4 ms·

The reality for the people who post on here is that most of us aren't doing anything truly substantial. I include myself in that group. You can believe your IOT

The reality for the people who post on here is that most of us aren't doing anything truly substantial. I include myself in that group. You can believe your IOT AI messenger bot is going to revolutionize an industry, but the more likely situation is that it doesn't. That being said, such a project is not something I'd consider useless, but it's in the same range as the things I do consider useless. Take toy languages for example: could it revolutionize software development? Maybe. Will it? Almost certainly not. How many languages are commonly used in software engineering, and how much ability have you gained by doing it? It's not for me to say where you apply your time and from what you get your enjoyment from, but I do believe there are objectively more important problems that could be solved. There are plenty of problems out there that need to be solved, and engineers here have the capability to solve them -- I think it's fair to say we're more well equipped than most to solve some of the largest problems humans face. Here's a quick list of problems that are worth solving (in my opinion), vs. things that are figuratively useless: - Rising global temperatures will disrupt agriculture and food supplies, how will we farm when desertification consumes the croplands? - Thousands of people walk by homeless people on the street every day, if a small portion of those people stopped and engaged with the homeless, how many lives could be improved? - Children in third world countries struggle to receive proper education, how can we reach them and improve their education? - Governments around the world are failing to represent the needs and desires of their people, what can be done to help governments succeed? - Growing levels of automation are replacing a staggering number of jobs, and if the growth continues, the great depression will be ahead of us, not behind us. - Global financial markets are controlled by companies which you and I have no say in, yet they hold most of the worlds wealth. In contrast: - I want X programming language that does Y because Z doesn't do Y, in all likelihood, I will be the only one who ever uses this language, but it'll be a personal accomplishment. - I don't want to leave the house or stop working for half an hour to make a meal, how can I improve/speed up the time it takes for me to get a meal from my favourite restaurant? - Making X sucks, I want a robot to do it - Bad AI for X - IOT for X - Framework for X - Uber for X How often do I see the latter vs. the former? Imagine if you saw FOSS projects attempting to solve problems on the first list as often as you saw projects attempting to solve problems on the second list. I truly believe the world would be a better place if that was the case. I said earlier I'm guilty of this myself. I build consumer facing supporting software for entertainment media. I like what I do, but I don't think I'm contributing much to society, and that makes me uneasy.

gfodor 9y ago
I used to think like you, until I started a company to work on something because I felt like it was a "useful problem" and it crashed and burned quickly because I was not truly motivated: I was thinking with the head not the heart. Then I started working on a problem space I enjoy out of sheer technical fun (VR) and have been amazed to discover that it has massive potential for helping solve some of the more "useful" problems you mention. The truth is, when you are working on a project you care about, nobody really knows where it will lead you. Big things start out small and usually with humble ambitions. Usually the things that end up impacting the world start out as being considered "useless" and "toys." I say, work on interesting problems that you feel good about working on but most importantly enjoy working on. Feeling like the thing you are working on is an important problem to solve is a necessary but insufficient condition to ensuring you will get through the tough parts. Richard Hamming once wrote that he asked his peers the question: "Are you working on the most important problems in your field? If not, why not?" And I think this is a valid question and not a leading one at all. But it also is fair to answer "No" to this question if you are able to clearly answer "why not?" to yourself in a way you can live with.
barrkel 9y ago
Be wary of projecting your personal values as if they were absolutes.
bko 9y ago
> Take toy languages for example: could it revolutionize software development? Maybe. Will it? Almost certainly not. How many languages are commonly used in software engineering, and how much ability have you gained by doing it? Maybe revolutionizing the world is not the point. Maybe the people who create toy languages gain a deeper understanding of some issue from pursuing the project. Maybe sharing it helps others discover that deeper issue or hidden complexities and elegant solutions. Or maybe they are just an inspiration and serve as a reminder that everything that exists is built by humans. Everything can be understood. There is no magic.
nindalf 9y ago
I don't think toy languages are the a waste of time, because the people who make them improve their own skills. With these skills they might contribute to say, LLVM and all our code gets 0.1% faster. But it's a deeper reason - I don't think it's an either-or between working toy languages and global warming. The choice that I personally face is between enhancing my skills and Netflix/twitch and I suspect that many other people do as well, ie, the choice between creation and consumption. In my opinion, it's absolutely fine to create anything as a hobby if it makes you happy, whether that's woodworking, drone photography, or even reading or watching something that makes you think deeply. It's impossible for us to judge a priori which of these contributions will be useful to society in the long run. So if the people doing it are happy, why stop them?

gfodor 9y ago

I used to think like you, until I started a company to work on something because I felt like it was a "useful problem" and it crashed and burned quickly because I was not truly motivated: I was thinking with the head not the heart. Then I started working on a problem space I enjoy out of sheer technical fun (VR) and have been amazed to discover that it has massive potential for helping solve some of the more "useful" problems you mention. The truth is, when you are working on a project you care about, nobody really knows where it will lead you. Big things start out small and usually with humble ambitions. Usually the things that end up impacting the world start out as being considered "useless" and "toys." I say, work on interesting problems that you feel good about working on but most importantly enjoy working on. Feeling like the thing you are working on is an important problem to solve is a necessary but insufficient condition to ensuring you will get through the tough parts. Richard Hamming once wrote that he asked his peers the question: "Are you working on the most important problems in your field? If not, why not?" And I think this is a valid question and not a leading one at all. But it also is fair to answer "No" to this question if you are able to clearly answer "why not?" to yourself in a way you can live with.

barrkel 9y ago

Be wary of projecting your personal values as if they were absolutes.

bko 9y ago

> Take toy languages for example: could it revolutionize software development? Maybe. Will it? Almost certainly not. How many languages are commonly used in software engineering, and how much ability have you gained by doing it? Maybe revolutionizing the world is not the point. Maybe the people who create toy languages gain a deeper understanding of some issue from pursuing the project. Maybe sharing it helps others discover that deeper issue or hidden complexities and elegant solutions. Or maybe they are just an inspiration and serve as a reminder that everything that exists is built by humans. Everything can be understood. There is no magic.

nindalf 9y ago

I don't think toy languages are the a waste of time, because the people who make them improve their own skills. With these skills they might contribute to say, LLVM and all our code gets 0.1% faster. But it's a deeper reason - I don't think it's an either-or between working toy languages and global warming. The choice that I personally face is between enhancing my skills and Netflix/twitch and I suspect that many other people do as well, ie, the choice between creation and consumption. In my opinion, it's absolutely fine to create anything as a hobby if it makes you happy, whether that's woodworking, drone photography, or even reading or watching something that makes you think deeply. It's impossible for us to judge a priori which of these contributions will be useful to society in the long run. So if the people doing it are happy, why stop them?