8 ms·
Ask HN: How do you give back?
I’m looking for ways to “pay it forward” and make helping other people a bigger part of my life. Curious to hear what other HackerNews people have come up with. For context, I’m a software engineer (mostly front-end) and also have a law degree.
- tpmx 4y agoI pay my taxes.
- DamonHD 4y agoDoing the minimum that you legally have to is not "paying it forward"...
- birdyrooster 4y agoSays you, I have pride in paying taxes.
- cinntaile 4y agoI think some nuance should be in order. After all... Some people pay say 10% while others pay say 45-50%.
- tpmx 4y agoI live in Sweden. Taxes are... high.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- klipt 4y agoIf you work a stressful job and pay more taxes than the average person, then arguably you are doing more than the "legal minimum". In some more socialist countries, the "legal minimum" is choosing to live off welfare and not working/paying taxes at all.
- pmg102 4y agoAssuming you live in a democracy, I guess this goes alongside "I vote for higher/more progressive taxation or fairer redistributive policies whenever I can."
- jstummbillig 4y agoWhy would you guess that?
- paulcole 4y agoAre you interested in making the biggest possible impact or interested in feeling good about yourself?
- DamonHD 4y agoHelp others, eg volunteer, support with a little cash and/or time, contribute to open source, help moderate forums, advise if you can and are asked, ...
- lysergia 4y agoI donate to Riseup[0], TailsOS[1], and The EFF[2]. They all do great work, and I use their services too, so I'm not just a leecher! [0] https://riseup.net/en/donate https://riseup.net/en/donate [1] https://tails.boum.org/donate/ https://tails.boum.org/donate/ [2] https://supporters.eff.org/donate/join-4 https://supporters.eff.org/donate/join-4
- flutas 4y agoFor an idea I'm working on that touches medicine, I'm working through the details of a compassionate care program (free/extremely reduced price for paid features) for those it would help the most. Other than that I just try to do small things daily to make the world a better place. Holding the door for someone, thanking them for doing something, etc... may not add up to a lot but I'm hoping that I can help everyone a small amount.
- pjmorris 4y agoI'm here nicknaming 'Little Pantry' as a parallel to the 'Little Library' book boxes you see distributed here and there. I've got three examples, two personal and one aspirational for me. Do you ever waver about what to do when you see someone standing on the side of the road with a sign asking for some kind of help? I'll skip the internal and external debates to tell you what my wife and I currently do. 1. At the smallest scale, we keep a handful of $10 McDonald's gift cards in the driver's side pocket door of our cars, suitable for handing out our windows quickly when we are moved to do so. [Reference Chris Arnade and his book 'Dignity' and various articles he's written about Mcdonalds, eg. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/mcdonalds-as-america-a-conversation-with-chris-arnade/ https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/mcdonalds-as-america-a-c...] 2. One step up from there, my wife puts together gallon zip-loc bags with basics, e.g. water bottle, socks, toothbrush/paste, protein bars, etc. Sometimes also McDonald's cards. These get handed out in the same fashion as above. 3. I've got friends who do this at the scale of keeping 50lb bags of rice, beans, and other staple foods, binning them out in 1-2 week portions, and delivering them, along with similar-sized portions of e.g. potatoes, carrots, onions, etc to needy families they know. They deliberately cultivate not only the giving of things, but the development of relationships with those in need (which is all of us, sooner or later.) We're looking at how to step up to this level.
- throwayayes 4y agoYou're such a generous person, pjmorris! I wonder if you have any spare/used/old ThinkPad/laptop that you can give to me for free? It will be life changing for me! I'm currently really struggling in life (I barely eat once a day at the moment) but I'm really passionate about Linux/free software. So, a free laptop could really help me get local jobs (sysadmin or web developer for SMEs), put food on the table, & pay rent! Thank you!
- pjmorris 4y agoHi throwayayes, I wonder if someone who is both on HN and local to you has a spare laptop. Can you say where you are located, e.g country and city?
- tamaharbor 4y agoI dislike people, most of my money is going and will go to the local animal shelters. Cats and dogs can’t help themselves and are not responsible for their situations.
