Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 1001 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#271

Post by bambax »

aabajian wrote: post #151

The leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease. >90% of these cases can be attributed to an overweight population. It's not an easy problem to solve, but there has to be a way to fix it. Lots of calorie counting apps, activity trackers, motivational reminder apps, etc. Obesity is very complicated, but there are three basic facts: 1. Calories in, calories out is the golden rule. 2. The vast majority of calories…

> 2. The vast majority of calories come from carbohydrates.

Yes. Sugar is the enemy. It's ironic that so many substances are regulated or flat-out prohibited and not sugar or sodas. HFCS should be outlawed, and sodas regulated like alcohol (no sales to minors, bulk sales limited, etc.)

Also, the obsession with fats and the whole industry of low-fat food needs to be dealt with, as, obviously, when the proportion of fat decreases, the proportions of the other components rise.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#272

Post by nailer »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #208
nailer wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This pill won't because depression and inability to maintain an erection are side effects. But one in future may.

> implying the pill for women doesn't have equally bad side-effects. But they're more likely to take them, because they're the ones that end up pregnant.

> implying the pill for women doesn't have equally bad side-effects.

- I actually wasn't talking about the women's pill at all - you can tell this by reading the post you're replying to.

- But yes, inability to have sex is not a common side effect of the female pill. Which I suspect you also already know.

Have you considered reading the HN guidelines?

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#273

Post by hmate9 »

aabajian wrote: post #151

The leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease. >90% of these cases can be attributed to an overweight population. It's not an easy problem to solve, but there has to be a way to fix it. Lots of calorie counting apps, activity trackers, motivational reminder apps, etc. Obesity is very complicated, but there are three basic facts: 1. Calories in, calories out is the golden rule. 2. The vast majority of calories…

To everyone saying "calories in vs calories out" is not the golden rule: it simply is. Your body obeys the laws of physics. If you consume less energy than you use then your body will be forced to use up its stored energy.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#274

Post by mattsouth »

sytelus wrote: post #207

Hackers rarely think of politics as playing field for startups, so in my mind this one of the biggest untapped opportunity right now. People from both sides are going nuts over Trump politics. That means tons of eyeballs and attention that would be available for the right startups for next 4 years. Things like BuzzFeed and DailyXYZ are going to make a massive killing in terms of ad revenue. At this stage still the re…

This is the sort of thing mysociety.org does pretty well in the uk

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#275

Post by bbayer »

fgpwd wrote: post #263

Anything related to lucid dreams? Think of the ability to utilize the 8 hours of sleep for something productive or recreational. It will take atleast a decade before VR catches up with the level of detail you get in lucid dreams. Something that makes them more accessible for people, so that everyone could get this "me time" every night would be amazing. If you want to try, just keep on asking yourself if you are awak…

Lucid dreaming is not part of normal sleep cycle. It reduces deep sleep time and most people report that after long time with lucid dreams they feel exhausted and they feel like they haven't slept at all. So, in the longterm it is harmful.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#276

Post by RantyDave »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #34
nradov wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cargo ships don't have enough free surface area to mount the number of solar panels that would be needed for propulsion. Sails are already being used on a few ships but they only save a small percentage of fuel.

I wouldn't write it off. There could be could add battery storage to be used during the journey. They could include wind turbines to add further power generation. Also ships can go slower. In my limited knowledge of boats every extra knot takes significantly extra fuel. If we were bringing multiple power sources 'slow' cargo may be viable. And the has to be other ways to increase this function. And there is always hy…

Unfortunately the energy density of batteries is really bad (in the bigger picture) and, besides, we're supposed to be using weight for cargo. Tankers also burn very nasty fuels that can't be used for anything else - so in practice they're very efficient.

There have been cracks at putting "sails" of one form or another on ships but they've always been heavy, relatively ineffective and basically just not worth the hassle.

The speed of a ship is actually quite easy to work out. You find the time/value curve for the cargo and the cost/time for the ship and see where they cross - essentially. The long and short of it is that the lighter and more valuable your cargo is, the faster the ship goes. This is why container ships are much faster than oil tankers.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#277

Post by mypalmike »

Animats wrote: post #143

Figure out some way to reliably get an IP connection between two any devices without help from a central server or service. Kill Skype, etc.

It is impossible to set up a peer-to-peer connection between two devices on symmetric NAT, often used by mobile carriers (or at least it was last time I looked into doing so a few years ago). A STUN server can be used to initiate between other forms of NAT, and TURN can act as a passive full-time intermediary, but there's no way to avoid some sort of central server in many cases.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#278

Post by jonwinstanley »

hmate9 wrote: post #273
aabajian wrote: post #151

The leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease. >90% of these cases can be attributed to an overweight population. It's not an easy problem to solve, but there has to be a way to fix it. Lots of calorie counting apps, activity trackers, motivational reminder apps, etc. Obesity is very complicated, but there are three basic facts: 1. Calories in, calories out is the golden rule. 2. The vast majority of calories…

To everyone saying "calories in vs calories out" is not the golden rule: it simply is. Your body obeys the laws of physics. If you consume less energy than you use then your body will be forced to use up its stored energy.

Totally disagree with that being the golden rule, firstly not all calories are the same. Plus calories from protein, carbs and fat are all treated differently by your body and that is further affected by your activity levels and stress.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#279

Post by hashmal »

Draiken wrote: post #249
aabajian wrote: post #151

The leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease. >90% of these cases can be attributed to an overweight population. It's not an easy problem to solve, but there has to be a way to fix it. Lots of calorie counting apps, activity trackers, motivational reminder apps, etc. Obesity is very complicated, but there are three basic facts: 1. Calories in, calories out is the golden rule. 2. The vast majority of calories…

This "calories in, calories out" idea is dangerously wrong. I have problems with my weight and my wife is anorexic. We live day-to-day with the fight against obesity (for years) and that's hardly a rule, much less golden. The only constant I see on this whole food/nutrition industry is how little information is accurate. Millions of diets and nutrition "experts" saying whatever they hear works without testing anythin…

the "calories in, calories out" thing is not wrong at all. not "believing" in it is just like disregarding global warming or evolution.

of course it's not a simple addition. age, genetics and a lot of other factors come in.

what is dangerously wrong is thinking that changing your calorie intake is easy. it may be very difficult to gain or lose weight depending on which side you are, because changing the way you eat durably is freaking difficult.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#280

Post by noir_lord »

pkroll wrote: post #240
alpb wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watch "Food Inc" where this has been discussed in detail. http://dailyburn.com/life/health/diet-truth-calories-countin...

The beginning of the article linked says "if you usually consume 2,500 calories a day and then cut back to 1,600 calories, you’re going to lose weight from that 900-calorie daily deficit — even if all you ate was potato chips. But you won’t be healthy and you most likely won’t be able to keep the pounds off."

I went from 245lbs to 185lbs by eating 1500 a day every day for 5 months, that was over a year ago and I still weigh 185lbs, all I did was when I hit my target weight was make sure that over a week my diet averages out to 2500 a day, some days I go over by a few hundred, the next day I just under eat by a few hundred so that it balances out.
Post reply on HN