
Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful? - DotOrg
A few months ago I saw a thread on Hacker News that really lit a fire inside of me. Someone posted a Ask HN thread asking something along the lines of "Does your startup help change the world?"<p>I couldn't believe some of the responses. There were tons of people saying that their iPhone apps were because they made it easier to find restaurants.. or that their B2B social media marketing startup was because it was improving productivity for marketers. I'm paraphrasing but that was the gist of many of the responses. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for people who have successful typical startups. But that said, I think people sometimes are extremely sheltered if they think that those sorts of problems are really impacting lives.<p>Families who never thought it would happen to them across the United States are finding themselves homeless. My wife is from a small town that just 15 years ago had very high employment. Today the town is rapidly turning into a miniature Detroit after the main employer of the town closed down and moved overseas. Countless numbers of children are going hungry this summer since their primary and often times only nutritious and filling daily meal is their school lunch. My city recently had a free health treatment clinic for one day only. Hundreds of people stood in line for hours and hours, only to be sent home since not all were able to be seen.<p>And yet, that's just in the United States. Elsewhere in the world, one BILLION people don't have access to clean drinking water. Hundreds of millions of people work 12 hour days seven days a week for in exchange for pennies. People are killed or imprisoned every day just for speaking out against their governments.<p>I'm not delusional or hopelessly optimistic. I'm aware that these are all major global problems, and they're far more complicated than any one person could ever hope to solve. But what I am interested in is finding out a way that I could be doing something as a career to be a part of this. I don't necessarily think that you have to be a nonprofit or charity to still contribute to these sort of things. SwipeGood and Sparked are two examples of this.<p>But my question is - has anyone actually built or is working on something related to these sorts of issues? I'm fascinated by stories such as the one behind Charity Water (http://www.charitywater.org/about/scotts_story.php) and reading about organizations like FreeGeek. I'd love to start a nonprofit of my own, but I have no clue where to begin. If anyone has any advice, thoughts, or would like to connect I'd love to hear from you.
======
edw519
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 homeless
or providing food for the hungry; the work you're already doing may be helping
someone to help someone else to do that.

I've even thought that the best way to put your technical skills to the
greater good is through your day job, not instead of it.

Some of my days jobs have been to write software to ensure that:

    
    
      - people get the right prescription medication on time
      - firetrucks and ambulances get to where they're supposed to be
      - parts that go into cars and planes are properly certified
      - prisoners are kept in jail
      - those same prisoners get proper medical care
      - electronic equipment gets assembled properly and on time
      - medical supplies get dispatched to where they're supposed to
      - insurance claims are processed properly
      - quality data is properly maintained for food items
      

You don't need to do charity work on the side in order to contribute to the
greater good.

On the other hand, if you don't think that the work you do during the day
contributes to the greater good, then maybe you should consider doing
something else with your valuable time.

Do good and get paid. You can do both at the same time.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
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 don't think that the work you do during the day contributes to the greater good, then maybe you should consider doing something else with your valuable time.
        Do good and get paid. You can do both at the same time.
    

Let's sure hope so. I envy you in many ways.

[1] Although I have never directly contributed to a reduction in human misery,
I still take a great deal of pride in things like <http://cocoacontrols.com>,
which have, hopefully, made many iOS developers happier and richer, and many
end-users generally happier.

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

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Hah, thanks :)

------
jodrellblank
[http://lesswrong.com/lw/3gj/efficient_charity_do_unto_others...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/3gj/efficient_charity_do_unto_others/)

"Just as there is only one best charity, there is only one best way to donate
to that charity. Whether you volunteer versus donate money versus raise
awareness is your own choice, but that choice has consequences. If a high-
powered lawyer who makes $1,000 an hour chooses to take an hour off to help
clean up litter on the beach, he's wasted the opportunity to work overtime
that day, make $1,000, donate to a charity that will hire a hundred poor
people for $10/hour to clean up litter, and end up with a hundred times more
litter removed. If he went to the beach because he wanted the sunlight and the
fresh air and the warm feeling of personally contributing to something, that's
fine. If he actually wanted to help people by beautifying the beach, he's
chosen an objectively wrong way to go about it. And if he wanted to help
people, period, he's chosen a very wrong way to go about it, since that $1,000
could save two people from malaria. Unless the litter he removed is really
worth more than two people's lives to him, he's erring even according to his
own value system.

...and the same is true if his philanthropy leads him to work full-time at a
nonprofit instead of going to law school to become a lawyer who makes $1,000 /
hour in the first place. Unless it's one HELL of a nonprofit."

(and the comments)

~~~
_delirium
But what if your personal value system includes wanting your day job---what
you spend 40 hours/wk or more doing---to be directly implementing something
you care about?

Sure, that's a selfish choice to some extent, but I think it's a reasonable
one. Some people choose to live in one city over another just because they
like it, or to work at Google rather than Wall Street because they like what
they're building there more. Some people will pass up a job for one that pays
20% less, because it's building an exciting new app they want to help succeed.
Wanting to work on a social-justice project just seems like a variation of
that; it's quite common and natural for people to want their day job to be
something they care about, if they have the option.

I think the argument as given also assumes that charities are currently
operating optimally, and there's no room for improvement or disruption. If you
applied the efficiency argument to startups in general, it would argue that
you should work a well-paying job and pay _other_ people to do startups. When
would it ever be beneficial to do one yourself? Only if you think the market
is not already efficient, and your personal intervention as a founder could
change things more than working your current job and just funding startups
would.

~~~
ericd
I think you're actually in agreement - if you can do more good via your day
job than you could going out and doing manual labor, it's objectively better
for the cause for you to do it via working more at your day job. It's just
saying that it's silly for someone with a ton of leverage to abandon that
leverage and volunteer as a manual laborer, rather than using the leverage to
do a lot more good.

------
kalvin
When you say "these sorts of issues", it sounds like you're talking about
injustice everywhere. You want to fix injustices-- food for the hungry--
instead of "adding happiness"-- better food photos for people with
smartphones.

In which case, I FEEL YOU. I'm infinitely more interested in SwipeGood than I
am in Zynga. But everyone makes their own choices. Some people just aren't
that concerned with injustice. Some people may have the same goals you do, and
try a different path; nonprofits/NGOs always have good intentions, but not
always good results (have you ever tried fundraising? it's not any easier than
just making money.) And finally, it's a heck of a lot harder to fix injustices
than add happiness. It's harder to scale, too. Much easier to build that photo
sharing startup and be happy. :)

You should figure out what exactly you want to do. Injustice is too broad.
Pick something and start there. You can try to pick something where you think
you'll have "the greatest impact", but it's a) impossible to predict, and b)
it's better long-term if it's something you're passionate about and won't burn
out on.

Khan Academy, Kiva, DonorsChoose, and Samasource are nonprofits that are
popular/well-known in the tech/startup world. Do any of those interest you?
What about them interests you?

Where are you located? If you're in the Bay Area, there's a lot of people
working in/on nonprofits/foundations, social enterprises, and other innovative
social change efforts. But there are so many problems to solve; figure out
what motivates you first. (There's also a lot of crap, just like in tech, and
it's probably harder to tell the difference because everyone is just "trying
to do good" and there are no easy success metrics like revenue or
profitability.)

