Aaaah so cool. More and more I'm thinking the largest impacts seem to be happening "in the real world." As a software engineer lately I've been feeling kinda..

Aaaah so cool. More and more I'm thinking the largest impacts seem to be happening "in the real world." As a software engineer lately I've been feeling kinda.. pointless. Like we've made some cool apps out here for identifying and tracking illegal factories here in Taiwan, but now we have a backlog of thousands, and the "real work" is happening in the bureaucracy and paperwork that eventually results with cops being sent to the factory to deliver court paperwork and shutdown / modification orders, and that feels real-world and unfixable by me. Kinda a ramble as my friends and I are actively talking about this right now in regards to this thread, but I'm curious how other HNers feel about this. Like when I was at Electric Imp, the real magic seemed to happen when the soldering irons got busted out. Here in Taipei I asked my buddy who's driving all the lamborghinis, and he said "just regular entrepreneurs, import/export types." I'm not money-motivated but I have been feeling I guess "left out?" I'm thinking about all those engineering projects I hear about out in Africa where they make super efficient mini stream turbines, or float wifi balloons. Feels like the good shit happens IRL.