Ask HN: Best way to help the world with software engineering?

5 pointsxtony4y ago2 comments

It's a common sentiment that the software engineering problems that command the highest pay aren't the most important ones to solve. If I don't care about getting paid anymore, I'd like to know the most effective ways I can use my software engineering skills to help the world and make a difference.

This is obviously very subjective because it depends on how you think the best way to help the world could be. I'm sure some may argue that typical software engineering helps the world, albeit with some degrees of separation, but I'm sure there are people out there that know of great causes that could use a software engineer.

2 comments

2 comments · 2 top-level

thefunnyman4y ago

This is something I’ve battled with personally quite a bit. In my current role I’m sure I don’t do the world harm, but I’d like to provide more benefit. I’ve dabbled with contributing to open source as well as volunteering my time as a developer with non profits. I find both of these to be rewarding, but not sustainable as a source of income. Instead I’m not trying to work on larger projects at work which benefit multiple teams. Personally I find this kind of larger impact work to be the most rewarding and if I can convince my company to open source any part of this then my contribution can have even greater impact.

roeles4y ago

I would recommend looking into what Doug Engelbart was on about.

This also makes massive sense to me: http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/

I basically believe the future of humanity lies in collaboration. As problems increase in complexity, we increasingly need to collaborate to identify the relevant problems, understand them, formulate solutions, experiment and implement them.

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