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Ask HN: Anyone interested in working on projects related to social causes?

by bsldld on 11/9/22, 7:28 AM with 7 comments

I am a software engineer and want to form a group of like-minded software engineers to work on something that will make a difference on a massive scale (not immediately, but over a period). Moonshot ideas are not off-limits.

I have two ideas, but open to ideas from other engineers. We can bounce ideas across and decide what to work on as a group.

Anyone interested to work on new social impact open source project?

  • by edent on 11/9/22, 9:36 AM

    I've seen a number of similar project and, without exception, they all fail if they attempt to do something new.

    I'd strongly advise you to find groups who are already working on these problems and have built up deep knowledge about the issues which are faced.

    There's no point going "I'm going to build an app to cure HIV!" if you haven't spoken to all the charities, health groups, and people who are already deeply immersed in this space. They already know which approaches won't work, which organisations have the best networks for promoting solutions, and who to go to for more advice.

    So, my advice is don't brainstorm with engineers. Go out in to your community and find people who have an existing need which isn't being met.

    Good luck!

  • by solardev on 11/9/22, 11:13 AM

    What exactly are you pitching? Ideas are a dime a dozen but execution is much harder. The world has a ton of nonprofits but most of them aren't very effective. Most humans aren't very effective.