
Ask HN: How can I do social good through programming? - simplicitea
Say I want to apply what I know to better our chances as a species and&#x2F;or as individuals. What problems do i work on?
======
peacetreefrog
Just read all the top line comments here. Interesting that no one had
mentioned the one thing that has probably done the most to "better our chances
as species" in the last few hundred years, and has helped hundreds of millions
in India and China get out of backbreaking poverty and accumulate some wealth.
And that is...

Work hard, accumulate skills, and become better at your normal job. Even if
you're not writing open source software to help local governments in third
world countries have free elections and fight malaria or donating 50% of your
salary, you're creating value and "bettering our species" just by doing
something that someone is willing to pay you for. In fact, that's how most of
the world's wealth is created.

Not saying you shouldn't volunteer or donate your salary (I personally try to
donate a decent chunk of my salary to givedirectly) but -- unless you're a
nigerian hacker or malware developer or something -- just because you're
getting paid or working on something that isn't an absolute necessity doesn't
mean you aren't doing social good. Just something to think about.

~~~
tryitnow
I couldn't disagree more. There's a lot of jobs that add little to no value.
In a fictional efficient market economy that conforms to neoclassical
assumptions, sure, every job is value adding. But does anyone believe that
that is the world we live in?

It's comforting to think that just going to work and doing your job is
actually contributing to something, but I just don't see how that can be
generally true and definitely not universally true.

Even if we just measured contribution in purely capitalist terms, e.g.
shareholder value, I don't think your claim is true. I think there have been
several studies showing that the average company destroys shareholder value on
net. It's likely that a lot of employees in such companies are also destroying
shareholder value. And this is just shareholder value - to say nothing of the
value destroyed for other stakeholders.

Yes, it is possible to lead your life in such a way that even if you work very
hard, you're still a net drain on humanity.

Sorry, but we have to think much harder about how we can create a net positive
contribution.

We need to go beyond high school guidance counselor nostrums like "work hard!
study hard!" and really struggle with the issue of how we can contribute.

~~~
peacetreefrog
"It's comforting to think that just going to work and doing your job is
actually contributing to something, but I just don't see how that can be
generally true..."

I can't imagine how it would NOT be true. Say you buy something from the
store. Presumably you're getting more value from it than it costs, if you
weren't, you wouldn't buy it. Same with a company. If an employee provides
more value than their salary, it makes sense to hire them. Otherwise it
doesn't. Sure it's not perfect and wages are sticky and people skate by etc,
but you have to be pretty cynical to think most people aren't providing net
value at their jobs. Maybe we have a different definition of "contributing to
something."

Also:

"...there have been several studies showing that the average company destroys
shareholder value on net."

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something or this is a typo, but how could this be
true? Shareholder value isn't an abstract concept like love or blue, it's the
number of shares in a co*their price. The SP 500 is not negative.

~~~
Old_Thrashbarg
> I can't imagine how it would NOT be true.

You can make money while damaging society. Some (possible) examples are
employees working at: \- a tobacco company \- company that supplies oppressive
regimes with tools (software and military hardware) to stay in power \-
company peddling some kind false medical treatment \- tax lawyer helping
people find loopholes \- lobbyist working to increase regulatory capture in
favor of their company

> you have to be pretty cynical to think most people aren't providing net
> value at their jobs

Yes, I agree. But note that you can provide net value to your company, but
detract from society as a whole. Even so, I'd say the majority of people are
adding value to society: plumbers, mechanics, pilots, engineers, most lawyers,
some politicians, etc.

But there is a spectrum of how much you contribute ranging from way in the
negative to way in the positive. There's also jobs that contribute nothing,
but don't really hurt. Day Traders come to mind, they do high-frequency money
sloshing, but don't really change anything.

~~~
trevyn
I honestly think it is very difficult, if not impossible, to assess the
individual value of rank-and-file work to society as a whole.

It is easy to build something and say "this helped family X, or this powered Y
homes", but there are so many externalities that are simply hidden. What if
family X is part of Nation Z, who is about to start thermonuclear war W?

It's just a guessing game at that point. It seems that most people ignore it
under the guise of "well, I do the good that I can", but it's false comfort,
IMO.

~~~
brenschluss
Sure, it may be an educated guess, but we have to try.

It's better than the alternative, which is to assume that any job that pays
(and thus is from a company that earns profit) has equal impact or
externalities with all other companies.

A lack of clarity shouldn't be an excuse for not trying.

------
ajdecon
Honestly, I think the most effective thing to do is find an organization doing
social good, who is hiring programmers, and go work for them. There are plenty
of non-profits and governments that do a ton of good, and employ developers to
work on their web sites and infrastructures. A good friend of mine is a
developer for the ACLU, for example.

There are also organizations like Code for America that do open source work
with local governments. Since those projects are open source, you could
probably volunteer your time and contribute to those. Or simply volunteer in a
non-developer capacity! :)

Doing actual social good -- helping people in ways that will actually solve
their problems, understanding the consequences of changing their lives --
requires a ton of context and communication. I think it's very, very difficult
to do so without either dedicating most of your time to that cause, or working
closely with an organization that is already doing so. (E.g., volunteering for
a food bank is a lot more effective than just picking up food and distributing
it on your own.)

~~~
simplicitea
Thank you for the Code for America recommendation, checking them out now

~~~
oddlyaromatic
Through the Code For Atlanta group I was able start a project with MARTA to
make some things better about paratransit customers' access to up to date ETA
info for their rides, which is currently a pain point for many customers. The
code for America idea is awesome and stuff really does happen!

~~~
astrange
MARTA seems like they could use some hardware donations - for years the "next
train" screens were broken and the announcement speakers on the station
platforms were totally unintelligible. Maybe a better use of time would be
starting a guerrilla group that fixes their stuff without asking?

------
falcolas
Warning - strong opinions ahead: Provide services and tools without the
strings attached.

That is to say, provide email services that don't mine data for profit.
Provide a social interaction space that doesn't attempt to manipulate moods,
opinions, or sell its user's eyeballs. Provide an aggregation service with
strong filtering tools in place of strong moderation. Provide a code
repository with great tooling that doesn't include value judgements. Provide
anonymous, secure communication between parties. Make mobile applications that
provide wanted services without the in-app purchases, ads, or profiling.

The downside is that you're unlikely to get paid for it. You'll probably even
lose money on it. In some cases, you'll even face legal pressure to stop or
change.

~~~
pc86
Is "Facebook without advertisements" really the bar for social good now?

~~~
kolbe
yes. the world would be a much much better place had a non-corporate version
of facebook had become facebook.

~~~
simplicitea
I'm not convinced yet that a non-profit is capable of doing what Facebook
does. I'd love to read about it if you have any lit on the topic.

~~~
kolbe
I doubt anyone has ever written anything on the topic. Keep in mind that non-
profit is not the same thing as non-revenue. Also, replicating facebook isn't
necessarily what I'm talking about, but instead seeing whatever sorts of
applications would be developed in the presence of altered incentives.

------
tacostakohashi
Work as a programmer for whoever will pay you the most. Invest, and donate
money to causes you care about.

~~~
vlaaad
...Unless it's advetising. Or Uber. Or government wanting you to implement yet
another freedom-restricting bullshit.

~~~
beachbum8029
Ummmmmm but Uber made the world a better place? (for me anyway)

~~~
falcolas
Did it make your world a better place, or just add a bit of convenience whose
cost was distributed to people you don't know?

~~~
Kiro
Disrupting the taxi mafia has definitely made the world a better place.

~~~
falcolas
Did the "taxi mafia" encourage a class of laborers who sleep in their cars for
less than a minimum wage while depriving them of any kind of protections
normally associated with employment?

~~~
Epenthesis
...yes?

Are you really unfamiliar with how medallion owners used to treat their
drivers?

~~~
falcolas
Perhaps I have rose colored glasses, but the "sleeping in the car" problem
seems new. But I could very well be wrong.

That said, how are we really in a better place? Same problem, different
master.

~~~
pc86
There is an early NYT article (early in the context of Uber's lifespan)
detailing a day when a cab driver in NYC ended up paying his employer a few
hundred dollars for the privilege of working that day. This was after all his
fares for the shift.

~~~
falcolas
> But what if drivers don’t make enough to cover their rental charges? The
> company has clearly considered this possibility, as it’s included in a
> program FAQ. “No problem,” Uber says. “When you pick up your vehicle,
> Enterprise will take your valid credit or debit card to place on file. In
> the event of a difference, Enterprise will automatically charge the
> outstanding balance to the card on file.” See? No problem.

[https://qz.com/563622/ubers-new-car-rental-program-for-
drive...](https://qz.com/563622/ubers-new-car-rental-program-for-drivers-
doesnt-actually-make-much-financial-sense/)

------
llccbb
I have posted this before, countless times, but techies who want to volunteer
their skills and knowledge to advance the democratic process should think
about joining the PROGRESSIVE CODERS NETWORK[0]. They are a non-profit that
helps organize and direct volunteer coders, programmers, designers into open-
source political projects. They are about connecting and facilitating
projects, not dictating what projects should be. They are party-neutral, but
seek to empower the people and provide tools for running successful campaigns
and being engaged as a citizen.

If you can take away the need for millions of dollars to run a campaign then
policy makers aren't beholden to the few wealthy supporters that helped get
them elected.

They help connect volunteers to projects that range from building an open-
source voter database to an Uber-like app that helps the mobility-limited get
transportation to vote. They are extremely transparent and always interested
in growing the network. Many members of the network are engineers, product
managers, or independent coders.

[0][http://progcode.co](http://progcode.co)

~~~
mkohlmyr
Party neutral?

They list MoveOn as a key partner:
[https://github.com/ProgressiveCoders/functions/issues/196](https://github.com/ProgressiveCoders/functions/issues/196)

This document clearly states the organisation is founded by Berine Sanders
supporters:
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P8iL3kTWO0Y9aYe8lndcUWTJ...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P8iL3kTWO0Y9aYe8lndcUWTJ27BOZyXWwL03LJ3kxT0/edit#)

And they built something called the "Resistance Calendar", containing events
like:
[https://tockify.com/resistance.calendar/detail/384/149523120...](https://tockify.com/resistance.calendar/detail/384/1495231200000)

I mean for the most part it seems to be stuff I would support (personally),
but to call it party neutral is at best true by way of technicality.

I doubt you find many Republican events on that calendar. Of course, I
wouldn't expect to given the name of the group, but let's not play games and
pretend it isn't partisan?

~~~
dismantlethesun
The non-profit is neutral because it will create applications for all
party/political affiliation causes.

So it'll make an application that supports primarily republican causes too.

------
chrisfosterelli
Check out 80,000 hours: [https://80000hours.org/](https://80000hours.org/)

They have a bunch of interesting research, online articles, guides, and a
book. The entire website is focused around how to make a difference with your
career in a way that aligns with your own goals. It's a great resource.

