
Ask HN: What can I do as a software engineer to help the underpriviliged? - rupertdev
As a white, midwestern software engineer, it&#x27;s easy to live my life day to day without ever leaving my little bubble. What are some ways that I can apply my skills to help the under-priviliged?
======
thaumaturgy
Leave your bubble.

There is almost certainly some volunteer group in your area that could use an
extra pair of hands. You might be tempted early on to offer suggestions to
improve their efforts through better software; don't. Instead, just watch,
ask, listen, and learn. Once you've got enough experience to be confident that
you understand end-to-end how everything works in whatever group you volunteer
for, you'll probably know the right place to apply your skills as a developer
(which very well may just consist of, "um, you need automated backups").

Keep in mind that their priorities are different from yours. Things that you
would probably consider essential or best practices are, for them,
distractions and nuisances and costs to which they're super sensitive:
updates, security, anything that's new and requires effort to learn.

Software developers tend to see themselves as "systems thinkers", and think
they can always improve any given thing by swooping in and applying some new
software to it. That is often not actually the case, but they don't get their
hands dirty enough and stick around long enough to realize it.

~~~
Kagerjay
Adding onto this, you should always use the lowest tech solution possible if
it satifies the problem. Sometimes that solution is basically pen + paper + a
whiteboard. Or installing dropbox. Othertimes it might be a google
spreadsheet, or a wordpress site, at the end of the day the solution should be
simple and straightforward if thats what the problem is. More pipelines /
processes just means more headache to end users (and you), and more things to
break.

I had my fair share of coordinating events during school for science
competitions. One event we had was spread across campus and in areas with low
wi-fi coverage. Our coordinator wanted all the results managed by google
spreadsheets in real time. At the end of the day, it was completely
unnecessary for logging results (PC problems, typing in broad daylight sucks,
no power outlet for laptop, no wifi coverage, etc) and resorting to a piece of
paper to write down competition results got the job done much smoother.

I've had to do IT for alot of my friends and families. The last thing I ever
want to do is introduce them to a new piece of software, because its just
going to be more work for me tweaking it to their liking and them learning a
new software package. Not only that, they are just going to eventually install
a virus anyhow. Then I'm going to have to reset their PC a year later,
regardless of how well I teach them about safe practices on being online.

There's a japanese philosophy that revolves around these points made above,
called LEAN (also, this is what agile development is based on). One rule is
you adapt well proven methodologies and workflows first, unless the benefits
of using a shiny piece of tech far outweighs its cons and risks. Another rule
is to listen and understand, before you jump to conclusions. A 3rd rule is to
eliminate waste, in development this is generally your buildprocesses / shiny
tech / reliance on too many libraries.

TL-DR . Go low tech as much as possible if its an option. If not, the benefits
of shiny tech need to outweigh its cons / risks. If you do pick a software
package, pick one that's well adopted, easy to learn, and fits your use case.

~~~
ahazred8ta
The related keyword is
[http://www.appropedia.org/Appropriate_technology](http://www.appropedia.org/Appropriate_technology)
, which tries to limit the need for poorly available skills or hard to
maintain equipment.

------
bmmayer1
Almost every nonprofit--especially local nonprofits like food banks, hospice
care, shelters, legal aid centers, etc--has technology issues. They don't have
enough money to pay for IT of any kind, especially in hyper competitive
markets like Silicon Valley, and their tech knowledge would be probably
laughable to you. If you showed up unannounced at the offices of one of these
nonprofits and offered to help them with any tech issues they've been having
(fixing a website, making the printer work, etc) they would be most grateful.
Of course it's better to ingratiate yourself to the hardworking teams over
there by making yourself part of the community first, you don't want to show
up like the messiah who's going to fix all their problems for them. Above
comments address this.

~~~
shrikant
I would strongly second this.

I had some down-time between jobs a couple of years back, and used it to
volunteer at a charity to help out with some basic IT work.

There was some indeed an element of fixing and securing their WordPress-based
website, and sorting out their AdWords campaigns. However, the vast majority
of the work (by time, not by difficulty) was cleaning up crapware from Windows
laptops, getting Dropbox to work correctly across their machines, and sorting
out their software licences after they'd been screwed over by a shady ISV.

------
tommaitland
I had the same dilemma and eventually teamed up with a few others to start a
non-profit technology company, to serve other charities. The industry often
gets the edge of commercial tools not built for their needs, or ones that
haven’t been updated in years.

For example Blackbaud is the market leader in non-profit software, they just
launched the cloud version of their CRM product. You literally Citrix into a
VM and screen share with a remote machine via your browser. It’s that bad.

We’re combatting that. Raisely (raisely.com) is our first product. It gives
charities great fundraising tools, for free. This year for every $1 we spend
building or supporting Raisely, a charity raises $38. It’s a huge ROI.

We can’t get VC funding though, so if engineering is your thing and this
sounds appealing - we’d love the help.

