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I didn't find the reasoning in this article very sound and the heated "high school angst" quotes hurt its credibility. e.g. "These products feed and profit fro

I didn't find the reasoning in this article very sound and the heated "high school angst" quotes hurt its credibility. e.g. "These products feed and profit from our bovine adoration of mindless time-wasting." That said, to address her point, I don't understand why tech start ups would be the answer to everything, especially a complex problem like homelessness. Homelessness isn't going to be solved by some RoR hacker creating a website that matches the homeless with available space. Rather it is the challenge for social workers, mental health practitioners, etc. The same with education, the problem with inner city education isn't technical, its that vast swaths of the population do not respect education. My wife taught in an inner city, had amazing technical resources thanks to grants and well meaning donors, but had parents who were totally checked out. Furthermore, because some people use tech in a frivolous way doesn't mean there aren't noble uses. e.g. Foursquare - Learn about resources in my town and places I visit I wouldn't have otherwise. Lets me provide info about areas I know well to those who don't. Makes my consumption choices visible and potentially incites me to make better decisions for the community and my health. Groupon - Helps support local merchants who have difficult challenges marketing against national chains. Reduces risks for customers to try new things. Twitter - connects me to people and bodies of knowledge that would otherwise be hard to tap. Lets me connect job seekers with job holders. Zynga games - Creates a meeting place/activity for friends/family. Sure, at its worst it has "junkie" characteristics, but used sparingly it gives me a way to say hi to a friend and keep a little social bonding going. Commerce isn't bad and tech isn't the solution to every problem.

timr 16y ago
"Homelessness isn't going to be solved by some RoR hacker creating a website that matches the homeless with available space. Rather it is the challenge for social workers, mental health practitioners, etc." I think you're missing the larger point: when the best and the brightest technological minds are chasing the instant riches of social networks for dogs, they're not creating new antibiotics, energy efficient cars, cheap building materials, or any of a thousand other different things that people with big brains might be doing to better the world. People who are smart enough to be writing social networks are more than smart enough to be doing pharmaceutical research or inventing solar cookers for the third world. There's just not much of an economic incentive to do it, when it's easier to sell to the vices of the first world. That said, I realize that I'm a hypocrite on this point: I'm in this wacky social-network-hoo-hah business as much as anyone else. I just wish the economic forces were aligned differently.
- jeromec 16y ago
  But there are bright minds working on new antibiotics, energy efficient cars, cheaper building materials etc. Some of the best and brightest minds are also smashing atoms in particle accelerators, charting the cosmos, composing symphonies, educating new minds, and, yes, pushing the limits of computer connectedness to make many lives on this planet just that much nicer. There are different ways to contribute to the world. Some leave a more significant mark than others, and in different ways. People do what they are drawn to, and I think that allows them to reach their fullest potential.
  - timr 16y ago
    "But there are bright minds working on new antibiotics, energy efficient cars, cheaper building materials etc. Some of the best and brightest minds are also smashing atoms in particle accelerators, charting the cosmos, composing symphonies, educating new minds, and, yes, pushing the limits of computer connectedness to make many lives on this planet just that much nicer." Speaking as one of those people who took a nice little detour from the world of money to live on the edge of technology, let me assure you that it wasn't a smart financial choice. Most of the people who are smashing atoms and charting the cosmos are economic martyrs. Most of the ones who aren't martyrs come from places where an advanced degree at a US school will catapult them into higher social classes. That doesn't really happen in the US anymore -- people think it's more sensible to drop out of college to make websites, and I can't really argue with them. Irrational or not, my opinion is that the world would be 1000% better if we could somehow create an economy that rewarded young people for doing research into antibiotics half as well as it rewards them for creating social-networking widgets.
    - dingy 16y ago
      Most of the people who are smashing atoms and charting the cosmos are economic martyrs. Baloney. Here in the Netherlands, scientists working at universities and research institutes get a pretty decent salary. Sure, they don't get filthy rich, but fortunately there are more than enough people who don't care about that. The thing is: if getting rich is your primary objective, you're not going to save the world anyway. People working on antibiotics just because it's the best paying job, will leave as soon as another job gets them more money. You can't solve that by fixing the system, because it's not the system that's broken.
marshallp 16y ago
Tech is the major part of the solution to every problem. For example, homelessness can be solved to a large extend by the ROR hacker. For a start, a webapp for the health practitioners, volunteers etc. to better organize would make it all more efficient - let's say by 20%. Webapps that create greater efficiencies in the housing market add another 20%. Add in a webapp to organize homeless advocates to lobby politicians, and you've gone a pretty large way. Software creators don't realize just how much of an impact they can actually have on the world.
yayitswei 16y ago
My girlfriend and I work quite a bit with the homeless and I've noticed that even the most brilliant social work has its limitations. Most homeless people benefit from those social workers, educators, volunteers, etc., but it takes an inordinate amount of energy to reach out to the fringe that seem to lack the motivation to better their own lives. I think non-profit and for-profit ventures have this in common: they help those that wish to help themselves, help themselves even more.
inafewwords 16y ago
We'd have a cure for baldness.

