| Every time I hear somebody say they are going to
| "change the world," I cringe. I imagine those
| people as some combination of arrogant fucks
| (pardon my english) and/or depression waiting
| to happen.
During a 'cultural fit' interview, I was asked, "How I Was Changing The World(tm)." They went on to talk about how they were changing the world because someone on the other side of the globe was using their app on a smart phone to manage their business.
I just remember thinking that it was a pretty arrogant stance and question. (If the person on the other side of the world has a business and smart phone, they probably doing pretty well...)
Yeah. We live in a crazy time, when people think a convenience for a $400 device is "changing the world."
You're right… it IS arrogant. And it's also sad, like a group of little kids talking about how important and badass they are, who they're gonna beat up and which famous actress/actor they're going to marry, right up til mom & dad call them home. Especially because they seem to be in denial that it's all fantasy.
For the low low cost of $1500, we gave three women back the ability to be productive, to be a part of their communities again, to be free from stigma… in short, not to be covered in their own excrement and urine all the time, for the lack of a simple surgery. Three women. Changed lives. And all it took was a little bit of our money and an organization that is actually changing the world. I had it easy… I just had to fork over the money. They're the ones on the ground making it happen. Doctors who do the surgeries in adverse conditions, coordinating to keep costs low, taking care of the women post-op, the women who walk so far to get taken care of and endure all the awful things they've endured…
We just develop software. No big deal.
I think people like to wrap themselves in illusions because they think it'll make them feel better… when really, deep down, they know they're lying to themselves, which only makes them feel worse.
Sorry, but I think the dismissive attitude behind "We just develop software. no big deal" is not at all helpful. Having seen how software interfaces can greatly enable - or hamper -- professionals in the educational, medical, and law fields, I don't see software as just being some rich trivial luxury that's e cherry on top of other professionals' hard honest work.
"We just develop software. no big deal" might just be extreme in the opposite direction, but there's a gap between "is really useful to people" and "changing the world" though that some people don't seem to see.
Things that I would call "world changing":
1. Improving education (e.g. Kahn Academy)
2. Curing disease.
3. Reducing/eliminating poverty.
etc.
Creating a B2B app that is used globally is not what I would call "world changing." It's obviously really useful to people and has great reach, which is something to be excited about, but "We're Changing The World(tm)" is over-stating your case.
If you can't see the gulf between being a doctor who dedicates his/her life to doing surgery in remote, third-world locations, for a pittance, in order to restore the lives of poor women, vs sitting in a comfy office in the first world developing software on a $2500 computer for a $400+ device… what can I say to persuade you?
Sure, there are some bits of software that save lives… but that's not what the "startups" in question are doing, is it?
The rest is simple convenience. Convenience is nice and all, and everybody loves it, and it pays well, and it can increase human productivity and connectedness, but that isn't really world-changing.
Nobody on HN is inventing the next telegraph, or the next x-ray. It's all variations and slight improvements on things that already exist. It's just software. No big deal. And yet the phrase "changing the world" or "change the world" is the one on everyone's lips.
Make no mistake, I love what I do, and I'm not cut out to be that doctor in any way. I'm happy with my place in the world. I've also got no illusions that, in the grand scheme of things, I'm 'changing the world' or, really, very important to anyone but my immediate circle of loved ones. Believe me, this is a better way to live.
The more you talk yourself up, the more you believe you're super ultra important and doing super ultra important work, the more you create a gulf between your exterior grandiose persona people see and your interior doubt and insecurity, the more you are isolated, the more you are alone, the more you risk losing if you make a mistake, the more social excoriation you (feel) you deserve/are likely to get, the more scared you are to ask for help or admit fear, the more hopeless you feel when you fuck up, the more likely you are to cut yourself off from others, to work yourself to death, to commit suicide.
And the saddest part of all is that it was all in your head. You weren't that important to start with. You can fuck up and the world keeps turning, just as it had. Nobody dies because you run out of money or kill your startup through an oversight.
Having a realistic understanding of your importance to the world makes you free to experiment, to ask for help, to admit failure, to make mistakes, and not feel badly about it. You don't have to feel like you're losing face, risking anything, or letting anyone down.
Grandiosity, on the other hand, imbues every act with such great importance that it seems like a matter of life or death. Grandiosity feels good right up until it becomes clear you're just a human after all. Unfortunately, then grandiosity sometimes literally becomes a matter of life or death.
It's deadly easy to substitute one factually false self-image (grandiosity) with another factually false self-image (despairing that you're the worst person ever and there's no escape).
