
Ask HN: What impact are you having on the world? - mikemajzoub
What impact are you having on the world?
How are you making it a better place?
How are you making it a worse place?
======
nougatine
None whatsoever.

Just like the overwhelming majority of people, including the ones that think
they are making a dent by 'inventing' apps that'll be obsolete and forgotten
within a few years, at most a few decades.

I embrace the futility and absurdity that is a job. It pays the rent and
that's good enough for me.

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vikp
I barely made it through college, and worked in factories and warehouses
during/after school. Because of my bad grades, I thought manual labor jobs
were the only ones I could do.

I later worked overseas (in Guyana). I've seen many bright young people
worldwide forced into doing work that crushes their spirits, because they
either never had access to educational opportunities, or they struggled with
rigid educational systems.

Education is one of the few ways to reduce systemic economic inequality, but
it's getting harder to get a cheap, high quality education over time.

I'm building Dataquest, which to start is teaching data science online at low
cost. Dataquest teaches skills in depth, so students really understand the
concepts and can apply them with projects (vs most syntax focused online
learning). We've had students get jobs at companies like SpaceX and Amazon.

I hope the positive impact I'm having is in some small way helping people
achieve things they never believed they could.

~~~
ekr
> but it's getting harder to get a cheap, high quality education over time.

That sounds very surprising to me. To me at least it seems it's getting
easier, at an accelerating rate. With resources such as libgen, scihub, mit
ocw, a great number of moocs, the amount of content is only growing (most
stuff gets archived). Most top universities have publicly accessible course
data and resources.

Also, internet access is growing, internet devices are getting cheaper, high
speed broadband is also becoming the default.

So I wonder, why would you say it's getting harder to get a cheap high quality
education? I'd say you can do it for free, just look at the mit challenge.

Surely, the only obstacle is the constant stream of distractions.

~~~
tunap
To me, you are describing knowledge & understanding. An "education", as I
understand it, is a validated completion of a curriculum from a known,
accredited institution. Also, an " education" is no guarantee of access to,
nor achievement of, success. Merely a minimal requirement for consideration.

~~~
akulbe
Education != schooling. It's a mistake to assume that you can only be
"educated" in an institution.

A person can educating themselves, simply by reading, and never have set foot
in a classroom and still gain AMAZING skills.

That's my $.02 :)

~~~
tunap
Noted, and you may be correct. I always presumed an "education" involved a
structured framework of learning. As an autodidact of sorts w/ merely an
undergrad degree I have had many citations from prospective employers &
clients as to my "sparse" education. I am often dismissed without ever having
an opportunity to demonstrate my abilities b/c I lack expensive degrees &
certs.

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roryisok
My first instinct is to say I recycle, I buy my electricity from green
providers, I reuse, buy second hand, work from home, eat veggie regularly etc.
I do all of these things, but they are grossly outweighed by me simply
existing. No matter how green I live, I still consume and produce waste, and
so do my children.

How I make the world better: I collect litter at the beach and in parks and
dispose of it properly. I also encourage my kids to do this. The positive
effect on the environment is probably still outweighed by my consumption, but
I can say that there is less trash on the beaches around where I live because
of me. It's not much but its something.

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akulbe
This is something that's hard to measure and quantify.

That said, you may be trying to make an impact on someone and never get to see
the fruit of it in your lifetime. Those kind words of encouragement, that
smile, that mentoring session... they could seem like they're of no effect,
and falling on deaf ears.

You never know. It might be days/months/years down the road, and that person
recalls their interaction with you, and something take root in their life, and
change happens.

If you're trying to make an impact, and you're only satisfied by what you see
right now in front you, you may be sorely disappointed.

@nougatine - you say "none whatsoever". I beg to differ, friend. You may be
having a _tremendous_ impact, and may never get to see it.

I would encourage any of you who happen to read this, to take a long view, and
act with that in mind. It's totally possible for you to have a HUGE impact on
someone and never get to see it.

Hopefully, this will temper our interactions with people.

------
maneesh
About 5,000 smokers quit smoking and 10,000 heavy sleepers have gotten control
of their sleeping habits through our wearable device, Pavlok:
[http://pavlok.com](http://pavlok.com)

~~~
idoh
Awesome! I remember seeing the Shark Tank episode, nice to see that you didn't
let them stop you.

Quick question: how does the device know when to shock you?

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arthurwinter
Some small things:

\- Growing my own vegetables. During the summer, half of my meals are home-
grown, and I store the ones I can for the fall/winter as well. And I give away
a lot for free to friends/relatives.

\- I quit eating meat, after realising the impact the meat industry has on
everything from animals rights (most important) to pollution, water
consumption etc.

\- I try to bring more consciousness on this on people, trying not to be a
pain but planting some seeds in their mind.