~~~
darwhy
Definitely seconded. They also have an excellent pamphlet with the evidence-
based advice on how to be successful at whatever job you have, including
advice both general to life and specific to work:
[https://80000hours.org/career-guide/how-to-be-
successful/](https://80000hours.org/career-guide/how-to-be-successful/)

------
awjr
As a cycle campaigner I am using my programming/data/design/socialmedia skills
to present information to decision in better ways.

1) [https://cyclebath.org.uk/map/](https://cyclebath.org.uk/map/) This one has
gone national and is up for a Creative Bath Innovation Award.

2) Using Census 2011 Data I've created a healthy cities and towns league index
as well as spatial analysis on commuter behaviour. (6M people drive to work,
of which 3.5M live within a 20 minute cycle ride)
[https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4YARJgso6IxRjd1ZlNDZklGaX...](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4YARJgso6IxRjd1ZlNDZklGaXc)

3) Worked with Bath Hacked and Strava to deliver a year of cycling in the city
of Bath strava.bathhacked.org

4) Get involved in your local tech4good meetup.

Do not start from a "hey where can I use my skills for good?". Start with "I
am passionate about X, what can I do to help X in anyway?"

~~~
tomglynch
I'd like to get involved in this kind of thing in Melbourne, Aus. I'm already
a campaigner, but hadn't thought of contributing in a technological sense! I
think I'll get in contact with the others I know and offer to help out!

Cheers for the insight!

~~~
awjr
I'd look at the 2016
[http://www.abs.gov.au/census](http://www.abs.gov.au/census) data set and see
if you can start playing around with some of the data sets within there.

------
Jemmeh
[https://github.com/HospitalRun](https://github.com/HospitalRun)

Open source, modern software for charitable hospitals in the developing world.

Find some open source projects for some issue you care about. The medical
community could use a lot of help, anything that automates some part of their
job means medical staff is available to help more patients. There's a lot of
room for automation in this field.

Personally I think anything in renewable energy, sexual education, and poverty
alleviation are good highly effective causes to get behind as well.

------
kolbe
My opinion: take whatever idea you have for a great company, but make it a
non-profit.

Other than maybe e-mail, wikipedia is the best thing to come out of the
internet. And its creator may not be a billionaire oligarch, but he has a
GREAT life. If you can set aside a need to be filthy, needlessly, pointlessly
rich, then maybe turn your next idea for a social network or a communication
platform or whatever into a non-profit. It's amazing what types of products
can be built for this world when you're building for the world, and not the
shareholders.

~~~
bradyo
This is the dream. OpenStreetMap is another great example of such an idea. To
take it a step further, I'd encourage setting the non-profit up as a worker's
cooperative. Just imagine all of the big companies out there organized as
open-source, co-operative non-profits. We could kill a lot of redundant work,
retain people's privacy, and really empower the employees of these companies
to ensure the company works on things they believe in.

~~~
devrandomguy
Tools for automating the mundane tasks of running a co-op, sounds like a great
idea for a project. Something along the lines of the GNU tool suite.

How does one build and maintain a co-op? Could anyone recommend a book on the
subject, that covers a variety of nations or regions?

~~~
bradyo
I'm not sure about resources for starting a co-op outside the US, but here are
some resources I've found on how to start a co-op. Web searching will find
more.

\-
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14135068](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14135068)

\-
[https://electricembers.coop/pubs/TechCoopHOWTO.pdf](https://electricembers.coop/pubs/TechCoopHOWTO.pdf)

\- [https://www.coops.tech/](https://www.coops.tech/)

\- Tech co-ops mailing list: [https://npogroups.org/lists/info/tech-
coop](https://npogroups.org/lists/info/tech-coop)

I talked briefly with this co-op whose set up in Europe and seems to have
members from all over, so they might provide good insight:
[https://camplight.net/](https://camplight.net/)

Also, talking to nonprofit founders, I've heard that starting a non-profit
yourself can be pain in the ass. However, you can essentially outsource the
management of the nonprofit to another nonprofit via 'fiscal sponsorship.' Web
searching for that will bring up more details. For example,
[http://grayarea.org/incubator/fiscal-
sponsorship/](http://grayarea.org/incubator/fiscal-sponsorship/). I met the
founder of this organization that started providing fiscal sponsorship
recently as well: [http://blog.hacker.fund/fs/](http://blog.hacker.fund/fs/)

And finally, there are actually some co-ops that are trying to make this
process easier. For example, this co-op alternative to kickstarter:
[https://snowdrift.coop/](https://snowdrift.coop/) and this co-op that makes
software for making decisions within co-ops easier:
[https://www.loomio.org/](https://www.loomio.org/)

------
holmesworcester
I work at fightforthefuture.org and I've thought a lot about this.

My first answer is to develop your skills to the point where you are strong on
design and UI/UX, not just coding.

I say this because we've worked with some people who have this ability, and
they're extremely effective as activists once they focus on a mission.

Aaron Swartz is one person who had this ability, but you don't have to be a
genius polymath to be good at this, and Aaron wasn't amazing at visuals and
design either. (He was good enough at it though, which was what mattered.)

Ideally, you should be able to speak persuasively online, using text, code and
design creatively to get your message across. But as a minimum you should be
able to build a prototype from your own vision, get the UI/UX to a point where
you're happy with it by iterating, and QA it yourself.

There are a few reasons for this, but the main one is that most social change
gets done by small groups of people, and many of those people aren't
technical. And usually it leverages certain moments when people happen to be
paying attention, and makes the most of those. So you won't have a big team,
and being able to do most things yourself lets you respond quicker.

If you have that, I'd try your hand at working on some issues that interest
you, either directly, or showing up at an org you admire and seeing if you can
help.

We're setting up a space for volunteers, and also a YC-like fund for new
activism projects that emphasizes the need for technical founders:
[http://fightforthefuture.org/ateams/](http://fightforthefuture.org/ateams/)

~~~
simplicitea
Since you mention a YC-like fund for activism projects, and at the risk of
breaking a rule i may not be aware of (let me know) I'm gonna quote myself and
hope you are interested or know people who may be interested

" OP here, actually floored by the rapidity and variety of responses. Thanks
HN.

I'll take this opportunity to float an idea that's been kicking around in my
head for a long time. The premise is to:

1) (this is almost certainly the easy part) build out a platform that is like
a two-way khan academy - teacher and student, with at least the teacher having
a tablet and a stylus that function well, sharing a digital blackboard, with a
video chat optional -- where a student of something in a relatively privileged
situation teaches a student of the same thing in a relatively less privileged
situation -- where the sessions are stored and rewindable, both video and
blackboard input.

2) the hard part; selling it as something to invest in and driving it to a
point of having an endowment behind it, like Harvard's endowment, that allows
the service to pay for moderation of student-teachers something like $12.00
USD an hour to teach, while subsidizing well-chosen students to have to pay
something like $2 an hour to learn

it's been an idea for a passion project for a while "

------
numlocked
Work with mission-driven businesses. B Corps[0] are a good place to start.
There's nothing quite like coming to work every day with a group of like-
minded folks who want to make a dent in the universe.

My company, www.grove.co, strives to help families making it easy to buy
sustainable products vs. conventional CPG. It seemed a bit crazy when we
started, but now literally thousands of families get sustainable products from
us every single day. It's hard to make a big impact on your own, but
organizations and companies can do great things.

[0] [https://www.bcorporation.net/](https://www.bcorporation.net/)

~~~
ISL
B Corps don't always stay B Corps when they get all grown up:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-05-18/the-
barba...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-05-18/the-barbarians-
are-at-etsy-s-hand-hewn-responsibly-sourced-gates)

~~~
hooverlunch
Worker co-ops usually have provisions in their bylaws to ensure they stay co-
oops. This is to guard against the issue you allude to here.

------
delormev
Volunteer for DataKind ([http://www.datakind.org/](http://www.datakind.org/)),
a charity that connects "data professionals" (in the broad sense of the term)
to charities who have problems to solve and the data to solve them, but not
the resources to do it!

They organise different types of projects: DataDives, which are hackathon-type
events and focus on data exploration and analysis; and DataCorps, longer term
projects (a few months), where a team of volunteers will team up on a more
project for the client charity.

They are looking for volunteers for a wide range of roles, including data
scientists, programmers with experience with ML, dataviz experts, project
managers, etc.

------
hooverlunch
Join or start a tech worker co-op!

First, one of the best ways to do social good is to fight capitalism. Just by
working at a worker co-op, you're doing this. Many tech co-ops are also built
around resisting other oppressions like racism, patriarchy, etc.

Second, many co-ops (e.g. [http://sassafras.coop](http://sassafras.coop), the
one I work for) work on lots of social good projects.

~~~
sheraz
Yes, evil capitalism.

You know, don't want to think you actually think that. Perhaps you meant,
"fight the negative outcomes sometimes found in capitalist societies."

~~~
arglebarnacle
Honestly the idea that capitalism itself systematically causes inequality is
not a crazy thing to believe. You obviously don't agree and that's fine, but
it's not the case that every smart person believes the "negative outcomes
found in capitalist societies" can be resolved without a fundamental change in
the underlying system.

~~~
thomastjeffery
My thought process:

Inequality causes capitalism. Liberty _allows_ inequality. Those "negative
outcomes" come from inequality, not capitalism. Fighting capitalism is a
workaround. It's an appealing workaround because the "underlying system" is
centralized, and inequality is not.

~~~
sheraz
Can you expand on how capitalism is an outcome of inequality?

~~~
thomastjeffery
I just reread my post, and noticed that I wrote the first sentence completely
wrong. It's too late to edit, so here is what I meant to say:

Inequality does not come from capitalism. Liberty allows inequality. Those
"negative outcomes" come from inequality, not capitalism. Fighting capitalism
(socialism) is a workaround. It's an appealing workaround because the
"underlying system" is centralized, and inequality is not.

------
swalberg
Leave your programming at work. Find a cause you believe in or a political
candidate you think will do good, and volunteer for that. Knock on doors. Call
people. Do research. Organize events and people. Donate money. Change other
people's minds.

A lot of these social good things need people to get involved, not software to
be written.

~~~
cosinetau
This is an understated answer. It's not enough to be a strong engineer,
solving problems well often means having a lot of context from several
backgrounds and experiences.

