Ask HN: What impact are you having on the world?
What impact are you having on the world?
How are you making it a better place?
How are you making it a worse place?
Just like the overwhelming majority of people, including the ones that think they are making a dent by 'inventing' apps that'll be obsolete and forgotten within a few years, at most a few decades.
I embrace the futility and absurdity that is a job. It pays the rent and that's good enough for me.
I later worked overseas (in Guyana). I've seen many bright young people worldwide forced into doing work that crushes their spirits, because they either never had access to educational opportunities, or they struggled with rigid educational systems.
Education is one of the few ways to reduce systemic economic inequality, but it's getting harder to get a cheap, high quality education over time.
I'm building Dataquest, which to start is teaching data science online at low cost. Dataquest teaches skills in depth, so students really understand the concepts and can apply them with projects (vs most syntax focused online learning). We've had students get jobs at companies like SpaceX and Amazon.
I hope the positive impact I'm having is in some small way helping people achieve things they never believed they could.
That sounds very surprising to me. To me at least it seems it's getting easier, at an accelerating rate. With resources such as libgen, scihub, mit ocw, a great number of moocs, the amount of content is only growing (most stuff gets archived). Most top universities have publicly accessible course data and resources.
Also, internet access is growing, internet devices are getting cheaper, high speed broadband is also becoming the default.
So I wonder, why would you say it's getting harder to get a cheap high quality education? I'd say you can do it for free, just look at the mit challenge.
Surely, the only obstacle is the constant stream of distractions.
A person can educating themselves, simply by reading, and never have set foot in a classroom and still gain AMAZING skills.
That's my $.02 :)
But for the people who aren't self-motivated (which I think is the vast majority), education is more of a motivation problem. Many people in this group (including myself) were trained by the traditional educational system to view learning as a chore or a slog.
I've talked to many people who have started MOOCs, but gave up halfway through due to boredom. We often see this as the student's problem/fault, but looking at it that way means that you'll only ever focus on the small percentage of students who are already motivated.
The motivation problem is one that just delivering more content won't fix. I think solving it is incredibly impactful, and can create far more opportunities than the content delivery platforms have. Unfortunately, most solutions to it are expensive (colleges/bootcamps), or lack depth.
How I make the world better: I collect litter at the beach and in parks and dispose of it properly. I also encourage my kids to do this. The positive effect on the environment is probably still outweighed by my consumption, but I can say that there is less trash on the beaches around where I live because of me. It's not much but its something.
That said, you may be trying to make an impact on someone and never get to see the fruit of it in your lifetime. Those kind words of encouragement, that smile, that mentoring session... they could seem like they're of no effect, and falling on deaf ears.
You never know. It might be days/months/years down the road, and that person recalls their interaction with you, and something take root in their life, and change happens.
If you're trying to make an impact, and you're only satisfied by what you see right now in front you, you may be sorely disappointed.
@nougatine - you say "none whatsoever". I beg to differ, friend. You may be having a tremendous impact, and may never get to see it.
I would encourage any of you who happen to read this, to take a long view, and act with that in mind. It's totally possible for you to have a HUGE impact on someone and never get to see it.
Hopefully, this will temper our interactions with people.
Quick question: how does the device know when to shock you?
- Growing my own vegetables. During the summer, half of my meals are home-grown, and I store the ones I can for the fall/winter as well. And I give away a lot for free to friends/relatives.
- I quit eating meat, after realising the impact the meat industry has on everything from animals rights (most important) to pollution, water consumption etc.
- I try to bring more consciousness on this on people, trying not to be a pain but planting some seeds in their mind.
Worse: Continuing to consume unnecessary resources
Better: ... I'll get back to you
Better: I'm creating a better language for humans.
- Elinor Smith
There are big problems - e.g. energy, AI (AGI), destructive culture, corruption, education in developing countries.
The big problems are terrifying to fix. They're not something that can be changed solo. It needs critical momentum. Unfortunately, outside of a few big cities, there is little momentum going towards the important things.
One of the toughest parts of that is getting folks to understand how the gains in productivity are being taken from them by corporate owners that fund the Democrat and Republican Parties.
I've also worked pretty hard on getting us (the US) out of those mid-east wars with very little effect.
I live in a very rural conservative area and most of my neighbors are great folks but they tend to get a lot of tilted information on TV and the internet. Because I am able to point out these issues in a bi-partisan way they tend to listen and read what I share more than they would a "Libtard" (a term I hear often).
Since 2002 I've also made inexpensive software for small businesses and provide support for it. It's pretty easy to use so I don't get many requests for support. I'm working a new version of that software now.
I've shared a few concepts I've developed. A few years ago I made a lightweight backpacking tent made out of an "SOL Blanket" and showed how a small campfire would warm it up to +80º F in below freezing temps. I didn't invent that concept. "Bushcrafters" did. I just refined it and demonstrated and promoted a more practical way of using it. In the years since I've seen other similar designs come out, some that are made to be used for the homeless and in emergencies.
The thing about this kind of work is that it is usually impossible to measure the reach, but not so to see the effect if you are patient. My theory is if you can shed light on something true and good that light will spread, and seeking credit for how far is vanity.
If a concept is good it's better to get it out in the open than guard it like a secret if you cannot make the general use of the concept a reality. It's better because you will still get to benefit from it coming into existence.
A small example of this is years ago I took a cap off of a dishwashing soap bottle and put it on a disposable water bottle I bought on the way to a bike trail. When I got home I told my wife I was going to make it so I could buy these in the store because at that time no company was doing that. I looked up a company that made bottles and caps and told them what I wanted and it wasn't long before I could buy water and Gatorade with those caps in the store. My wife still thinks I "should have made a million dollars" and tells that story a lot but I know that was never the case. I don't think that made the world a better place, but it demonstrates how one can deliberately change how things are done by shedding some light on an idea.