For example take the targeted killings in Afghanistan: In my mind the person facilitating the database(s) that enable the Taliban to go door to door to exterminate people is much more at fault than someone who repairs or builds firearms. The gun is an interchangeable tool in a long chain of events that leads to oppression, the database is not.
However, it's been making my life worse. I assume could make far more money with almost certainly less stress and hours helping track people around the internet and selling ads (or something equally horrible). Is it particularly hard to swap from the do-gooder life track to the "I got more money and time for toys and fun" life track? Have people gone that way or (or the other way?) Am I deluding myself?
I'd love to do more with it, because the software could actually help discover and refine the biomarkers which would inform diagnoses, instead of the other way around. But the FDA (and other similar regulatory bodies) have strong opinions on the distinctions between Clinical Decision _Support_ software, and _Diagnostic_ software. I think this job could have a much larger impact, but it's going to take the industry another 10 years worth of iteration to get comfortable with how modern cloud software changes medical device development.
My job before this was in ad tech. Another poster said everything I would, so I'll just say No, nothing in ad tech makes the world better.
Before that I was a teacher at a for-profit university. This is a harder call. I had a measurably positive impact on students, who have turned around and had their own positive impacts on the world. (I regularly see at least one former student here on HN.) But I left the job, at least in part, because the financial burdens the students were bearing wore down my enthusiasm.
Before that, I worked for a company which made office and art supplies. We had some pretty good school supply programs, and I got to see kids light up when we brought in boxes of paints and clays. Arguably, this job made the world better, albeit in a small way.
Then i launched sendsimple.app(https://www.sendsimple.app) so far impacted few 100 but with sendsimple I want to make cold email marketing as simple as using google sheets.
I am also working on other apps you can find the list here https://twitter.com/indianappguy/status/1429157263353126912
I don't think I would do very well working for an oil company either but I did end up in oilfield services for a while, even though my motivation is completely toward alternative energy.
One of the interesting things I noticed was that the toxic atmosphere of the refinery enviromnent began to be abated quite a bit earlier than the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1990, largely due to the newer oil company employees being more aware of their position in a lucrative industry which could actually afford to operate more cleanly. To the extent the more environmentally-aware employees have had an impact, in hindsight it appears to be more effective than the actual regulations were.
You should have smelled it before.
And I know what kind of materials I am smelling.
Sometimes more effective change can be made from the inside.
For example, is a car company making the world a better place? I guess it depends on your world view... but it is pretty easy to answer yes or no.
But maybe you are asking to gauge how many people are working in a place where they know(think?) they are making the world worse?
Then I made gears, we did a lot of repair parts, saved a lot of old machines from the junk heap in that job, so another plus.
It'll be interesting to see what I end up doing next.
Despite elements of the public constantly accusing us of otherwise, I and everyone I work with genuinely and deeply cares about doing the mission as cost-effectively (funded by taxes) as possible.
So I think humility is the right answer here, therefore - I don't know, but I really hope so.
On the micro, we do have thousands of happy customers whose business are more profitable, so those folks’ worlds are much better places.
Apart from that I wouldn't say much I've created has made the world a better place.
i'd say most of my jobs have been.
and some have been insanely diabolical. some household names (think, banks), some small unknown tech companies that were in some way or another data brokers, etc.
my guess is that most people think their company is fine-ish or even good.
i would suggest most people are wrong.
Our users have built some pretty positive businesses though, so I'd say yeah.