[phantomathkg]

> We make so much money very early in our careers that it’s very easy to lose track of what the end goal is.

That's highly depending on your industry and country(s) you are in. In Singapore you can live a relatively OK living, but it is far from rich. In India unless you are working for FAANG your bring home will be good, but far from "so much".

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To answer the question in general. I think programming definitely give you good enough money, and for most of the applications we build we definitely are going to make the world slightly better daily.

[ushakov]

> for most of the applications we build we definitely are going to make the world slightly better

no you won’t

what you will be doing instead is help make some stakeholders richer (and they don’t give a F about making the world better)

if you really want to try make the world better, then start volunteering and start helping those in need

[phantomathkg]

> if you really want to try make the world better, then start volunteering and start helping those in need

Yes and no. Some of the issues can be solved by volunteering, but some of the technical progress have to done by software.

[ushakov]

of course, but the type of software that can make the world better and solve some of the world's problems (like hunger and climate change) is not the software the majority of the people on HN are working on, me including

maybe we should stop lying to ourselves and admit that what we're doing is not something special, will most definitely not make the world better and in many cases makes things even worse (social media and advertising industry)

don't believe companies when they tell you you're working on a very important problem that will change the world

this is all made to distract you from the fact you're being exploited for profit

[phantomathkg]

I feel very sorry for your view of the world, and I choose to see the world differently. And let's walk through a very small example of solving world hunger.

To solve hunger, one needs food. Farmer produce food, great. They solve the hunger issue. But without transportation and cold chain, the food produce by the farmer can feed only those living close by. Are those working in the transportation and storage industry not doing their bits for making the world a slightly better place?

Transportation, and cold chain, needs computer and software in many different parts of the system to work in harmony. And that's where we programmer contributed. Are you saying you rather carry the food yourself from the farm to those who need it?

In today's world, yes many are currently being exploit for profit for sure. This will have to be solved differently. However, this flaw does not diminish the fact that we as human are living in a better world than the last century.