Are you in an area with homeless people? In my neighborhood, there's a homeless guy named Mike. His wheelchair has been stolen 4 times in the last two months, and he can't walk without it. I was thinking it'd be cool if there was a municipal registration system for wheelchairs, like there are for bikes, that would work for homeless people. Just an idea. No clue how practical it'd be!
Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
31–40 of 68 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
#32Facebook, which has eaten the world, started in college dorm rooms. I'd love to see a not-for-profit social media option that emphasized connecting people to join up in the real world, to solve real problems, rather than encouraging addictive behavior. You could start with a social network for your college only or your city only and work from there.
Re: Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
#33Are you in an area with homeless people? In my neighborhood, there's a homeless guy named Mike. His wheelchair has been stolen 4 times in the last two months, and he can't walk without it. I was thinking it'd be cool if there was a municipal registration system for wheelchairs, like there are for bikes, that would work for homeless people. Just an idea. No clue how practical it'd be!
I first read “musical” registration system. Left me wondering for a bit.
Re: Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
#34Graduate college without debt. Find ways to disrupt the college culture to accomplish this.
Do you feel ISAs (income share agreements) are a good way to do that? Or do you think there should be other better ways?
Re: Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
#35Find ways to get college-age students involved in government (local, national, etc), especially voting. Young people are a large, yet chronically underrepresented demographic. Just because it's true now doesn't mean it'll always be.
Only vote if you're actually willing to understand what the policies are and what is currently being done. Otherwise you end up having people vote based on superfluous surface level details -- e.g., I'd have a beer with them.
Re: Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
#36Join a non profit working on something you believe in
Re: Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
#37Facebook, which has eaten the world, started in college dorm rooms. I'd love to see a not-for-profit social media option that emphasized connecting people to join up in the real world, to solve real problems, rather than encouraging addictive behavior. You could start with a social network for your college only or your city only and work from there.
The problem is that most people only care about themselves, and are not interested in solving real problems. That's why Facebook/Instagram/any other platform prioritizing self promotion are massive.
Re: Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
#38Find ways to get college-age students involved in government (local, national, etc), especially voting. Young people are a large, yet chronically underrepresented demographic. Just because it's true now doesn't mean it'll always be.
Only vote if you're actually willing to understand what the policies are and what is currently being done. Otherwise you end up having people vote based on superfluous surface level details -- e.g., I'd have a beer with them.
This. I'd say young people should focus on educating themselves about the various issues in an academic sense, particularly if they're in college.
Don't just read blogs, read studies and learn the statistics/background so you actually understand what they mean. Look up primary sources to get perspectives from people who have lived through whatever issue you're grappling with. Learn to write and how to think about the issue before jumping to forming an opinion, and know that the process may take years of work before you have an opinion worth hearing.
You have your whole life to fix problems if you want, take the time to get prepared first so you don't just make things worse.
From my own experience it's cringey to remember how easy it was to talk about "how willing I'd be to pay more in taxes for X" back when I was single and not paying any taxes. And I considered myself educated on the subject! Climate change is real after all, how can people not be willing to sacrifice for the greater good when the coastline is literally shrinking?!! :)
I blame most public school systems. They tend to reward very shallow reasoning for the first 12 or so years of a person's education, particularly in this age of standardized testing. So most students arrive in college thinking all problems are just as shallow.
Re: Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
#39The best advice I can give us to build something for pain you feel. Maybe it's edtech integrations or a part of your workflow or life that needs optimization. If you build something for other people, you'll need user discovery and project management skills up the wazoo if you don't have a team with that expertise. And you're at risk of building Facebook for Cat Owners or something like that. Start with your own pain…
I just want to second this. The most satisfying work I've ever done, and the work I'm most proud of (that I speak of with interviewers etc) is work that scratched a real itch that I had.
Re: Ask HN: What are problems that enterprising college students could solve?
#40Graduate college without debt. Find ways to disrupt the college culture to accomplish this.
Do you feel ISAs (income share agreements) are a good way to do that? Or do you think there should be other better ways?
I'm not in the US, but my feeling is no. Either get a scholarship to a prestigious university, or go to an in-state college and work to minimise the debt, even if it's flipping burgers. Doing that is the difference between graduating with 10k in debt and 200k in debt.