~~~
feistypharit
That's awesome, would love to hear more about the process of setting up an
NPO.

P.S. brave browser on Android just spins trying to view raisely.com.

~~~
tommaitland
Always happy to chat if you’re interested! tom [at] raisely.com

Also thanks for the heads up I’ll have a look at what’s causing that.

------
mathgladiator
You can apply your skills to maximize income and donate resources. I donate
~$25K/year to various animal causes.

I second the thought of leaving your bubble because there is more opportunity.
I am a former midwesterner, and I live near Seattle now. There are way more
opportunities at the coasts then the midwest.

~~~
scarface74
Dan Pollatta said in one if his Ted Talks that it wasn't selfish for a person
to stay in the private sector where they could earn more money and then give
the excess to charity over working for the charity and make less.

I haven't thought through his whole talk enough to have an informed opinion
but it is interesting.

[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/trevor-neilson/dan-
pallotta-w...](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/trevor-neilson/dan-pallotta-won-
the-worl_b_3456660.html)

~~~
isleyaardvark
For completeness sake, here is best argument I've found against the idea of
"Earning to Give":

[http://lesswrong.com/lw/hjn/earning_to_give_vs_altruistic_ca...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/hjn/earning_to_give_vs_altruistic_career_choice/)

It's a nuanced piece and doesn't argue against it entirely, but the arguments
in it should inform these kinds of decisions.

~~~
mathgladiator
That's interesting. I think if you can code well and transition to leadership,
then the situation is unusual and earning to give is ideal. He noted 500k as
unusual.

So, for me it makes sense to stay course since I am unusual. I would further
argue that you should prefer private sector until you think unusual is not
your thing or just not attainable.

------
tptacek
Are you gainfully employed? The best answer might be the simplest, both to
describe and execute: cultivate your career and use it to generate funds for
people who help the underprivileged as a specialty. The market can put your
time to better use than you can helping people directly, and plenty of
important public assistance groups are starved for cash.