------
Mz
I think the best social good comes from fostering a more civilized
environment. Sure, we need things like fire fighters and EMS. But keep in mind
that fire fighters also try to do fire prevention. Sometimes, people get so
focused on how to be a hero (metaphorically looking for the best way to fight
the worst conflagrations) that they overlook opportunities to do more valuable
though less "sexy" prevention.

Anything that helps feed people well or better, promotes germ control, reduces
social friction in some way, helps marginalized peoples earn a living or helps
people of limited means access basic decent housing promotes the social good.
But those things are often not the heroics people have in mind when asking
this type question.

~~~
nyargh
This. We have had a horrible track record with tech volunteers, in part
because our mission is not tech-centric, so they don't get any glory. It
doesn't mean there isn't anything for them to do - it's just that the story
isn't about technology ... or them.

There is a mountain of boring, yet critically important work waiting for
people to just roll up their sleeves and pitch in.

~~~
Senderman
I'm pretty sure the original post is asking what's in that alleged mountain.

~~~
Mz
Long experience suggests they probably are not.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Why? I have exactly the same question on my mind as OP, and I'm definitely
_not_ thinking about yet another bullshit mobile app that'll save the world.

~~~
Mz
Because long experience tells me that it is inherently hard to see and measure
the disasters you prevented. This makes it incredibly hard to feel like you
are accomplishing anything and harder still to convince other people you are
actually adding value.

Y2K was supposed to be a global meltdown. There were people who prepped for
that like a coming apocalypse. It was prevented and many people remember it as
"Ha! Can you believe those fools ever believed we were in real danger?!"

No one gets up today and goes "Oh, thank god they fixed that and I am not
living in the Y2K post apocalypse! My ATM still works and life goes on!"

I was molested for 2.5 years as a child in part because my mother stopped
being a homemaker and began doing paid work outside the house. The direct
cause and effect connection is extremely clear to me not only due to first
hand experience but because of extensive reading on the topic. This is part of
why I was a full time homemaker until my sons were 19 and 16. No one ever
molested them. There was damn little opportunity for anyone to get them alone.
I made sure of it.

I get straight up told I just got lucky and do not actually know shit all
about preventing bad things from happening. When I try to share such
information to help other people I basically get told "Shit happens. You can't
stop it. Quit blaming the victims."

~~~
nyargh
Sorry to hear about your experience, but you make a very salient point and I
also agree that you made an enlightened (if hard earned) decision regarding
the best thing you could do for your children.

In my experience there are thousands of people doing the hard work day in and
day out, quietly holding the line. It's a constant effort and constant
tension, but for those who won't settle for anything less than revolution -
that sort of work, no matter how vital, just isn't compelling enough. I
personally find the prevalence of this kind of attitude very disturbing,
although I suppose it is just human nature in the end - perhaps with a bit of
celebrity/hero worship thrown in.

~~~
Mz
I try to assume they just don't see it because it is hard to see.

I also have a serious medical condition and have gotten off all drugs. I am
routinely told I am crazy, making that up, it is a tall tale, my success is
because my condition is mild, it is wild coincidence...etc etc...and I cannot
possibly actually know anything useful. People who don't think I am straight
up crazy and have acted on my suggestions have said things to me like "I fed
my child like you suggested and they are in the ER less, but they aren't
taking fewer drugs." What they mean is the child still needs the same
maintenance drugs. They completely miss the fact that fewer ER visits means
fewer antibiotics and other drugs, thus fewer ER visits means their child is
taking fewer drugs.

Even people who have it clear in their mind that A prevented B have difficulty
measuring the things that have not happened. They still mentally minimize the
value of the accomplishment. It takes real and significant effort to try to
quantify in a meaningful way that "We prevented X amount of catastrophe with
our work." It is much easier to see lives saved by an ambulance than lives
saved by the local gym or the local organic grocer.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _It takes real and significant effort to try to quantify in a meaningful way
> that "We prevented X amount of catastrophe with our work." It is much easier
> to see lives saved by an ambulance than lives saved by the local gym or the
> local organic grocer._

Maybe something could be done to help / teach people to better quantify it
(caveats about Goodhart's law notwithstanding)?

~~~
Mz
I have a zillion little blogs about various things that interest me (but,
wait, there's more! I also leave comments like the ones above in various
online forums!). Maybe over the course of the next 30 years, my writing shall
become popular and this issue will substantially change.

:-)

~~~
TeMPOraL
Well, maybe you could aggregate some of those comments like 'edw519 did :).
His "best of"[0] is actually a pretty solid reading about programming and
entrepreneurship.

[0] -
[https://v25media.s3.amazonaws.com/edw519_mod.html](https://v25media.s3.amazonaws.com/edw519_mod.html)

------
santiagobasulto
We do that everyday. Maybe indirectly, but we're making a lot of things way
more efficient. Information is a huge part of our nature, since the first
days, and we're the main collaborators to simplify the access to information.

Said that, you can also think "smaller". Teach someone how to code, and it
might be a complete life changer. I run a coding school and we offer free sits
for people who need it, and we're greatly satisfied. We've seen students
working for McDonald's, for 10 hours per day making just minimum wage, move to
a software company with a $+90K salary and changing their lives completely.

Share what you know, try to fix the problems that humanity faces. Don't try to
do everything just by yourself. But your "tiny" collaboration ads up.

------
andkon
Honestly, most of the skills I've learned in building products for people can
be used to make tech that has a social purpose. First, you find a problem.
Then you find people who can honestly tell you if your solution will actually
work. Then, you do the hard work of building what you're gonna build, and
seeing if it can fit at the locus of how things are actually done.

That sounds vague, so an example might be nice. I travelled to Oaxaca recently
and toured around a bunch of palenques (mezcal distilleries) to see how folks
did their work. It sounded like there's an enormous problem with
overcultivation of maguey — a plant that needs 30-some years to mature in some
cases. I thought maybe an app that could identify + track maguey would help. I
talked about it with folks, and realized that the problem isn't that they
don't know where the plants are, or that they don't know how long they should
grow for. It's that there's too much demand for what the ecology can bear, and
a lot of it gets carted off to Jalisco to fill tequila bottles before it's
mature.

In that light, an app for identifying + tracking maguey isn't really gonna
help. But now I have the contacts, they know I want to help, and we can keep
talking about what they're working on. Maybe it'll line up. But it's
uncertain. And frankly, that's how this stuff works — whether you're building
something in the hopes of getting into YC, or building something to help out
humankind. Just because you can earn a paycheque writing code doesn't mean you
can identify and fill a new need with that same skillset.

------
timpark
UN Volunteers ( [http://www.unv.org/](http://www.unv.org/) ) has a Technology
development section. (
[https://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/opportunities?f[]=fiel...](https://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/opportunities?f\[\]=field_task_id:5)
) A lot of it is web work, but there's sometimes app development.

------
jjhale
For an in depth talk about the affect of directing your salary to charity
check out the following Tech Talk by Toby Ord: "How Many Lives Can You Save?
-- Taking Charity Seriously"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGCVRA7T7FE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGCVRA7T7FE)

They talk about using the metric of "how many lives can be saved" with your
cash.

ABSTRACT

People admire doctors and rescue workers and marvel at the possibility of
saving someone's life -- something that few of us would ever achieve. And yet
at the same time, we routinely hear that for a small sum of money we could
save someone's life in a developing country and this scarcely impacts our
behaviour. There is an important disconnect between these two attitudes and it
has serious moral implications. I will speak about the evidence which shows
that we really can make a tremendous difference by giving, and then explore
the moral case for giving much more than we typically do. I will then look at
the great disparity in effectiveness between different charities and show how
choosing _where_ to give can be even more important than the decision to give
in the first place.

------
cprayingmantis
I'm working on an application that will allow organizations to better keep up
with the homeless. From what I've heard a lot of folks who are chronically
homeless difficult for a single individual to keep up with so it often takes a
team to keep tabs on them. Sometimes information isn't adequately disbursed
through the whole team and it leads to knowledge that goes nowhere. My idea
was to create an app that works as a single source of truth allowing all
workers to update on an individual and raise issues. Probably just going to
make it donation oriented unless it really takes off and I need to acquire an
operating budget.

~~~
stult
I don't know where you're located, but in the US, the HMIS was intended to
serve this purpose. It hasn't for a variety of reasons, but especially because
it isn't easy to use so only trained intake specialists use it. Beyond just
poor design, the legal requirements for privacy and non-discrimination make
intake and data tracking a fraught activity. Also homeless people will
frequently avoid giving accurate biographical information to avoid denial of
services. So those are two major obstacles you will face.

Tracking homeless individuals is an incredibly challenging task, even without
considering the tech. For example, my girlfriend works in macro-level social
work primarily focusing on the homeless population. (She and I are data geeks
so we talk about this a lot). She currently works at a shelter where they are
trying to identify the homeless citizens who cost hospitals and medicaid the
most money, because there's some insane distribution of costs such that
something like 1% of the patients account for 90% of the costs. She can't get
any cost data from hospitals though, because they refuse to disclose it, even
anonymized. Medicaid only has part of the data at best and the government
officials there haven't been responsive to her requests. So she can only get
the cost data by getting individual clients to sign consent forms. Which is
methodologically troublesome because she only has access to the clients that
happen to come to her shelter and many of the highest cost patients are
specifically those who don't go to shelters and instead end up in the hospital
due to exposure/hypothermia/etc. Point being, she can't get the necessary data
in the first place, never mind that she doesn't have anywhere to store it.

Beyond tracking individuals, the data problems in the field are enormous and I
think that may be where you can make the most difference. Even within her one
agency, she can't get a lot of the basic data to evaluate programs because the
agency has not invested any money in tech for 15 years. Primarily because they
can barely afford to stay open. So they've got tons of legacy systems with
data scattered around. No one knows where anything is, and even if they did
know where to find data, they wouldn't know how to aggregate it or display it
in a useful manner.

This is a common problem for community services organizations. They are
chronically underfunded and tend to be run by people with little expertise in
tech. And the staff tend not to be much more qualified. My girlfriend asked
their in-house accountant for a list of expenses related to a specific set of
grants the other day. The accountant sent her a part of the general ledger,
which is incomprehensible to anyone who isn't familiar with accounting (and it
was the wrong part, but that's another story). She also went to a program
director and requested some demographic data that was required for reporting
under the grants. Turns out he hadn't been collecting it.

Anyway, my point is that it would be helpful for many of these shelters and
agencies to have a consolidated information system. So, for example, they can
enter information about a grant they've received, including important dates
and reporting requirements. And then have some tool to ensure that the program
director is aware of and meeting those requirements.

So far, my girlfriend's biggest data/tech success at this agency has been a
project I helped her code. The head fundraiser has to fill out a ridiculous
number of grant applications every month. They are all in PDF and mostly
request the same kinds of information (agency location, purpose, intended use
of grant, etc.). So we wrote a program that takes a canned set of responses
and automatically inserts them into the PDFs, so that the fundraiser only has
to enter answers for non-standard questions. It then auto-updates their grant
tracking system. It's cut down on the time they spend processing applications
tremendously.

It would work a lot better if there was an integrated information system from
which we could pull a lot of that data automatically, because currently it
requires the fundraiser to keep the underlying data store up to date manually.

------
inlinestyle
You should check out Popcode!
([https://github.com/popcodeorg/popcode](https://github.com/popcodeorg/popcode)).
It’s is a free OSS online IDE used by
[https://scripted.org](https://scripted.org) to help kids in under-resourced
high schools learn HTML/CSS/JS.

The big focus is helping students identify and fix mistakes in their code in a
friendly and approachable manner.

------
mmesh
Find a local nonprofit or other organization you like and ask them what tech
help they need. Many small nonprofits are starving for IT resources, either
for financial or cultural reasons.

It's not glamorous, but if you're willing to volunteer your time helping with
an org's Wordpress site or making sure everyone is educated about phishing and
2FA, you can make a meaningful impact in your community.

------
zubairq
Programming is only a SMALL part of doing social good. Find a problem you care
about first.

For us we wanted to help people who were skilled, but ended up washing dishes,
as they did not understand the Danish culture. We made NemCV.com to make them
CVs in 2011. The website is now defunct, but since we cared about helping
people we turned into a real life event to help people and has helped 1000s of
people into a better life here in Denmark, and continues several times a month
to this day:

[https://www.meetup.com/get-your-dream-job/](https://www.meetup.com/get-your-
dream-job/)

So, find the problem first, and then spend time helping and make an IT tool IF
needed!

------
EnFinlay
This link will be of interest to you:
[http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/](http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/).
It's a long read, but it's packed with ideas.

------
ungzd
Get involved into development of free software, preferably that can be used by
people and other free software developers, not just corporations building
"cloud services" (i.e. graphic editor, not js framework).

"Fixing world with software" nowadays cynically means just "to build closed
platform and seek for rent".

------
rojobuffalo
I think the most basic and overlooked thing is food. Eating well, reducing
waste, and sustainable production are areas with huge opportunities. Energy
and food are fundamental for improving quality of life; and they're also the
human activities with the largest negative externalities to nature.

