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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?

#521

Post by nemo1618 »

nightcracker wrote: post #261

Improving the performance of fountain codes and applying them securely to peer 2 peer file sharing. A fountain code is an almost magical algorithm that can split a file of size n up into a (practically) infinite stream of blocks of size b, such that collecting any n/b blocks out of the stream can reconstruct the file. Applied to p2p file sharing it effectively can eliminate rare pieces as well as the need to communic…

Erasure codes are so cool. This was posted to HN a while back, did you see it? https://www.cberner.com/2019/03/30/raptorq-rfc6330-rust-opti...

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

#522

Post by erezsh »

manish_gill wrote: post #146
erezsh wrote: post #95

I'm trying to replace SQL by building a language that compiles to SQL. It has first-class functions, nicer syntax, better type-system, introspection, and other things you would expect from a modern language. But in the end, you still get SQL's performance, and the ability to use it with dozens of database engines.

If this can allow me to write complex SQL (lots of JOINs, Multiple CTEs building on top of each other, Analytic functions etc), then I'm definitely interested. I've created an SQL generation engine in the past and can definitely appreciate how hard the problem is.

It already can. I'm a few weeks away from releasing a private alpha, so if you're interested I'll be happy to let you try it in exchange for feedback.

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

#524

Post by silveroriole »

chiefmcloud wrote: post #153

I’m working on a new way to talk online, with the goal of killing cancel culture, increasing understanding, and basically calming down current radicalization. Picture Reddit, but with the ability to anonymously share ideas with other people in your social circles. My theory is that most reasonable people stay off social media, so places like Twitter end up filled with unreasonable narcissists. At the same time, discu…

This never works because the people attracted to anonymous discussion with no ‘cancel culture’ (no banning/moderation?) ARE those who have been radicalized and would get banned for it anywhere else.

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

#525

Post by atupis »

chiefmcloud wrote: post #153

I’m working on a new way to talk online, with the goal of killing cancel culture, increasing understanding, and basically calming down current radicalization. Picture Reddit, but with the ability to anonymously share ideas with other people in your social circles. My theory is that most reasonable people stay off social media, so places like Twitter end up filled with unreasonable narcissists. At the same time, discu…

My current theory is that you would make Reddit much better if you would make spillitting and merging subreddits much more fluid eg users could vote that branch this subreddit and they would automatically moved to "new branch".

Also I would change moderetion to slashdot style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot#Peer_moderation so moderation would be basically comminity based.

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

#526

Post by silveroriole »

davidajackson wrote: post #518
chiefmcloud wrote: post #153

I’m working on a new way to talk online, with the goal of killing cancel culture, increasing understanding, and basically calming down current radicalization. Picture Reddit, but with the ability to anonymously share ideas with other people in your social circles. My theory is that most reasonable people stay off social media, so places like Twitter end up filled with unreasonable narcissists. At the same time, discu…

I don't know if there's a solution but in my mind the problem is 'likes' or 'retweets'. Most networks create an incentive to angle only for those at all costs (how else does one become an "influencer"?)--whether it be saying something ridiculous or not. This is one thing that snapchat never did that I appreciate. It's really unhealthy for people because it's essentially like a social credit score (spread across many…

We already have those social networks. They’re called forums. (I know some introduced likes but they don’t mean much, since your post is still just as likely to be seen as everyone else’s.)

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

#527

Post by Nashooo »

crabl wrote: post #513

Existing mediums for note-taking (Evernote, Notion, Roam Research) are not sufficient for doing knowledge work over long periods of time. The functions these incumbents serve are primarily as “stores of knowledge” that we save because it’s interesting in the moment but never read through or “scratchpads” that we use once and never get rid of, which end up cluttering our information space like a junk drawer full of sh…

I think Apple Notes, OneNote and especially XMind solves this pretty well? For me at least.

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

#529

Post by wiseleo »

knowingathing wrote: post #464
wiseleo wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take your child back to first grade and systematically re-test his knowledge. Identify where he got lost, catch up, and then today's assignments will not be as difficult. The child is likely stuck on something that wasn't thoroughly understood in the past. I did this for a child recently. He was in the special needs program. I looked at his homework and re-tested his math understanding. It turns out he had no solid u…

Hey, this doesn't sound too different from the adaptive diagnostic Maths Pathway ( https://mathspathway.com/ ) has. It starts at Level 1 and retests all mathematical knowledge of the student until it reaches their zone of proximal development (ZPD). It's all within a classroom environment, but it means all the students are learning the maths that suit them, not a one-size-fits all which is the issue you are referring…

Sounds interesting. Everything on that site is blocked by request a demo. Why do you not have an ungated overview video?

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

#530

Post by ziftface »

gwbrooks wrote: post #436

PROBLEM(S): I (well, the nonprofit I lead) am trying to solve for the general problem of municipal public policy but, as you might expect, it's a series of discrete, linked problems. Some of these problems have thousands of people focused on a solution; in other areas, it's virtually greenfield. SOLUTION: The space doesn't lack for good research and policy recommendations, but it has historically lacked (on the right…

I'd love to see an example. What kind of public policy? What problems?
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