Start donating now. Get into the habit. Ramp up your contributions over time.
You'll probably find you give a _lot_ more than you expect you'd be
comfortable with.

~~~
patio11
(Also, consider convincing other people who you've had a career impact on to
do the same!)

------
barenblat
You can volunteer your skills to work with nonprofits that use technology to
accelerate their impact.

The most well-known of these tech nonprofits are Mozilla, Khan Academy,
Wikipedia. Some have come through YC, like Watsi and SIRUM.

At Fast Forward (org that I started, like a YC for nonprofits), we have a
listing of some available tech-based volunteer opportunities on our website
([https://www.ffwd.org/tech-nonprofit-
jobs/opportunities/?_sft...](https://www.ffwd.org/tech-nonprofit-
jobs/opportunities/?_sft_position_type=volunteer&_sft_position_category=technical)).

For example, TalkingPoints (tool for teachers to text parents) is looking for
a machine learning advisor. MindRight (text message counseling for kids who
have suffered trauma) is looking for a code reviewer.

Your software engineering skills are incredibly valuable, and it's hard for
nonprofits to find and afford quality developers. Providing those skills can
greatly help others.

------
rwieruch
A couple of things I apply for my own doings as software engineer:

\- educate aspiring software engineers from other countries online by writing
on your blog for free about software engineering topics

\- in the long term, try to translate the content to other languages (maybe
pay someone to do it)

\- maximize your income and donate money to children's education in other
countries, they need to have the chance to learn the English language in the
first place to be able to consume all the free educational content and open
source projects which can be found online

\- if you put an educational course online for $99 to educate others about
software engineering, think about developing countries where it's not possible
to pay the $99 for a 5 hours video course, the price can be adjusted on a
country base by something like PPP [0]

\- [0] [https://github.com/rwieruch/purchasing-power-
parity](https://github.com/rwieruch/purchasing-power-parity)

------
SlowBro
Before you do anything at all, ensure that you understand the difference
between relief, rehabilitation, and development. Know which is needed, when.
Two minute video: [https://vimeo.com/33174427](https://vimeo.com/33174427)

As an example I am aiming to use my IT skills to bring development to the
island of Haiti in the form of training for internet careers. The islanders
are often given food (relief) but experts on the island point out that the
biggest need is personal development so that they help themselves climb out of
the hole. I’ve spoken with two missionaries to the island who are generally
positive about my plan.

If you bring your skills and apply them to rehabilitation when development is
needed, you can do more harm than good, no matter your intentions. So ensure
you know which to apply, when.

------
abusoufiyan
Find a religious building near you, they'll certainly have some kind of social
service they participate in which could use volunteers.

Bonus: They probably could use your software skills as many of them have been
operating for years with low-tech shoestring budgets.

------
pommers
If there are schools/libraries near you that run coding clubs you could go and
help teach. If there aren't any around, you could help to start one up.

I have spent several years helping to organise and run a CoderDojo, and it has
been a great way to meet new people, and you don't need a heap of technical
people to run one, just one or two who can help with the really hard problems.

[https://coderdojo.com/](https://coderdojo.com/)

------
whatyoucantsay
Leave your bubble.

Spend two or three years working in South America, Africa or Asia. Make it a
goal to develop genuine friendships with some of your colleagues and
neighbors. You'll have no choice but to expand your understanding of the world
and your empathy for people whose lives have been very different than your
own.

~~~
rupertdev
I would love to do that. Unfortunately I have long term financial obligations
here in the states. Any suggestions for making that work?

------
brudgers
So long as the goal is to use software engineering to help, you run the risk
of staying in the bubble. Nobody can eat an app or PaaS. It won't keep anyone
out of the rain unless someone has built a roof out in meat space. More
intractable is that roofs and happy meals scale linearly. Spinning up 1000
more EC2 instances doesn't address acute demand spikes.

These are hard problems. There is a reasonable probability that your
professional skills are not all that applicable.However, you are not in poor
company. For all that Jimmy Carter can do, every board he nails together makes
a difference in some family's lives.

Good luck.

------
dfee
Certainly you could contribute financially - and that’d be very American of
you (source: am an American). However, you’ll get much more value out of
donating your time and contributing “boots on the ground”.

A friend and I were talking recently about this tendency to offload the work -
a very capitalistic approach (source: am a capitalist) - but you get a
different kind of return on investment being present for and aware of the
needs of those physically around you. That ROI might be measured in terms of
mental health.

------
twunde
Help build "on-ramps" for the under-privileged. If you live near under-
privileged communities try to set up paid internships that will actually help
to teach these kids and help them, build a professional network. Get in front
of these communities and invite them in. Try to get your HR department to
rethink some of the standard requirements (Do you really need a college
degree? Or even a high school degree?)

------
SirLJ
As in any aspect of life, leave it to the professionals!

If you are good Software Engineer, you'll be making good money and this is
what the non-profits need the most: good old hard cash...

Find a worthy organization and donate, and spend your free time to better
yourself and earn more to donate more...

Unless of course you you want to become a volunteer, leave your job and
transition...

------
gfarah
My coworker has the same characteristics you describe. We work for a startup
giving out loans to SMEs who otherwise won't get access to credit in poor
parts of Latin America. We both came to work for this company precisely
because we wanted to do some good in the world. The past year has been great
because of this.

------
Cyclic404
There's health software such as OpenMRS, OpenLMIS, ODK, etc. I've made some
limited use of learning systems such as Moodle in low resource environments.
Also don't discount expanding what you're "skills" are and consider programs
such as Peace Corps (if USA).

