Ask HN: Ideas for small ways to make the world a better place

9 pointsposted 9 hours ago
by jlmcgraw

Item id: 46917633

17 Comments

apothegm

33 minutes ago

Give at least one person per day — whom you otherwise wouldn’t — a few words of genuine and specific appreciation. Friend, family, coworker, stranger. Doesn’t matter.

beardyw

8 hours ago

People want to feel loved, safe, respected and happy. To make the world a better place start with yourself and make sure you make those things a priority with whoever you interact with.

galleywest200

6 hours ago

Pick up trash you see on the ground. Does not need to be a huge “adopt a highway” style thing. Just pick up that bag on the ground near the bin and put it in the bin.

Not only does this make the place cleaner, people watching this may get the warm fuzzies that someone else actually cares.

Another thing is to ask employees at stores how their day is. You don’t need to have a full conversation, sometimes people just have nobody ask them this question and it helps.

valgor

7 hours ago

Go vegan. You will no longer be apart of horrific animal abuse, the leading cause of biodiversity loss and deforestation, and if done correctly, will likely improve your health. You won't be able to get so much good from doing one thing.

GenericDev

7 hours ago

Maybe a nice halfway point would to be vegetarian...

shoo

5 hours ago

incremental steps like reducing or eliminating beef consumption by substituting less water intensive meat (e.g. chicken / turkey) are also helpful

yef

7 hours ago

Be an organ donor. Donate blood on a regular basis. Skeptoid had a podcast today that talks about blood donation with some interesting tidbits about shelf life of platelets and whole blood. (5 days vs 42 days)

(Disclaimer: the site I hacked for myself to help me consume podcasts) https://spokengoods.com/podcasts/385078-skeptoid/mic-d-up-br...

onlypassingthru

6 hours ago

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best is now.*

*But also make sure you water, stake and prune it for the first 3-5 years.

tizzzzz

9 hours ago

This is a great idea!Like I move around a lot in various online communities, I always Encountering all kinds of comments.Please support the comments you think are right, I think this can increase the confidence of the publisher and also makePlease support the comments you think are right, I think this can increase the confidence of the publisher and also make yourself feel happy.When more and more excellent speeches are encouraged, the world will become a little bit better.

Blackstrat

7 hours ago

Work and take care of your family.

idontwantthis

6 hours ago

Just talk to strangers and be kind. Compliment people. Let service workers know when they’ve done a good job. Walk around your neighborhood and meet your neighbors.

aristofun

6 hours ago

This has been quality answered many times by smartest people but nobody cares.

Take Kant for example and go improve yourself, as the only part of the world you can really change.

toomuchtodo

9 hours ago

https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ at scale. Kindness, listening, time, and financial charity to those around you at the microcosm level.

bigyabai

9 hours ago

Better known as "charity" among people that don't need their egos stroked.