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Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

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31–40 of 41 posts

Re: Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

#31
post #19

40, single, can't get past the first date. "Don't feel the spark/connection" etc. Things aren't about to get easier. Below-avg attractiveness but not horrible, tall, in-shape. Nerdy hobbies. (Think engineering etc, vice DnD). Would pay $$$ to solve this.

Things will get easier women after 40 are less selective.

He prolly wants someone younger, hence the difficulty. :)

Re: Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

#32
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do chatbots focused on interesting conversations. Not specifically to solve this; it's just that I find most conversations dull and I'm the kind of person who would marathon Sorkin/Tarantino just to listen to people talk. Would you be interested in an open ended first date sim? It could be voice so you get used to voice; one issue I have is I can type well but the brain circuits don't trigger the same way when talk…

This is definitely cyberpunk dystopian response. Lonely? Why not talk to machines? Grim.

Talking is a skill. Skills are improved with usage and practice. Not everyone wants to practice on another human. Honestly, it's a bit of a jerk move to date people to practice dating someone better.

When people say they're unattractive, often it's not because they're ugly. Ugly is a disadvantage, but not the biggest one.

For both men and women, it's usually because they lack confidence. Or they're boring. Or sleazy. If you're getting into a first date and not a second, you're likely attractive enough on the 'resume', just messing up on the actual date. You might be saying something wrong. You might be delivering a good joke the wrong way. Sometimes it's just saying things in the wrong order.

The longer they go without some form of success, the less confident they become.

I thought the diagnosis was fairly clear; sorry for jumping straight to pitching a cure. This is a good example of saying things in the wrong order.

Re: Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

#33
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is definitely cyberpunk dystopian response. Lonely? Why not talk to machines? Grim.

Talking is a skill. Skills are improved with usage and practice. Not everyone wants to practice on another human. Honestly, it's a bit of a jerk move to date people to practice dating someone better. When people say they're unattractive, often it's not because they're ugly. Ugly is a disadvantage, but not the biggest one. For both men and women, it's usually because they lack confidence. Or they're boring. Or sleazy.…

> I thought the diagnosis was fairly clear; sorry for jumping straight to pitching a cure. This is a good example of saying things in the wrong order.

That you think LLMs are the cure to loneliness misses what a "cure" even looks like here. OP clearly writes well enough to get first dates - the issue isn't conversational content but likely body language, energy, presence, the thousand micro-signals that happen below conscious awareness. You can't chatbot your way into better posture or more relaxed eye contact.

This is classic LLM wrapper syndrome. Someone has a hammer (conversational AI) so every problem looks like a nail (conversation optimization). But the actual failure mode here probably happens in the first thirty seconds of meeting, before anyone's even said anything substantive.

Op would probably benefit more from something social like improv classes (physical presence, spontaneity), dance lessons (body awareness, comfort with proximity), or honestly just hanging out in social spaces doing things they actually enjoy rather than performing "date behaviors." The energy of someone genuinely engaged in something they love is magnetic in ways that no amount of conversation optimization can replicate.

I just don't believe that "practice talking to a computer" will ever be a sufficient platform to teach people how to be genuinely charming, let alone charmingly genuine.

Re: Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

#34

40, single, can't get past the first date. "Don't feel the spark/connection" etc. Things aren't about to get easier. Below-avg attractiveness but not horrible, tall, in-shape. Nerdy hobbies. (Think engineering etc, vice DnD). Would pay $$$ to solve this.

Maybe ask them after without coming across as desperate? Something like: "Thanks for being honest and I wish you the best with your search. If you have a moment, would you be able to give me a few suggestions on how I could improve? Is it something obvious I can work on but just not aware of? Like my breath stinks? Or clothes don't fit properly? Or I come off as rude or closed off? Of course, no pressure to answer. J…

I would lead with making it very clear that you don't ask this to make it work with this person, but to make it work with the next.

Re: Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

#35

40, single, can't get past the first date. "Don't feel the spark/connection" etc. Things aren't about to get easier. Below-avg attractiveness but not horrible, tall, in-shape. Nerdy hobbies. (Think engineering etc, vice DnD). Would pay $$$ to solve this.

I was thinking like this, but after being married before I'm not even sure I want to date. I have friends, hobbies, kids in school to manage. Not really feeling the dating scene right now. I do enjoy talking to and meeting new people but often do this as part of hobbies or groups I've joined rather than in the context of "dating".

Are you looking because you're lonely, bored or just because that's what you think is expected?

Re: Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

#36

40, single, can't get past the first date. "Don't feel the spark/connection" etc. Things aren't about to get easier. Below-avg attractiveness but not horrible, tall, in-shape. Nerdy hobbies. (Think engineering etc, vice DnD). Would pay $$$ to solve this.

Have you tried visiting different countries and try to date there? Depending on the country it can make a huge difference

Re: Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

#37
I had pay $500+ for a solution to my biggest bottleneck: aligning technical debt reduction with stakeholder urgency. We’ve tried sprints, documentation blitzes, and dedicated refactor cycles—but the core tension remains: ‘Fix now vs. build new.’

Your framework’s intriguing. If it can map this to clear business outcomes (e.g., ‘X% faster delivery in 3 months’), I’d test it. What’s your angle—systems thinking, behavioral psychology, or something else?

P.S. For context: I lead eng at a Series B SaaS co. My ‘stuck’ example: Tech debt costs us ~20% velocity, but ROI arguments fail with revenue-focused execs.

Re: Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

#39

I had pay $500+ for a solution to my biggest bottleneck: aligning technical debt reduction with stakeholder urgency. We’ve tried sprints, documentation blitzes, and dedicated refactor cycles—but the core tension remains: ‘Fix now vs. build new.’ Your framework’s intriguing. If it can map this to clear business outcomes (e.g., ‘X% faster delivery in 3 months’), I’d test it. What’s your angle—systems thinking, behavior…

This happens in many orgs. The truth of this situation is that it's engineering team's responsibility to build maintainable system, managers only care about results, risk management and team velocity.

The problem you're trying to solve is not that features get more prioritisation, but your estimations doesn't reflect the reality and your code-review process is broken as engineers are not spotting growing technical debt and refactoring opportunities and think that someone should give them a permission or create a ticket to work on that.

This is engineering culture 101 (look up the boyscout rule in software engineering).

Re: Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?

#40

I had pay $500+ for a solution to my biggest bottleneck: aligning technical debt reduction with stakeholder urgency. We’ve tried sprints, documentation blitzes, and dedicated refactor cycles—but the core tension remains: ‘Fix now vs. build new.’ Your framework’s intriguing. If it can map this to clear business outcomes (e.g., ‘X% faster delivery in 3 months’), I’d test it. What’s your angle—systems thinking, behavior…

Are they strictly focused on revenue and growth metrics? There might be a lot of relationship building needed beyond just the necessary ROI arguments.
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