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Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

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Re: Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

#491

Post by drallison »

Everyone seems to ignore the only critically significant hard problem: how do we mitigate the negative impacts that humans have had on the planet? Right now it looks like we are careening towards a quick extinction of the human race and most other species and we are not doing anything about it. True, the magnitude of the problem is daunting. True, it may be too late as we are past the tipping point. True, it is easier to ignore the risks that it is to confront them.

Maybe the real hard problem is getting people to pay attention to what is happening in their world and to forecast what the impact of their actions will be in the next few decades.

Re: Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

#492

Post by kristopolous »

sitkack wrote: post #483
kristopolous wrote: post #476

I'm trying to do a historiographical quality history of computers, the kind of scholarship you might see with say the French Revolution or the Roman Empire. What more, my history efforts ENDS around 1937; it's the BC part of computing that set the stage. The build up to computing. Episode 0 lays it all out ( http://comphistpod.com/introducing-the-computer-history-podc... ) I'm doing it in podcast form because it's 20…

This is awesome. It like a super deep niche version of James Burke's Connections.

Yeah, I'm trying to target the general (curious) public. Like Carl Sagan Cosmos level (or soul of a new machine, accidental empires, masters of doom, etc). I'm still finding my element. Hopefully it will be generally enjoyable by all and genuinely 80-90% new information per episode to people who aren't scholars or academics.

Check out my play from last week for an example of what I mean, http://comphistpod.com/1-4-the-stolen-stars-a-dramatization-... ... this is one of the diversion episodes (which are thematically aligned to the timeline topic in the odd episodes but slightly off the path)

Re: Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

#493

Post by dusk_dev »

vmurthy wrote: post #296

(It's a germ of an idea but I hope to work on this!) Problem: Public schools in India don't do justice to students. Private schools in India charge a bomb but most of the money ends up in the hands of the "owners" and not enough to teachers (For reference, an average primary school teacher earns lesser than what an Uber driver earns) . The solution : A network of "not-for-profit" schools where the fee structure is re…

You are not thinking problem at the right Scale.

Education is a problem not only in India, But across the world. In Africa, in remote villages, Possibly on Mars,if we setup a Mars colony. It is not only about financial resources, but also simply non-availability of teaching resource.

The second part, Why is education only relevant for children. Why not adults.

This is where Edtech comes in play. Online Learning and other things. However it is only a small component in the entire solution. Other components are personalization, social interaction, assessment, credibility of these online Learning.

Also it is very easy to monetize online attention. How to build financial model with the true goal of Education is also going to be very critical.

Good news, all the components are technically available or can be built. Bad news. It requires culture change.

Re: Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

#494

Post by chiefmcloud »

satyrnein wrote: post #475
chiefmcloud wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Killing” was a poorly chosen term. I think cancel culture is very dangerous in the way that it discourages reasonable discussion by picking on people whose opinions are deemed to be out of line and punishing them with mob justice. Maybe this interaction illustrated my point though. If I was talking to you in a pub and you said the same thing I’d respond in the same way. But if I’d posted about my great idea on twitt…

For me, it's not about the word choice of "killing"; it's the seeming implication that "current radicalization" is caused by lack of "understanding" and then leads to "cancel culture" as the true problem. Your mission statement sounds kind of like "I want to win the argument with my current set of beliefs" rather than "I hope through honest and open minded discussion we can discover our own blind spots and reach comm…

It’s definitely been interesting hearing some feedback. There’s a lot of passion about the topic.

The problem I’m interested in has nothing to do with winning arguments, more that so many people are quiet, not saying anything, because they aren’t interested in current discussion options, and the huge negative downsides.

I will reflect on all the feedback, especially the criticism. I don’t agree that I can divide it by political leaning though, and I certainly hope it’s not true. Definitely agree that the last thing the world needs is another echo chamber.

Re: Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

#496

Post by collyw »

drallison wrote: post #491

Everyone seems to ignore the only critically significant hard problem: how do we mitigate the negative impacts that humans have had on the planet? Right now it looks like we are careening towards a quick extinction of the human race and most other species and we are not doing anything about it. True, the magnitude of the problem is daunting. True, it may be too late as we are past the tipping point. True, it is easie…

Let nature do its thing.The fittest will survive.

Re: Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

#497

Post by phroobster »

yissp wrote: post #319
jawns wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the PROBLEM statement says: > it would be difficult for them to quickly prove their authenticity Yes, you could tell them something that happens tomorrow or the next day. But if time is of the essence and you can't wait until tomorrow, then the Temporal Password helps you _immediately_ demonstrate your authenticity.

What if we generate a random number every, say, 5 minutes and maintain a log of them along with their timestamp. Then the time traveler could just look up a few entries immediately after their destination time and convince people by predicting them in advance. Not immediate but pretty quick.

The hash of the next bitcoin block can already be used for this. Easy tamper resistant random number every 10 minutes.

Re: Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

#498

Post by axegon_ »

master_yoda_1 wrote: post #237

“How to get 6 packs abs”, trying to solve this for at least last 10 years but it’s a really hard problem.

This is surprisingly easy. Unless you have some medical condition, in which case it may be impossible. ~2 years ago I was 110 kilos, 185cm. Borderline obese. Now I'm in the upper 60's. The 6(8 turns out in my case) packs became a thing only as a consequence of the wfh, and subsequently boredom and eventually "let's see if it's possible". Realistically it took me about a month. And while exercise played a role, most of it came from food. Without starving at all either.

Re: Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

#499

Post by netrunner-x86 »

realbarack wrote: post #331
netrunner-x86 wrote: post #223

I am working on my own on a system that creates long lasting human relationships. It is a solution to loneliness. I used to run match.com's research division. I left to pursue this project.

Are you willing to share or privately discuss any more detail about what you're working on? I'm interested in this area as well.

Only if you are an accredited investor :D

Re: Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve?

#500

Post by shezi »

hazeii wrote: post #137
shezi wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grey code with 13 bits and as many light sensors, maybe?

Good to get your attention :) but still got to print the gray code to 1 part in 8192 and fit it all on a bike. Along the lines of your idea, we've looked at using the CCD array out of desktop scanners with a spiral pattern printed on the crank. But bike bottom brackets are a hostile environment, plus (ideally) we'd actually be measuring the angle against local vertical (i.e. the direction in which gravity sucks). Our…

Indeed, manufacturing is hardly a problem in the software world. =)

Maybe get it laser engraved into aluminium and mount it... somewhere? Grey code is essentially a more robust spiral pattern, so that's the same idea.

What if you put a roll sensor on the chain instead and infer crank angle from that? Chain slip is rare enough not to worry about it, right? You'd also have more space and could use off the shelf components.

I don't think measuring against gravity will be precise enough to be one in 7200 parts. So you'd need a second sensor for that in any case (and likely already have, don't you?).

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