~~~
iagooar
Totally agree. This is a field I'd like to explore and see where I can help
improving it.

Also, everything that has to do with food is tangible and understandable by
every single person in this world.

------
matthjensen
[https://www.github.com/open-source-economics/tax-
calculator](https://www.github.com/open-source-economics/tax-calculator)

Open source tax-calculator for tax policy analysis. Used by many policymakers
to inform their decisions about tax policy via the TaxBrain GUI
([https://www.ospc.org/taxbrain](https://www.ospc.org/taxbrain)). Influences
decisions that affect hundreds of millions of lives.

------
zubat
Fix ordinary problems.

That is to say, there are probably hundreds of things, off the top of your
head, that bother you and probably bother others. To the best of your ability
choose one that you have a clear "thread to pull on" \- as in, there is an
action here you could take that might not be elegant, might not scale, be
politically heated, or put you in a position beyond your understanding,
ultimately require a team or need financing. But you could do it NOW and not
just dream about it, consequences be damned. When the potential is _scary_
like that, that means you actually hold a lot of leverage to unleash new
forces, just by starting on it and not stopping.

Most of software isn't like that: it's predictable in its design, it automates
a thing that was done slower or less effectively before. It fits into the
system and stays within the lines. So you also won't find many examples for
the particular thread you're pulling on, and that's expected.

If you do this and it's something you personally care about and will pour
heart and soul into, you're doing about as much as anyone could hope for. You
won't and can't get all of it right - but what people need isn't perfection,
so much as a vehicle that will last well enough for the journey.

------
vok
Work to make widely-deployed software more efficient. For open source
software, anyone can help with this. Data centers are ~2% of U.S. energy
consumption [0], and that will probably grow.

[0]
[http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2016/06/27/heres...](http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2016/06/27/heres-
how-much-energy-all-us-data-centers-consume/)

------
mythrwy
If we go looking for what truly betters our chances as a species I'm not sure
we'd like the answers we'd find.

And I'm pretty sure most of it would fly in the face of just about every
conventional human morality (which comes about largely for self serving
purposes in my opinion).

Our horizons of view are necessarily limited by the narrow slice of space and
time we occupy and the culture in which we come to conceive the world. We can
break out a little from time to time but for the most part we can't separate
our innate ideas of "social good" from that which more objectively probably is
better for the species.

I understand the sentiment. I thought about it a lot. As I got older I
realized the important things in society are the little things. We are
individuals, there are millions of us. We generally won't dramatically alter
the course of history but the way we treat others personally, the way we
conduct our affairs, our character as individuals, that's what makes up a
society. We have to eat and drink. It's part of life. So we sometimes have to
do things that we'd rather not. But we can try to minimize our negative
impact.

Also I think we partially got where we are right now because some of our
ancestors were basically beasts who killed the competition and took their
women. And if that hadn't happened at some level regularly we'd probably still
be swinging from trees and eating seasonal fruit. I'm not sure I want to know
what the implication of that is. But I try to live in peace and stay balanced
which means not worrying about saving the world all the time. Because it truly
cannot be saved but maybe you can be. And a few others.

------
NoGravitas
This is almost certainly the wrong place to ask this question, unfortunately.
The HN demographic is spectacularly disinterested in the well-being of
humanity. Try /r/socialistprogrammers or /r/anarcho_hackers on Reddit.

~~~
austenallred
> The HN demographic is spectacularly disinterested in the well-being of
> humanity.

Wait, what?

~~~
darwhy
You can see it in the many comments claiming that working at an ordinary day
job or donating your income to charity is akin to the social good asked for by
OP. It's a failure of imagination to assume that you can do more good for the
world as programmer #9001 at Facebook who donates some of his income to
effective altruism than as a programmer who adds all of her value to some
other cause. A good programmer making 100k contributes far more than 100k
value to the company she works at, so why not find a charity to which she can
contribute similarly?

~~~
austenallred
> You can see it in the many comments claiming that working at an ordinary day
> job or donating your income to charity is akin to the social good asked for
> by OP.

If OP doesn't see donating to charity as interest in the well-being of society
then let's just admit that the parent isn't so much concerned about whether or
not HN is interested in the well-being of society so much as if HN wants to
contribute to the well-being of society in the same way the parent would.
Thus, parent really should say, "HN doesnt seem to agree with my particular
persuasion as to how one creates well-being in society."

Donating to charity is, almost by definition, interest in the wellbeing of
society.

Also, if you're going to be paid $100k at Facebook that means the value you
provide is >= $100k _to Facebook._ It does not mean that your work is
objectively worth $100k anywhere you could go. There's some correlation, of
course, but I think given the context it's an important distinction to make.

As an aside, it's entirely possible for me to imagine a scenario in which the
most beneficial thing one could do for society is utilize the scale and reach
of Facebook. I doubt that the vast majority of the work at Facebook is that
specifically, but it's certainly possible to imagine.

~~~
eeZah7Ux
> Donating to charity is, almost by definition, interest in the wellbeing of
> society.

...or dodging taxes while getting good PR and also giving jobs to people in
your own country (instead of elsewhere)?

~~~
maxerickson
It isn't a tax dodge.

The cost of the donation always exceeds the tax benefit.

People do things like setup foundations and then appoint people to work for
them, but that still doesn't allow the money to be kept without paying taxes
on it (the foundation has to engage in bona fide charitable activities to
maintain tax status).

------
sethbannon
I really like the UN's Sustainable Development Goals as a guide for "the
world's biggest problems". See them here:
[https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300](https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300)

Luckily, these days there are an abundance of ways you can 1) make money, 2)
work on interesting problems, 3) work with amazing people, and 4) do social
good. You used to have to choose 2 or 3 of those things, but no longer. I run
a nonprofit organization that highlights these opportunities:
[http://impact.tech/](http://impact.tech/)

I also run a VC fund that supports these sorts of startups. You can see an
example of the companies we back here:
[http://www.fifty.vc/companies/](http://www.fifty.vc/companies/)

If anyone is considering jumping into the social impact startup space, feel
free to drop me a line and I can help you navigate the opportunities. First
name AT the URL of the nonprofit I mentioned.

------
nyargh
Support the people already doing important work - get away from the egocentric
"tech will save the world" attitude that is so endemic to our industry. Just
get involved and see where you can help.

~~~
Senderman
Get involved in what; where?

Unspecific suggestions like this are the reason people get lost and resume the
attitude you're deriding.

~~~
nyargh
That is an exercise left to the reader. Find groups that interest you and are
effective in their mission. Ask how you can help and follow through with your
commitments. Be humble and aware that initially you will be _taking_ not
_giving_ as they expend resources to spin you up.

Or as mentioned above - just donate some of that sweet, sweet cash that tech
workers are making hand over fist compared to nearly every other occupation.

> Unspecific suggestions like this are the reason people get lost and resume
> the attitude you're deriding.

Yes, surely those people bear no responsibility around their personal level of
civic engagement.

~~~
Senderman
> Yes, surely those people bear no responsibility around their personal level
> of civic engagement.

"Those people" started this thread and asked for specifics.

> Find groups that interest you and are effective in their mission.

That's what the poster is doing.

I don't disagree with your sentiment; the answer to "how do I do good?" isn't
just going to be handed to you. I suppose I was prompted to jump in because I
think somebody might otherwise confuse your comment for being a useful answer
to the original topic.

~~~
nyargh
> I suppose I was prompted to jump in because I think somebody might otherwise
> confuse your comment for being a useful answer to the original topic.

Doing the lord's work, right here ...

~~~
Senderman
> Doing the lord's work

It's called "social good" nowadays.

------
Svenstaro
This is going to sound pessimistic at first but hear me out: Unless you're
extremely gifted in many ways and super resourceful, you're not likely to make
any noticeable impact on the species.

However, you can still make a big difference for groups much smaller than the
whole species (and I think that's actually preferable from a human point of
view because it's more tangible). The world is full of problems that could
easily be solved by good software. This is especially true in industries that
are usually not very technological by themselves.

Depending on your current network you might have gotten to know an industry or
two that is not strictly technological. If not, ask your friends who do not
program software all day and ask them what problems they have at work that
they find annoying and try to come up with a software solution for that.

