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Comment by jondwillis | Hacker News Reader

I should specify that I am an iOS engineer.

I like iOS apps that aren't full of tracking nonsense (and the nutrition labels might help.)

But dark patterns abound, and mobile gaming is largely a hell of monetization and slot-machine mechanics.

It’s so frustrating that my iPhone 12 Pro Max could be a perfect platform for playing serious games, but instead I have to haul around a Nintendo Switch.

I know my iPhone can render excellent graphics, I played to level 60 on Diablo Immortal then got out before they could extract more than $10 from me!

Those skillsets can be rapidly translated to create things for non-walled-garden platforms.

Unfortunately the income stream cannot be rapidly translated though. I'd love to be proven wrong.

There are a lot of legitimate b2c healthtech companies looking for app developers.

And there are thousands if not millions of Americans without healthcare. Not a judgement against you or anyone looking for healthtech jobs, more power to you/them, but that's where I personally draw the line as someone looking for a (hopefully ethical) software/Web development job.

I think there's some genuine confusion in this comment. Do you think that you are helping Americans get healthcare by... not working for healthcare companies?

Most of these startups are aimed at improving access via telemedicine, accessibility apps, price comparison apps, etc. I'm not sure what you're imagining.

Nope, I'm helping Americans get universal healthcare in other ways.

But I'm acknowledging that for me personally, working for, selling my talent to and/or profiting from the "healthcare" industry as it exists today without a universal option to provide healthcare to every American, full stop, is a breach of my own ethics.

I think it's more likely you are doing nothing meaningful at all to help Americans get healthcare, and feel better about it by making cheap posture posts online.

I did some work for a big London-based healthtech company and was horrified to see that their mobile apps were loaded with trackers, Facebook SDK included. Healthtech doesn't imply no tracking.

If you can develop IOS apps, You can also develop other things.

Become backend developer. Pretty much everybody needs them.

Let the lifelong learning continue? ;)

Yep, getting into some hobbies lately to spark some passion, since I already have one eye out the door.

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