Good luck! I hope you find something that's meaningful for you and makes an
impact on those less fortunate than you.

~~~
onan_barbarian
I get and agree with the point you're making, and like the distinction that
you're making, but I'm going to quibble a little about the choice of the name
"adding happiness" as the counterpart to "fix injustices".

"Happiness" is a real stretch to describe the thing that a lot of these
startups are "adding". "Pleasant distraction" might be a more apt phrase, or
even just "pleasure". Or "yet one more goddamn reason to start vacantly at my
smartphone, ignoring everything around me", if you're of a cynical bent.

------
dpatru
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
inefficient or actually contributing to poverty because they are contrary to
economic law. You don't want spend few years of your life trying to solve
poverty only to realize that you've been part of the problem.

In general, societies become wealthy when they are virtuous and economically
free. Virtue causes them to generate and keep wealth. Economic freedom helps
them build wealth efficiently. If you want to make any society richer from a
macro level, you might focus on improving one or both of these: help that
society become more virtuous and more free.

Regarding virtue, you might work to decrease drunkenness (Alcoholics
Annonymous), drug use, and other vices. These activities harm individuals and
their families and contribute to poverty.

Regarding freedom, you might work in politics to protect property rights, to
have sound money and market prices, to allow people to work without licensing
and other artificial restrictions, to reduce taxes. You can also work to
spread price information and make markets more efficient (Craigslist, EBay and
AirBnB do this.)

On a lower abstract level, you can work to produce some good or service which
people value but is in short supply. That is, find a popular, over-priced good
or service, and offer it at a lower price and better quality. Khan Academy is
doing this for K-12 education.

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

~~~
dpatru
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>

------
temphn
This might be an unpopular opinion, but a nonprofit/charity will never make as
big a difference as a true for-profit vehicle that is pointed at the same
problem.

Nonprofits are ultimately financially unustainable; they survive on donations
and government grants (tax) rather than direct contributions from customers.
As such they usually can't scale to employ many people or make a worldwide
impact.

There are exceptions in the information age; Wikipedia, Khan Academy, and
perhaps over time Document Cloud. But these too are only useful for people who
have computers, not people who lack food.

In general countries only drag themselves out of poverty through capitalism
and industry. India and China had decades of foreign aid before they turned to
capitalism; now there are many industries in which they are net exporters.

~~~
Tichy
Also, the nonprofit is not under evolutionary pressure to actually solve the
problem. They are just under pressure to make people believe they are doing a
good thing.

~~~
justincormack
Corporations dont tend to rationally shut down when their market goes away
either, there are inefficiencies in the corporate model. Charities do change
as demand changes though.

~~~
Tichy
Eventually the corporation will be bankrupt, though. Still, I don't claim that
corporations are without fail.

It is still necessary to think about "morals" (I don't like morals, because I
think they are only necessary if you don't understand what is really going
on). Otherwise, why not join the Mafia and make millions selling drugs?

~~~
daguar
It's a similar failing: there's a gap between the ultimate good provided by a
non-profit and its metric for funding (which is why grant-writing is a much
more sought-after skill than most programmatic work).

For corporations, there's often a gap between financial performance
(particularly short-term) and real shareholder/owner value.

It's ethically important to see not just private gain (compensation) but also
try to honestly assess one's positive impact on the world (though this does
not discount, for example, donations to charitable causes, or the contribution
to public goods through taxation).

------
damienkatz
I'm late to this thread, but I'd like to add that just doing your job very
well is a great way to give back to the world.

I design database software. I do it because I think it's cool, and I think
it's important to have easy to use software that solves IT problems. My
software is now being used in rural hospitals in Africa to update patient
records, and in disaster areas to help reunite lost children and parents. I
had nothing to do with those things, I just design and write database
software, but they built on my work, because I did my job well.

Doing your job well can inspire, make people happy, provide a base, provide
stability, etc. It can help others do those things that put a happy tear in
your eye, that you know made a profound difference in someones life, you don't
need to be the actual hero to do good in the world, to make a real difference.

------
kamens
We'd love to have anyone passionate about changing the world of education
apply to Khan Academy.

<http://www.khanacademy.org/jobs>

~~~
karambahh
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.

~~~
kamens
@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."

~~~
karambahh
Thanks for your answers

Indeed, I used the word drill in precisely that meaning.

I think I might have been biased by wired's piece. Maybe it's just me or maybe
they failed to render correctly what your org really is.

------
antoncohen
If you want to do something meaningful, do not start a charity. Charities will
not give all the unemployed people jobs. Start a company.

It doesn't matter if the company makes frivolous garbage, as long as it
employs 30,000 people in Detroit. People in Africa are not starving because
you don't have a charity that gives them free medicine. They are starving
because there is no one in Africa starting a company that employs 30,000. It
doesn't matter what that company does, as long as it does something other
people want to pay for, and it is able to provide employment for people.

Innovation feeds the economy. Even if that innovation sounds as frivolous as
web advertising. That frivolous company may be the next Google, they may
employ 30,000, and they may even help people who don't have clean drinking
water.

------
bcks
I've worked primarily with human rights focused non-profit organizations for
the last 15 years or so. I'm a generalist who can do a bit of design, tech,
management and strategy so I offer a good mix of skills for organizations.

idealist.org is a good place to look for tech or design work with non-profits.
I also got my start just cold-calling groups I respected. Most didn't know
what to do with me, but all it took was one or two projects before word-of-
mouth referrals started to spread.

If you are serious about starting a non-profit, the NOLO books are a good mix
of legal and practical advice and often include the forms you need. Check
nolo.com. But I recommend volunteering as a board member or advisor, or
working with an existing non-profit so you can get a closer look at the
mechanics before you dive in. If you have a very specific idea for a charity
or project, perhaps get an hour consultation with a lawyer who specializes in
non-profit corporations.

Feel free to drop me an email if you have more specific questions.

------
vinay_gupta
Yes, I did. An open hardware building system called the hexayurt.

I started in 2002, and went through years of working with shelter charities,
the US military and various other groups to get the technology into the field.
There are experimental units in Haiti and Sri Lanka right now!

On the way I learned a hell of a lot about how the entire mess works, and why
humanitarian innovation is so slow. There's a couple of talks on the hexayurt
web site which might give you useful context: "Ending Poverty with Open
Hardware" and "Enabling Humanitarian Innovation."

Please feel free to drop me a line if you have specific questions, and do
check out Google Image Search on hexayurts to get an idea of where they're
being used most right now!

Vinay

------
blackboxxx
Mother Theresa once said: "When I look upon the masses I can do nothing. When
I look upon the one, I can do something."

Find someone to help. Help them. You have then changed the world for the
better. Now do it again.

~~~
patio11
Another Mother Teresa quote: "Never despair at being but a drop in the ocean,
for without it the ocean would be one drop less."

------
qw
I think it's too easy to focus on specific problems (food/water/medicine),
rather than focusing on the cause of these issues. There are many countries
that have the resources to take care of themselves, but lack the social and
political structure to do so.

Someone needs to take care of these problems in the short term of course,
since there are people suffering today, but it is also important to focus on
how to reduce their needs.

There's no technological magic bullet to solving political and social issues,
but there are ways to reduce them. One major problem in some parts of the
world is corruption. I'm not thinking of the white collar corruption that can
be found in the western world, but basic corruption such as having to bribe
your child's teacher so that he will let your child in. In some cases you even
have to bribe health personnel for the right to "free" health care or other
forms of aid. In some countries the corruption is everywhere and is hurting
the society.

If someone could find a cheap and reliable way of reducing corruption you
would do a lot of good.

------
waterside81
I've been toying with the idea of an organization along the lines of Engineers
without Borders ("Hackers without Borders"?) or something to that effect where
developers lend their talents to causes all over the world. Not saying that an
iPhone app can solve everything, but I'm sure there's quite a few ways where
simple apps here or there could make a big difference.