Once you do that, convince their bosses that it saves them more money to pay
for your software than to do things the old way.

~~~
bjelkeman-again
I wouldn't be so pesimistic. We started an organisation that builds open
source cloud data systems used among other things to track drinking water
infrastructure and sustainable food production in Africa and Asia. We started
from scratch and we now work with 20+ governments, 200+ NGOs and several UN
organisations. We are probably not extremely gifted, but more like middle of
the road startup geeks. Still we make an impact.

------
perlgeek
Something I recently heard on a podcast:

Teach Python to girls in Zimbabwe: [https://www.zimbopy.com/become-a-
mentor](https://www.zimbopy.com/become-a-mentor)

------
java_script
Join the Democratic Socialists of America's tech committee! [0]

[0]
[http://www.dsausa.org/tech_committee](http://www.dsausa.org/tech_committee)

------
sorrymate
I would also like to mention the Humanitarian Toolbox www.htbox.org/

The goal is to help humanitarian organizations solve technology problems with
open source solutions. This excellent group of people are developing solutions
to common problems like logistical, and communication issues that help improve
humanitarian aid.

You can see the source code on their github:
[https://github.com/htbox/](https://github.com/htbox/)

If you are interested, you can hear more about it by listening to Richard
Campbell on this podcast and many others like it:
[http://www.podcastchart.com/podcasts/herding-
code/episodes/h...](http://www.podcastchart.com/podcasts/herding-
code/episodes/herding-code-220-richard-campbell-on-humanitarian-toolbox)

------
welder
Contribute to [http://freecodecamp.com](http://freecodecamp.com)

------
teddyh
FSF's High Priority Free Software Projects list:

[https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/)

• Free phone operating system: [https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/free-phone](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/free-
phone)

• Decentralization, federation, and self-hosting:
[https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/decentraliza...](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/decentralization-federation)

• Free drivers, firmware, and hardware designs:
[https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/hardware-
fir...](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/hardware-firmware-
drivers)

• Real-time voice and video chat: [https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/voicevideoch...](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/voicevideochat)

• Encourage contribution by people underrepresented in the community:
[https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/contribute](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/contribute)

• Free software and accessibility: [https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/accessibilit...](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/accessibility)

• Internationalization of free software:
[https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/internationa...](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/internationalization)

• Security by and for free software: [https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/security-by-...](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/security-by-and-for-free-software)

• Intelligent personal assistant: [https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/personalassi...](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-
projects/personalassistant)

• Help GNU/Linux distributions be committed to freedom:
[https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/help-gnu-
lin...](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/help-gnu-linux-
distributions-be-committed-to-freedom)

• Free software adoption by governments:
[http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/free-
software...](http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/free-software-
adoption-by-governments)

------
Frondo
If you want to do social good on your own, pick a cause you can get excited
about and look for meetings in your town around that cause. Go to those
meetings for six months and get to know people. Talk to them and find out what
problems they're facing, and brainstorm with them ways tech can solve those
problems. Find the most curmudgeonly people in that community and work with
them until you've won _them_ over. Now you have an idea! Make it, refine it,
and when you launch, your local community around that cause will be able to
promote it to like-minded folks elsewhere.

Simple, but takes a lot of time, patience, listening, and humility. You can't
go in thinking you have the answers, it's got to be a collaborative process.

------
ouid
Social utility is not easy to define. The main problem is that it's impossible
to speak for all timescales at once. Particularly when you take some sort of
norm on all the individual utilities. This sounds overly technical, but I have
a point.

Don't work towards maximizing the utility of everyone, it's nonsense. People
aren't that cooperative, even. Work towards bounding the minimum utility.
There's lots of social and physical extinction events that humanity faces.
Even if you have nothing directly to contribute to these problems, perhaps you
can realistically contribute to the welfare of other people who _are_
contributing to these problems.

------
nyae
Check out one of Data for Democracy's projects and see if you'd like to
contribute to any of their open source work:
[http://datafordemocracy.org/](http://datafordemocracy.org/)

------
j45
I've volunteered technology skills for a long time for social and community
causes. Tech assistance ends up often starting as a secondary way to assist
and first beginning with non-tech volunteering as a way to learn about
problems. It's interesting how much more we can get done if a social
enterprise/cause had the right tools and I invariably end up helping with
something if I just get involved as a volunteer.

There's some important things that can make a lasting difference, beginning
with ensuring there's something you care about, possibly obscure, but
important, for possibly a long time. A big part of this is learning about what
the issues are and their impacts.

To help pick a problem or area you care about.. there are things that you are
naturally drawn to and can't help yourself with.

It's not a bad place to start looking for problems (and other people trying to
make a difference) you care about and want to add value to is an important
consideration.

Why? The most important thing I experience is the importance of always adding
value first, and finding a way to do it. It simply opens more doors and
opportunities than anything else I've ever experienced.

From a tech perspective, many social enterprises, groups can benefit from
basic mobile apps or tools for the people they work with. The skillset here
isn't the hard thing to find, it's a willingness to learn and only then solve
problems even if they aren't new or interesting but deliver great value.

If you can help someone save a few hours a week with 10-15 minutes of making
an excel sheet, it is a greater help and a start.

All big problems begin as and consist of a lot of smaller problems.

A secret of finding interesting projects that can grow, is that the
willingness to solve small problems, because small problems leads to large
problems on their own. Almost all of my multi-industry experience is due to
the transferability of solving similar problems.

With this in mind, social good can happen independently, with a group, from an
initiative at work, and not just exclusively from working with non-profits.
Help where no one's helping and you'll find lots of opportunities to add
value.

------
Alex3917
Join the Progressive Coders Network:
[https://www.progcode.org](https://www.progcode.org)

There are a ton of projects you can jump on aimed at helping to get
progressives elected and enact progressive policies. For those not familiar
with progressive politics (or at least not beyond Bernie or whatever), the
basic idea is to make it easier for people to get involved with government.
For example, making it easier to to figure out which elections you're eligible
to participate in as a candidate and/or as a voter.

------
davidmooreppf
Our non-profit builds Councilmatic -
[https://www.councilmatic.org/](https://www.councilmatic.org/) \- free & open-
source tech for city-level civic engagement. Closing the feedback loop with
local government, accessible tools for community dialogue.

But in my ten years' experience, here's what I see as the biggest potential
for tech for social good: open data standards for constituent communications.
Breaking public messages out of the current silo's of individual e-mails,
e-petitions, social media, civic tech apps, and issue advocacy platforms.
Making possible open structured data on real public priorities and policy
preferences in every Congressional district. This never took off because
government offices haven't wanted such a level of participatory democracy, and
because existing advocacy groups haven't wanted to share membership lists and
enable peer-to-peer organizing - it would undercut the business models of
e-petition companies and legacy advocacy vendors and VC-backed civic startups.
But making public opinion info more free and open for analysis could push
forward reforms that have wide support, and are stymied by the current U.S.
two-party system: [http://www.participatorypolitics.org/open-data-
infrastructur...](http://www.participatorypolitics.org/open-data-
infrastructure/#standards)

------
splitrocket
Blue Ridge Labs @ Robinhood.

We have a yearly, paid, 5 month long fellowship in Brooklyn for mid-career
engineers, designs, and product managers that combines human centered design
and Lean Startup to build tech ventures that fight poverty.

[https://joinpropel.com](https://joinpropel.com) came out of our fellowship
and just raised a seed round from Andreesen Horowitz.

Our website: [https://labs.robinhood.org](https://labs.robinhood.org)

------
tahw
Join wikileaks and their ilk in the fight to uncover and unravel the
conspiracies that are preventing progress from advancing in "first world"
countries!

------
whatwhosdis
Program whatever the heck you want to program but stop eating meat while doing
it.

Check out the documentary Cowspiracy (free on Netflix) to see what I'm talking
about.

~~~
darioush
how is it free if you have to pay for netflix?

------
simplicitea
OP here, actually floored by the rapidity and variety of responses. Thanks HN.

I'll take this opportunity to float an idea that's been kicking around in my
head for a long time.

The premise is to:

1) (this is almost certainly the easy part) build out a platform that is like
a two-way khan academy - teacher and student, with at least the teacher having
a tablet and a stylus that function well, sharing a digital blackboard, with a
video chat optional -- where a student of something in a relatively privileged
situation teaches a student of the same thing in a relatively less privileged
situation -- where the sessions are stored and rewindable, both video and
blackboard input.

2) the hard part; selling it as something to invest in and driving it to a
point of having an endowment behind it, like Harvard's endowment, that allows
the service to pay for moderation of student-teachers something like $12.00
USD an hour to teach, while subsidizing well-chosen students to have to pay
something like $2 an hour to learn

