Do something

[fdmts]

I see a lot of things in the world that could be better than they are. I’m not talking about the part where we will all get sick and weak and die eventually. That’s unavoidable. I’m talking about the crappy systems that we build for ourselves and then live with rather than changing them. A stew of stupidity and wasted time surrounds most people

Comments

[_earthshine_]

I see a lot of things in the world that could be better than they are. ... A stew of stupidity and wasted time surrounds most people for most of their lives.

Holy crap. Are you channeling me without me even knowing it?!?

As individuals, as a culture, and as a metasociety we suffer from Learned Helplessness. We get used to where we are, and we endure. Things are allowed to remain broken because, well, they’ve been broken for a while and hey - not really my job.

I'm sorry, but i have to agree. Going back in time and killing Bill Gates as a child isn't my job. Yet.

Pick something within your power, and do it today.This is the hard part for me ... and perhaps for most people. Most of the tools we use are now so complex, fleeting and proprietary that very little is really within our power, and what is can't really change the things we want changed. So many tools are shrink-wrapped black boxes -- we know there's a "back end" in there somewhere, but the creators don't want us mucking with it. Part of that is because they don't

[capital_l]

If you kill Bill Gates, I will come after you. Of all of the people who made a fortune on computing, he's the only one doing what Chris is proposing we all do: fix some of the world's problems. The Gates Foundation has rerouted a huge amount of our dumb software money to fixing an actual important problem that none of us would ever had paid any attention to: developing-world diseases.

[_earthshine_]

Well, the better part of me says it just goes to show you how ill qualified i am to judge people.

The sardonic part of me says that we probably would've cured those diseases by now if our technological capabilities weren't set back 20 years by the reign of MicroSoft.

The darkest part of me says -- well -- i try not to listen to him too much. :)