Who's hiring that's impactful, doesn't suck, and isn't morally bankrupt? | Hacker News Reader

Who's hiring that's impactful, doesn't suck, and isn't morally bankrupt?

18 points0xRCA24 comments

I'm sick of looking at applications for another AI startup, hedge funds, HR platforms, defense contractors, "reinventing healthcare," etc.

Are there SWE or SWE-adjacent roles that make you feel like you're doing something good for the world? Like you're helping and not just slaving away to line a billionaire's pockets, mint a new one, or reinforce the enshitification of the world?

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When you dont like what you see there is only one answer.

You start your own thing.

Tech, is no longer a capital intensive endeavor. You can pin your costs to your customers and grow at a reasonable pace.

This is how the first bubble started, how Web 2.0 kicked off. Go forth and build something you love.

I put something like this on who's hiring threads. Got quite a few responses. Quite a few people out there who are just doing honest work - apps to collect data for research, apps that keep records of building valuations, payment collection systems for prepaid solar power. You don't have to save the world, just keep it moving.

> You don't have to save the world, just keep it moving.

Thanks, that's a nice quote.

Look for boring. Insurance, infrastructure, tools for industry, construction, etc. Find people who build things you find useful in your daily life. Also don't discount places that do one shitty thing but otherwise provide a good service or a good product. There will never be a company that does business that does everything with morals in mind, its just not possible under this system, but there are many who try to win by producing a good, useful product, rather than having a business plan that involves screwing over everyone in the process who aren't their investors.

Depends -- do you need to get paid? No shortage of work to be done for non-profits, small orgs, local governments, etc.

Can always be a carpenter.

Curious how you arrived at lumping "reinventing healthcare" with "not doing something good for the world". Your list looks like just companies you don't want to work for. Which is fine, just don't confuse it with morality. There's nothing inherently immoral about most items on that list.

At the end of the day, "good for the world" is overblown (see https://youtu.be/B8C5sjjhsso). Most software is boring, but it makes the lives of _some people_ better. If you want to impact a billion lives, chances are someone made a billion on it. Good luck.

I look at IT (i.e. computers+networks+software) through a different lens. Obviously at the risk of oversimplifying by over-generalizing.

On the one hand we have listed companies which are operated to maximize shareholder value on 90 day rolling basis. Financial shenanigans are more lucrative than capital intensive investments, e.g. factories, infrastructure, etc, which take years if not decades to yield return on investment. For the most part these companies can afford to pay well.

On the other hand we have the unlisted, SME sector. These the folks are making, fixing, growing, providing real/tangible/necessary stuff. Their profits are slim and they generally run any IT on a shoestring budget.

Perhaps you could look at the latter sector. The challenge being the trade-off between high salary or high moral value.

I feel like many of the "good" companies are morally bankrupt too. Just because the cause is good doesn't mean the company or leadership is.

There are climate job boards: https://climatebase.org/

https://highergroundlabs.com/

Looks like it’s not just me looking for this kind of job. But it’s even harder for me because I’m living in China which is a socialism country but more “capitalism” than western countries.

Money talks. Whatever label you put on it.

Anyway, small to medium sized businesses that are privately owned and operated by families have a much easier time operating with moral fiber. No commitment to investors. In the US many such businesses import products from the far east.

Best of luck.

yes, agree with you, that's why I want to find a remote job overseas. In China, I think such kind of businesses is far more less, in fact you must have no moral to be successful in China, one example is Chinese business owners try their best to exploited employee regardless the Labor Law.

Lol let us know when you find that unicorn. So hard to find ethical operators in IT.

THere's always money in the banana stand ;)

Especially organic bananas.

Price of fruit/veg where I live makes me wonder why even grow illicit drugs.

Only two of the three can be satisfied.

0/3 is the mode and median

I can think of "fast cheap good" with respect to code generation. Are the categories different in career choice? "salary rewarding ease" or something like that?

Join or found a queer/extremist/worker owned/open source commune, and fight for anti-capitalist revolution. There are lots of codes that we need to destroy corporations and states. And they won't write themselves!

Don't expect states and companies to pay you to build the codes that will disempower them - build those in groups working to create new forms of worker owned power.

Don't expect to earn a lot. And accept the risk of ending up in political prison if a powerful regime criminalizes your contributions.

Have fun!

> There are lots of codes that we need to destroy corporations and states.

Interesting. Can you give a couple examples?

Cybernetic weapons and encryption technology

Open source Intelligence and counterintelligence technology

Reverse engineering software

Open source alternatives to any profitable software or service

Software that automatically sues and harasses org who violate open source licenses

Propaganda software that misinforms and harasses capitalists and nationalists

Automation software for mutual aid organizations

Production software for zero cost open source communes - organizations that do free knowledge work that currently costs money - for example a virtual lawyer that represents you for free if you get in trouble for doing any of the rest of this stuff

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Some of these solutions may be illegal, but I'm not endorsing illegal work. I am only pointing out these codes, if written, can help reduce the need for and efficacy of states and capital organizations, and empower revolutionary groups wishing to supplant these forms of power.

Gitlab?

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