Does anyone know of something like this out in the wild already? Seems like an
obvious idea.

~~~
skyshaper
There's Random Hacks of Kindness (<http://www.rhok.org/>):

"Random Hacks of Kindness is a community of innovation focused on developing
practical open source solutions to disaster risk management and climate change
adaptation challenges. Random Hacks of Kindness was founded in 2009 in
partnership between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA and the World Bank."

Johnny Long founded Hackers for Charity in 2008:
<http://www.hackersforcharity.org/> \- see announcement talk:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CWrzVJYLWw>

Hack for Change (<http://hackforchange.com/>) might be interesting as well.

------
kentf
This is a great question and something I struggle with everyday. All I know is
that the typical answer of.

"Well, I am going to do this thing that makes money and then when I am rich I
will give back"

Is bullshit. You either give back or you don't. It's not a question of time
and money.

I try and do as much local charity work as I can, I try to be present when
listening to friends and family. I try and treat my wife and my family as the
most important people in the world so that they can bring that love to other
places, but I hear what you saying.

I want to be working on things that change the world. I think at some level,
we all want to be.

Thank you for asking / sharing.

Kent

------
fauigerzigerk
First of all, I think, you are greatly underestimating the role of
productivity growth in fighting poverty.

Apart from the forces that directly increase productivity (science, markets,
entrepreneurship, etc), I think, the most important factor for creating broad
based wealth is transparent, evidence based, predictable governance and a
functioning legal system. It's not about low taxes or high taxes or small or
big government. There are very low tax countries that work and very high tax
countries that work and everything in between.

So if I was going to do non profit work, I would look into ways of creating
transparency, shedding light on areas that affect many people but suffer from
lack of good data. Try to connect new sources of data related to poverty and
make it available to the public, to economists, social scientists and
governments. Or try to make money flows visible to fight corruption or
misinformation. Things like that.

------
graemem
I'm currently in India working with an NGO building software for surveying,
rebuilding their website, and trying to work with a group at IIT who are
building an open source GIS software.

There are plenty of NGOs who could use your skills. Governments are coming to
expect computer work, GIS maps, survey data etc. This puts NGOs who are behind
the times at a real disadvantage for getting funding and getting on with their
projects.

There are plenty of things you could do outside your field aswell. Some
research and finding some people in the know is all it would take. Have a look
at Engineers without borders.

------
stwe
There are some great NGOs for hackers that do awesome stuff: e.g. the Sunlight
Labs in the US, MySociety and the Open Knowledge Foundation (disclaimer:
associated) in the UK. They build apps for government transparency (also
international aid transparency) and participation. I believe that these are
the hackers who actually make the world a better place.

------
philwelch
_Families who never thought it would happen to them across the United States
are finding themselves homeless. My wife is from a small town that just 15
years ago had very high employment. Today the town is rapidly turning into a
miniature Detroit after the main employer of the town closed down and moved
overseas. Countless numbers of children are going hungry this summer since
their primary and often times only nutritious and filling daily meal is their
school lunch._

The solution is to _create a successful business_. It doesn't matter what the
business does, as long as it makes money you're guaranteed to be making a
positive difference. Not only are you creating enough value somewhere in the
world to make that kind of profit on your work, but you're also providing a
sustainable income for yourself and all your employees.

------
msutherl
I'm of the opinion that it's hard to say that a good deed done in a dire
situation is ethically superior to a good deed done in a less dire situation.
Rather than address the problems of less fortunate people elsewhere in the
world, I work to make my own world better.

My favorite way to justify my work is that I'm interested in making things and
events that make life worth living.

While I do this, I try to minimize the extent tow which my actions are
connected to the exploitation of others. When it comes to computers and other
complex technologies, I try to "concentrate firepower", which means to use
high-tech tools only in situations when it will have a significant effect.
Otherwise I use simple tools.

------
gfodor
A good friend of mine has a startup called SmallAct whose goal is to provide
software that lets non-profits better engage with their donors through social
media. It is a nice cross between the types of projects traditionally attacked
by your typical silicon valley startup (they're based in DC however,) but
instead of using that type of technology to support rampant consumerism or
sharing cat pictures it's instead focused upon indirectly helping the global
problems you mention.

www.smallact.com

Also, I work for Etsy, which is providing a way for people to become more
self-reliant and giving consumers a way to form a more human connection with
the people they purchase goods from. We're in NYC.

www.etsy.com

~~~
rokhayakebe
My issue with non profits is that lots of them actually just use it as a
cover. Someone may still be getting rich slowly.

------
kevinconroy
All three of my favorite non-profit tech charities are hiring programmers:

Kiva - <http://www.kiva.org/jobs> DonorsChoose -
<http://www.donorschoose.org/docs/software-engineer.htm> GlobalGiving -
[http://www.globalgiving.org/aboutus/jobs/software-
engineer-f...](http://www.globalgiving.org/aboutus/jobs/software-engineer-for-
good.html)

------
sundeep_b
Everyone wants to do _something_ to make their life meaningful. The time that
takes to discover that _something_ is the most crucial of times and the
deciding factor of what we are going to do. For example, I want to invent
_something_ that makes life easier and probably do few patents around it. The
question is 'where do I start?'. There are innumerable fields that I can
choose among and do my research.Having realized that it is a _very long_ term
goal, I started to dig to see which field can bring the spark in me. I might
probably reach to a conclusion in five years, but I will. That's only an
example.

You have mentioned that you would like to start a nonprofit of your own. So do
I and most of our friends here. The question again is where do I start? Then,
there are innumerable ways that help can be passed. We have to start digging
as to what, when existent now, can do the delta the world needs.The simple
answer here is to start helping in all ways you can - volunteer and meet
people. Charity Water also didn't start within a week. The man left his _life_
and joined a charity organization(Mercy Ships), met people and got to know
their problems - It all fit in a line, but took several years of hardship to
him, but at the end lies all the satisfaction, right?. Then he has seen a
solution and found the best ways to fill it.

One wise man said that "Every great idea is the result of a moment's
inspiration". True and in addition I feel that every great organization is the
result of hours of hard work on that idea. So, what you have felt is
inspiration and what you need is time to find your great idea and then start
working on it. Good Luck!

------
sidman
Its not that black and white. Just cause your startup isnt directly fixing the
world problems it doesnt mean that one day it might not. Either directly or
indirectly.

I hate to say it but i think in more cases then not the kind of startups that
most of us imagine doing (ie web startups) have a hard time doing anything to
solve the worlds problems directly (the worlds problems that you mentioned
more specifically). Not saying there isnt (i seen a few that raise money and
help schools execute projects for instance but there are only a handful) but
for the most part they do not tackle for example educational problems DIRECTLY
such as say OLPC does.

I really love sal khans khanacademy stuff, its truly awesome but it isnt
getting to the kids that dont have a roof over their school let alone an
internet connection and many of these schools could really use his material.

This material might one day with the help of a very rich successful individual
who is willing to purchase computers for the less fortunate parts of the world
to then be able to view khans stuff. I think this applies to ALL web startups
that isnt directly raising money for the problem parts of the world.

BUT what can be done is, the success (monetary or influential) we get from
allowing people to find restaurants that are near them, or allows people to
search for data easier <insert startup goal here> can be put to good use.

Maybe even purchase those computers for some unfortunate part of the world
that will then allow them to view sal's, standfords or any similar educational
content that will actually change the lives of those kids.

------
noahfradin
Companies that do good are becoming more and more popular as companies like
TOMS shoes and Ethos water prove the value of cause based marketing. Also,
incorporating giving into an existing business is becoming easier. My company,
CherryCard, connects charitable giving with everyday purchases by enabling
companies to give a percentage of their sales to the charities of their
customers' choice. We believe that whenever money changes hands a little bit
should go to charity. You'll get 25 cents to give to the charity of your
choice for free when you sign up at CherryCard.org so that you can try it out
and get a feel for the service. I feel very strongly about the importance and
potential of incorporating giving into business, which is why we have built
CherryCard to give companies an effective turnkey cause marketing solution and
built incentives for companies to give more. If you ever want to chat about
the place for giving in business shoot me an email at
noahfradin@cherrycard.org. Oh and you should definitely all sign up and give
your free 25 cents to The World Food Program. They need the money right now
and 25 cents can give a starving child a meal.

------
Detrus
Similar thread from a while back mentioning charitywater
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822610> Spammy?

And I'll start with my old answer here.

I'm suspicious of attempts to solve problems in the developing world that
aren't part of an all around solution. Making it easier to grow food, get
water without a simultaneous plan to lower population size is a dangerous
game. I think the old school approaches to charity are very wrong and if you
want to do something useful for humanity, they are the last place to do it.