it's been an idea for a passion project for a while

~~~
Theodores
You need to develop this for a market that will pay you for it. Then you
'fork' your code for your favourite causes.

In the world of retail many companies have to train sales staff in third party
dealerships, this can be with lots of site visits and with those staff doing
some away day thing. The reason for this sales training is so products can be
demonstrated and those sales converted by knowledgeable staff.

So you find your market in this type of a business and solve the challenges.
There will be plenty in keeping company staff trained and on-board, with a
long-term relationship with them selling stuff they get training updates
about. You tailor your solution to different verticals and when you have a
base product that can be tailored to your customers you then do your project
version as that 'base product'.

So maybe do this the hard way, put in some time being that person that does
company training materials, build out whatever is needed for doing that much,
much better, pioneer it with the company that you work for, and on their
clock, put in a lot of work needed to build out the backend and support needed
for your big idea, then leave to polish it off knowing you have a commercial
version out there and proven to be good (hopefully!).

Whilst you are doing this you might also want to help or support those around
you on a friendly basis rather than as part of an organisation. Just being a
friend to an elderly neighbour, having time for them and being willing to help
them get their teevee plugged in correctly is pretty good. You can also be
there for others that have problems of the mind or of the body that you are
glad you are not afflicted by. Through maintaining friendships and looking out
for a few vulnerable souls from different walks of life to yourself you can
learn immense things about the human condition. You can also change people's
lives with money and learn the nuances of that. There are no tax deductions or
medals for making charity something you do informally, the whole world is not
going to care if you walk the old guy's dog for him every morning.

------
claytoncorreia
If you’re looking for a job where you can do good as a programmer, we’re
always interested in speaking with talented people at Chimp. Our platform,
chimp.net, is built to dramatically improve the human experience of
participating in charity by helping people, communities and corporations to
make bigger impacts on causes they care about.

I personally have been at Chimp for over 5 years. I can tell you that it’s a
pretty amazing feeling to come into work every day, sit in a comfy chair,
wiggle my fingers on a keyboard and, as a result, help get hundreds of
millions of dollars flowing into the charitable sector. All while getting paid
a competitive salary at a stable company that’s poised for massive growth.

If this sounds interesting, checkout
[https://chimp.net/careers](https://chimp.net/careers) or email jobs@chimp.net
if you don’t see a role posted that matches your skill set. Again, we’ll
always connect with talented people that we think we can work with.

------
_asummers
Machine learning is pretty popular right now. With obvious applications in
things like biology, you can go into things like gene research (see CRISPR) or
AI. Could even go embedded and do medical security things to prevent the next
WannaCry.

A recruiter shot a job across my email a few months back about using
technology to get people more active in government. Depending on how you feel
about government, that could be taken to any number of applications, with some
company filling the niche along the way.

I work in education, myself, and I find that pretty rewarding. Being able to
use technology to help teachers do something even a little bit easier is a
good feeling.

Even though these scenarios are very different, they all help advance
individuals and the species in their own micro and macro ways. Tech is useful
everywhere, so decide who you want to help, and find companies that exist to
help those people and go from there. And if you don't find a company there,
then maybe you have your YC interview already cooking.

------
tonydiv
Teach kids how to program! I view it very similar to "teaching the (wo)man how
to fish."

I'm working on the 1st live online school that teaches kids to code. It's
nearly impossible for parents to find teachers locally between 4-7PM,
especially at a reasonable price, so come help :)

[http://block.school](http://block.school)

------
grblovrflowerrr
IDK about helping the species but maybe contribute to open source software in
one of the following?:

Disaster Management Software EMS Software Assistance software for the
blind,deaf,etc.

Of course, not everything becomes magically better from software's
involvement. There might be some good opportunities in robotics, robotic
medical care and elderly care especially come to mind.

------
staltz
Hint: help the Scuttlebutt P2P project
[https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/](https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/). It can be used for
social media in areas disconnected from the global internet, through gossip
replication of social feeds. Can be quite useful for communities in Syria,
Amazon, and Africa.

------
lbearl
Come look at Transplant Connect:
[https://transplantconnect.com/](https://transplantconnect.com/)

We make software which facilitates the organ, tissue and eye donation process
in partnership with a number of other organizations and non-profits. It's
really rewarding work.

------
bradyo
I recently went through a job search focusing on organizations doing social
good. Full disclosure, I now work at Remix
([https://www.remix.com/jobs](https://www.remix.com/jobs)) and we're hiring!
We're a for-profit founded by a collection of former Code for America fellows
helping to improve cities.

I have a list of resources that I collected while I was searching as well:

\- The Fast Forward accelerator's tech nonprofits job board and directory.
This is easily the most extensive list I found: [https://www.ffwd.org/tech-
nonprofit-jobs/](https://www.ffwd.org/tech-nonprofit-jobs/),
[https://www.ffwd.org/tech-nonprofits/](https://www.ffwd.org/tech-nonprofits/)

\- The YC-funded non-profits (subset here
[https://github.com/smartergiving/open-
data/blob/master/v0/fu...](https://github.com/smartergiving/open-
data/blob/master/v0/funder_highlights/y_combinator.json))

\- The well-known non-profits: Mozilla, Wikimedia, Khan Academy

\- [https://twitter.com/goodtechjobs](https://twitter.com/goodtechjobs)

\- Code for America is hiring, takes fellows, and has a government job board:
[https://jobs.codeforamerica.org/](https://jobs.codeforamerica.org/)

\- Tech co-ops:
[https://techworker.coop/members](https://techworker.coop/members)

\- [https://www.fossjobs.net/](https://www.fossjobs.net/)

\- Angel list nonprofits:
[https://angel.co/nonprofits](https://angel.co/nonprofits)

\- Some other random social good orgs that I found were hiring in the SF area
or remote: Open Whisper Systems, Binti, Nuna, The Human Diagnosis project,
Bayes Impact, Nava, GovEx, Democracy Works, The Guardian Project, The Internet
Archive, EFF, Exygy, Open Law Lib, Angaza, Fight for the Future,

\- An article written by the co-founder of Bayes Impact for techcrunch:
[https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/25/a-call-to-action-for-
tech/](https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/25/a-call-to-action-for-tech/)

\- Civic Makers ([http://civicmakers.com/](http://civicmakers.com/)) has a
newsletter highlighting civic news

I also second the progressive coder's network.

~~~
gkop
Thanks for mentioning Binti! We help people become foster parents and help
foster care agencies approve foster families. More foster families means
vulnerable children can get out of group homes and into family homes, where
they're more likely to have a good experience. With the help of Binti's web
software, social workers spend less time doing paperwork and more time helping
families, so they have a greater impact and are less likely to leave the
field.

We're needing generalist full-stack engineers, as well as lead engineers in
the areas of data, devops, and security: [https://binti.com/binti-
careers/](https://binti.com/binti-careers/)

------
rnmp
I work at a matchmaking platform that connects nonprofits with professionals
of all kind who are willing to volunteer on projects.
[http://www.catchafire.org/](http://www.catchafire.org/)

Sometimes our nonprofits post iOS/Android prototyping projects, for example.

------
strokeswan
> What problems do i work on?

1\. identify the main threats to mankind

\- degradation of biodiversity, for humans, animals, and flora (climate
change, pollution, over-production, you name it)

\- nuclear damages (power plants, bomb, wastes)

\- natural causes (meteorites, earthquakes, volcanos, solar flares)

2\. analyse the roots of those (examples)

\- technical limitations

\- economically not sustanable

\- pursuit of profit

\- natural but avoidable

\- natural and inevitable

Do a maximum of research for those points, and pick a cause that motivates you
the most.

I, as a developper would personally aim to protect the internet, to have a
free and truthful network to share knowledge.

With knowledge and science we can aim to have a global awareness of our impact
on humankind's future.

I'm striving for a ressourced based economy, and leave that capitalistic
aberration that the Gross domestic product (GDP) is coming from the amout of
money spent, which means the more you consume (food, equipment, energy, health
care, ...) the higher the GDP will be

------
FrozenVoid
Kick start the singularity by writing the first recursively-optimizing generic
AI? Probably with some new kind of neural network that is fast and versatile
enough for all problem domains. An neural network that can extract features of
its own design and improve on it with some external metric, test improved
copies of itself to solve other problems. AIs that have human-level of
intellect would advance science and technology, without any human-level
limits. Though such AI would have to be pro-human by design: e.g.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/frozenvoid/wiki/ai/super-
intelligen...](https://www.reddit.com/r/frozenvoid/wiki/ai/super-
intelligent/risks/supergoals)

------
purrcat259
I started a project to link charity streams to 3rd party charity fundraiser
websites to allow better exposure of the cause and the fundraiser progress in
real time.

I'm currently working on version 2 which returns a lot of stastical
information, allows for graphs and better statistics to be shown on stream
overlays and a back end console for auditing and reporting purposes.

I am currently breaking up each part and exposing them over HTTP APIs to allow
future integrations and to allow the system to scale for large streaming
events such as Special Effect's Gameblast.

The gaming for good initiative is ripe for new tools and services, as there
are very few players in this space, to the end where I thought that I was the
only one with this idea up until a few months ago.

------
shawndimantha
We are taking a technology driven approach to improving the US healthcare
system at the Peterson Center on Healthcare, our goal is to improve the
quality of healthcare accessible to all, reduce the total cost of care our
system bears, and improve the experience of healthcare professionals
delivering this care.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions, on HN or by email at
sdimantha(at)petersonhealthcare(dot)org.

Here is one of the engineering roles we are recruiting for (more to be
announced later) - [http://petersonhealthcare.org/careers/software-
engineering-t...](http://petersonhealthcare.org/careers/software-engineering-
tech-lead)

~~~
simplicitea
What is a problem that you have recently defined and solved?

~~~
shawndimantha
We solve a variety of problems, but one example is physician burnout,
especially in primary care. We've implemented technology enabled behavior
change initiatives that help primary care practices implement and maintain
evidence-based habits like team based care and ensuring staff operate at the
top of their license meaning more time with patients and less time with
paperwork for physicians and creating a more sustainable environment. There
are other areas we address in primary care like patient access to care,
quality care gaps and more that we break into smaller chunks. Our overall
focus is on dramatically improving the performance (quality of care, cost) of
the healthcare system piece by piece at an increasing pace, starting with
primary care and eventually moving to different focus areas like high need
patients.

------
jancborchardt
My partner is doing an incubator program called Social-Digital Innovation
Initiative: [https://sdinnovation.org](https://sdinnovation.org)

The basic idea is to bring together a person who knows of a specific social
issue, and a tech person who wants to help solve it. Together they are the
core team and are helped to work on their project, form a non-profit, get
conmections etc.

At the moment the program is piloting in Berlin. It's planned to expand to
Hungary, Austria and ideally other areas. If you are interested, drop by at
one of the barcamp/unconference events or check out the website. :)

------
garysieling
One simple thing is to volunteer your time to build websites for non-profits,
which I've done.

If you have time, you can also build a useful side project.

For me -

Youtube and Reddit give a lot of weight to popular content. If you're trying
to learn new ideas, videos with conspiracy theories, popular speakers, and
things people already know dominate search results / subreddits.

My project ([https://www.findlectures.com](https://www.findlectures.com))
recommends high quality content, but across as much topic variety as I can
find (discourages ignoring speakers based on demographics or them not
marketing their talks well).

------
jtalbot
If you're interested in using your developer skills to help social impact
organizations engage their communities, I'd love to talk. At twilio.org we
connect volunteer developers with nonprofits and social enterprises that need
your help building high-impact communication tools.

Our current volunteer developer initiative is called Voices for Democracy, and
is focused on creating tools to advance the discourse between people with
their elected representatives.

If this excites you, or if you'd like to learn more about other opportunities
to use your skills for good, check out twilio.org and send us a note.

Thanks for starting this awesome thread.

-Jacob from twilio.org

------
Casseres
One option is to contribute to a cryptocurrency. Being able to store one's
money without the use of predatory banks and cheaply transfer money to places
without good banking infrastructure will lift people out of poverty.

------
sophacles
I can't link directly to the talk (or i can't figure out how...), but I
enjoyed a short talk about this topic at shmoocon this year. If you go to this
page:

[https://archive.org/details/ShmooCon2017#](https://archive.org/details/ShmooCon2017#)

Then go to video 20 (friday night firetalks) and skip forward to 1:31:55
theres a talk called "You can do the thing".

tl;dw - Theres a lot of help that can be done by finding local orgs that you
agree with, and offering to modernize their websites, help manage IT, and so
on.

