Comment by Imustaskforhelp
14 days ago
Thanks! I will cherish these words.
Also thanks for being more understanding that some things might get lost in the communication as it wasn't really a message that I edited that much. I don't think that I even read it once from top to start and it was like a conversation of sorts.
I sometimes definitely feel like some of my words are noise and there is definitely some signal between them but I just want to get my point across if someone reads it whole like a conversation, preferably.
I am definitely working on my communication. I don't know how to manage between writing things in public completely with no major edit of sorts without feeling like I put on a mask or feeling like I hid something, I don't like hiding things. Maybe I will try to keep a git history of each comment I make and share it with ya lol. Would be funny as this post did take me quite some time to write and was really edited!
I really was gonna end on myself writing a dark note but I really really wanted to end it on a good point and that is why I wanted to give hope.
I certainly can grow my communication style and that is something that I look forward to as well as writing on my own blog someday (I have it but they are scattered into 2 accounts of mataroa and github and HN and discord etc.)
Well, If I can be honest, I am excited about the possibility of growth / growing my communication style so feedback noted!
I do know that you know my intentions are all well and If I can be honest, in this world sometimes..
I am proud of it, like I am proud of who I am. I know I am atleast trying some good % of being best with good intentions and I know I can get better and I got a life to forward too which has just started if I am being honest,so better be rolling with some positive intentions!
> growth with love, all the way down to the roots
Wow, This kind of hits to something that I was thinking/discovering about myself and its been 6 am and I was thinking about it..
Like, it just hit this idea of creating an foundation or any non profit or anything just a mechanism something to spread to people ignorant about things like the goodness of open source (as one of your comments noted), like most people are ignorant about these things and that really lends a lot of things power I suppose when its really easy yet there is ignorance and I don't blame them, I might be ignorant about a lot of things too and so I want to share my enthusiam of open source with ya.
I am in high school right now and I am not sure how it would go to have a career of non profit. I think that I had noted but I am pretty frugal person. These things don't interest me of having a bigger car or whatnot, I am honestly fine with even a scooter and I want a small car and a house(which is gonna be tough in this economy lol).
Money and the things it buy simply doesn't interest me yet I need some baseline of it to survive as well and there are other things like humanist causes/open source that I care about and I just want to make enough while I can yap about open source to students/teachers/offices and I want to tell people about signal and how its so better than whatsapp in a country which just operates on whatsapp mostly and so so many other things like pinta/linux/ even appreciation of bsd and just all the goodness of open source that I have obtained through HN
I really try to show my appreciation to things and I have got 1.5thousand -ish thousand projects starred https://github.com/SerJaimeLannister/ (here is my username)
I know I could be a good enough programmer at a run of the mill job or maybe even my own side hustle but as I said, I just don't see a point. because even if I had the money, I would do what I am mentioning. I used to chase money for financial freedom so that I could do the thing I want but it seems that I have found myself a way or atleast thinking of, a way to do it altogether.
I am definitely sure that I can explain myself better and I would someday, its 6 am right now thinking about open source and how much I just want to replace even microsoft things and what not and showcase all the curious things that people have built in open source and somehow direct people to the severely needed funded of some of these projects and how those donations are better than buying some software sometimes.. and although its not an obligation, it is the obligation of society altogether in some sense otherwise open source might not function well and there are issues right now as well..
Another idea I have is really engaging with the youth, we have so many issues that we are facing and we genuinely don't know a lot of things so I also want this to be a mechanism to atleast help in that somewhere too and definitely integrate youth.
I might sound cheesy but I was genuinely thinking of this before seeing your comment and I wanted to say thank you to your comment saying that it might have changed a bit of my trajectory of my life and so thank you..
I don't know and I am definitely not explaining myself. But I just want to give talks and practical guides to maybe masses about open source. I want to help non profits to migrate over to open source solutions and students/schools/hospitals.
I want to raise awareness about translation/feedback testing and other things too. And this idea of growth with love, all the way down to the roots could be a very neat intrepertation of what I want to do in the sense of sharing the love that open source shared to me and sharing it upwards to other people so that they can also donate to open source projects or benefit from them if they can't donate right now.
I have my own flaws too but I am just trying to live my life in the way that can help a lot of people because I want that to be my legacy. I want to help people. I will go to college also for a CS degree but this idea of non profit for open source atleast in my country is gonna be something that I would try, to share the idea of open source.
