How to Change the World

Who has the ability to change our world, and how we live? How could I help change the world?

I came across this thought in a conversation with a friend - at first struggling to know how to answer it. I've always heard of stories of people changing the world for the better by creating meaningful impact in specific aspects, like combatting environmental issues or speaking up for inequalities, but I've never had the opportunity to define what people do to change the world.

Changing the world is defined based on two vague requirements. One is that whatever you're building must solve a real world problem, and the other is that it must be an innovation.

Solving a real world problem is a real challenge because in the world of startups, very few start by tackling a issue which needs attention and care to. So often do you find a startup struggling to define their problem, and what they are exactly solving with their solution. That, and the ability to create a proper solution, is the difference between a successful and a failed startup.

Creating a product which can become an innovation is the biggest challenge when it comes to changing the world.

I believe we cannot change the world alone.

Invention: the process of discovering a principle which allows a technical advance in a particular field that results in a novel/new product.

Innovation: making an invention useful and successfully entering it into the marketplace. 

Anyone can create an invention - give a man enough time, and they can invent something entirely new. The matter of whether what they create becomes an innovation, however, is something that a lone man can never accomplish in their lifetime.

It takes a team of strong minded, diverse individuals to create an invention which has the potential to become an innovation. A team of such individuals is so rare that, even in one of the most intellectual, modern industries – the AI industry, there is only perhaps one singular company and product which has successfully gone from being an invention to an innovation – OpenAI, with ChatGPT.

It is a perfect example of a product created in the past few years which has changed our lives.

Others have built off of their product, made variations, but just like how Thomas Edison made the first commercial success with the light bulb (but not the first light bulb!), OpenAI has made the first commercial success with large language models.

The same applies to not just the AI industry, but across all industries tackling all sorts of pressing issues. We need bright, diverse minds to come together and build real solutions to real problems, and for them all to change our lives for the better.

The main point of university is not to study and become an expert in your field, but to meet strong minded and diverse individuals who have vastly different backgrounds compared to you (What's The Point Of University?). The diverse perspective that your university friends offer and the connections which you gain are priceless things you can have.

Everyone has the opportunity to change the world.

Not alone, never alone, but altogether, as a team, as a diverse, combined effort of many strong minds.

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

— Steve Jobs