important? Also, before you embark on saving the world, you might want to study a little Austrian economics. A lot of charity work and government programs are ineffic…

Can you give links to more information about Austrian economics and how it contributes to poverty?

The misunderstanding of economics contributes to poverty. The Austrian economists tend to write about this. For example, the minimum wage essentially makes it illegal for very unskilled workers to work. This was dramatically illustrated when the US government imposed a higher-than-market minimum-wage on the island of American Samoa and decimated the economy.[1]

An economically-naive do-gooder, considering that a minimum wage helps poor people, might work hard for its passage, not understanding that the minimum wage actually hurts poor people.

[1] Peter Schiff gives an excellent explanation of the result of the minimum-wage on American Samoa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25U_7mx9jU

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

#136
post #99
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I have to take issue with your comments here. I have cystic fibrosis, and have been diagnosed since I was 3. As you surely know, this disease is not the same for everyone, since it is caused by a wide array of genetic defects that manifest themselves differently in each patient. Beyond this, the major health effects of CF are not directly due to these genetic defects. The main sympto…

Thank you for your reply. I am guilty as charged of thinking that the whole thing is rather stupid. When I discovered that addressing excess acidity was effective in helping me need less medication, I thought this was some major revelation. It turns out it is rather well established in the CF community that CF leads to very extreme excess acidity. Yet it goes largely untreated, in spite of acidosis being a known seri…

It sounds to me like your physician is a poor one. One of the first rules with CF is to embrace what seems to work well for the patient, and try to understand it. I'd suggest you attempt to find a new one, or at least contact others in better clinics if you wish to share your story with someone who might be more interested to listen. I've had a lot of success at the CF clinics at Johns Hopkins, VCU, and Stanford.

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

#137
About time this topic came up on HN. The reason this matters is that lots of really smart, driven engineers are being taught that the way to be successful is to make a buck on a quick flip of a consumer web app -- rather than making an impact on the world. Places like Ycombinator that have the most cachet should be leading the charge on reversing this trend.

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

#138
Epic question for humanity but I would phrase the question as, "how do I do something with meaningful [impact]?"

Currently I think of meaningful impact as:

-The depth of behavioral change you create in an individuals' lifetime

-The breadth and scale of behavioral interactions created eg you use Instagram for 1min/day for a month with 100 friends vs a computer for 12hrs/day for life with millions of people (note: I'm not saying one is more or less meaningful than the other; small/simple interactions can turn into something big)

Secondly, I find it difficult to do something "meaningful" without a clear purpose or intention to create impact...(while admitting that at the early stages, visions are often opaque and intentions change)

How entrepreneurs respond to "how are you creating meaningful impact?" helps me decide which startups to invest in...wish I could write more but need to go back to DOing...

Others say: "Impact is a change in the state of the world brought about by an intervention. It’s the final result of behaviors (outcomes) that are generated by activities (outputs) that are driven by resources (inputs)." -Kevin Starr, Mulago Foundation

Notes: -Know your mission (in 8 words using verb, target, & outcome) ex. save pre-mature babies in poor countries http://embraceglobal.org/

-Measure the right thing (the single best indicator)

-Measure it well (the right baseline & interval + show that it was you eg tight story, matched control, randomized controls)

A little algorithm to think about the impact you're creating: Is it needed? Does it work? Will it get to those who need it? Will they use it right?

Text: http://www.mulagofoundation.org/ideas/r/how-we-think-about-i...

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMEpvxGBkFU;

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/aynne/design-for-real-impact-0610

Other points of view: -"A change in purpose changes a system profoundly, even if every element and interconnection remains the same." Donella Meadows http://thinkinginsystems.org/

-"Purpose first, then profit" as part of Umair Haque's New Capitalist Manifesto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz2Zc9UJFUo

-"Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations." http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/collective_impact/

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

#139
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 i…

The current model is that 20-30 kids who want to be moving around and interacting with each other are forced into seats and restricted from moving for hours while teachers talk at them until they get distracted and zone out the teacher to think about other things. And then they go home with an assignment to complete which they may or may not do depending on how motivated they are. When Khan Academy flips this, they make much better use of the situation. There's no reason for everyone to be lectured at together, but there's every reason to allow students to interact and work together while solving problems. There's very little motivation to go home and complete a rigorous assignment when you can be playing outside or watching TV, but watching a couple 10-20 minute videos is enjoyable and completely digestible.

Personally, I believe that the act of working through problems is often more important to learning and development than watching or listening to lectures explaining how to work through problems. If a student's conditions at home are so unstable that they cannot concentrate on watching a single video, then they are clearly never going to be able to put a reasonable amount of effort into homework assignments in the normal education system. I would rather they fail to watch Khan videos at home and interact and explore exercises in class than listen to lectures in class every day but never put those skills into practice because they fail to do homework at home. However, yes, availability of computers at home is an issue. It would be great if Khan Academy were the cure-all for education and would be perfect for everyone, but this is never what has been claimed; unfortunately, for the time being, Khan Academy is not a viable solution for those without computer access.

I'm not sure if the phrasing of drilling exercises was supposed to imply something negative, but the goal of KA's exercises is not to drill students on a question until they can answer it as quickly as possible (this is what I think of when I think of a drill). The goal is to allow students to explore and advance at their own pace, proving mastery of a concept covered in a video and then feeling confident to move onto a more advanced topic. We try to make the exercises as modular as possible (which may make them outwardly resemble drills), but we do this so a complex problem can be broken down into many smaller and easier problems. Instead of making a staircase with huge steps that would take a giant to leap, we're making a staircase with small steps; that way, everyone can advance at their own pace.

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

#140
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 i…

@rubergly handled the drilling comment well, so I'll just quickly add:

1) We do want kids to learn lessons at home so that teachers are freed up to do more project-based learning and...well...teaching (instead of lecturing). This doesn't mean the world falls apart if kids aren't watching videos at home. As @rubergly says, computers in the classroom allow for individualized instruction and solid data, which humanizes the kids' experience by helping teachers address individual needs.

2) On the school front -- there are lots of ideas floating around when thinking about the future, but I can assure you that our primary focus is exactly what it says on the website: "providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere."

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