But we all can't work there. Not only are there not enough jobs at That One Company That's Changing The World, someone needs to provide the tools and services the business is built on; all the ancillary things that allow Us to make progress (computers, operating systems ... vehicles and their fuel ... food for the humans ... waste receptacles and their sanitation ... etc)
How am I changing the world? A) By educating a future generation (my own children) in the ways of the world, by supporting their dreams and showing them how the world must function so they can realize their dreams; and B) by working for a company that provides services to its customers to use to make their employees more productive to grease the wheels of innovation and creativity so their own lives are enriched and their own dreams (and their children's dreams) can be realized.
> The purpose of every job is to change the world in the way that employer wants it changed.
Change the world by polluting it more?
The idea that employers' actions are motivated by changing the world is a very idealistic view of business. They may have that idea at the start but that idea gets lost very quickly when actually doing stuff. Plus people from other common professions like doctors and lawyers want to change the world. Wanting to change the world says more about youth than it does about the field of business administration.
> Or do you want to change the world for the common good?
Suggestions?
It seems to me that "lost" effort is a very normal state of things. Even if we picked a worthy cause and worked cleverly and tirelessly for it, the our successors could easily come in and trash our work.
It also seems to me that the real "change the world" technologies don't solve problems but change our day-to-day lives: the printing press, cars, PCs, radio, television, consumer-focused logistics (Wal-Mart, Amazon delivery), vaccines, sanitation, running water, electricity, etc. Not all of these things are good. Not all are bad. But when Silicon Valley people say "change the world", they don't usually mean "work for (the next) Ford" or "work for (the next) AT&T".
Oh I'm sorry, I work at a social networking entertainment start-up. You're absolutely right, I should be changing the world. I'll get started on that right away.
Letsee, I'm going to need some granola, Beatles tunes, a hipster haircut, and a peace-encouraging, inner-city-black-kid-helping, hippie-esque, capitalism-hating, new-age social-green-Obama-natural job. Doing something. That will change the world. Yeah.
That's a fair goal, and I believe the answer breaks down like this:
You can work for a big company that serves billions of people, claiming that you are making an impact on the world, while in reality doing nothing.
On the other hand you can start your own company, perhaps only directly impacting a few hundred people, and still accomplish the goal of maximizing your change on the world (as that was your ceiling).
Maybe I lack ambition, but .. I don't need my career to change the world. I do a job which helps people to be where they have to be at the time they should be there. The world doesn't change because your elevator gets repaired faster (because someone could see "oh right, x has space in their tour and they are in the area, great") or if you can call your new internet provider and they can say "Your technician will arrive between 10 and 12" instead of "between 9 and 17 'o clock".
Neither changes the world. But it is a small step to help people do their jobs just a little bit better, so someone can be a little bit happier or less inconvenienced and that's enough for me.
There are varying degrees of changing the world, and not all have to have the aspirations of something like "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." If you're creating value by helping someone do their job better, or faster, or with less waste, etc, then you're still changing the world just in a relatively smaller way. Perhaps a better way to state it would be "making a change on the world". The startups that are upending entire industries (Uber, SpaceX etc) get the most attention, but there are significantly more focused on missions that may directly affect a lot less people, but still improve their lives in a meaningful way.
I can give the same answer here that I give to recruiters. The job I do has to improve the world somehow. It doesn't have to be some profound world-changing project, but it has to be a net positive. For example, the project I've been on for the last 7 years moves paper-based processes in small government to online processes. Less waste, saves them money. Doesn't solve the big problems of the world, but at least is one small positive step.
I will consider any job that can make that same claim. And I'll reject jobs that cannot.
"work for an international non-governmental organization or UNICEF. What you do will actually have a greater chance of changing the world through those organizations."
I find it very difficult to find meaning in a large portion of the jobs available today. Most workers are just another cog in the wheel. The system is so large that one cannot directly appreciate the effects of their work, or even know whether they are positive at all.
