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I would argue most volunteer firefighters and other social volunteers have more net-positive impact than the vast majority software engineers.

Cyphase 3y ago
They didn't say positive. I think they were thinking in terms of leverage.
MichaelZuo 3y ago
Are you sure? A huge chunk of cost increases in modern high rise building (outside of land and taxes) is due to ever more stringent fire safety requirements.
- moooo99 3y ago
  Would you like to see your house burn completely to the ground? Would you know how to deal with a car wreckage? I don’t, I’m grateful for those people existing. Regarding safety regulations, those were most often driven by tragedies that occurred prior to those regulations being in place. I prefer being alive over saving money
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    You’ll almost certainly get outvoted by the lower housing cost crowd, considering the usual comments on HN for these topics.
    - moooo99 3y ago
      well its been 5 hours and it doesn't seem like it has happened (yet). But trust me, I understand the sentiment. Housing becoming increasingly unattainable is a issue on many levels, I just think that there are other, worse, contributing factors to the overall situation. Compromising on fire safety or other reasonable safety factors effectively won't help anybody when there still is an ever increasing amount of institutional investment hiking prices on the market.
dikei 3y ago
Maybe, but I'm just talking about the potential here. Most type of volunteer works require more people, with some level of organizations before it becomes effective. While open-source software projects are often started by one very good SWE, as a hobby, in his own time: a very low barrier of entry. Plus, a project can live with a solo maintainer for a very long time. Though, I digress that can be detrimental in the long run, like the recent xz-utils fiasco.

Cyphase 3y ago

They didn't say positive. I think they were thinking in terms of leverage.

MichaelZuo 3y ago

Are you sure? A huge chunk of cost increases in modern high rise building (outside of land and taxes) is due to ever more stringent fire safety requirements.

moooo99 3y ago
Would you like to see your house burn completely to the ground? Would you know how to deal with a car wreckage? I don’t, I’m grateful for those people existing. Regarding safety regulations, those were most often driven by tragedies that occurred prior to those regulations being in place. I prefer being alive over saving money
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  You’ll almost certainly get outvoted by the lower housing cost crowd, considering the usual comments on HN for these topics.
  - moooo99 3y ago
    well its been 5 hours and it doesn't seem like it has happened (yet). But trust me, I understand the sentiment. Housing becoming increasingly unattainable is a issue on many levels, I just think that there are other, worse, contributing factors to the overall situation. Compromising on fire safety or other reasonable safety factors effectively won't help anybody when there still is an ever increasing amount of institutional investment hiking prices on the market.

dikei 3y ago

Maybe, but I'm just talking about the potential here. Most type of volunteer works require more people, with some level of organizations before it becomes effective. While open-source software projects are often started by one very good SWE, as a hobby, in his own time: a very low barrier of entry. Plus, a project can live with a solo maintainer for a very long time. Though, I digress that can be detrimental in the long run, like the recent xz-utils fiasco.