Yes the responses about making it easier to market crap being useful to
humanity are funny and cruel. But they hint that we in the developed world
don't care about poverty. We've seen many shocking ads with starving children
asking for money and now we are disillusioned because charities haven't
delivered after decades. In the US, well intentioned programs implemented in
the 70's made the problem much worse.

Poverty in poor countries won't end until developed countries let them into
the global economy on fair terms. That's how China got where it is and now we
market their crap on iPhones. Is that a better world? Not exactly.

------
trotsky
You should take a look at "Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business
and the Future of Capitalism" by Muhammad Yunus. He won the nobel peace prize
in 2006 for his groundbreaking work on Grameen Bank. I really like the idea of
social entrepreneurs, applying a non-loss structure and energy to solving
social problems. In my experience a lot of non-profits struggle by underfunded
and not living up to their potential.

------
mad44
Eric Brewer (uc Berkeley) has been working on technologies for developing
regions. Directional antenna for 802.11 so that villages can connect to
Internet, software so that doctors can remotely diagnose patients. His
presentation on his homepage is very inspiring. (sorry I am away from my
laptop and can't provide a link.)

I really like the question in this thread and look forward to see insightful
suggestions in the comments.

------
yason
They say you don't need to do great things, just little things with great
love. That's pretty true in my experience.

Also, there's always that snarky little angle when seeking for something
meaningful to do: you're in effect seeking a meaningful life, or just a
meaning, for yourself. So there's that selfish aspect there as well. And that
sort of implies judgment: you decide it's wrong that other people are wronged;
however, the world is often a bit gray and it is gray on that, too. You don't
know what these people are going through by living their poor lives and great
suffering. And you don't know why. And no matter who it is you can't just go
out and decide some people need help: these people need to ask for help
themselves, only then they can receive.

That's what I think the starting quote means: you can ask for being a helper
yourself and then wait how that unfolds in your case. Most likely it's
something that comes up in your everyday life, hence the little things with
great love. That's where you have the greatest possible leverage to do good
because it's your everyday life and you're invested in it yourself as well.

------
ddw
I think providing non-trivial information that can help people make decisions
is important and something that CS people can do. I'm thinking of maybe open
data from/about governments that would allow for greater civic engagement. I
live in the U.S. so it's still not as dire as other places, but still it's
something.

I'm glad that someone is thinking about this instead of a new way to sell ads.

------
wccrawford
And I think you're naive if you think that giants stand alone. They don't.
They stand on the shoulders of the little people. Without restaurant finders,
giants waste time trying to find a restaurant, instead of doing whatever
world-improving they do.

It's a cumulative thing, and without all the little niceties, the important
stuff doesn't get done.

Don't knock the little people. They're helping, too.

~~~
onan_barbarian
Giants, in my experience, don't spend a lot of time dithering about which
restaurant to go to, organizing the photos on their hard drives, etc.

The "giant's" primary school teacher, sure. The guy that funded his first
crackpot-sounding business. His admin assistant, etc. That forgotten 5th
employee who wrote half the code... or all those other companies that the
"giant" first bought and sold stuff to/from. But no - not generally a bunch of
random 'lifestyle' startup guys peddling restaurant finders and photo
organizers and casual games.

------
pknerd
Even if you(or your app) could bring smile on someone's face or help to gain
confidence then I think still you are going to make someone's life better.
This is what I had in mind when I created my 1st iPhone app,"Am I Beautiful?"

<http://mib.sidlabs.com>

It is not necessary you get involved in something big. Start from small thing
and then try something big.

My 2 Cents

------
Mz
I did lots of volunteer work for years. I was a homemaker raising special
needs kids and wrestling with health issues. A real career was out of my
reach. I was also a major bleeding heart, something I have worked to get over.
I've thought a lot about such things. Some things I piddle around with part
time (while continuing to resolve my own issues, that are supposed to be
unresolvable):

I keep a small, out of date parenting and homeschooling site. It rarely gets
updated. I still hope this will change someday. I also keep my toe in on a
list or two. I believe firmly that if you want to see less crime, fewer people
in prison and so on, you should put more societal resources into supporting
families and helping people be good parents and helping kids get raised right.
I think every little bit helps in this regard. So I continue to be a resource,
on a small scale, for folks who have very challenging children.

I also run a health site. I have a form of cystic fibrosis, as does my oldest
son. I have figured out how to get us well. I share that info to the best of
my ability, in spite of huge negative reactions from the CF community. My
thought is that I would like to write a game (aka simulation) to better share
my understanding of what works. My approach is a diet and lifestyle approach
which flies in the face of what most people know to be true about this deadly
condition. I do not want to do this as a charity. Yet I can't do it as a
traditional business model. Maybe something like a freemium model will work.
I'm not sure.

I'm pretty disillusioned and disenchanted with the charity model. It tends to
fundamentally assume that people cannot help themselves. I think this tends to
cause big problems and you need to be very, very careful about such underlying
assumptions. I have overcome some very serious personal problems. In the
course of doing so, I have routinely run into "helpers" who had to be ditched
at some point -- even if they were professionals. It is standard modus
operandi of most such people to want to help you walk better but not want you
to stand entirely on your own two feet because then they have no role in life
as someone's crutch. My experience has been that such people have an enormous
need to be needed and can't imagine anyone would genuinely "love" them or
befriend them as an equal. It speaks simultaneously of both phenomenal
arrogance (often rooted in being much more competent than average) and
phenomenal insecurity (often rooted in having been given hell socially for
most of their lives, in part for the crime of being too competent).

I would like to see the world be a better place. I consider that to be a form
of selfishness: If the world is a better place, I get to live in a better
place. I see no reason why a charity model is fundamentally superior to a
business model for achieving such a goal. I see lots of cases where a charity
model is part of the problem. One notable "exception" is Habitat for Humanity.
Please note they are not really a charity per se: They do not give away houses
for nothing. They sell the houses and recipients have to also provide labor
beforehand. They just a) don't sell at a profit b) due to volunteer labor and
donated supplies, not selling at a profit means selling a house for
substantially less than it is typically worth on the open market and c) they
don't charge interest on the loan. This combo makes the loan payments
dramatically less than house payments typically are.

Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts while exhausted and foolishly posting
anyway.

Peace.

~~~
jswinghammer
I found this to be pretty interesting. I know someone with a little girl who
has CF. The whole situation is just sad all around.

There is a long history of selling dietary advice in book and newsletter form.
Hard to say without knowing the details but if you feel like you have
something to share it's worth seeing if anyone cares to find out about it. I'd
be willing to try just about anything if one of my daughters had CF. Price
isn't really a factor to people in that frame of mind.

A blog, forum, and one on one advice site for this seems like it could work
assuming your results are real and repeatable (not saying they are or aren't
just saying really). Seems like that'd be worth a monthly subscription.

~~~
Mz
My estimate is that the US currently spends roughly $3 Billion (with a B) on
medical care for a mere 30,000 people with CF. This is mostly covered by
insurance, state aid, federal aid, and charities. The families are typically
under enormous financial stress and can ill afford to spend money on some
risky unproven source of advice, which is the category my experiences fall
into. I think it's very repeatable and people who have chosen to act on even
limited bits of my advice have reported very good results. I have so far not
had anyone tell me "I tried that and it so failed". Given the degree to which
I am routinely vilified by the CF community (for advocating "dangerous" things
like eating better), I strongly suspect if there were any significant failures
of my approach, I would never hear the end of it.

The fundamental problem appears to be that people define CF in the following
manner (quote from a doctor): "People like you don't get well." Since I got
well, I must be lying. I can't really have CF.

I have no plans to charge money for information. I have no idea how it would
be monetized. I generally assume I am better off pursuing other things for
money and keeping this fairly low on the radar. Attempts to shout it from the
rooftops has only served to convince people in the CF that I am a liar, a
charlatan and a snake oil salesman -- that I suffer from Munchhausen Syndrome
and am doing this out of a sick need for attention rather than a sincere
desire to help other people like me.

Anyway, there is a link to my site in my profile. It's the one with the word
"health" in the URL. :-) I have no idea how that $3 billion could be tapped
into to support a saner, more humane and cheaper treatment approach. God knows
I would be on it in a heartbeat if I could figure that out as I have a pile of
debts from getting myself well.

Peace.