~~~
muzani
It's sad if growing vegetables was a positive impact because people stopped
growing their own food a long time ago under the assumption that doing
everything else was more productive.

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paulryanrogers
Less worse: Consuming fewer unnecessary resources than I have in the past

Worse: Continuing to consume unnecessary resources

Better: ... I'll get back to you

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slashzeppelin
I'm in the rat race for better grades and projects leading to better jobs. I
feel like I'm living just for myself, my parents and maybe 2 children down the
line. That seems kind of selfish and boring though, to spend all your waking
time to keep 4-5 people happy who would probably be happy anyway. I wish I had
a mentor or a vision to motivate me to maybe work for climate change or
inequality.

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warsharks
i aim for neither, i dont want to be remembered for any specific action good
or bad (this is partly the reason i will never have children)

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kleer001
Just like everyone else: The ripples of my influence outward into my networks.
Better and worse don't apply. There's no relative position, we're all going
the same place.

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davidjnelson
Donating money to charity, for causes such as feeding the hungry or providing
malaria bed nets. Against Malaria Foundation is cool, they've shown that for
roughly $3,000 you can save a human life. That's pretty wild.

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miguelrochefort
Worse: I eat a lot of animals.

Better: I'm creating a better language for humans.

~~~
throwaway29292
We've been hearing about it since _forever_.

~~~
miguelrochefort
Indeed.

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muzani
I wish I had more impact. There are a lot of big problems I'd love to solve
but nobody is requesting my help to tackle them.

~~~
veddox
"It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely
sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."

\- Elinor Smith

~~~
muzani
I mean there is no stepping stone. I feel like I'm the only one who wants to
make a difference, in a world where everyone is focused on selling fashion and
cosmetics for quick money.

There are big problems - e.g. energy, AI (AGI), destructive culture,
corruption, education in developing countries.

The big problems are terrifying to fix. They're not something that can be
changed solo. It needs critical momentum. Unfortunately, outside of a few big
cities, there is little momentum going towards the important things.

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SirLJ
I have no impact and I do not want to have any impact whatsoever... as they
say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions

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oblib
Over the past decade I've worked a lot on shedding light on corporate funded
politicians and legislation and how that affects the working class.

One of the toughest parts of that is getting folks to understand how the gains
in productivity are being taken from them by corporate owners that fund the
Democrat and Republican Parties.

I've also worked pretty hard on getting us (the US) out of those mid-east wars
with very little effect.

I live in a very rural conservative area and most of my neighbors are great
folks but they tend to get a lot of tilted information on TV and the internet.
Because I am able to point out these issues in a bi-partisan way they tend to
listen and read what I share more than they would a "Libtard" (a term I hear
often).

Since 2002 I've also made inexpensive software for small businesses and
provide support for it. It's pretty easy to use so I don't get many requests
for support. I'm working a new version of that software now.

I've shared a few concepts I've developed. A few years ago I made a
lightweight backpacking tent made out of an "SOL Blanket" and showed how a
small campfire would warm it up to +80º F in below freezing temps. I didn't
invent that concept. "Bushcrafters" did. I just refined it and demonstrated
and promoted a more practical way of using it. In the years since I've seen
other similar designs come out, some that are made to be used for the homeless
and in emergencies.

The thing about this kind of work is that it is usually impossible to measure
the reach, but not so to see the effect if you are patient. My theory is if
you can shed light on something true and good that light will spread, and
seeking credit for how far is vanity.

If a concept is good it's better to get it out in the open than guard it like
a secret if you cannot make the general use of the concept a reality. It's
better because you will still get to benefit from it coming into existence.

A small example of this is years ago I took a cap off of a dishwashing soap
bottle and put it on a disposable water bottle I bought on the way to a bike
trail. When I got home I told my wife I was going to make it so I could buy
these in the store because at that time no company was doing that. I looked up
a company that made bottles and caps and told them what I wanted and it wasn't
long before I could buy water and Gatorade with those caps in the store. My
wife still thinks I "should have made a million dollars" and tells that story
a lot but I know that was never the case. I don't think that made the world a
better place, but it demonstrates how one can deliberately change how things
are done by shedding some light on an idea.

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pigpen34
Trying to be the best father and role model that I can.

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claybro
This carbon footprint.