------
klubkard
Join with engineers already working on civic engagement. Check out: Tech
Solidarity, Tech Resistance, Tech for Campaigns, Silicon Valley Rising, Tech
Workers Coalition, Tech Stands Up, Tech Worker Coalition, Progressive Coders
Network, Techtivist, Civic Hall, HacktionLab..

------
DoreenMichele
[http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-to-
effec...](http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-to-effectively-
donate-tech-skills.html)

------
bigbluedots
This may not be what you're after, but software engineering tends to pay very
well. You could donate a percentage of your wage to charities that help those
who are less privileged.

~~~
hackerblues
CF: effective altruism or 80,000 hours for more in this vein.

------
austinjp
If you're employed, ask your employer to arrange unconscious bias training for
all staff. Speak out in support of the under-privileged in your workplace.

~~~
owlmirror
indoctrination hurray

------
Trundle
Indirectly help the under privileged by directly applying your skills to solve
problems for those with the deepest pockets and then donating that money.

------
hvd
make more money and then give some of it to causes you support.

------
potta_coffee
Quit your job so that someone less advantaged than you can take your place.

------
txsh
The median income worldwide is around $10,000 and a third of the world lives
on less than $2/day. If you want to help the underprivileged you have to or
your money has to leave the US.

~~~
abusoufiyan
It just shouldn't go to Iran.

And you just have to make sure that any charity you donate to doesn't
eventually get revealed to have been a sham where the people running it were
secretly funneling the money to armed militants without your knowledge because
then you can go to jail for the rest of your life (unless of course your name
is Reagan and you funnel arms directly to the militants yourself!)

~~~
txsh
That comment took a weird turn into Iran-Contra.

------
xstartup
Ah, this one is easy! See, there is X money chasing Y resources. If you feel
that you or your colleagues are having an easy life compared to rest of the
world which you should confirm by going to difficult parts of the world, here
is a plan for you:

Do something so that projects of the company where you work fail. This will
offer some competitive advantage to companies elsewhere, probably one from the
difficult place? That's the easiest thing you can do.

You can donate money but I don't think it works. You gotta teach a man how to
fish. If you destroy your and your colleagues' fish, they'll be forced to buy
fish from underprivileged.

------
gt_
If in America, your options are very limited and the answer very simple:

Use your money, time, voice and vote to support a modern public safety net.

Every other avenue is a divergence or distraction or otherwise ineffective.

~~~
bmmayer1
He didn't ask which political platform or policy positions he should support.
He asked what he could do to help the under privileged.

~~~
gt_
And I answered with “what he could do to support the under privileged”.

In some contexts, my suggestion could be used as a political platform, but it
isn’t here. It is, however, obviously, politics. How could it not be?

It is strange to me that you contextualize this way. It is no less than
obvious, to me, that politics, as a field so concerned with the livelihood of
society members, is a (if not the) topic at hand. I am open to other avenues
but the success of such efforts remains grim, hence the concern in this post,
which is anything but new.