~~~
gfodor
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 symptom of CF is the build up of thick mucous in the
lungs, however the battle against CF is a battle against infection, not
against mucous. It's only recently that the role of the immune system has
started to be understood. Needless to say, CF is a manifestation of a large,
complex system of things, all of which vary from patient to patient, and
change dramatically as the patient goes through life.

It's taken decades to unravel the puzzle thusfar, with many roads leading to
dead ends. As you surely know, CF was a disease that was supposed to be cured
10-15 years ago. But, it's proven difficult.

There are reasons for hope. The truth is that your particular struggle with CF
may have made it possible for you to get well through certain dietary changes,
but the fact is this is a complex, ever-changing disease and dietary changes,
while helpful, certainly are insufficient for most CF sufferers to feel well.

Decades of medical research have brought about drugs that, after years of
study, have proven reliability in increasing FEV1. (I was one of the patients
in the Phase II trial of Pulmozyme many years ago.) These have been a godsend
for myself and other CF sufferers.

Your blog seems to make many claims unsupported by medical research, and has a
long series of hypotheses and theories about how certain things affect
yourself and your child. There are a few things that I see in your writing
that I suggest you reflect on as part of the reason you are having a time
being accepted by the CF community:

\- You seem to have an attitude that your solution is so simple, "boring", and
hard work, that you've managed to figure out the solution when all these
foolish doctors and researchers have had their heads up their asses. It's not
easy, and they haven't. This attitude manages to tell CF sufferers that its
their laziness keeping them sick. I can assure you all of us work hard and
would gladly do what we need to get well if we knew it was possible.

\- You play the victim card, alienating anyone who hasn't heard of your blog
before.

\- You make logical fallacies. You claim that nobody telling you your
technique failed is proof-positive that it probably works. You claim that
people tell you that they have had success as proof as well. These are classic
fallacies in medical research, and is part of the reason medical research is
so hard to do correctly.

In order to make a positive impact on the CF community, I'd encourage you to
attempt to reach out to researchers and collaborate with them in a
_constructive_ fashion. I'd suggest you do the research on what has been
learned so far about CF. I'd suggest you educate yourself on biology,
genetics, immunology, and basic medicine as much as you can. I hope you can
channel your energy into organizing information in an honest, informative
manner without having it be tarnished by the various things I mentioned above.
Good luck, and I hope you and your son continue to see good health.

Edit: for those interested, I'd encourage you to check out the CF foundation's
drug pipeline:

<http://www.cff.org/research/DrugDevelopmentPipeline/>

The CF foundation has done some good and some not so good things in the past,
but this page at least is accurate and up-to-date. VX770 right now stands to
be the most promising path to alleviating the symptoms of CF sufferers in a
large way.

~~~
Mz
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 serious medical problem. Additionally, the salt issue is so well
established as an issue for CF that a sweat chloride test is the single most
common initial test for CF, yet nothing is really done to address that issue.
Both seem very obvious for anyone in the know yet both go largely ignored in
treatment modalities.

As for victim card, I've really had the crap kicked out of me for trying to
share info. I have no doubt that at this point that negatively impacts the way
I come across when discussing the issue. I don't have some magic wand for how
to make that go away. I think the ugliest thing said to me publicly was that
someone implied that my son was the product of an incestuous relationship.
Moderators routinely side with my attackers and act like I have some
unreasonable expectation for thinking I should be able to participate in
conversation on the same footing as other members where such attacks would not
be tolerated. I have left lists over such incidents.

Researchers and doctors have expressed no interest in what I am doing. My
doctor's response to my dramatic improvements in health was to schedule me
fewer and fewer appointments and express zero curiosity as to how I was doing
so much better. For the most part, people on CF lists are also not really
interested. Their primary response is to be very defensive and default to
accusations that I am a charlatan and a snake oil salesman. I find this
personally very difficult to comprehend or deal with. I have CF. Why on earth
would make any of this up? People are suffering and dying and begging for a
cure. One would think that my testimony about my experiences would be warmly
welcomed rather than viciously attacked. I am both baffled and hurt by this
consistent response over the past five years.

I didn't get myself well in order to impress anyone. I am willing to help if I
am able, but I am not interested in martyring myself. I got well to get my
life back, not to find new ways to be tormented by life. If getting my life
back is all it accomplishes, that is enough in my book. (I have heard similar
stories of health improvement due to diet/lifestyle changes about other
people. I am apparently not the only one who made significant changes to diet
and lifestyle and saw major improvements. Most people apparently just go on
living quietly rather than fight with other people about it, an approach I
continue to work on in spite of my big mouth.) The degree to which the CF
community plays the victim card and expects other people to pay for their
survival and very high on-going medical expenses is something that looks to me
like a big part of the problem, both in terms of mental models and
logistically.

As for the "excess mucus" theory, I do not buy it. I have seen more than one
public discussion about women with CF suffering vaginal dryness, in some cases
so severe it ruined their sex life. I see no reason why one set of mucus
membranes in the body would work the opposite of the rest for a genetic
disorder that impacts all cells in the same manner. One study I ran across
indicated that it was not excess mucus clogging up the lungs of people with
CF, it was phlegm -- ie infection -- and that, in fact, people with CF produce
too little mucus, not too much. This fits with my experience that when my
sinuses are too dry, that's when I have more lung issues and sinus issues. I
have seen women with CF complain of "goopiness" (vaginally). I see no reason
to believe that isn't also a form of drainage from infection, similar to
phlegm build up in the lungs. It seems to me if it were mucus, then women with
CF shouldn't have any of the difficulties with sex which they report.

I am not claiming that lack of reports of egregious problems is proof positive
that it works, much less that it would work equally well for all people with
CF. I am claiming that people who have tried some of my suggestions and also
reported back have indicated surprisingly good results, often in quite a short
period of time (for example, one parent whose teenaged child was supposed to
be listed for lung transplant put them on supplements I suggested and in a
very short period of time -- something like two weeks -- saw such dramatic
improvement in lung function that listing for transplant stopped being a
consideration). I am also indicating that while people in the CF community are
very critical, often in a very ugly fashion, none of the criticism I have
received so far has come from someone who tried my ideas and got sick from it.
It seems to come from people who reject all of it out of hand as "too good to
be true" without further investigation.

Peace.

~~~
gfodor
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.

~~~
Mz
I actually haven't seen a physician in roughly five years. So that doesn't
happen to be a concern for me. However most people I meet, you included, are
simply dismissive. I appreciate that you haven't been ugly about it but your
response -- that I have an attitude problem of some sort, that my views are
filled with logical fallacies and so on -- is the typical response of the
majority of people in the CF community whether they are patients, family
members or professionals. So I really see no reason to believe that getting a
different doctor would make some sudden, radical difference in that regard.

Folks who are genuinely interested in my experiences and my understanding of
the problem space are few and far between. I leave the site up for the benefit
of the small number of people who are interested in the information. These
days, I spend a great deal less time posting on health lists than I used to.
It accomplishes very little and gets me loads of very negative attention. So I
see little point in pursuing such activities. Having gotten myself basically
well, my main focus is on other things these days.

Take care.

~~~
gfodor
I'm a skeptic, as anyone who has CF should be. As I said, I am happy for you,
but you need to be very careful when making claims as you do since lives are
at stake. If you are going to post information that CF patients might act upon
it is your responsibility to put it into appropriate context, try to disprove
it yourself, and be open to alternative theories as to why your approach
worked other than that you have cured your CF through consuming sea salt and
tonic water.

The history of CF is full of stories like yours where people seem to be onto
something only to find out that it was circumstantial or not scalable to the
rest of the CF population. This is still a very mysterious disease. My point
is that a large part of the reason you might not be taken seriously is due to
your tone, your apparent skepticism of western medicine, and your lack of
expertise on the fields you are making claims about.