timr 16y ago

"Homelessness isn't going to be solved by some RoR hacker creating a website that matches the homeless with available space. Rather it is the challenge for social workers, mental health practitioners, etc." I think you're missing the larger point: when the best and the brightest technological minds are chasing the instant riches of social networks for dogs, they're not creating new antibiotics, energy efficient cars, cheap building materials, or any of a thousand other different things that people with big brains might be doing to better the world. People who are smart enough to be writing social networks are more than smart enough to be doing pharmaceutical research or inventing solar cookers for the third world. There's just not much of an economic incentive to do it, when it's easier to sell to the vices of the first world. That said, I realize that I'm a hypocrite on this point: I'm in this wacky social-network-hoo-hah business as much as anyone else. I just wish the economic forces were aligned differently.

jeromec 16y ago
But there are bright minds working on new antibiotics, energy efficient cars, cheaper building materials etc. Some of the best and brightest minds are also smashing atoms in particle accelerators, charting the cosmos, composing symphonies, educating new minds, and, yes, pushing the limits of computer connectedness to make many lives on this planet just that much nicer. There are different ways to contribute to the world. Some leave a more significant mark than others, and in different ways. People do what they are drawn to, and I think that allows them to reach their fullest potential.
- timr 16y ago
  "But there are bright minds working on new antibiotics, energy efficient cars, cheaper building materials etc. Some of the best and brightest minds are also smashing atoms in particle accelerators, charting the cosmos, composing symphonies, educating new minds, and, yes, pushing the limits of computer connectedness to make many lives on this planet just that much nicer." Speaking as one of those people who took a nice little detour from the world of money to live on the edge of technology, let me assure you that it wasn't a smart financial choice. Most of the people who are smashing atoms and charting the cosmos are economic martyrs. Most of the ones who aren't martyrs come from places where an advanced degree at a US school will catapult them into higher social classes. That doesn't really happen in the US anymore -- people think it's more sensible to drop out of college to make websites, and I can't really argue with them. Irrational or not, my opinion is that the world would be 1000% better if we could somehow create an economy that rewarded young people for doing research into antibiotics half as well as it rewards them for creating social-networking widgets.
  - dingy 16y ago
    Most of the people who are smashing atoms and charting the cosmos are economic martyrs. Baloney. Here in the Netherlands, scientists working at universities and research institutes get a pretty decent salary. Sure, they don't get filthy rich, but fortunately there are more than enough people who don't care about that. The thing is: if getting rich is your primary objective, you're not going to save the world anyway. People working on antibiotics just because it's the best paying job, will leave as soon as another job gets them more money. You can't solve that by fixing the system, because it's not the system that's broken.

marshallp 16y ago

Tech is the major part of the solution to every problem. For example, homelessness can be solved to a large extend by the ROR hacker. For a start, a webapp for the health practitioners, volunteers etc. to better organize would make it all more efficient - let's say by 20%. Webapps that create greater efficiencies in the housing market add another 20%. Add in a webapp to organize homeless advocates to lobby politicians, and you've gone a pretty large way. Software creators don't realize just how much of an impact they can actually have on the world.

yayitswei 16y ago

My girlfriend and I work quite a bit with the homeless and I've noticed that even the most brilliant social work has its limitations. Most homeless people benefit from those social workers, educators, volunteers, etc., but it takes an inordinate amount of energy to reach out to the fringe that seem to lack the motivation to better their own lives. I think non-profit and for-profit ventures have this in common: they help those that wish to help themselves, help themselves even more.

inafewwords 16y ago

We'd have a cure for baldness.