------
medialab_eyi
We think about how to do this from the MIT Media Lab as well. In that vein, we
recently launched Cortico (www.cortico.ai), a non-profit with a strong
software engineering focus working on issues of the public sphere.

Oftentimes, research code that has clear social good potential ends up never
getting deployed. We're trying a new form of creating social good
opportunities from within the academic setting and through a non-profit
vehicle managed like a Bay Area tech startup. I think we'll start to see more
entities like this emerge.

------
TheAntiEgo
At Helpwith.co we're focussing on facilitating something that seems very
simple and obvious, but is often very difficult to achieve: One person
teaching another person what they know.

We believe that peer-to-peer, community driven, education is one of the best
ways that our small team can meaningfully impact the world.

The more effectively we can disseminate meaningful information, while also
building connections between people, the easier it becomes to solve every
other world problem.

Always looking for more collaborators, so feel free to email me:
John@helpwith.co

------
RichardHeart
Humans are executed data. The blueprint of life has never been more like
computer code. Ben Horrowitz believes where data touches biology is where
there's ton of profit waiting. Pick a SENS initiative and see where you can
attack it with software. Human Longevity Inc is using machine learning I think
to figure out what genes actually cause what pathologies.

It would be interesting to point at the genes for the heritability of IQ for
giggles. We are all data, the meat is what matters. The life you save may be
your own.

~~~
RichardHeart
72hrs later: "In ‘Enormous Success,’ Scientists Tie 52 Genes to Human
Intelligence" [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/science/52-genes-human-
in...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/science/52-genes-human-
intelligence.html?mabReward=CTM4&recp=6&_r=0)

So I guess that suggestion is less exciting.

------
fimdomeio
I would love to have the opportunity to explore the concept of hyperlocal.
Using the web to help bring local communities closer together. Never really
had the opportunity yet.

I myself, work mainly on projects related to museums, culture, green
economy... In the projects I accept I try to find a balance between money I
can get and how I view it as work for the greater good. A very hard balance
and a very subjective one.

Also have some friends that are a lot into open data which is also an
interesting area to explore.

~~~
simplicitea
Do you have any recommendations for exploring what you call hyper-local work?
I currently cook food for a living but even that, with it's immediate
(feedback lol) to the local community, is a service that comes as a premium to
people who don't need help. Where do you look for projects that fit your
worldview as a programmer? Are there any groups of people based in Seattle
that you'd recommend getting in touch with?

------
stefek99
Shameless plug: [https://astralship.org](https://astralship.org)

Converting chapel from 1838 into visionary environment to realise human
potential and heal the planet.

No more BS jobs but flow state, peak performance, deep focus, quality work on
projects that truly matter.

(I did my fair share of man hours stuck in chair, now making conscious
deliberate effort to set free)

Another good resource: [https://80000hours.org/](https://80000hours.org/)

------
iammiles
I know a few people who have contributed some of their time weekly teaching
less privileged kids the basics of programming. I always thought that was a
great thing to do.

------
caseyohara
PrintReleaf is a platform for automated reforestation
[https://printreleaf.com/](https://printreleaf.com/)

We measure paper consumption for businesses, equate that to forest impact,
then automate the planting of those trees back into the environment at
planting projects around the world. We're always looking for talented
designers and developers that want to do social and environmental good through
technology.

------
meesterdude
I had the exact same thought, a few years back. I believe there is a vast
amount of untapped human potential that languishes in self-defeat. People
that, with just a little help, could right themselves and unleash all sorts of
good on the world.

so, I'm trying to help people make cognitive and behavioral improvements in
their lives with my side project
([http://willyoudidyou.com](http://willyoudidyou.com))

------
andmed3
As a programmer you have knowledge which can guide you to make a donation to
organization that does something important for many people. They just don't
realize that, but you do. Donate to EFF that fights for net neutrality, or
some other organization of your choice. And just do your normal work, to have
money for that. Thats the way I prefer personally, yesterday I have made my
first donation, ever. And kind of proud of it.

------
asmt3
Consider working for NGOs like ours - International Alert. In our case, we use
software development to analyse data and build mobile apps. Android is
particularly sought after skill in the (economically) developing world. Follow
me on [https://twitter.com/alanthomson](https://twitter.com/alanthomson) to
hear about job opportunities. (... when Twitter starts working again!)

------
pwne
[https://www.drivendata.org/](https://www.drivendata.org/)

"Data science competitions to save the world"

OK, the tag line might be a bit much, but here's a snippet from one of their
current competitions:

Your goal is to create better models to estimate populations for hard-to-reach
sites in the Antarctic, and thereby greatly improve our ability to use
penguins to monitor the health of the Southern Ocean!

------
LostWanderer
I am working on restarting tech from the ground up in rural places. It always
amazes me on how phones get so easily addictive but hardly have much utility
values.Like recording the environmental changes or just simple information
dissipation to their peers would do wonders to help them. Something i have
been very interested in the use of local languages in developing areas in
spreading of their rights and information

------
ianai
OP is asking for what problems to work on, not projects/etc. there is a
difference there.

I personally think we need better ways and more people to know about better
ways to aggregate social preferences. If people knew about alternative voting
methods they might entertain using them. You could work on coding
implementations that would introduce the masses to alternatives.

------
asheikh
Join #YesWeCode

[https://www.yeswecode.org/](https://www.yeswecode.org/)

#YesWeCode is a national initiative to help 100,000 young women and men from
underrepresented backgrounds find success in the tech sector

[https://www.yeswecode.org/](https://www.yeswecode.org/)

------
xysmas
I have recently started volunteering my tech skills (I'm a data scientist for
a well-known tech company) to the local chapter of the ACLU and am exploring
volunteering for a UN subsidiary who desperately needs the help. If you are
interested in potentially working to help the UN project, message me.

~~~
msadowski
What kind of projects can you help UN with? I've been thinking on donating
some of my time and skills for the past month and would be more than happy to
help. I'm a robotics engineer but I can also program.

------
valarauca1
You don't.

The idea you can _do anything_ to _help_. Is mostly a myth people repeat so
they don't constantly feel like shit for doing nothing in the face of mass
social injustice by which they are (partially) the benefactors.

If you want social change, you need social action. Anything short is just
rationalizing your guilt.

~~~
jerf
I'm sort of intrigued at your belief in the existence of "social action" that
somehow manifests without any individual doing "anything" to "help". As if it
is some sort of ontological force that exists independent of the individuals
participating in it?

~~~
valarauca1
I incorrectly worded my post. And placed too much focus on the individual,
when I was as attempting to stress the individual AS A software developer.

But nonetheless I do agree with the final output.

An individual is largely incapable of doing anything ALONE. Only thought
organized and mass action are things accomplished on societal scale.

Change requires work... this is physics. A large change requires a lot of
work. If your force is too small (an individual). You may never over come
friction.

If you want social change, you need organization.

~~~
qntty
I tend to agree with you, but somehow seeing someone else say what I feel made
me realize that this is the wrong way to think about the issue. Individuals
can do exactly what they can do, and it isn't nothing.

~~~
valarauca1
>Individuals can do exactly what they can do, and it isn't nothing.

Effort exerted without results is _technically_ doing something. You are
burning energy. But you are not making change happen, you are NOT doing work.

~~~
qntty
The flaw in this way of thinking is hidden in your assumption about what
counts as "doing something." You talk as if the only thing that counts as
doing something is what you call "change", which means "changing the way that
_other_ people (people with more resources than you) act". It's true that
engaging in political action to change the way that other people act is an
effective and important part of doing good. The government and large
corporations control most of the "surplus" resources in the world and it's
foolish to pretend otherwise.

But to approach the problem of "doing good" with the mindset of "the only
thing that I can do is to ask other people to make the world a better place"
is selling yourself short and in my opinion an anti-democratic way of
thinking.

Individuals can do exactly what they can do. You can volunteer at a school,
you can start a community garden, you can help just one person in your life
who needs it. This counts as doing good, and without the kind of community
that forms from lots of people spending their time with others, you have to
ask yourself why you should care about the political action at all. Far too
much political action today is done out of self-righteousness or anger, rather
than out of love. If you've forgotten how to love a stranger in your private
life, you may have forgotten how to do it in your public (political) life too.

------
msadowski
Probably not exactly what op had in mind but I took interest in a humanitarian
hackathon organized by a CERN group The
Port([http://theport.ch/](http://theport.ch/)) in Geneva, Switzerland. I'm
hoping I can take part in it this year.

------
johan_larson
You have a job, right? If your employer solves a useful problem for its
customers at a reasonable price, obeys the law and treats its employees and
suppliers fairly then it is doing good and you are doing good through it. Do
your work conscientiously and go home happy.

~~~
mjburgess
That's assuming "giving people what they want" is inherently good, or worse,
the only good. It is neither.

People getting what they want is neither good nor bad; it is effective at
distributing resources. But this is distribution isnt inherently good either
(effective != good).

We don't need to define "Good" in order to observe this. Very few definitions
by anyone, let alone OP, produce this equivalence.

~~~
johan_larson
I agree with you. It's quite possible to make money doing pernicious things.
It's even possible to make money _legally_ doing pernicious things. And that's
why I'm setting the bar considerably higher. Note my words: "useful problem",
"reasonable price", "treats ... fairly".

------
leoreeves
I'd recommend [http://dotimpact.im/](http://dotimpact.im/), it's part of the
Effective Altruist movement—people who want to do the most good with the
time/money/resources they have.

------
eriknstr
Contribute to the Tor Project, aka The Onion Router.

[https://www.torproject.org/getinvolved/volunteer.html.en#Pro...](https://www.torproject.org/getinvolved/volunteer.html.en#Projects)

------
SolubleSnake
DTOcean is an interesting piece of open source software, to help engineers
install renewable energy equipment offshore (wave, wind, tide).

[https://github.com/DTOcean](https://github.com/DTOcean)

------
SolubleSnake
[https://github.com/DTOcean](https://github.com/DTOcean)

An open source tool to help engineers install renewable energy equipment
offshore. Wind, wave, tide (one day!) etc

------
acd
Social good Ideas

* Program for charities * Make Reddit style voting for political topics * Invent an econmic system that saves the planet * Work on blockchain projects for good for all * Contribute to open source projects

------
francamps
If you're into political action, live in London and are proficient in THREE.js
or WebGL, well, we could definitely use your help here -> www.forensic-
architecture.org/jobs-internships/

------
rajadigopula
[https://socialcoder.org/](https://socialcoder.org/) You can find a project
that you can contribute to.Can even boast it on your resume!

------
leke
I think any charity would benefit from software. You just need to contact them
and ask what is taking up their time and try and simplify the process.