If you do not want to try to use the information you have to help others, so
be it. But if you do, posting on health lists and arguing over the internet is
not the way to do it. The way to do it is to educate yourself enough that you
can hold a real discussion with medical researchers, and find medical
researchers (or become one yourself) who would be willing to test your claims
empirically. You've positioned yourself as a champion against the
establishment, and this is not the way to actually get anything meaningful
accomplished. Posting anecdotal evidence, contradictory claims, and lots of
random speculations about the effects of various foods and dietary changes
without accurate measurement and study does little good towards this end, if
the goal is to help the wider CF community, despite your intentions to be
helpful.

~~~
Mz
I would be very concerned if you were not skeptical. I have no issue with
skepticism. My experience has been that individuals new to the CF community or
individuals who have long pursued alternative approaches are the most able to
understand and act on the information. I have come to believe a more
information dense delivery mechanism would be helpful. I don't personally see
any reason to believe that normal research channels are the way to go with
this. I like being helpful. I just don't feel obligated to cram my views down
anyone's throat and most members of the CF community have made it abundantly
clear that they have no interest in what I am doing. I see no reason to either
fight with people or martyr myself. The information is there if someone is
interested and has already helped some people. So I see no reason to defer to
your opinion that sharing it online is not the way to go.

Take care.

------
sbkirk
I'm the co-founder of TechiesGiveBack (techiesgiveback.org). We are aimed at
helping the NY tech community give back to charity. We've considered different
ways for how to approach this problem. I've also been approached or spoken to
a variety of different companies looking to make a difference - Crowdrise,
IndieGoGo (which we used for a recent fundraising campaign), Let's Give, and
others.

Just spoke to Gabriel Weinberg about his open source tithing effort this
morning ([http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/11/help-me-
start-a-...](http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/11/help-me-start-a-foss-
tithing-movement.html)).

We are working on our own new initiative which will allow mature startups and
tech companies to let their employees donate a little bit of their paycheck to
charity. I'd be happy to talk about that over email...

(We don't take any money for ourselves - we do it pro bono and all work in
tech. We raise money for other charities).

------
pnathan
The company that employs me creates devices that help make electric power
safer, more reliable, and more economical. We're not a startup, though. :-)

In my immediate memory, we've been working with electrification projects for
two different Third World countries. Our technology has helped bring
electricity to places that _never had it before_.

I'm proud to be a part of that.

------
chubs
Find a mentor. If you're serious, and not just 'going through a phase', you'll
need people to spur you on with this. Find some organisations you admire, eg
kiva, and email the founders to see if they'd mentor you or if they could
recommend anyone.

Some friends and I have been going through these issues lately, and we're
desperately trying to find out how we can change the world. Here's what we've
come up with:

* Do what you can now. Start small. eg Don't put it off until "one day when i'm rich". * Work with what's in your hands, in your sphere of influence. If nothing is in your hands right now, you can change yourself. * Find friends who are of the same mind, and spur each other on. * Read LOTS. Grow yourself. Read about leadership. That's the starting point. Start by reading seth godin, i'd recommend. * Change the world for the better in one small way every day. * Learn how to take initiative, start things, and complete them.

------
tomkinstinch
If you're in the US, take a look at jobs in the DOE National Lab system. There
are many of good hackers working on real problems. Bioenergy, materials
science, systems biology, cyber security, supercomputing, and computer science
are all happening at the Labs. It's a little like academia, but much more
applied and practical.

------
taraseshan
This really resonated with me.

While I do appreciate the sentiments expressed below (that we're doing good by
doing our daily work) I do think that we can take an extra effort to make a
positive contribution to the world. Yes, doing your daily work and doing good
aren't mutually exclusive, but dedicating yourself to doing good explicitly is
better than plugging away at something that coincidentally creates social
value along with the main goal of corporate benefit. And yes, that does
matter.

It's definitely difficult to fix injustices. It's definitely not as easy as
creating the next iPhone game or daily deals site. Nevertheless, it needs to
get done, by someone, and I think it's wonderful that you want to be that
person. Step up to the challenge, you're one of the few.

I can't give that much tangible advice-I'm trying to do the same thing and am
fairly clueless. Nevertheless, here's my (up)vote of confidence!

------
rms
You're probably best off making as much money as you can and putting it to
work via an efficient charity than trying to save the world yourself.

This post spells it out via endless links of endlessness:
<http://lesswrong.com/lw/373/how_to_save_the_world/>

------
cjbprime
The best thing you can do is probably to donate a significant percentage of
your income to an effective international aid organization, like VillageReach
or Oxfam. The money you're earning performing your standard job is simply able
to produce more good than having you fly around the world attempting to do
things to help (usually in an inferior way to locals) would.

I've been doing this for a few years:
<http://blog.printf.net/articles/2010/11/26/giving-thanks>

And I've come to rely on GiveWell, which is an organization performing
quantitative review of which charities produce the most good per dollar
donated: <http://www.givewell.org/>

Good luck!

------
d0ne
While I'm not currently at liberty to discuss the specifics a start-up I'm
involved with, Social Fortress[1], is working with several human rights
organizations to implement aspects of our technology for the purpose of
allowing individuals to communicate privately, using open communication
channels, without having to fear that their government can see / access the
content of those communications.

To answer your question directly:

Find a problem that affects people of all 'levels' of society and do your best
everyday to solve for it.

[1] <https://www.socialfortress.com> \- The site is sparse on technical
information but expect that to change in the coming weeks. Any specific
questions can be directed to feedback@socialfortress.com

------
June
A common misperception is that you need to be a non-profit in order to pursue
a social mission but this is not necessarily the case. As a charity you can
raise money but are limited in your ability to generate revenue. A for-profit
organization is self-sustaining and doesn't have to rely on grants or
donations.

Here are a few links: Unreasonable Institute
<http://unreasonableinstitute.org/> Ashoka <http://www.ashoka.org/> Social
Edge <http://www.socialedge.org/> B Corporation <http://www.bcorporation.net/>

------
rokhayakebe
1- Help others do something meaningful to them.

2- Or do like Billy. Create a monopoly in an industry and rip most of the
benefits. Then take the profits and eradicate Malaria.

Note: It is arguable that Bill Gates alone does more good than all the charity
donated through DonorsChoose or Kiva etc..

------
jhdavids8
I just want to say that if you can't think of something substantial or
meaningful to do, don't get discouraged. Trust me, I'm in your boat and don't
know where to start. While I try to find that start, I'm also trying to focus
on a startup I do believe in but I know is no charitable 'game-changer'. It's
easier to have that bright idea or enforce some charitable influence once you
have personal influence and resources (cough, cough..money). If you're in that
position, you can make substantial difference much easier (and yes, you don't
necessarily need those things either, but they do help)

------
edcrfv
Start by doing something small. Do it well. Do it again and again and again.
Until you think you can scale it up and it doesn't interfere with any of your
personal commitments or dreams.

I was really impressed with this video by Derek Sivers about how startups
don't need funding to start. Though in a different context, it puts the point
across. (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KLnXjqKL5g>) If you want to make a