An effort to logically separate politics from the needs of under privileged
society members strikes me as a questionable pursuit at best and a damning
moral quandary. Can you explain what the point is?

~~~
bmmayer1
Why don't I address your comment piecemeal? I'm going to assume that the thing
we care about the most is poverty when we're talking about under privileged
people.

> If in America, your options are very limited

How are your options limited? The US has over 1 million nonprofit public
charities plus 400,000 other nonprofit organizations (foundations, civic
leagues, etc)[1]. 62 million Americans volunteered for nonprofit work in
2015[2]. Americans give over $250 billion a year to nonprofits, about half to
religious and the other half to secular[3]. None of this giving goes to
government organizations, although of course some nonprofits get federal or
state funding (probably a small %). But the point is that millions of
Americans find a way to help the underprivileged _apolitically_ \--that is,
there is little government intervention in their giving or how the money is
spent.

> the answer very simple

The answer is clearly not very simple. Poverty is not only globally prevalent,
it has never been eradicated by any historical or modern society, ever. If the
answer was simple, someone would have solved it. Certainly a 'modern safety
net' such as it may be defined by you or by others, open to interpretation as
it might be, has been tried in many countries with mixed results. France, for
example, has a robust public safety net and yet boasts a poverty rate of
14%[4] (the US official rate is 12% but to be fair these numbers might be
apples and oranges[5]). In any event there is significant debate about the
effectiveness of top-down poverty alleviation programs or about the form in
which they may take. For example, many people now advocate UBI which is a far
cry from the traditional notion of a public safety net but would replace it
nonetheless.

> Use your money, time, voice and vote to support a modern public safety net.

I assumed by this you meant support a political party committed to expanding
the public safety net, which in reality would be the Democratic Party, but it
could be literally any party, the problems are the same. I suppose you could
mean volunteer more taxes to the IRS, which is certainly an indirect option to
filter some % of your donation to poverty alleviation programs, but I doubt
you have done that or would expect others to.

I simply don't understand how giving your money to the Democratic Party, or
any other political party, is supposed to improve their odds of winning an
election, let alone using their elective power to improve social safety net.
Obviously money doesn't buy elections--talk to Hillary Clinton or Meg Whitman
about this one. And the last time Democrats touched the welfare system under
Clinton they shrunk it and didn't expand it.[6] When Democrats last had both
houses and the presidency from 2008-2010 they used their political influence
to pass Obamacare, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and Dodd-Frank, all
of which didn't address the public safety net except tangentially (you could
argue, for example, that Obamacare / stimulus / financial reform indirectly
help the poor but that's certainly debatable). There simply is no equivalence
between the Democratic Party and actual results in helping alleviate poverty.
In fact, the opposite may be true. Democrats have had, for years, one-party
control of California, a state with the highest poverty rate in the nation
(20%).[7] They also have had, for decades, a monopoly on power in the
following cities which hasn't affected their poverty rates: Baltimore (24%
poverty rate), San Francisco (13.8%), Detroit (35%), Seattle (14.5%)...the
correlation between progressive politics and results on poverty alleviation is
at best unclear.

> Every other avenue is a divergence or distraction or otherwise ineffective

It seems to me that any effort to fight poverty through political means is
extremely indirect. The $1 you spend on, for example, campaign contributions,
is going to pay to win an election first, and only if the election is won
(which has little to do with your donation) you _might_ get your new
representative to sponsor a bill that would redirect strained government funds
into expanding the public safety net. But of course such a bill would go
through multiple committees and subcommittees, negotiations with real estate
developers, unions, CEOs, nonprofit boards, and every dollar allocated will be
subject to a myriad of political considerations, special favors allocated,
slush funds established, and more. It will take years for your $1 to make its
way into the pocket of someone who needs it in whichever form your elected
representatives find most appropriate.

Whereas if you give that same $1 to your local homeless shelter it buys
toothpaste for a homeless person who needs it and gets it tonight.

Why would $1 to a political campaign be more effective helping the poor than
$1 given to an actual organization that spends 100% of their time helping the
poor rather than trying to win elections?

> It is, however, obviously, politics. How could it not be?

I hope I've shown that politics is probably the most inefficient method your
time and money could be used to help the poor, and that helping the poor can
be done effectively without touching politics.

[1][http://nccs.urban.org/data-statistics/quick-facts-about-
nonp...](http://nccs.urban.org/data-statistics/quick-facts-about-nonprofits)
[2][https://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm)
[3][http://nccs.urban.org/data-statistics/charitable-giving-
amer...](http://nccs.urban.org/data-statistics/charitable-giving-america-some-
facts-and-figures) [4][https://www.thelocal.fr/20160907/over-14-percent-of-
the-fren...](https://www.thelocal.fr/20160907/over-14-percent-of-the-french-
live-below-poverty-line) [5][https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-
poverty-rate-un...](https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-
united-states)
[6][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Wo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Work_Opportunity_Act)
[7][http://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2017/jan/20/...](http://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2017/jan/20/chad-
mayes/true-california-has-nations-highest-poverty-rate-w/)

~~~
dragonwriter
> None of this giving goes to government organizations, although of course
> some nonprofits get federal or state funding (probably a small %). But the
> point is that millions of Americans find a way to help the underprivileged
> apolitically

Contrary to what you might expect from the name, a "nonprofit public charity"
does not need to do anything to help the underprivileged. For instance, if the
exempt purpose is "religious", and the organization does nothing but cater to
the religious needs of its members and does nothing to help the
"underprivileged", it is still a legitimate public charity.