- unforeseen9991 4y agoSame, they are also going to get all my money when I die
- ihm 4y agoFrom my perspective, the pressures of capitalism are responsible a lot of the suffering that people help with (in heroic ways) at the margins by volunteering. It makes more sense to me to address the problem at the root, so I’m a member of several socialist organizations that are trying in various ways to build towards an alternative mode of organizing society.
- jordemort 4y agoI created and fund a scholarship at the university I graduated from.
- smileysteve 4y agoAs a software engineer: can you help/participate at hackathons, tech talks, teach valuable lessons that you have learned (this even counts at work) As a lawyer, look for a volunteer lawyer association near you; this could be very meaningful, you can help with less skil required tasks like case intake. More generally; do you have hobbies you can teach others how to do, likely fun for you too.(ie, teach, advise, or be involved at a local school, college, special needs, or veterans program) --- For me -- I'm a software engineer, so I've worked tech talks, conferences, and take extra initiative to teach best practices at work or when doing open source development. but love to change the pace by working physically. This is building, gardening, or moving heavy objects. I'm also the car guru in my extended family, I advise and sometimes assist repairing. I'm athletic. I used to advise a college club I graduated from (I also help fundraising efforts). I play tennis once a year with a special needs program. Volunteer and Charity. I target volunteering once a month and contributing 10% of my income to charity (and yes, I tax deduct them l
- lynx23 4y agoAs a front end dev, you could set aside a few weeks for diving deep into accessibility technologies. Once you apply what you have learnt to your future projects, you will make quite a difference down the road. For some of us, assistive technologies are more or less the only way to take part in this modern society.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- autarch 4y agoI donate about 15% of my income to various organizations, all focused on animal advocacy. If you prefer to focus on humans, I'd suggest donating to Givewell (https://www.givewell.org/ https://www.givewell.org/) or to some of the charities they recommend. If you're a software engineer in the US, you're earning _way_ more than most people in the world, and you can comfortable donate a large chunk of your income to help people (including non-human people) who are much worse off than you.
- 0x008 4y agoThey mostly recommend charities which are based around saving lives of small children or baby’s in 3rd world countries. A noble cause, no doubt. However, I wonder if there is a similar thing for saving the earth as opposed to humans?
- loeg 4y agoI give money to Givewell's top charities (i.e., mostly Against Malaria Foundation in recent years) and would encourage it.
- npstr 4y agoDonated blood for the first time a few days ago.
- nathanaldensr 4y agoI am considering volunteering for Celebrate Recovery through my church. I also focus far more time on my kids and wife than I did last year. I was selfish and I owe them a lot.
- soulofmischief 4y agoI really just try to be nice to people and to use my skills to make this world marginally better. I try to orient my life around giving, I'd give anyone the shirt off my back... Of course we all have selfish behaviors, but I think it's good to generally put others before yourself. And don't just give food or money to the homeless; give them your time. Take them out to eat. Cultivate a relationship with the underbelly of your city. Look out for your friends as well; make sure you understand their needs and desires, and find ways to help them be successful in meeting those needs. The most important thing you can do with success is share it with others.
- samsquire 4y agoLoving others as yourself, with all kindness, compassion and understanding. I would investigate spiritual matters and if you are willing to believe, love God.
- closewith 4y agoI trained to become an EMT and became a volunteer search and rescue medic. In the end, it's not really giving much back as I get a _lot_ more out of it than I put it.
- beej71 4y agoTeach people your skills for free.
- karyon 4y agoI donate 10% of my net income to charities. Having a budget for donations is really nice because it makes giving away money much easier. In my mental model this is simply not my money, but I can decide where it goes. This also makes spontaneous donations much easier. When the Ukraine war broke out and my employer set up a donation matching program, giving away 2000€ didn't require second thoughts from me. Scaling your donations with your salary is nice because it gives you a reason to ask for higher salary besides becoming even richer. With a software engineering salary, this is also enough money to support multiple organizations with a significant amount of money each. Discovering new organizations that do cool stuff and reading the occasional newsletter with positive news, knowing that your money supported that outcome, is really nice. I give the bulk of it to the Against Malaria Foundation, drawing from the effective altruism idea. They distribute mosquito nets and score very high in the (years of "healthy" life saved)/dollar metric. The rest goes to various NGOs around human rights, civil liberties, environmental protection, journalism, and the FOSS/donationware that I use.