Educational tools are also good investments of time, IMO.

------
dontreact
The medical world has a lot of uses for software and machine learning.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Sure, but would be cool to know where to find some particular areas or
projects to help.

This is the core problem here: I could personally name a ton of industries and
endeavors that could use software to be better - but finding a particular need
and someone willing to work with you on fulfilling that need? That feels
incredibly hard.

------
piccolbo
Why not work on the only two existential threats to mankind currently known,
nuclear war and global warming? If global nuclear war or extreme climate
change occur, what else matters?

------
devrandomguy
Looks like a lot of the top-voted suggestions are only applicable to a single
country. If your suggestion has a major restriction like that, then would you
please declare it upfront?

------
jblz
Do everything you can to advance the "open web" (or publishing & distribution
of content in general) and eschew "walled gardens" (corporate or otherwise).

------
erlend_sh
Work for a B Corporation: [https://www.bcorporation.net/what-are-b-
corps](https://www.bcorporation.net/what-are-b-corps)

------
Xoros
I worked years ago on a project named babeltree(.org).

Don't know if it's still active, but the idea (and the founder) behind it was
really about making the world a better place.

------
fjahr
The best you can do where success is guaranteed is to teach underprivileged
how to program for free and help them improve their situation by finding a job
in the space.

------
andreasgonewild
How about simply working on what you find interesting and sharing the results
with the world for free? If more people did that, this world would be a better
place.

------
alexfi
You can become programming teacher for startups in Gaza.

Check out: [https://gazaskygeeks.com/](https://gazaskygeeks.com/)

------
mulnz
Where do you live? find things like this:
[http://atxhackforchange.org/](http://atxhackforchange.org/)

------
NumberCruncher
Take care about your own family and children. Do not harm others. It is that
simple. If everyone would do that, we would be all better off.

~~~
nowarninglabel
I find your comment very interesting, because I view it somewhat the opposite.
Basically, many take your statement just the way you ordered it:

#1 Take care about your own family and children #2 Do not harm others

Then, it becomes very easy to cause harm to others and justify it through the
idea that one's first priority is taking care of your own family and children
and that outweighs the harm you are doing to others.

Which is just to say, it's not that simple.

~~~
NumberCruncher
>> many take your statement just the way you ordered it

I used a not ordered list. That makes it so simple.

------
dominostars
You can also work a normal job and donate a _non-trivial_ amount of your money
to organizations working to make a difference.

------
neuronotic81
Read "Forces of Production" \- it'll give you some background to what
pressures are at play in technical roles.

------
dragonbonheur
Local exchange systems. Mentoring and apprenticeship forums and exchanges.
Grants and sponsorship databases. Digital permaculture, hydroponics,
aquaculture, aeroponics & DIY encyclopedia. Tools to fight against misleading
and inaccurate information and to clarify and annotate ambiguous laws that
don't benefit the population. Better corruption and dark financing graphs
about people in power.

~~~
simplicitea
what's digital permaculture?

------
conductr
Teach! You know you have a valuable skill, help others tap into that value

------
shmerl
Replace some proprietary stuff with FOSS. That's a social good.

------
hwayne
Find a nonprofit you like and offer them free tech support.

------
oevi
Teach coding to children and those who want to learn it.

------
isomorph
OurPath maybe. 23andMe ? Medical / health stuff

~~~
pplonski86
I agree medical/health stuff is the most strightforward. I would also add some
tiny mobile apps that make our life easier and more happy!

------
tryitnow
Improving the efficiency of biomedical research.

------
bevan
Work on what pays the highest and then donate that money to the most effective
charity. According to GiveWell.org, that charity is currently the Against
Malaria Foundation, which will statistically save a life for every $3500 it
receives going forward. It is ridiculously cheap to save a life that would
otherwise not be saved. I highly recommend Sam Harris' interview with Will
Macaskill on this topic (effective altruism).

[http://www.givewell.org/charities/against-malaria-
foundation](http://www.givewell.org/charities/against-malaria-foundation)

~~~
jrs95
This is the right answer imo. Other options might make you feel better
personally since you'll have more direct involvement, but just making as much
money as you can with your skill set and donating that to the charities that
are most effective will probably result in better outcomes than donating your
time.

------
gregable
How about something like US digital services?

------
aswin8728
elixirlabs.org :) donate your spare time to building tech for nonprofits who
could really use the assistance!

------
Externon
You can do something for education.

------
simplicitea
Curious that ctrl+f 'climate' doesn't have a single hit before this comment,
at 234 comments.

~~~
Jemmeh
Look at the word "energy" there are a few mentions. I mentioned renewable
energy pretty early on.

------
Kholo
Wikipedia and Khan Academy.

------
skdotdan
Accessibility?

------
Externon
do something for the education

~~~
brightsize
Here's one avenue for doing that:
[https://www.donorschoose.org/](https://www.donorschoose.org/)

------
4a60ab76
someone would tell you: "if you want a selfless, social work - some good jobs
are, but: don't work for nuclear weapon production" (finance what (also)
finance such production, healthcare that (also) heal the weapon enterprise
managements desease, and so on - think this all as examples) but then a (here
abstract) "other side/party" will then (because without your benefit for
nuclear weapon controll software) thirst start a rocket so your decision was
not real altruistic (at all men in world) because you make a "broken glass"
(like in the funny nice example above
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14379040](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14379040)
)

so, your problem was: your data before decision were not enough and the
analysis of the situation (in the whole world) not deep enough. some people
will argue: so much data - never possible to make the best decision. I agree
with it. But you can do some approximation and before doing an (also only
aproximated) List of "good, selfless, altruistic" destinations (with view of
whole world and view to some influence like climate, politics, geophysics,
space-riscs ... and so on.) make a risc and a potencial map about the world.
And second part construct your own priority List for this risc and potencials.
Big project - but also big fun! So go web and search for science studys,
travel around the globe, talk to many people, educate kids, help older people
with desease - so you get a good (eventually excellent) database. Work out a
mind set of gouls, of answers for the question "what is good (for my
neighbor)". Your longtime values. But you will not forget the borders of your
brain: for example - you are a good coder and engineer, and not so good corner
speaker ... so go politics as job would not good decision, because your
influence will go zero and as coder zero++ ... ;-) But you will not forget the
borders of others brain: for example - you everytime check different (also
antagonistic) sources of the data for your decisions. And if somebody troll
you - be calm: very good input for your decision - database (part:psycho-
problems)!

And think of the time of your live: its all in move, you must check in some
weeks or months again and again, the same procedure .. (Will be fine: DO
WHILE(true)) ask, analyse, check, do - a simple and fine procedure in a
endless loop: your live. and the backup loop is: ask one more question
everytime, everywhere - to everybody ... Find the position were you with your
(everytime living) "database" can make the most influence to the "problem-
vector" of the world. then so you also will make some mistakes, errors appeare
again and again, BUT: then you are old and grey you can say: I had done best
of my willnes, my power and what my brain was able to think: attempt(sic!) to
change the world to a better one. A (only limited) list of my own tasks
(differ already to the list of my son, friends) : \- participation,
transparency with (for example) openData Apps - \- networking: bring together
good coders amd other \- identify deficites in care for older people -
organise help and also change of the reasons \- ... and so on the list is
under construction and any bugs I must find out next days ... ;-) Wish you a
good and viable decision for your dream - job! CU

------
droithomme
> I want to apply what I know to better our chances as a species and/or as
> individuals.

As an individual how are you doing? Is your life in order? You're doing OK,
those you love are doing well, things are good?

------
DarkKomunalec
As individuals, we benefit from being in control of our computers. To maintain
that control, good security is essential. So I'd say work on that,
specifically on sandboxing and limiting the damage untrusted or compromised
programs can do, re-writing crucial programs in languages immune to as many
exploitable bugs as possible, maybe even try formal verification (for small
but essential code, like OS kernels or filesystems), if you're feeling
ambitious.

------
lngnmn
as a species, no less? ;)

Education then.

~~~
whistlerbrk
Besides the brevity of your answer I can't imagine a possible explanation as
to why you would be downvoted. Education is by far the best way to implement
positive change on a generational and self propagating basis.

~~~
lngnmn
There are even obvious historical evidences - one should compare the impact on
Upanishads and Buddhism (which philosophy has been built upon Upanishadic)
with primitive, barbarian cults which are still powerful in some unfortunate
countries.

The borrowings from Greeks and Romans (and in the later times British) in
progressive European nations are self-evident.

------
cybermonkey
We, as species, are invasive parasites. If you want to do some good for the
future of the human kind, environment and this planet, invest your time in
research about reducing human population by at least 2/3 without compromising
future scientific discoveries and advances.

~~~
Jemmeh
Sexual education, especially about birth control. Make birth control
affordable. Make adoption mainstream/ preferred to having your own kids.

I agree that we have an overpopulation issue, we don't have the resources to
support this many people currently. But calling people parasites is probably
getting you downvoted.

~~~
cybermonkey
Most likely that is the reson for down votes. I don't mean that in a bad way.
We are what we are - invasive parasites. Homo sapiens wiped every(thing|one)
out: deus, erectus, habilis etc. Overpopulation is the real cause of most of
serious problems and future endangerment of our species. The king is naked.

------
brbrodude
Study anticapitalism and go on from there. I`d recommend anarchism and World
History.

Ps.: In tech & programming specifically, I think Free Software is a beautiful
idea.

Ps.: I`ll add, why I think this is(my original point), is that I think it's
very nice to understand(or try to understand) what is the
`structure/mechaniscs of the world`, I mean, to me it would be the same to
study capitalism as it is to study anticapitalism(that is, the more you see
how it works, the more you`ll see stuff that is flawed), some would disagree
with this, of course. Contrary to what many think, ideology to me means NOT
seeing reality as it is(so I'm not talking about intantile, superficial,
ideas/agenda here), so I think it's absolutely fair the everybody should take
some understanding of it based on people who wanted to figure out found out,
even if not 100%. Since the more correct is your model of things, the better
you can act on them(you can't engineer a car with wrong math, for example). To
me, personally, getting my mind out of the techie neophile mindset and knowing
broader and deeper stuff gives me plenty of ideas on things to do. Even more
so, that since I'm using this 'footing', I can then try to see if it matches
reality and goes on to have real-world effects! ;P But anyway, what I`m saying
is sort of a longer road, to try to get interested and understand other topics
and then look to your habilities and see what you can do with them about the
other thing. That's where the project I'm trying to work on came from and it's
really meant to be a drop in the ocean and a simple program etc, but it's
something I really care about since it's tied to deep layers of my person and
perspective on `world`, `society`, `individuals`, `species`, etc.

