Ask HN: The best way to put technical skills to the greater good?
What's the best way to contribute technical skills to the greater good? How can hackers keep their day jobs but contribute skills/time/energy to good causes too?
-Howard Thurmon
Don't do what you think you should do but what you can't not do.
There's that thing for each of us.
Not everything that sounds like deep wisdom is wise.
Give me a break. You think the world is really better served by you giving up on your dreams? It's a good thing not everything felt as you did or the world would be pretty bleak indeed.
No, what they should have done is written their books, then donated a large fraction of the money they earned from writing them. If you're that good of an author (keeping in mind that 99.99% of people aren't), you can help the world a lot more that way than by volunteering at soup kitchens.
"It's a good thing not everything felt as you did or the world would be pretty bleak indeed."
If everyone felt as Eliezer did- that it was better to spend at least some effort doing what the world needed most, rather than what happened to feel good- then maybe we would not have hundreds of millions of people in constant danger of starvation.
I sincerely doubt it. What has charity really done for starvation and poverty? There's only one thing that has ultimately had a big, lasting effect on those things: capitalism. I'm sure many will disagree, but I'd like to see the evidence that giving $1m to developing economies has more effect than investing $1m in businesses in those economies that can then grow and hire more workers.
I don't presently see the case for charity, but I'd like to see more data on the subject.
What makes me come alive is writing fiction. This is not what the world most needs from me.
But now you're linking to this site as proof that you haven't given up your dreams? So which is your dream?
And regardless, my point is just that if writing fiction is what makes you come alive, what truly makes you happy, are you so certain that you're going to make more of a difference in the long run doing something else?
Eliezer presumably means that time is in short supply, and that every month's advance toward AI has the potential to save a great many people. Plenty enough time to write a novel after we crack that nut, but there's no time now.
Whether or not that's your day job or not is immaterial.
My favorite parable about the societal role of an engineer's technical skills is this story about Steve Jobs:
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...
Steve's pitch is an attempt to capture the essential paradox of engineering: You have a lot more leverage than you think, or even than you can believe. When you improve (say) the Linux kernel, you improve a lot of people's lives, and they in turn improve other lives.
Even trivial things improve people's lives. I watched the Ig Nobel Prize committee award a prize to the Japanese electrical engineer/jazz musician who invented karaoke. It was a surprisingly touching moment.
Its basically a listings board where charities advertise for tech people to help them.
Through various "Meet the Charities" nights I've met lots of charity founders and I help them in detail. Some charities are looking for any sort of help available, not merely tech.
* I help out old aged homes installing easy to use computers for their occupants.
* I write software for disabled people to interact with the computer more easily (my cousins child has quadraplegic cerabral palsy)
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Some of my days jobs have been to write software to ensure that:
- people get the right prescription medication on time
- firetrucks and ambulances get to where they're supposed to be
- parts that go into cars and planes are properly certified
- prisoners are kept in jail
- those same prisoners get proper medical care
- electronic equipment gets assembled properly and on time
- medical supplies get dispatched to where they're supposed to
- insurance claims are processed properly
- quality data is properly maintained for food items
OTOH, if you don't think that the work you do during the day contributes to the greater good, then maybe you should consider doing something else with your valuable time.
Do good and get paid. You can do both at the same time.
Sorry if this feels a bit pointed, but a meaningful life is not something that others can give you, or even recommend to you. I could tell you that third world literacy is the number one cause you should support, but that's what I believe.
Figure out the causes that matter to you, research those, then maybe you'll find some angle of attack.
Incidentally, a guy who did this wrote a book "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World". He was a marketing guy, but he does run his charity with a lot of the style of a tech company. Maybe that book will give you ideas.
Has anyone else on HN been able to volunteer tech skills directly? What was your experience?
I got very nice responses from folks in these orgs who'd clearly dealt with prior attempted tech volunteers. Each explained how they weren't built to accept this kind of help. At the bottom of chart, there was an endless need and clean ability for rotating staff. But in the middle? Not so much. Too many egos, difficult knowledge transfer, etc.
I wish you better luck. There's clearly a support problem to crack.
That said, thanks for mentioning it. A revolving door to municipal groups with some support structure could get interesting.
They are a nonprofit in Cambodia and Laos who hire and train the disabled - people who otherwise would not have ANY job - to do data entry and other outsourced IT.
And they're always looking for technical minded people to help out, either remotely or (even better) on site in Southeast Asia.
My wife and I volunteered there for 18 months in 2003-2004, and it was the experience of a lifetime. Please check them out.
And thanks for the opportunity (rare on most forums) to plug a good cause!
"At bottom, we’re looking for anyone who:
* Is capable (strong ability to get things done);
* Seriously aspires to rationality; and
* Is passionate about reducing existential risk.
"I also have a friend who runs a non-profit called Caring Compy: http://caringcompy.blogspot.com/
There's a ton of things you can do to better yourself, and the world.
You can save someone's life for under $1,000.
What is a good cause for you?
Not to mention that anyone who is a web jack-of-all-trades should find plenty of work with local nonprofits.
In a capitalist country, the best way to contribute to the greater good is through productivity and excellence.