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The point about society-level threats paying better than Silicon Valley is a good one. I often look around in the tech industry as a programmer and wish I could
by cardy31 4y ago
The point about society-level threats paying better than Silicon Valley is a good one. I often look around in the tech industry as a programmer and wish I could be paid well to do something that actually matters, instead of just keeping kids addicted to social media.
- colechristensen 4y agoTo be fair there are plenty of jobs in SV which aren’t tied to advertising or social media.
- dinvlad 4y agoHighly-paid jobs? Would be good to hear some examples.
- planarhobbit 4y ago
- dang 4y agoYou can't do this here, so we've banned you. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- planarhobbit 4y ago
- PheonixPharts 4y agoSure! You can build infrastructure for companies that sell advertising or social media (which is... also advertising) Alternatively you can work for one of the companies burning through VC money selling products/services at a loss who need to advertise those services so they can sell more and more quickly to create the illusion that one day they will be able to generate more than they spend! Don't worry too much about the loses the VCs will just make it up in their investments in advertising companies and companies selling infrastructure to advertising companies. Huh, something sounds weird about that setup, well good thing money is cheap!
- buscoquadnary 4y agoI make around $120ish working for a non-profit. I mean it's not SV money but no matter how much money I make I am eventually be lying on my death bed and the only thing I will have to comfort me will be the memories of good I left in this world, so I do it and am grateful I make a very comfortable living doing something positive. I'll also say that the idea of "Make lots of money now and then I'll give back later and retire early and enjoy my life" is a very risky proposition, you never know what tomorrow might bring a car crash, cancer, who knows? > And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee - Luke 12:15-20
- xxpor 4y ago>I make around $120ish working for a non-profit. I mean it's not SV money but no matter how much money I make I am eventually be lying on my death bed and the only thing I will have to comfort me will be the memories of good I left in this world, so I do it and am grateful I make a very comfortable living doing something positive. Not saying this is your job of course, but there are PLENTY of non-profits in this world that are actively making the world worse off. Non-profit == good is just as bad as Profit == bad. For an example, just look at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in LA. Some of the worst people in the country.
- colechristensen 4y agoSure, my current gig is making software for banks. Previously I’ve worked on managing medical records. There are people working on robotics, working on medicine, biology, rockets, software for people’s real problems, tools to enable other businesses, all sorts of things.
- dinvlad 4y agoHigh salaries though? :-)
- Victerius 4y agoWhy don't terrorist groups hire the best chemical engineers to engineer chemical weapons? Or the best bioscientists to engineer the deadliest plagues? Or the best hackers to engineer the best computer viruses? Or not even the best, just average/competent enough scientists and engineers? Phrased a little differently, would you accept being paid a life-changing amount of money in exchange for anonymously engineering a deadly threat to some people far from home and knowing you could get away with it? Would you let your morals stop you?
- __MatrixMan__ 4y agoGiven that there are many people who work for defense contractors, and for middling pay, I think we can safely say that plenty of people would not let their morals stop them.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- filoleg 4y agoI don't think the comparison here is valid even in the slightest, and I am not even talking about it from the "terrorist groups and defense contractors are not morally equal" angle at all. I simply think that the venn diagram of people willing to do software dev work for a defense contractor like Boeing or Raytheon and people willing to do software dev work for the cartels/terrorist groups is not even close to approaching a full circle. Sure, most people willing to do software dev work for the cartels/terrorist groups are probably totally morally ok with doing work for a defense contractor. But I am willing to bet that most people willing to work for a defense contractor will not feel morally alright working for the cartels/terrorist groups even in the slightest.
- lupire 4y agoThe "terrorist" thinks they are defense contractor and that Raytheon is the terrorist. It's fully symmetric. The difference is that many or most won't cross borders to work for the opposing team. ISIS has many engineers.
- sinenomine 4y agoJust an idea: you could always prep for an algo interview and jump ship from developing infra for google.com to developing infra for the next generations of cures in https://www.isomorphiclabs.com/ https://www.isomorphiclabs.com/
- GrumpyNl 4y agoWhy is it always about the payment, why not choose a job you love doing?
- rexpop 4y agoThe Sheriff will evict me at gunpoint if I don't pay the exorbitant rents in regions with an active job market.
- Brian_K_White 4y ago
- rexpop 4y ago> Did you think many people would not roll their eyes On the contrary, it's your cavalier viewpoint which is in the global minority. I'll engage with your dismissive, bad faith argument for the sake of earnestly inquisitive bystanders: no, we are not "forced to work" but we are compelled to do so under an economic systems which, at its leaf nodes, enforces noncompliance with violence. Try thinking through a few nth-order consequences of chronic unemployment. As for the "particular job" aspect, no it's not that one (1) "particular job" is the requisite, but to attain particular living standards, one can't realistically look outside categories of jobs that share particular aspects. So think of it not as "a particular job," but rather a particular category of jobs which pay enough, in the right regions, for the right qualifications. So, really, I am referring to a limited category and a structural eventuality, while you are referring to "a particular job at gunpoint." I think your extrapolations have imported greater histrionics than my original post.
- Brian_K_White 4y agoI don't see a single invalidation of my ridicule.
- Sinidir 4y ago
- 7thaccount 4y agoNothing outside of like SV, finance, or being a doctor is probably going to get you $300k and above. However, you can do some important work and make above $100k in a fairly inexpensive area if you want.
- tene 4y agoHaving worked in SV for so long, it's hard to really imagine what this would actually look like. What are some examples of important work with decent pay in an inexpensive area that a SV tech worker could be good at?
- 7thaccount 4y agoIf you work with electric utilities or various regulatory entities (the wholesale power industry is pretty large) you'd be making well north of $100k as an individual contributor (engineer, technical analyst, software engineer, operator, economist... etc) if you have about 8 or more years of experience. If you live in any of the southern states, a house is easily findable in the $180-$250k range. That's better than having to buy a $1.5M home on a $300k budget. You can expect to work around 40 hours per week with some occasional rough patches depending on the job.
- iamthepieman 4y agoDefense contracting is somewhere in between. Whether that's better than the three industries you mentioned is up to you.
- danuker 4y ago> finance Compound interest is the eigth wonder of the world. Knowing what will be profitable in the future is analogous to knowing what problems will plague humanity. And investing for future profit equates to mitigating them.
- darkerside 4y agoLawyers and small business owners can go on that list
- tene 4y agoI desperately wish there was a country I could move to where civilization actually invested meaningfully in things that actually matter.
- rr808 4y agoUSA has lots of jobs that pay enough to live on that matter. You wont earn 300k as a teacher but you'll earn enough to live, and you'll earn more than if you "do a job that matters" in a poorer country.
- nextos 4y agoMaybe the practical way to do this is to start non-profits, e.g. via YC, and ask for donations from SV. Some urgent areas include assessing biological and climate tail risks.
- cirgue 4y agoGet involved in local government and get your friends to do the same. State and municipal governments do most of the actual investment in infrastructure, even if the money might in part be federal, and that’s where the decisions get made. Your vote and voice matter, and the players involved eat at the same restaurants you do, go to the same gyms, and live in the same parts of town, for the most part. If you show up to city council meetings you’ll get to know people.
- refurb 4y agoYou mean “things that actually matter [to me]”? Or are you suggesting there is only one set of things that universally matter to all humans?