This is sad. And it's all the more sad because it's totally avoidable.
NB: If you recognize yourself in the descriptions of grandiosity (and its side effects) above, know that I'm not a doctor. But my best recommendation is the audiobook (specifically the AUDIO book) of When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron. It's a life-saving, life-affirming dose of reality.
Well, I can't speak for the startups in question because I don't know enough about them, but that wasn't my beef.
I was commenting on what I thought seemed a dismissive attitude towards the role of software towards world-changing needs. You seem to think that because software developers work in relative comfort and safety, then what they do must be less noble or significant than the people on the front lines.
The people on the front lines, God bless them, but they're just one part of the solution. Let's not romanticize them at the cost of bashing those who have the potential to create great multipliers for their work.
And while I'm a software developer, I've been a journalist for most of my life and have covered a variety of truly awful situations. In education, for example, tragic stories at the classroom level are not the result of just some terrible teacher, or because adults don't care enough, etc. etc. Some of the problems have the potential to be alleviated through thoughtful logistical support, something which today, software is an essential part of. It's not sexy, and the people in charge of that aspect will never have their names recorded in history or immortalized in a movie, but it's important work nonetheless.
Maybe not all software developers are working on world-changing stuff (neither are all doctors or aid workers, for that matter). But I would hope we have more software developers who see how software can change the world and aspire toward it.
Just because there are a few dishonest douchebag startups doesn't mean we should discourage other developers to chase after these higher aspirations.
A friend of mine who follows you/your work is convinced you, unlike most HNers, aren't soaking in the particular startup cliché I'm talking about. That you aren't aware of its epidemic-like prevalence. My side of the conversation doesn't make sense, if you aren't.
Go to a few tech meetups and count the times you hear "changing the world!@!" about something that is truly, at best, a diversion. Repeat several times a year. Also read the posts here from startups who are hiring, count the times they say "change the world" "revolutionize the xyz" etc. See how many of them actually do anything that you or I would consider world-changing.[1]
Then see if you don't agree with me about the phrase. :)
At any rate, I'm not arguing with you, I don't know you. I'm arguing with the startup world's obsession with the phrase, and the epidemic of grandiosity that infects it. It's literally killing people. That's my beef.
[1] I don't actually recommend you doing all these things because it would probably depress you. It depresses me!
I don't know you either but I can tell you're intelligent enough to give the benefit of the doubt to, so I'm only halfassedly getting into this debate...either that, or it's Friday :)
I'm not steeped deep in the startup world, personally, but I get enough exposure through friends and through HN to know what you're talking about and don't blame you for being jaded. I just thought -- and was probably a bit picky about it -- that your cynicism went a slight step farther than it needed to.
OK, let's assume a lot of startups are cynically using "world changing" as a way to attract hype and/or mask the fact that they are shallow-minded professionals. Let's look at startups that are changing the world: Facebook, for example. I'm sure eyes roll every time Mark Zuckerberg talks about FB's world-changing effects...but in FB's case, the problem is that, perhaps, not enough of its developers realize they are changing the world, and that is a problem if the change is negative.
I don't disagree with you that some/many/most of digital startups may have delusions of grandeur. But I'd suffer 99 of such fools (assuming that most of them fizzle out) for every 1 person who really does believe that software can change the world, and then sets about to do so. And similarly, I hope that more non-software people who want to change the world continue to take seriously the effects/potential of software (and other logistics), and not just it as some technical operating detail they have to put up with.
Do you think the people who talk up how they're "changing the world" includes the 1 out of 99 (or fewer) who actually does?
I don't. The people I know who are really out there changing the world focus on small effects first, because they know that's the only way to create real and lasting change. They don't try to do it all in one bite and they don't crow about it either.
Also, my whole point wasn't that we should shut down people who talk about changing the world, but that those people are creating a situation ripe for depression in themselves. Yeah, it annoys me, but the results -- that its prevalence makes more and more vulnerable people believe this is the way they have to be, and that results potentially in ever more tragedy -- are what drives me to talk about it instead of just ignoring the annoying buggers.
To my mind the only cure is A) explaining the facts and costs of grandiosity, and B) introducing a little reality to the equation. You only seem to be objecting to B, but the thing is, it wasn't advice for you… or that 1 in 1,000 who is probably not here in the first place, who wouldn't identify & identify with A, which is the only reason someone would consider me credible enough to listen to.
I just remember thinking that it was a pretty arrogant stance and question. (If the person on the other side of the world has a business and smart phone, they probably doing pretty well...)