Ask YC: Software That Makes a Difference | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Software That Makes a Difference

10 pointsjcromartie19 comments

Let's face it: working in business software typically means writing code to line a few peoples' pockets (and sometimes not even your own). Much of Web 2.0 and social software is merely a distraction and only really helps communication among a technological elite, and does not substantially improve the quality of life for those who use it. This is a personal dilemma I have faced for some time now.

How do you work in software that has a meaningful impact on peoples' lives? What sort of software can generally help lift up humanity? Embedded software for devices has the ability to act on our physical environment. Games have the ability to give people joy and escape. Creative software allows people to make good things. What else is there?

Have you found a way to write software that has a real, tangible, positive net effect on society? This is a major factor in my startup decision. I might be too idealist.

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Work for GreenMountain Engineering. We work solely on renewable energy, which I believe to be a more crucial concern than social networking.

We're mostly mechanical engineers, but we do a lot of embedded systems programming for photovoltaic manufacturing equipment. We're currently working on a solar tracker controller that uses YUI, Python, and Debian on a small single-board computer. One of our employees was a YC guy from a few cycles back who had the same desire as you.

Or start a renewable energy company that competes with Fat Spaniel-- they seem to have missed the web 2.0 thing. Or compete with us. We could use some hungry competition to keep us from getting lazy.

How did you decide that social networking is "merely a distraction", and yet games "have the ability to give people joy and escape"?

> I might be too idealist.

Are you really?

If you really and truly want to have a net positive effect on society, write some open-source software and contribute it to the FOSS community. Aim for things that will help others, e.g. for the 100$ laptop program.

> write some open-source software and contribute it to the FOSS community

The only problem I see with FOSS is that a very very tiny portion of people, as a whole, will ever actually use it. Perhaps if it lead to cost savings for municipal governments that helps to pay for social programs?

> the 100$ laptop program.

I was going to mention that, but it has been usurped by Microsoft and real benefit has yet to be seen.

> The only problem I see with FOSS is that a very very tiny portion of people, as a whole, will ever actually use it.

Or more precisely, only a very very tiny portion of the people will ever actually knowingly use it. How much of the internet utilizes the linux kernel? or Apache? Or MySql? or gcc/gdb/glibc?

The impact of a single significant gcc change reverberates all over the computing world.

I'd say people that uses Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice or eMule does know what they're using.

I think social networking gets a bad reputation because it has become a bit of a buzzword applied to any application that tries to cash in on the "social" trend. The real value of social networking is huge, but the message is lost in the noise of zombie bite applications and myspace profiles.

Phil Greenspun's writings (e.g. http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/better-living) make me think that if you want your software to "make a difference" you should keep your mind focused on the actual difference you want to make instead of trying to just outdo whatever technical or business competition you may think you have.

Write some software that gives voters a way to monitor what their representatives are doing and how they are voting.

Perhaps it could provide a means of informal electronic voting. Perhaps it could standardize the way government officials communicate with their constituencies. Perhaps that would lower the barrier of entry so more people would be involved in their government.

Write software to help people communicate without being spied on by their government.

Business applications can allow people to deliver more value for less cost (time and money), which has a flow on effect to their clients' clients / end users.

I disagree that Web 2.0 social software is "merely a distraction". 1) Enhanced communication has substantial benefits, and 2) even glib developments can later form the basis for meaningful impact on lives - the telephone was probably a distraction at first, but where we would be without 911 ?

Well, our vision is pretty idealist. We do intend to have a real, tangible, positive net effect on society.

We want to do it in different ways. Our first way is through http://bug.gd where we do everything in our power to be sure no one ever has to solve error messages that have already been worked-around.

We have long-term plans to grow this into local system resources, embedded in your OS and included in software-- when there's a system fault, you always have access to how others solved the problem.

If we eventually make money on it, great-- but really I was just sick and tired of this endless waste of human resources, repeating the same things over and over again.

Anyone who feels the same should install the Firefox extension in my profile-- if you don't, well everyone else's solutions are indexed by major search engines so you get the benefit anyway.

Yes! Software can and does make a difference in people's lives. Think out-side-in. Start with people and look at their problems and then decide what software will solve their problems. Don't start with 'social-software' and look for a problem. Two cases: Look at how you local fire department uses mobile computers to deliver maps, CAD drawings, medical information to firefighters on the way to an emergency. BIG IMPACT! Look how social software - yes, even social software - drives activism for Obama. BIG IMPACT! I'm an idealist too. :)

Have you found a way to write software that has a real, tangible, positive net effect on society?

Yes. Everything I do.

I (along with many others) write lots of software to help small and midsize businesses compete more effectively. They, in turn, provide value to their customers, jobs for their employees, and pay taxes to their communities. If that's not a "real, tangible, positive net effect on society", I don't know what is.

Not everyone has to find a cure for disease or discover how to provide clean air and water for the masses. You don't have to change the whole world, just a little piece of it.

A mentor once suggested I think of it like a football team. Some pass, some catch, some run, some block, and some tackle. All you have to do is "your job" well, for the team "the rest of us" to succeed.

Please don't be such an "idealist" that you never find your calling. Just pick something close enough and go for it.

The real heroes are in the pits every day, helping others do their thing. You oughta join them.

Modding this up.

From the original post:

working in business software typically means writing code to line a few peoples' pockets...

You're talking like a person for whom earning money is some kind of option. In most of the world, "lining your pockets" is a necessary precondition for things like "eating" and "paying rent".

Perhaps you need to get a job in a factory. (Not that this is always an easy thing to do, in the 21st-century USA.) I used to work in a factory, as part of an engineering team that was desperately trying to get a brand-new class of product to market. We were acutely aware that, if our product turned out to be unmanufacturable, everyone in our division -- from the local senior management to the hundreds of hard-working blue-collar folks who ran, fixed, and cleaned the equipment on the night shift -- was at risk of being laid off. In fact, just to inspire us, many of the folks at our local site got laid off anyway, thanks to the dotcom bust and the resulting slump in telecom.

I'm proud of the software I wrote for that project. Not because it was particularly elegant -- which it was not -- but because it helped keep the fabs alive, the products alive, the company alive, and hundreds of American and Malaysian workers alive.

Google the keyword "ICT4Dev".

I think it's pretty much what edw519 already said: Build something of value and you are already making a difference.

I think the step one for you is to figure out what community (target user) you feel connected and want to serve. Then, step two is to find a solution that A) you can realistically build; and B) it is sustainable (resource-wise)

The world is full of problems for you to solve. Just pick one and do it!

I submitted this earlier today, but I think software like the package mentioned in this article meets your criteria: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=226883

Yes, I used to work for a biotech startup, writing bleeding edge scientific software.

The startup tanked, but I don't regret anything, and I plan to get right back into bioinformatics.

What's the best way for a business software programmer to get into bioinformatics?

Write software to help people protect their privacy online.

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