As a riff on number 6: do a simple daily thing exceptionally well, that it makes the lives of everyone around better.

I’m thinking of something as mundane as a great bakery, or a well-run grocery store. Having a bakery near you that has awesome bread is a quality of life improvement, and it impacts the hundreds of people that live nearby on a daily or weekly basis. Ditto for a grocery store, pharmacy, or any other daily life requirements.

These seem like small things, but over time they add up to a significant improved quality of life - and you really notice this when they’re not available.

Calling someone else's vocation "a simple thing?" Hmmm.

why not just make software that works? That should be simple, right?

Yes, in comparison to the huge goals mentioned in the article, making good bread is a “simple” thing. In case it wasn’t obvious by my comment, I’m not using simple as a negative description.

> Well-meaning people who remain idle end up sick in the heart and the head, and they often develop exquisite ideologies to excuse their inaction

or they get so used to being time and again that their offer of help is not needed or wanted that they just stop asking. :(

As an outside observer, "they get so used to being time and again that their offer of help is not needed or wanted that they just stop asking" is indistinguishable from "they often develop exquisite ideologies to excuse their inaction."

As an aside, none of the things listed in the article require offering help.

That was a great read. It's not often I forward an article for someone else to read, but this is one of those times.

Wow, front-page to oblivion is one way to change the world.

Our choices can only affect our own negative karma, never anyone else's, because we alone are responsible for the harm we cause.

Our media corps downplayed outright lying in the recent American election, and it will doubtless lead to less efforts to reduce global heating. Placing their fingers on the scale is not going to increase their happiness, even if their ease of lifestyle and bank accounts grow as a result.

*A-hem*

There's also the problem that different people have different and conflicting ideas on how to make the world better.

The problem is that we have not been taught how to weigh different ideas' merits and demerits. The scale is compassion with respect to how acting upon an idea affects human beings and the Earth, Herself.

Money is a tool for trade, but what is being sold and what is being bought?

A hammer can be used to build someone a house or bonk an innocent person on the head.

Seen through the lens of compassion, the good and the bad become obvious in all but the most extreme corner cases.

You're correct. But I would argue there are more areas of agreement than you might think. Areas of disagreement are more emotionally salient, and tend to receive more attention. See this essay https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage... or this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc

The world could use a few less people quarreling about their conflicting ideas, and a few more people seeking the intersection of what everyone thinks is good, and working in it.

Come in 2nd place.

Without the entrant in 2nd place, a lot of the people / companies / products in 1nd place would be much worse.

Without the entrant in 1st place, 2nd place would be the best. If the two are close it's still a great accomplishment.

So be a close 2nd place. You might not get much credit but you'll change the world.

Telling other people how to live is not one of the "underrated ways to change the world."

The universe started with an intention and then a great deal of energy (Big Bang), followed by a continuous sustained maintenance of the laws that keep things working (gravity, energy and matter, ...).

We, too, need to start with an intention. Most people just care about their Maslow hierarchy (and they are essential), but we each have the choice to embrace compassion as a definitive way to (perhaps) improve the world around us.

From a micro perspective, by attempting to sow compassion (with, e.g., a selfless deed or just a smile to someone on the street) we have created a feedback loop into ourselves called happiness. This is "you reap what you sow" and is the most subtle of nature's law, working only at our human level of the universe, which operates because of our having free will to choose as well as our mind and sense of right/wrong to judge our behaviors (conscience).

From the macro perspective, the only true global solution to all our problems is to create a world society of selflessness that cares for all human beings of all sorts. Sure, there will still be sociopaths, but we will be able to be more aware of them and minimize their damage to us all, if only our senses are cleansed by adopting a compassionate perspective. The primary problem today is that we are taught to act selfishly within our cultures, believing that we must work against others to secure our own station in life.

Yes, there are belligerant folks who take pleasure in harming others, but the greater harm is caused by folks who are simply callous to the plight of others. Working in northern europe some many years ago, I learned that the EU was so committed to helping the poor because Hitler had leveraged their hopelessness to begin his murderous regime.

We all require selfless, loving care or none of us would survive the first years of our life. That is the template for human societies and the positive feedback is baked in, though few acknowledge the karmic matrix we live within, nor realize that we are collectively choosing to live contrary to that fundamental truth: that our success -- individually and collectively -- requires compassion.

As well, this is an interactive universe that is wholly opt-in. Ask It for what you want, ask It to help you help others. You can feel the resulting happiness -- it's baked-in -- if you remain open-minded and open-hearted. Do something like make the Bodhisattva Vow and join the struggle to help end misery for others. It will make you feel better to be on the right side of the struggle, no longer revelling in the misery of others, or merely being callous to it, but instead looking for every minute opportunity to lend a hand, in every human interaction. It will begin to affect the people you surround yourself with and the organizations you support.

Yes, it is a mighty struggle, and the bastards of the world seem to be in the ascendancy, but their selfish pleasures are nothing compared to the selfless joy we receive in acting out of compassion for one and all.

"The Way goes in." --Rumi

(And never drink alcohol, it's a poison in any measure, no matter what your culture tells you. And it destroys your B-vitamins, and quiets the voice of your conscience.)

> Working in northern europe some many years ago, I learned that the EU was so committed to helping the poor because Hitler had leveraged their hopelessness to begin his murderous regime.

That is actually fairly common. The origins of the welfare state in the West was reportedly Bismarck working to undermine the socialists. You might be underestimating how much of the world is controlled by sociopaths - selfless love, etc, etc is great for managing small groups of people but it is spectacularly bad at managing large human societies where trade-offs are necessary. The emotional types get weeded out because their track record is, in practice, usually atrocious. After centuries of experimentation it turns out property rights and harnessing sociopaths to achieve good outcomes is a better strategy than trying to fight incentives.

People taking Bodhisattva vows tend to be the sort that identify sitting around begging for food as the best approach. They may be right, but they aren't the ones advancing the material wellbeing of others.

We must first embrace personal compassion as an active ethos of selfless service, otherwise we become hypocrites.

If you think 'harnessing sociopaths' is a good idea, you might just be a sociopath. In the least, you definitely have zero interest in harnessing compassion as a driving ethos for human society, and your being in the majority is indicative of the world's hive mind at present.

I clearly see the direction the world is heading. Our loving worldview is akin to Copernicus's arguments with flat-Earthers. It's a pity most folks refuse to look at Mars spinning in a telescope. But our ability to choose is freely given; whether we use if for good (selfless caring) or ill (selfish callousness) is our own responsibility and no one else's.