
Comparing different global problems in terms of potential for impact [video] - robertwiblin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xsR0XBwyo4
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sgift
Maybe I lack ambition, but .. I don't need my career to change the world. I do
a job which helps people to be where they have to be at the time they should
be there. The world doesn't change because your elevator gets repaired faster
(because someone could see "oh right, x has space in their tour and they are
in the area, great") or if you can call your new internet provider and they
can say "Your technician will arrive between 10 and 12" instead of "between 9
and 17 'o clock".

Neither changes the world. But it is a small step to help people do their jobs
just a little bit better, so someone can be a little bit happier or less
inconvenienced and that's enough for me.

~~~
andrei_says_
When I hear “change the world”, I always hear “ego.” Nothing wrong with ego,
of course, especially for visionaries like Jobs or Musk. But it’s a tricky
relationship and needs to be kept in check.

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TuringNYC
Find a way to do it. If you don't have kids, do it before you have kids -- it
is a lot easier. Possibly find a way to get Product License+PS revenue to keep
up current cash.

So I was on Wall Street for 11yrs (and 3yrs Wall St consulting before that.)
One day, I decided i'd just do it. So I did. I found a good dataset for a big
problem (Tuberculosis) with a use case (synchronous diagnosis) in a field
where I had an advantage (CV+ML driven diagnosis) and convinced a customer to
fund development in exchange for equity. Cool think about some of these
problems is that you can give away your product (our approach was to charge
wealthier countries and give it away free in poorer countries (though everyone
would also "pay" via data contribution.)

The product worked. I teamed up with a Radiologist and MPH co-founder and we
did it. The metrics were good. We were even on the acquisition block for a
while. The story is a bit sad later on because we became mired in IP issues
that tripped up the acquisition, but I don't regret the venture.

Not everyone can succeed in addressing a disease with 300MM victims. So just
trying is a success in my book. And your solution need not be some cutting
edge cure -- sometimes ancillary things like fast/cheap diagnoses is enough
because the problem is often identifying early rather than actually curing.
Making a diagnosis, even an initial diagnosis on a two-stage diagnosis,
cheaper/faster is very much in the change-the-world territory. If you have a
laptop, some GPUs, and the ability to sell your vision, you have all you need.

Side note: I wasn't rash in leaving Wall St. (a la Fountainhead) -- I waited
to get my bonus before resigning and I resigned in grace by lining up a
replacement for myself and ensuring there was a transition and my bosses were
happy. One of my bosses even offered to invest in my startup. I also lined up
a dataset before leaving.