- sarora27 4y agoI used to be an after school mentor for an organization called BUILD here in the Bay Area. BUILD is an entrepreneurship program for underserved high school students that teaches them how to build their own business while also preparing them for college. Most, if not, all of these students come from a home where no one holds a college degree or even a stable source of income. I didn't comprehend the impact I could have just by showing up every week, being present, and taking an active interest in who these teens were as people. If you have the time, I would highly recommend volunteering with organizations like this. It changed my life.
- bookofjoe 4y agoI'm a doctor (retired neurosurgical anesthesiologist x 38 years). When I am grateful for someone's help I give them my business card — which includes my email and phone# — and tell them to feel free to contact me 24/7/365 for anything, no matter how small. If nothing else I can advise them whether or not they need to go to the ER.
- trombonechamp 4y agoDo people contact you?
- bookofjoe 4y agoMuch to my surprise, after doing this for decades: not once! bookofjoe@gmail.com
- jstummbillig 4y agoI love everything about this anecdote.
- didip 4y agoSo many ideas: * Fix bugs on open source projects. * Donate to open source projects that mattered to you. * Donate to reputable nonprofit.
- chad_strategic 4y agoNo good deed goes unpunished. About a year and half ago I decided to start volunteer with Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation. (I been out of the Marines for about 10 years.) For reason out of my control I'm now the President of the Colorado chapter. Let me know if any wants to come to the Gold Tournament or volunteer. ;) Money is great, but volunteering is really giving back. http://www.mcsf.org http://www.mcsf.org
- RonaldOlzheim 4y agoInvest in yourself. Become a better human being. Everything else will follow.
- jononor 4y agoInvest in others, and your relationship to the. Become a better human being as a consequence. Don't neglect yourself though. But on your own mask before helping others.
- NaOH 4y agoI have a small wholesale bakery. Every day some baked good is given away to someone whose path we cross while out on deliveries, always in unmarked packaging because it's not meant to be a promotional act. Thanks to everyone who has posted—lots of great ideas here for additional effective ways to give back.
- gumby 4y agoI pretty much only work on companies that I believe will improve the world. I started (in the 80s) before is became a cynical trope (thanks, dot-commers and poseurs) and have continued. So I have worked on: -- making free software viable (late 80s/mid 90s) -- making Internet access available to non-businesses (late 80s/mid 90s) -- reducing drug dosage (bad for people, bad for the water supply) (mid 00s) -- Distributed solar thermal with storage (early 10s) -- Climate repair (starting 20s) Alan Kay said ""The best way to predict the future is to invent it." Less grandiosely, I work on the future I wish to live in.
- samelawrence 4y agoGood mentorship is REALLY hard to find. If you can be a good mentor to someone, that's a big deal.
- mooreds 4y agoI give back in a couple of ways: * $$$ donation to charities I have done some research on. I try to keep this limited in number, because I think X going to N charities is less of an impact than 5X going to N/5 charities over years. * I try to highlight folks who are less prominent than I am. (I'm not that prominent, but do have access to a couple of platforms, so I lend them to others.) * I volunteer. In particular, I help organize a local tech meetup, mostly wrangling speakers. I know folks learn from the meetup and make career connections, some of which impact their life. (I also volunteer in other, less tech related, ways.)
- dieselgate 4y agoI volunteer as a Big for Big Brothers Big Sisters in my area. It has been quite rewarding for myself and Little. Not everyone can/should be a Big so if you’re looking for an Org to donate to I personally recommend BBBS
- thenerdhead 4y agoI make content and give away free books to help others get into the industry and change their lives.
- 0x008 4y agoI donate to NeoVim so they can spread the good word.
- throwayayes 4y agoHi @yonibot, is there a way to contact you? email perhaps? thank you! I'm currently really struggling in life (I barely eat once a day at the moment) but I'm really passionate about Linux/free software. So, it will be cool if I can contact you & talk about my situation in details. Your help might be life changing for me! yonibot, I hope you see this post & reply to it! thank you!