That's probably one of the best and most insightful articles I've ever read, that used the term "first world problems". In fact, it may be the only article I've ever read that used that term, that wasn't a complete joke.
There's so much truth there... we work on "stuff" and some of the "stuff" we work on is truly amazing in many ways, but - and I don't know about you - I sometimes find myself wondering "is this really making the world a better place, in the general sense"? Even the stuff we are doing at Fogbeam Labs, which I am very passionate about, and even though we have very explicit core values[1] that drive us - sometimes leaves me thinking "this isn't going to help a poor starving child in Africa. Should I be doing something else"?
On the other hand, part of the reason we do all Open Source software is exactly because we think producing more OSS does make the world generally better, in at least some small regard. And if some would be entrepreneur in Africa or Afghanistan or something uses our software some day, and it helps them succeed, grow a business and create jobs and improve lives, then we have done something very positive. But it's hard to keep that in mind sometimes, when the chain of connections is so long and so speculative. I sometimes want to be doing something with a more obvious and direct impact on helping people.
I just watched "Repo Men" again, and while it's not a great movie, nor is it directly related, it came back to haunt me while waiting in line at the bank: I'm still really afraid of "not being", specifically not being alive. And I asked myself, not for the first time, what's the purpose? Am I really making the world a better place? Does it matter? Eventually I settled on my old fallback of "well, as long as I'm happy" (which, BTW, questions like these keep me from being happy). But this article hits close to home, as does your comment, and there's not a day that goes by that I wish I was getting paid to work on open source software full time. And then I think even that wouldn't be enough, maybe I'm wasting my potential, and I should have stuck it out and gone to grad school and maybe done something amazing. Maybe not Nash or Knuth amazing, or Norman Borlaug amazing, but something of lasting value and worth that made the world a better place in innumerable ways.
Volunteering in other ways can help; while the effects aren't as long lasting or deep (but subtle), the instant gratification of helping to save a life can be surprisingly uplifting :)
And then I think even that wouldn't be enough, maybe I'm wasting my potential, and I should have stuck it out and gone to grad school and maybe done something amazing. Maybe not Nash or Knuth amazing, or Norman Borlaug amazing, but something of lasting value and worth that made the world a better place in innumerable ways.
Yeah, I know the feeling. When I started my first real programming job, I spent a lot of time wondering if I'd made the right choice, and trying to figure out how - if at all - this job would lead to a scenario where I could say I changed the world in some sense. One of my biggest fears is, as you say, to have never been (for how I define "having been"). I sometimes thing, if I live a life where I do enough of note to one day justify having a Wikipedia page, then I could probably live with that.
It's interesting though... I saw an interview with a UFC fighter once (I think it might have been Dan Henderson, but don't hold me to that) where he was asked "What are your goals in life" and said something like "I want to be in the history books. Not the history books of ultimate fighting, but the history books kids read in school". I feel like that sometimes, like what would make me happy would be knowing that I left a mark behind that would outlast my mortal self.
But this article hits close to home, as does your comment, and there's not a day that goes by that I wish I was getting paid to work on open source software full time.
Yeah, that's another reason I do find a sense of purpose in this Fogbeam Labs thing. One of our goals is to provide a home for people like you (and me, and many others) who want to work on OSS stuff, but want to get paid as well. Basically, one big reason I want to create a company, is because the "company I would want to work for" doesn't exist, so I figure I'll just create it myself. If we succeed, I'd love to one day have Fogbeam Labs known as "a great home for hackers". I'm convinced we'll get there, but man, is it a lot of work! :-)
Volunteering in other ways can help; while the effects aren't as long lasting or deep (but subtle), the instant gratification of helping to save a life can be surprisingly uplifting
There's a lot to be said for various kinds of volunteering. In my case, I spent about a decade as a volunteer firefighter. That was a wild experience in so many more ways than I could ever tell. Some good, some bad, but at least all during that time I always knew I was doing something to really contribute to the world. Now, I never literally pulled somebody out of a burning building seconds before it collapsed, or any story-book stuff. But we responded to a few fires, make interior attacks, and knocked down the fire at an early enough stage to save the home, on a few occasions. So, I can take heart in knowing that, somewhere out there, are a handful of people who didn't have to go through digging through the remnants of a burnt home, and rebuilding from scratch, etc., and that I played a role in that. To this day, I probably still look back on some of those experiences as the most meaningful ones I've had in my life.
There's so much truth there... we work on "stuff" and some of the "stuff" we work on is truly amazing in many ways, but - and I don't know about you - I sometimes find myself wondering "is this really making the world a better place, in the general sense"? Even the stuff we are doing at Fogbeam Labs, which I am very passionate about, and even though we have very explicit core values[1] that drive us - sometimes leaves me thinking "this isn't going to help a poor starving child in Africa. Should I be doing something else"?
On the other hand, part of the reason we do all Open Source software is exactly because we think producing more OSS does make the world generally better, in at least some small regard. And if some would be entrepreneur in Africa or Afghanistan or something uses our software some day, and it helps them succeed, grow a business and create jobs and improve lives, then we have done something very positive. But it's hard to keep that in mind sometimes, when the chain of connections is so long and so speculative. I sometimes want to be doing something with a more obvious and direct impact on helping people.
[1]: http://fogbeam.blogspot.com/2011/06/blogging-fogbeam-custome...