If I can be comletely honest, I don't know why someone would donate to me still and its definitely confusing. I don't have much demands and just want to live comfortably and my plan is definitely to keep something like 20k-30k $ as even they are enough for me in country as my income and all the other funds go directly somehow to the expenses of the project I suppose or if there are excess funds I would much rather have them be saved just some and even donate some to red cross or some starvation myself from foundation as I genuinely can't think of sharing open source while some people also starve and I must do atleast a little to help them too.
I want people to be zealous about open source even if they are less technical, I wouldn't say I am a full on programmer myself. Open source has helped me soo much, I almost use open source software so much and they are much easier to find even sometimes yet there was this one time friction that I had that I want to reduce for some people. I want more people in open source, Open source is beyond any company and its the philosophy that I just deeply love.
I want this to be my legacy hopefully and although I can guarantee nothing that this is gonna be the path I chose in life as I still want to think this through, I will try to keep you updated on the process.
Definitely this message could also be improved but I hope that my intentions can reach through :)
Honestly I am just a man who just wants to have a good footprint of himself after dying in hopes that people can remember me for good actions and I really want to do good actions even in darkness as that is what values more to me in the sense that I want to do good actions someday without seeking anything in return without any spotlight or anything just because its the right way. I just want to do some good and learn new things and am figuring myself out in the process.
Also that comment which I had written made me realize that there are only two options, to either have a get into politics for real change which I just .. no its not for me, and the much more lucrative option that I do have a somewhat self made expertise in, Y'know with open source, I know that deep down if I have an idea , I can make things work. I can do anything of sorts. And I appreciate it a lot, word can't express joy that open source has brought me. Its remarkable and I want to share the joy somehow in whatever way possible.
I do feel like I am selling myself a little bit but I just want enough then I want to share to other people more stuff so that they can also have enough and so on.. Like I really want to create a non profit or something regarding it someday, maybe in college, maybe after college. and I want to write things good and I will try to improve how I communicate slowly and gradually too :)
Atleast these are my plans right now but that is only if I think that I feel like that this is something that needs there to be work done on advocating for open source solutions I suppose. Maybe I am doing this because deep down I am scared of death and I want to really leave behind a good legacy of doing good and I just want to have other people do the same and so on but honestly, even that reason is good enough than just not doing anything about it. I am not sure. This second guessing of yourself wouldn't really leave us would it?
But at the same time, how can I say this differently as I have no idea how people who start non profits actually do and how they get enough money to work in correct circles and so on and how that would work, I will still get a degree of course and I am thinking of starting a fundme page with better wall of text than this one as its just me talking to myself..
I will try to write better and start a way so that people might donate if they feel like it like a kickstarter project and if I feel like there might be enough something then I would try to give my best I suppose as I am a bit scared too in that side as this is a big step of life and I would consult many people about this and this is in no means fianl but thoughts, thoughts which might go back too at some moment I am not sure and I would discuss it with things like family, like idk a lot to learn though :) so that's always nice.
> I have no idea how people who start non profits actually do and how they get enough money to work in correct circles and so on and how that would work, I will still get a degree of course and I am thinking of starting a fundme page
My wife works in non-profit consulting and has mostly worked with people who have great ideas but need help learning how to get funding and structure their non-profit for success. I asked her if there is a website to share with you that has good info, and she said your local library should have people who can help you with anything related to getting a non-profit rolling (try the next library over if not). I had no idea they have these resources either, but public libraries are amazing places and here's further proof.
Here's a page from a library where we used to live: https://poudrelibraries.org/business/
Scroll down to the section for "Nonprofit Success" and maybe you can find some ideas that will help you. I think you're on the right track about open source education and evangelizing (the tech world used to call its influencers stuff like "open source evangelist" or ".NET evangelist"... not sure if it's still that culty or not).
Best of luck with everything, and if you have any questions or want to chat I just followed you on Github. You can email me at my-github-username at protonmail dot com anytime, if you have non-profit questions I can ask my wife for her thoughts, she's been doing this for years and seems to have it pretty well mastered from what I can tell. She's built a business by herself from scratch and does so well she's the bigger earner of the family. So anyway, she just helps non-profits and makes a living from it, so you can definitely do something with open source! Work on making your writing and communication more effective and I think you will find the people to help you reach your dreams along the way.
