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> Code What? To Do What? And Why? Seriously? Our infrastructure is crumbling, billions of people still don't have enough food or clean water. Diseases, even cu
by imgabe 9y ago
> Code What? To Do What? And Why?
Seriously? Our infrastructure is crumbling, billions of people still don't have enough food or clean water. Diseases, even curable ones, are killing people every day and you have to ask "To Do What?"??
Give me a break. Stop gazing at your navel for 10 seconds and go out and interact with the world. I guarantee you'll find a problem that needs fixing.
- accountyaccount 9y agoAre you suggesting we rebuild our bridges with code?
- lapsock 9y agoyeah man code is magic everyone should learn how to code
- imgabe 9y agoBelieve it or not, quite a bit of software is used in the design and construction of bridges, much of it has a lot of room for improvement.
- accountyaccount 9y agoSure, but you're not getting anything done with software alone.
- lapsock 9y agoPeople not having food or water sounds more like a political problem than a problem that can be solved with code.
- Abekkus 9y agoPolitical campaigns are being won by code.
- mehwoot 9y agoOur infrastructure is crumbling, billions of people still don't have enough food or clean water. And what % of tech startups are tackling these problems?
- branchless 9y agoDo the people who will solve these problems drink smoothies?
- relyio 9y agoAnd what % of capital is available to entrepreneurs tackling those problems?
- imgabe 9y agoThere are opportunities to work at places besides tech startups, unbelievable as that may seem.
- Bakary 9y agoIt's often the case that these issues don't need extra coders thrown at them, or if they do it will be code of a sufficiently high complexity that only a minority of experts dedicating years to it will make any headway. In either case, the result is that people could provide more meaningful help through pursuits other than becoming another mediocre programmer. Rather than balloons giving free wifi, people in difficult areas need stuff that can actually improve their lives. Unfortunately, when you have a hammer all you see is nails. Of course, most people learning how to code will not tackle these problems in the first place. The incentives are such that it's more rational to create yet another zero-sum ad-based social-app-for-dogs project. Even the smartest programmers of our generation are probably working on some way to strengthen target advertisements or some other "late-stage capitalism" product that is not useful in the bigger picture, or even constitutes a downright drain on resources. But who can blame them? Without money you are treated like a subhuman creature, with enough of it you are almost a God.
- pascalxus 9y agoWhat you need is political action and an informed citizenry that understand basic economics, to get rid of all the regulations preventing "real" innovation. Until that happens, all the coders in the world won't do any good.
- pascalxus 9y agomost of the diseases we inflict on ourselves (70% of medical spending in the US) through diet and lifestyle choices. We could start by actually eating food, rather than the contents of boxes and plastic wrappers.