[ahmedhosssam]

As someone from Egypt, my goal when I was young was to change the world to a better place, but as I was growing up I realized that the country that I'm living in doesn't care about all of this, and the people that I'm living with also don't care about "making the world a better place", at least 90% of people focus more on social media trends, they are too lazy to make some effort, they are also not aware enough with the big problems around them.

So I'm 22 now and I decided to focus on leaving the country after graduating, will I have the same motivation/drive to change the world after leaving? or will I be too tired to try?

[steve_adams_86]

I think a major component of people not caring isn’t that they’re bad people or that they intentionally don’t care. I believe it’s a severe case of ignorance and ineptitude, which I don’t mean to be critical or disparaging. I think most people I meet actually don’t have the capacity to understand and reason about the scope of matters required in order to engage with problems in the world effectively.

The world is incredibly complex. Most people are smart, but not that smart. Or they are particularly intelligent in ways which simply don’t lend themselves to these bigger picture problems.

I rarely meet people who sincerely don’t care. I do meet people who don’t understand, though. Many have no idea what’s wrong.

As a result I believe you’ll find this in just about every place you go, and in most social circles you encounter. This isn’t an Egypt problem but a human problem.

I’m not claiming I understand, or I’m one of the people intelligent enough to see the problems and engage with them. If I was, my life would likely be different and I would be much more useful. So, this is entirely opinion and worth taking with some salt.

[imoverclocked]

It may not be the country but the group of people you happen to find yourself in. I've known people (and groups of people) like that in the US and I'm sure you can find people like that anywhere. IMHO: the trick may be to find people who align with your idea of "better" as well as their want to make the world that way.

For me, the hard part is defining "better place" because I only have my own perspective to know what is "better." An example: I hate car noise, especially at home. I would love to see silent transportation everywhere, especially cities. There are even studies to back up reducing noise pollution for the greater good. However, for some people, having a loud car (or bike) is the best thing they can imagine. Some other people like the ability to have a loud vehicle without actually having one. A "better place" is directly contradictory between our world-views... and that's just one dimension of a place.

[ahmedhosssam]

Yeah actually I'm living among a not-good group of people, and that's a problem with the place, city, and culture. But I'm still waiting to graduate to start figuring out what is a "better place" at least for me.

But I think reaching a "better place" is the result of the contribution of many people, and everyone should contribute with anything he/she can. For me I can contribute by solving some problems with software, and I think there are plenty of problems that we can solve with software, we just have to make getting money a second priority after making something really useful, and money will come after.

[imoverclocked]

> everyone should contribute with anything he/she can.

Just be careful to not over-extend yourself. If you do believe in doing good and you compromise yourself to help others, you are compromising a force for good.

[moltar]

I’ve lived in many countries and I’d say it’s the same everywhere. The majority of people don’t care or just don’t have the time.

[hutzlibu]

"The majority of people don’t care or just don’t have the time."

They care. But most have choosen to improve their local (personal) world. Which mostly means, trying to make more money to buy more things that makes their world better.

[ahmedhosssam]

At least the environment is better in many countries? Because I have some stupid policies here like "you can't spend more than X dollars buying anything from outside, including any subscriptions" and many similar constraints to do anything, compared to many countries we have a terrible environment to think about changing the world, I think the best 2 options for me is to leave, or to change the country itself, but the second is way harder because I will literally compete against an army.

[ttymck]

Too tired or too wise?