Don't lose hope if you can help it, things like the news and politics are discouraging right now but I find that times like this light a fire in me to make sure I'm doing the right things and help keep us from getting in deeper problems. I get complacent more during less chaotic times, so I try to make the best of it and it usually works out. Take care, friend!
edit: I just realized that from the local times you mention, you are likely not in the United States. I'm not sure if libraries in Europe and elsewhere have this information or not. Maybe it can give you an idea of what kind of information to look for in your local resources.
Hey, I genuinely appreciate it and I am going to send you a mail right away.
I didn't know libraries were such a massive way and I don't think we really have libraries here, atleast not in my city that I can think of a non profit library, I might need to search though. and the funny thing is that some people would just have a bunch of sitting rooms and call them library here.
I have definitely thought about this more and the only nuance that comes up is that i haven't even gotten a degree right now and its something that I plan to do. Its just that I want to have an option to have a cs job too if things don't work out, and I personally don't know but as I said I am pretty frugal and I don't know how others feels but I don't know if anybody would even donate or my project would have even value if I am being honest. I am really a pessimist sometimes..
Its just that I would love to do these things but I would also want to just earn barely enough that my parents wouldn't think that I am doing something foolish in my life either and I can be respected enough in the society as well, these feelings really grapple me if I can be honest...
Honestly, I will keep in touch with ya and my first plan of action is trying to write my first draft of a manifesto of sorts on what I want to bring to the table in a similar fashion to how I had written the comment but maybe better...
I have also thought more and I am thinking something like fiscal sponsorship might be the right way atleast right now to not get involved into legal matters right away and maybe try to build a larger presence online because I didn't use twitter thinking it was going to be toxic but I am gonna be more active sharing manifesto etc. in youtube.
I have read more about other projects like fsf & https://sfconservancy.org/ and sfconservancy has caught my eye but the open source intiative seems something nice too and I want to do as much stuff that I can do to promote open source and other ideas as I sort of consider right to repair really tangetial to open source but just for hardware of sorts y'know..
I am currently working on a manifesto but the theme would definitely be growth with love, all the way down to the roots or something similar. I have some knowledge that I want to share in the world that might help people to pick better options which can enlighten them to donate back to the open source projects which so desperately need fundings. My purpose is to educate people about alternatives as I know that most people in my community don't know linux, they don't know signal yet they can use these softwares. My dad used my kde linux just for browser and he couldn't really tell the difference of sorts.
It is so nice to know that your wife does work in non profits and can make a living in it as that is exactly what I want to know more in how to live my life in such a way and I will definitely need her help! I just don't know if there is even a demand for something that I was proposing, I know people might say this online but maybe not so much offline. But I will try my best to work through things while being realist :)
Thanks a lot and I will definitely always keep in touch with ya through the mail. I know that I can still not explain myself clearly through these texts on what sort of emotion I feel as they are really complex and nuanced. Still, I would love to just discuss them with you. Definitely going to send a mail to ya and once again, thanks.
Hey, I can tell you are on the right track here. Don't get too discouraged! That's the main thing I would tell myself back in high school to make sure I don't lose sight of some important stuff like that, trust me not everyone feels something like that kind of resonance you do with open source and educating regular people about it. It will be confusing at times and seem like maybe you were way off from the very beginning, but do your best to just take that as a sign that more work or clarification is needed, and of course you have the energy for this stuff right? I'd bet money on it, based on how you are writing your comments and how I used to write about the same things like after installing Linux, realizing everything we do we could be done the right way instead of the greed-based or other coercive systems in place that absolve a lot of responsibility by pushing much of the responsibility on the user without even attempting to educate them about what they're consenting to. Most of the time it's doing some simple task like uploading a photo to share but if an uninformed grandma tries to do that with her vulnerable Android phone... it's scary the life-changing situations that simple desire can happen to a person if they accidentally click the wrong link these days. Most of us here on Hacker News have long been aware of all the tracking and data collection and likely take steps to avoid it, but I cannot stress enough how we are a tiny tiny group of exceptions doing things right because it's meaningful to us. Regular folks are still doing the normal meaningful things to them in their lives, but the opposite sort of people who you and I are trying to be see this as an opportunity to trap them at every possible opportunity. The work you want to do is VERY important.
EDIT: just had another thought. You mentioned the FSF and the Free Software Conservancy, you should email them if you haven't already and ask them for some ideas about what you can do or how you can help their organizations. They may have something specific ideas for your area too, there are people like us everywhere. Get in touch with those folks for sure!
2 replies →