I for one would be happy if the everyday software I use wasn't complete rubbish. It won't make the world meaningfully better, but it certainly won't make it worse. It's a start.
Why isn't there a browser which you can just install to have a good Internet experience? It would have to update itself every day with a new definition of "good" due to the arms race with advertisers.
It would have to block all ads and trackers and other bad JavaScript; automatically redirect YouTube to Invidious and so on, while seamlessly keeping all YouTube features; automatically open the chronological tab instead of the recommended tab on most social media; be blatantly illegal to possess; and update itself through Tor so nobody can do anything about it.
I agree. I detest that the world I live in, there's an inordinate amount of human effort that goes into diverting my attention to make me behave against my own best interests by buying something, or even just offered the opportunity to notice something buyable, that in both cases enriches someone else.
If all of that effort was focused on something meaningful, rather than something 'profitable', I wouldn't despise myself or the rest of humanity.
There's a massive difference between making the world a better place versus making the world a better place for a select few. Late stage capitalism has a massively heavy emphasis on the latter.
And now the USA has effectively reverted to monarchism. [1]
do what I do. every time grammarly interrupts my YouTube viewing, I say out loud clearly to myself "fuck off grammarly", and then I use YouTube-download to get the video without the ads.
every time Facebook shows me an advert for solar panels, I close Facebook (I only go for the pictures and stories of cats getting in awkward situations).
I've amassed a ton of books for my old age - some day I'm going to go offline and never go back online.
I actually pay for YouTube to not show me advertising, but I'm also a fan of UBlock Origin and yt-dlp [1], and also physical media, but I do appreciate ebooks a lot.
Imagine you had a team of 10 average (not bad, but also not great) software engineers for a year. Choose between:
* Get them to implement the kubernetes ssd/disk attachment plugin for the Adobe cloud offering.
* Get them to implement the remote access, scheduling and status control of a biochemistry centrifugue.
Both missions are boring, and neither will change much how whe world runs.
Well, I lied. Because of incentives, it is actually choosing between 15 decent engineers for the Adobe cloud or 1-2 cheap & bad engineers for the centrifugue (I have worked in embedded, I know software is an afterthought in that industry).
And now let's make it more personal: would you rather work for Adobe cloud for 135k per year, or for Centrifugues R Us for 85k per year? Would your spouse agree with your decision, especially after your 3 year old decided to grab and throw the TV to the floor?
I for one would be happy if the everyday software I use wasn't complete rubbish. It won't make the world meaningfully better, but it certainly won't make it worse. It's a start.