

Ask HN: What tech companies are working on important world problems? - finnof

Looking for jobs in the Bay Area can get pretty depressing. There are so many amazing things and important problems that technology can tackle, and instead, smart people are working on various trivial apps that cater to the SF tech elite, and to the first world in general.<p>Unfortunately the phrase &quot;important world problems&quot; is pretty vague and nobody quite agrees on what these problems are. I&#x27;m thinking poverty, hunger, climate change, antibiotic resistance, stuff like that. It seems more fulfilling to work for a company that facilitates microloans in developing countries, provides analytics for farmers, or distributes solar panels, than for a personalized advertising company or instant laundry service app.<p>Of course this is just my view of things. I&#x27;m curious to hear what all of you think.
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mindcrime
I definitely agree that some companies are clearly doing more to _directly_
address "big world problems". I can't give you a list of the ones that are
though, but you see some stuff in the news, esp. here on HN. Lots of companies
have been mentioned recently, for example, who were working on fusion power.

All of that said, let me take a minute to defend the seemingly no-so-important
type companies. Let's take, say, Facebook. On one hand, you could say that
Facebook is just a way to sell advertising based on the actions and opinions
of a bunch of self-centered, narcissistic twits who think he world cares what
they have to say. And you'd probably be mostly right as far as "Facebook the
product". BUT... in their defense, "Facebook the company" have done some cool
stuff, especially in terms of the cool Open Source software they've released
over the years. React, Presto, Thrift, etc. have been used, or are being used,
by people tackling all sorts of other problems.

And you can say the same thing about several other companies who have, at
least, given the world some really cool code over the years: Oracle (via the
Sun Microsystems acquisition mostly), Google, Yahoo, Twitter, etc.

Now, of course, code by itself doesn't solve antibiotic resistance, or world
hunger, or poverty, but it can help. So if you were looking for a company to
work for and had to go for somebody who wasn't, say, directly tackling world
hunger, at least go for a company that's known for sharing cool technology
with the rest of the world.