big difference, start by doing smaller things and scale up.

------
keeptrying
I think your answer is within your question. Do what the charity water guy
did. Go volunteer abroad. Maybe 1 month or 2 months to start with. If you dont
like it then at least you've helped out for 2months and you'll know your not
meant to volunteer fulltime.

As you see how these people live and their problems you'll come up with a
solution because your a software engineer - thats what we do.

------
ginkgoo
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.

------
mapster
Don't make it so complicated. Look at life through a child's eyes. If you see
something wrong - think about the most obvious solution, and take basic steps
to solve it. (i.e. People are dying of disease from dirty water. How can I get
them clean water or a water purifier? I will raise money, buy 100 water
purifiers and fly to that country and deliver them.)

------
paulrademacher
Step one: Do _something_.

Step two: Just take it from there.

------
te_chris
I'm involved with a company here in New Zealand called Enspiral. I'll take no
credit for much of anything as my involvement is mainly through their
contracting arm, however they're a great example of using entrepreneurship to
try and effect social change.

Check out their website here: <http://enspiral.com>

------
paulschreiber
About four years ago, I started to get restless. I had been working for a
large fruit company for quite some time. I had done pretty well in my job and
learned a lot. I was a better engineer, better communicator and better person.

While I felt proud of the fights I had won on behalf of users (every time you
type command-comma and it works…), making them more productive at their jobs,
I felt I wasn't doing enough to help people directly. I didn't want to just
make tools to help other people work on big important problems or give them
money — I wanted to work on big, important problems.

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to volunteer for the Obama
campaign in 2008. What started out as a couple of phone calls turned into two
months of solid work, helping register hundreds of thousands of voters and
making sure folks found their polling places. I didn't lose touch with the
grassroots field volunteer in me, either: I was on the phone, too, talking to
regular voters.

I wanted to be this inspired by my work all of the time. After shipping
another big cat, I left. I spent a month helping Engineers Without Borders
Canada (important: not all EWBs are created equal), and went through a
leadership development fellowship.

While my number one passion is for the environment and energy efficiency — and
I'm not doing that — yet, I have been fortunate to pick and choose some really
cool projects:

    
    
      - creating an online application process for college and university scholarships
      - helping EWB Canada win $50,000
      - doing strategy/UI/fundraising for a network of student-run food co-ops
      - building a text messaging-based tool to remind people to vote
    

Now I'm working on TurboVote, a nonprofit service that makes voting by mail as
easy as renting a DVD from Netflix. If you've ever tried to track down an
absentee ballot request form, voter registration form and county clerk mailing
address, you know what a hassle that is. We make it easy.

Where this becomes a big deal is not in presidential elections, where turnout
is 50-60% (which is pretty shameful), but in local, primary and special
elections, where it drops to 10%. But once you're signed up to vote by mail,
you just get the ballots … and you vote … and maybe we get turnout to 15%.
It's not a lot, but relatively speaking, it's a big deal.

If this sounds like fun, we're hiring a rails developer:
<http://blog.turbovote.org/2011/07/were-hiring/>

------
nilbus
I like how everyone is addressing the core problem. However, to give a more
superficial answer, have you checked out <http://www.causerific.com>? Some of
the causes on there might be right what you're looking for, and could
potentially employ you as well.

------
kidneb
I'm creating an app for folks to get together around these issues and actually
start doing something or discovering where action is possible. in a life-game
action-sharing way. so all you searchers out there are my ideal target. (but
i'm doing it alone the last ten months and could really use some help...)

------
ltamake
If that really motivates you, __go for it __. If you think you can make a
difference in communities struck by poverty, start a company. A few ideas are
a simple social donation service with a spin or a site that allows you to send
items easily through the mail (eBay for charity).

------
motiwalla
Check out companies certified as B Corporation. (Google it). In their own way,
they are demonstrably making the world a better place. It's basically an
objective standard for "social enterprises" - almost any start up can
implement these benchmarks (if they're really committed to it)

------
natasham25
I recommend you read "How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the
Power of New Ideas" for inspiration. It is filled with some incredible stories
of people who were able to have an incredible impact with only a little help.

------
Swizec
Reading this, I had this thought:

The internet is my world. Therefore all my ideas are The Next Better Widget
(tm). I think I need to go on an internet diet for a month.

Will have to think about this, thanks for giving me personally dangerous ideas
DotOrg.

------
ww520
Nice topic.

Though not related solving these basic need problems, I'm working on providing
very low cost (free) communication for people far away. Hopefully I'll get
something to show soon.

------
mw63214
Thought it may have been from my post a few months back:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2625009>

------
draz
it's interesting that no one mentioned the good produced when a company that
does not do "good," per se, makes good money (for profit) and then donates
some of it to worthy causes. I personally think this is the ultimate win-win
situation: you provide a service people want (that is, increase of happiness),
but at the same time also help those who cannot afford you service (increase
in good).

------
ga
The question is now "how", but "should you".

Doing something meaningful, in the way you described it, looks a lot to me
like guilt over a perceived unfairness of life. Yes people are dying in remote
places, yes people need healthcare in the US, and yes not everyone has a job.
You want to try and fix the situation, but many others also have tried, and
failed.

Maybe you want to do that to be relieve of your guilt, to try and find
happiness instead. I mean it's very popular to say that you are trying to
change the world, making it a better place, and so on, but then in the end,
will it make you happy?

And even worse- what is your final objective? Being happy?

Maybe you perceive a dysfunction is the way the world works vs how you think
it should work. Then your goal might be to "remove biais", or be "less wrong".
Some blogger might help you in your path.

If your goal is finding consistence, there are many ways which do not always
involve doing "something meaningful" in the sense of charity work. Abstaining
from charity and being vocal about it, trying to make more people join such
absentionist movements, might be very positive. A lot of people believe the
problems for exemple in Africa are due to foreign involvement creating a long
lasting dependance on aid, food, and so on. Basically, it might not be good to
have more people on a continent that can be fed by the production of this
given continent. Here the lack of action would have dire consequences in the
short term, but would improve the situation in the long term - and it would be
self consistent.

If you goal is happiness, a better shortcut might be finding happiness without
having to resort to such a guilt-ridden trip of charity, ie learnt to not care
anylonger!

If your your goal is being popular, ie respond to peer pressure which views
charity work in a positive light, maybe you could find some other way that is
also well received - say american idol, a free software project that'll make
you famous, fight again racism/global warming/whatever is popular these days.

But from what I have read in your message, I would sincerily question your
premises.

Instead of doing what is better "for the world" or "for the global good", have
you considered the possibility of doing "what's fun", "what you like", or
"what is important to you"? You do not need justifications or moral
endorsement to do that. Yet it requires some serious introspection.

If you do have considered these alternatives, and if you are sure of your
premises, have you identified limitating beliefs, ie the reason why you
consider these alternatives not to be worth your limited time on this earth?

