DISCLAIMER: If this had a license it would be the Creative Commons one. I am writing this in English and not in my native Portuguese to try to achieve a larger audience, knowing that Mandarin would be even more effective, but I simply don't know it.
I often find myself thinking, and thinking a lot, about wha I could do to make this world a better place. It surely needs SOMETHING, I am pretty sure that you will agree. The world we live in can be better or worse that then one we lived in for the last thousands of years (I've heard compelling arguments for both sides by now, depending on what topic you are talking about: environment, technology, war/peace, human relatioships, diseases and so on). That said I would really really like to do something that would help this world out as much as possible. Problem is, many billions of people have lived before me. And obviously had similar ways of thinking, thus, finding somthing REALLY new, really innovative and really good without too much work seems to be something out of a Tom Cruise film (obvious reference to Mission Impossible). So what the hell can I do ? I'm a lazy guy, just like every other man so I do not wish to have a lot of work doing something that in the end is not really for my own pleasure, but for the altruistic pleasure of helping someone else. To finish off with my “simple” ambition, I would like that whatever I do would have as much impact as possible in the World. And at this stage, the standard is quite high with Google and TV and Internet as they single handedly achieved something never done before, worldwide impact. I live in a world in which one guys (Bill Gates) started a computer system that is sold worldwide and changed the people of so many lives that, albeit all the piracy, still makes him one of the richest men alive. A world in which two guys with a nerdy word such as Google took over the world in the way that most of people's information nowadays pass through their servers and they are a brand known in basically every language (having become a verb in some). Then I am a down to earth guy. Pragmatic and pretty simple. Which basically throws me off thinking about this ambition after about five minutes of full commitment to it. The inner conversation goes something like this: Dreamer Me: I really wished I could do something that would change the world over to a better place. Practical Me: But what would you do ? Dreamer Me: I could use my computer skills to build some sort of a website… Practical Me: There are already thousands of them… why would yours even take off ? Dreamer Me: Maybe a social network that would gain a life of it's own… Practical Me: Helloooo ? Do you want to try Facebook ? Not a chance. Only nerd kids in the states pull such crap. Dreamer Me: But if they can do it so can I… Practical Me: Face it, doing one more of something that already exists won't take you anywhere…
… And then I give up and wonder to the next daily task like taking a shower or going to sleep or cooking something to eat.
The problem is that this is like a little bug in the back of my head that (much like the travelling bug) I cannot shake.
So what's the way out ? Asking for help I guess.
I tend to have SOME ideas every once in a while, so I thought that if I publish a half-baked idea in my website (to it's entire 5 visitors ;) ), maybe I will get some feedback to get going or some pointers why I should not even try, or maybe, just maybe, some real help to implement it as I seem to write better in daily languages (mostly Portuguese or English) than in programming languages (in which I simply take too much time).
So let's try this out ! I'll put up a wiki of some sort and if there is no real feedback in the next couple of months I'll shut it down. There is nothing lost in trying…