The Reductive Seduction of Other People’s Problems — The Development Set
“If you’re young, privileged, and interested in creating a life of meaning, of course you’d be attracted to solving prob…
Hasnain says:
This is an awesome read on social/economic development and the attraction everyone has for "social entrepreneurship" that is often (but not always) misguided or playing on people's "feel-good" thoughts without actually solving a problem.
The article's intro (quoted below) is mind opening and so relatable.
"Let’s pretend, for a moment, that you are a 22-year-old college student in Kampala, Uganda. You’re sitting in class and discreetly scrolling through Facebook on your phone. You see that there has been another mass shooting in America, this time in a place called San Bernardino. You’ve never heard of it. You’ve never been to America. But you’ve certainly heard a lot about gun violence in the U.S. It seems like a new mass shooting happens every week.
You wonder if you could go there and get stricter gun legislation passed. You’d be a hero to the American people, a problem-solver, a lifesaver. How hard could it be? Maybe there’s a fellowship for high-minded people like you to go to America after college and train as social entrepreneurs. You could start the nonprofit organization that ends mass shootings, maybe even win a humanitarian award by the time you are 30."