[smcleod]

How about building something that’s good for the planet?

Or something that significantly reduces people’s living costs?

Or something to increase equality and equity?

There is far too much priority placed on making profits in tech and not nearly enough doing what’s actually good for people.

[pessimizer]

Those aren't ideas for software. They're not even platitudes. It's just vague discontented murmuring. More ideas, less pretending to be superior.

[guiriduro]

Software absolutely can be good for the planet, e.g. if it disintermediates wasteful supply chains by finding alternatives, or optimises planning for a lower carbon footprint, or surfaces better measurement and tracking data. Or any of a hundred other use cases we haven't even thought of yet.

[anlaw]

More ideas, less scolding as if you are superior

[vonnik]

Profit is a very clear feedback loop. You go broke or you don’t. In that sense, it keeps you honest. There are pathologies of profit, such as building something people want, which is bad for them. Hello Big Food and Addictive social media.

But there are pathologies for these abstract ideals you mention too. Namely that they are hard to measure and therefore attract bullshit artists. They make it easy to fool yourself and others.

The best thing is to solve a real problem others have, thereby doing good, and to do so in a self-sustaining way, which is also called profit.

[pedalpete]

If you look at the post, you'll notice that there is no reference to profit or money. I think that is the lens you are looking at it through.

You can build something that is good for the planet, but if nobody wants it, can it make an impact?

[Veen]

What are you doing that contributes to those ends (aside from sermonizing on forums)? I had a quick look at the website linked in your bio, and it seems you're a working stiff toiling for a for-profit company, building shit for other for-profit companies, just like the rest of us.

[smcleod]

I’m definitely no angel - I just think the normalisation of chasing profits and the culture it’s created is broken.

Years back I took a (big) pay cut to work with a non-profit. We brought affordable internet to low income and refugee status apartment buildings, developed tools to help those that are homeless or at risk of becoming, wrote at-cost software for the non-profit and community health sector. I was there for 7 years as their head of platform engineering and automation. A very rewarding experience.

[spacephysics]

The reality is people put them and their family first. Those that have they luxury to pursue such endeavors, should if they want to. Others, after a 9-5 and spending time with their loved ones, want to just decompress. And that’s okay.

Others, with the little time they have left, want to work towards not working for someone. That should be what’s encouraged. Because that is more likely to produce jobs, give freedom to those that profit, and has a higher chance of something good happening (versus working for a corporation until retirement - which is perfectly fine, but a path none the less)

I also have a gripe with individual citizens being responsible and taking the burden of climate change. Why should the working class, whose taxes have gone up, wages stagnated, be continually punished with higher costs due to proposed carbon taxes, or initiatives that drive the price of staples up purely due to climate change. That just foments resentment and contributes to the opposite of such activists goals.

Policies are too one sided. We should be pushing for reasonable policies, that acknowledge the enormous progress oil and gas has given the world, and understand changing it rapidly will cause more harm to people than good, and in all likelihood will delay projects. We should look at proven solutions, like nuclear technology. Invest in renewables, in research fusion research and the likes.

But the vast majority of social platforms represents a very very small percentage of people, and those that actually tweet/post/etc represent an even smaller percentage.

The hard truth is when things like gas and food increases, Americans notice that pain far more than what may happen 30 years from now. They care about how their family will do in the next week, month, and few years.

Punishing them to try and understand the problems via monetary taxes, or guilting them to participate in activists activities, or pushing education material that puts shame to what real education should stand for, won’t work. It will backfire.

[8note]

> that acknowledge the enormous progress oil and gas has given the world

What's this supposed to mean? Gas has been useful for the world, and gas companies have already gotten tremendous profit as a result.

Who are you expecting to pay for climate change anyways, if it's neither the working class in the form of taxes with rebates, nor the owning class in the form of oil and gas companies. Who's left?

[tcfhgj]

God what's wrong with you?