~~~
zol
I've been struggling with a similar question to the author lately. For me,
what it boils down to is this: I have to spend 8 hours a day working on
something. It seems like better value to be working on something beneficial to
humanity than something meaningless, or even detrimental.

I would answer the question of "should you?" with a resounding yes.

I've been finding it difficult to match up my skills as a software engineer to
a project with meaning as a lot of them are in the hardware or humanitarian
aid realm.

Your point of doing "what's fun" or "what you like" is also an important
factor and almost goes without saying. The ideal job for all of us is doing
something we like that pays the bills and has a tangible benefit to humanity
(not a made up one).

~~~
ga
I wouldn't give a yes. If what you are doing is meaningless for humanity or
detrimental (for the sake of the example, let's say your work is on anti
personnel mines), but that you find a great fulfillment in doing that, good
for you!

I have always thought very disturbing in the occidental culture the notion
that there are "unworthy" occupations, and some people "waste their life"
doing something different that they could in someone else's opinion.

But that's just applying peer pressure to make such people comply to our
(skewed?) visions of how life should be, and when failing, using guilt to try
to destroy the joy they find in doing what they do the way they do.

Maybe because I grew up watching too much anime and reading too many mangas I
admire whatever people are, in any field, trying to remove my own bias.

Like - you don't have to be a Nazi to admire what Roemmel (sp?) did in north-
africa. A true military genius of the time. Or how a handfull of guys armed
with box cutters social-engineered they way to massive destruction and terror.
And also it's hard not to admire the beautiful job of some people in charity
work - eradicting polio, wow. Using cellphones to develop microcredit and
banking in countries with little infrastructure - that's beautiful!

But unlike you, I would but the fun part above the "important" part, because
what's important is a personal opinion. If someone find something important,
it's important.

If designing and testing landmines aimed at killing and maiming people is fun
because, I don't know, the mathematical challenge behind it, the noise of
explosions, whatever - it's a worthy endeavour. If you make good money because
you're good at the job you love, even better.

BTW the knife cut both ways - my training has been mostly on the medical
field, but someday I realised the humanitarian field no longer meant anything
to me. I'm not feeling any greater purpose or anything, and I don't believe I
ever did. Maybe I tried to fool myself thinking I did. Maybe I resent the fact
that's it's difficult to match up my skills to what's usefull in the industry,
but I doub thatt and I don't think it's clouding my judgement too much. Anyway
it is just no longer fun and that's what matters.

I don't feel bad about that. It's not good or bad - just an indication that's
it's time to do something else now, and that as usual change is hard. If I
listened to what people would think about my move, I'd up for one another good
guilt trip :-) Like why don't I go to some poor country to save people?
Because I don't care, don't see the point, and while the visiting part might
be fun initially, it would be boring and I may not like the food and the
culture :-)

What I fear is many people are doing this for a time in their life - sometimes
their whole life - without realizing how empty it is, until it bites them
back, a la Lars Von Triers' "Dogville".

Maybe I grew out of the guilt trip that's forcing of lot of people into such
training and studies. I'm just sad to see such post and comment, including
people downvoting the not politically correct things to say.

Do what you like, and figure out justifications later.

PS: You don't have to spend 8 hours a day working on something BTW - slavery
is gone is most part of the world. Economic slavery however remains, and if
you want more things than you can affort, yes, you will have to spend your
time this way, and might resent it.

Some people, mostly in europe, figure out how to strech their money and
benefits to live without doing any purposeful work. I would find that sad -
unless they enjoy the "game" part of gaming and abusing the system. In that
case maybe a worthy endeavour to them, rest of mankind be damned.

~~~
zol
I guess if you're happy building land mines and blowing people up then that's
your prerogative. We are all different and for whatever reason these jobs are
staffed by people willing to work them.

I can only talk about personal experience; that is, if I meet someone in need,
am able to help them, and as a result they are in a better position than
before, it makes me feel great.

It's a selfish proposition, by helping someone, i'm essentially helping
myself. Having said that, it still feels right and I have a compulsion to
extend that to my life's work.

------
breathesalt
1) Find a resource of necessity to the human condition. 2) Make it _abundant_
through technological innovation. 3) Repeat.

------
Joakal
I'm doing a project that I think will help globally albeit it's a hobby
project (as long I finish it, haha). The thing about my project is that it's
not about altruistic desire to help people, it's about building towards
something grander for me, a home in space.

The YC and other entrepreneurs ALWAYS help people. If they didn't, their
business folds. Because simply: it's not useful to people. eg They created an
app to put moustaches on every picture; you may think it's not helping people
but it'll give a smile to families who see the wedding pictures with
moustaches everywhere. So, help to people is quite subjective.

On the other hand, it sounds like you're doing a 'numbers of helping many
people for as little work possible'. This is incredibly hard. For example, if
you give water to communities but you also have to deal with culture that
creates inefficiency issues. eg Corruption, malice, war and population issues.
Yes, you could be exacerbating the problem by making their lives easier but in
long term worst as so many people are reliant on you giving water. Don't
always assume that helping many people at once will be the best solution.

I hope you seek something that's very helpful and is long term solution for
them. Even if it's only helping one person. If that person lives to wealthy
world life expectancy, that's better than many suffering at once because that
person can pass on knowledge, etc.

If you want to get some ideas, listening to problems is usually helpful, then
brainstorm with it. eg over a million children are trafficked; maybe create
cheap GPS transmitters for children so parents in home countries can track
their children's 'work opportunities' and report discrepancies. Bonus: There's
an awful lot of lazy people or people with not enough time that talk about
ideas but never execute them. Since you want to execute something, you have a
lot of research and brainstorm material done for you!

Some directions to go from:

<http://www.good.is/>

<http://itstartswith.us/>

<http://www.charitynavigator.org/>

[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-08-13/12m-children-
trafficke...](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-08-13/12m-children-trafficked-
each-year-report/1390058)

Last tip: Try to release your project! It's time wasted if you let it be in
obscurity. If you don't want to do it any more, release it anyway. eg free
code repositories, free blog post with project notes and research, etc. People
like me who want to do something similar to you will be able to make use of
it.

------
nickaknudson
<http://medicmobile.org/>

------
quique
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...](http://www.mulagofoundation.org/ideas/r/how-we-think-about-impact)

Video:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMEpvxGBkFU<br/>](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMEpvxGBkFU<br/>);

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/>

~~~
edmullen
Before you can make something meaningful, you must immerse yourself in
problems, either yours or someone else's. You need to learn what the ailments
are, then find a cure. It's easy to see when someone is simply targeting a
market they think is ripe for exploiting, and are not really immersed in
solving problems.

~~~
jmelul
Reminds me of a ME310 project we did at Stanford. Problem statement was so
vague but it was around disabilities and keeping people active in the winter.
What was my first reaction? Step into a wheelchair and spend the next 4 days
in it completely playing the role. 100% immersion! Then made a list of every
possible experience i could go through in this situation and did as many as i
possibly could. Now that is immersion my friends and it was key to our team
really understanding the problems and building rapport with some of our users.
I have to say it was also a magical, eye opening experience.

------
chailatte
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 Real-Time Chat

Kicksend (YC S11) Launches To Make Sharing Big Files A Breeze

Snapjoy (YC S11) Will Organize Your Photos For You

Leaky (YC S11) is Hipmunk for Car Insurance

Picplum (YC S11) is automatic photo printing service created to help you
easily share your best memories with friends and family

Plus about 10-15 (YC S11) Advertising companies (a guess)

And.....drumroll........

ZeroCater (YC W11) Raises $1.5 Million For No-Hassle Office Lunches

~~~
pclark
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?

~~~
BasDirks
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 do, it
was a lousy dream.

~~~
sgt
Godwin's law!

------
puredemo
Make an app that somehow pushes US politicians to see the merits of a reality
based worldview?

That's about what it would take for small towns to start doing well in the US
again. It's a matter of political will, not technological progress.

Ross Perot predicted what you're seeing in small towns today about 20 years
ago. He called it, the "giant sucking sound" of jobs leaving America if NAFTA
was passed. That's exactly what you're experiencing today.

TL;DR: Trade deficits matter.

------
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.

------
Hisoka
What was the thread you read? I don't think I recalled it.

~~~
qF
This one; <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2668346>

There are actually a few startups mentioned there which fall in the category
that the poster is looking for.

------
xenophanes
Step 1: learn about what is and isn't meaningful, instead of uncritically
assuming altruistic morality is true and devoting your life to doing what is
"meaningful" according to some other people. Be your own guide instead of just
assuming charity = meaningful.

Read Atlas Shrugged.

~~~
indrax
I cant stand libertarian equivocation on the meaning of 'selfishness'. If your
'ethics' is _predicated_ on not putting a high personal value on the wellbeing
of others, you are the problem. If your 'selfishness' is seeking the fullness
of your values while recognizing this needs to be reciprocated _and_ you
happen to not be a psychopath, good.

~~~
maxharris
Definitions are not simply a matter of taste. They aren't validated by
popularity, or authority, and we're individually responsible for the
definitions we hold: each of us is the ultimate authority on definitions, in a
sense: we each bear the responsibility for our own conceptualizing.

But that doesn't mean that concepts or definitions are subjective. Quite on
the contrary: in order to be correct, definitions have to be induced from
reality, just like like any true scientific concept (such as momentum, for
example). The purpose of a definition also has to be kept in mind: definitions
are what we use to mentally distinguish one concept from another.

Once you understand the above, you can see why it's really sensible to take
the Objectivist stand on the word "self."

And for the same reason, you can see why we had to take words like "gay" and
"queer" away from the bigots, who used them as epithets to smear hatred on
good people. The bad rap that selfishness has with the culture today smears
everyone. I think it's high time we fought back.