This contrasts with say, a subsistance farmer who produces food for their family and lives in a small community where every product of their labor has a known and appreciable impact. In that case, the equivalent goal of "changing the world" is "helping the community", which is much more attainable.
You should do a startup because it's what you're meant to do, because you can't think of anything else you'd rather do, because you are driven to solve tough problems, and/or you're passionate about the problem you're trying to solve.
That's the part of the post I agree with.
I say if you want to do it to change the world, go work for an international non-governmental organization or UNICEF. What you do will actually have a greater chance of changing the world through those organizations.
Maybe you should plant trees or study migratory patterns of marine life or dig wells in Africa.
These are the parts that I don't agree with, and they come up a ton in these conversations. How is working at UNICEF more world changing than doing a start-up that solves tough problems? Same goes for the other examples. What the author describes in the top paragraph I quoted has the potential to be significantly more world changing for the subset of people who are facing that same tough problem.
To me, Libin's general thought was to be driven by the right reasons, and it's in line with what this author says. A large amount of responses to Libin's talk picked on his wording, but in the end the responses are saying the exact same thing, but without the exact phrasing of "change the world", as that is seemingly reserved for projects involved solely with charity, Africa and cancer.
At Vittana (the org I founded), we joke there are only three ways to _really_ change the world.
* religions: whether you believe in God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you gotta agree that religion has affected world history
* governments: law & order, basic needs, wars -- name it, it's probably there
* markets: biotech, microchip, Internet, space -- need I say more?
In fact, I'd argue that if you look at the past 50 years, even in the United States but certainly elsewhere (e.g. the Asian Tigers), and all of the incredible things we've seen -- the biotech, microchip, Internet, space revolutions -- you could trace it all back to education.
And in particular (at least in the United States), I'd wager you could probably trace it all back to the GI Bill: that, for the first time, an entire generation could finish college if they wanted. You see similar investments in education elsewhere.
When that happens (assuming non-dysfunctional governments like in Egypt, etc.), you see a generation of people both creating and filling in opportunity for themselves through industry. That's what excites us.
At Vittana, we focus on providing education micro-loans to fight youth poverty. It's very much about a hand up, not a hand out: not a donation and not aid, but a business partnership among equals.
Take Ana Lizbeth, for instance, one of my favorite students: she wanted to be a programmer but needed $713 to graduate -- because of a Vittana Loan, that became possible.
We're not starting the cult or island nation of Vittana anytime soon -- I'm certainly not ;) -- so that leaves us with free markets. Our hope is that by going first, we can show others that education micro-loans are _possible_ to do and spark others to do it too.
Big fixes don't really work, but sometimes crazy, risky small ideas turn into big movements. That's our hope at least. :)
And thank you for the welcome! I've actually been with HN almost since the beginning (2,046 days — just happened to see earlier) but haven't been active/been busy building Vittana. I just logged in today when I saw a whole bunch of referrers coming in from HN.
Another bullshit dichotomy. We want to change the world in a big way. We certainly face hard odds (building a multi-million dollar business is very hard regardless of how you go about it). We just want to do all of that and do other things at the same time. So far that has been going pretty well.
If you want to change the world, you have two ways to do it:
1) By force - in this case, don't do it. Waste of energy on anti-productivity.
2) By creating something people REALLY REALLY want (like your examples) - in that case, yes. Create a company. Find someone as enthusiastic as you. If you create something people want, money will come.
Email me for details, I'm a gmailer and my nick is SonOfLilit.
> Every time I hear somebody say they are going to "change the world," I cringe.
I am now 36. I think every business has to seek to change the world for the better, but I also think that happens through the little things, not the grandiose. The problems of the future will not be solved by grand technological or government solutions but by the radical actions of neighbors helping neighbors....
How am I changing the world? A) By educating a future generation (my own children) in the ways of the world, by supporting their dreams and showing them how the world must function so they can realize their dreams; and B) by working for a company that provides services to its customers to use to make their employees more productive to grease the wheels of innovation and creativity so their own lives are enriched and their own dreams (and their children's dreams) can be realized.
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