

Ask HN: How can I *really* change the world? - seekingcharlie

I stumbled across this video circling the interwebs today: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=eRLJscAlk1M<p>Within tech, we place a focus on products&#x2F;services that can be influential, to the point of &quot;changing the world&quot;. And sure, the SaaS app that I work on each day has an influence, but naturally, I&#x27;m feeling a little disheartened.<p>Given our very Westernized culture, can we as individuals still have an impact on the future of our Earth? How?<p>It&#x27;s sad to me that I have never really researched effectives ways that individuals can contribute to huge social issues before. My hypotheses is that there are many of us out there that want to do something, but perhaps see it as a futile mission, so end up doing nothing.<p>What do you think?
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donaldguy
My hypothesis, which I am not doing the best job of working in harmony with,
is that the effort that's gonna have the most positive impact is proactive
thinking and experimentation around both hastening and potentiating/spreading
but also _planning for_ a post-scarce economy and society

My cynical view is that hardline capitalism operates on a faulty assumption of
unlimited opportunity and unlimited growth. I believe that between population
growth and accelerating automation, that barring a major casualty event such
as a large-scale pandemic, the number of people will eventually outnumber the
number of useful jobs that legitimately need doing. (or that worse the
resource burn to sustain the model will undermine its feasibility and that of
"good life" in general).

To this end, I think we need good minds figuring out how a world works in
which people are less busy and own less. I don't know how that works but I
think it involves education, maybe art, and also probably a greater
popularization of mindfulness and contentment-first thinking.

This isn't to say there aren't big "hard" problems to tackle as well. In my
eyes they are mostly the resource-management ones:

    
    
      - Alternative energy
      - Waste management and improved recycling tech
      - Space exploration?
    

And probably too the health ones, though population age bolstering is a real
double edged sword:

    
    
      - cancer treatment
      - antibiotic alternatives (in the face of resistance)
      - better, more pleasant contraception?
    

I also have strong beliefs in the inherent good of technologies that can
improve large scale understanding and communication:

    
    
      - machine translation (accounting for cultural factors too)
      - software for sensemaking and fair/just governance
      - more far-afield: neuro-analysis and possibly "telepathy" tech
    

... and yet for some reason I work on the infrastructure for a marketing
platform :-/

------
koberstein
May I add to the list of hard problems that make a difference:

\- Local / sustainable food systems

I have been working on an application for the past year involving connecting
local producers with local customers. It is a different kind of application
than typical e-commerce because it revolves around a scheduling component so
that farmers can drop off food at the food hub and customers can pick it up
their or have it delivered.

There are many others working on similar systems such as
[http://openfoodfoundation.org/project/open-food-
network](http://openfoodfoundation.org/project/open-food-network)

There are hundreds of these 'food hubs' in the United States ( definition:
[http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/foodhubs](http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/foodhubs)
).

As far as I observed, each food hub seems to operate quite differently thus
making it difficult to facilitate each food hub's needs in one application.
There doesn't seem to be a "market leader" software. This is a very grass
roots sector and I suspect many food hubs are operating using excel
spreadsheets or homebrew solutions.

Anyways, there is a lot of opportunity to make a big difference in the world
around you. It has been a very rewarding and challenging thing for me to be
involved in. Let me tell you, UI for farmers is quite difficult! :)

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chipsy
The most likely way in which you can be impactful is just to be stubborn about
your work. Slow and steady, trial and error type work is less easily explored
and thus more bountiful if you can persist. Everyone uses their own particular
strategy, but your strategy is defined by your personality. Lots of creatures
in the wild can be observed solving big challenges like "how to escape" or
"how to get the food" just with persistence, without being particularly crafty
or skillful. With ideas and social problems, the same kind of persistence is
important. If it were easy, it'd already be done.

See also: the Kurosawa film "Ikiru".

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tim333
I guess everyone makes a small difference but with 7bn people it's hard for an
individual to change the whole in a way that's noticeable. Historically it's
probably been individuals who's ideas have been influential who made the
biggest differences. Jesus, Gandhi, Marx, Mandela etc. Easier said than done.

------
arisAlexis
I am building a social app that has "changing the world" elements. No pay yet,
but if you are interested in a side project drop me a mail. cheers

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adventured
The westernized aspect has absolutely nothing to do with having an impact or
not. The east / west thing is bullshit, nothing more. If someone tells you
that you can't have an impact because of western culture, they're merely
looking to prey on naivety or ignorance to further their own irrational agenda
or bias.

To have a meaningful impact, you need a platform / vehicle. It's what all
people have in common that have made a positive difference throughout history.

You can do it by inventing something new that makes life better (easier,
healthier, more fulfilling, etc). Imagine how much time and effort things like
refrigeration save us today, and how much better that makes ~2 billion lives.
If you save someone an hour per day with an invention like that, you've just
given them more life in real terms - time with their children, time in which
they can make a difference, or just spare them hardship.

You can make a lot of money and put that to good use. Even though it's a
wildly unpopular thing to say, Bill Gates will have a drastically greater
positive impact on the welfare of humanity than Mother Teresa (or people like
that). Drastically is understating things too much.

You can - try - to make a difference through politics. This is extraordinarily
challenging, and can usually only have maximum impact at times of desperation
and chaos. That's when people are open to new messages (good or bad).

You can make your platform an idea. Whether that's civil rights, or universal
suffrage, or liberty, or privacy, etc. Then you have to choose how to go about
furthering it, whether through an organization, or writing on your own, or a
dozen other options.

Bottom line, you must have a lever. Your platform / vehicle is at its core a
system of leverage, ideally. Meaning, it's something that other people too
will care about, because it's important. If it is, then they will contribute
energy into amplifying the reach and impact of that platform. You don't get
very far on your own, build systems that other people will get behind and
readily lift higher.

