Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#451

Post by WA » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 9:02 AM UTC

WA wrote: post #366

Fully automated German tax reports for stocks, ETFs, dividends. Right now, ETFs and their various taxes can be a pain in the ass.

Because I was asked via email, here's some explanation.

I'm a beginner in the whole ETF investment area and my English financial vocabulary is quite limited. Here's what I know:

There are several factors that make taxes on ETFs either easy (nothing to do, all is done automatically) or tough (you need to figure out everything by yourself). These are:

- Location of the company issuing the ETF. Germany: Easy. Luxembourg or France: Not necessarily easy.

- Do the ETFs fully replicate or are they swap-based?

- Do they pay dividends or are dividends reinvested?

From my understanding, if ETFs are reinvesting dividends, they must pay withholding tax. But the issuing company says they don't own the assets and every individual investor must declare how much withholding tax was paid. This can become quite cumbersome, because for every ETF you own, you must find documents which show exactly how they're structured and how much tax was paid/not paid. This situation can also become easy if the ETF swaps or hard if it replicates.

From discussions in German investment forums, I take that individuals usually separate between tax-friendly and tax-complicated ETFs. If you don't want the hassle, this would exclude some ETFs (e. g. there are no German-issued MSCI ACWI ETFs and you'd need to buy a tax-complicated ETF from a company in France or Luxembourg).

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#452

Post by _nalply » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 9:43 AM UTC

zevv wrote: post #129

A slim, networked, pocked sized computer with a physical keyboard, running android or Linux. These used to exist - albeit disguised as phones - but the marketing department decided we don't need no friggin keyboards, and remove everything but the touchscreen and call it a tablet. The result is a consume-only device, on which it is all but impossible to input large amounts of text. Nokia N900, Motorola Droid 3/4, HTC…

To be more specific, I would like a BlackBerry Passport running Android or Linux. Additionally the keyboard should carry little LEDs so that switching keyboard layouts is easy.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#453

Post by jkroso » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 9:44 AM UTC

lj3 wrote: post #437

carussell wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zero-install is half of the reason why browsers are popular. The other half is that the Web puts the users in far more control over the content in their viewport than anything else that has been widely deployed except for probably Microsoft Excel. If your first thought is that desire for control is a niche thing, an instance of power users projecting their biases onto the rest of the world and not a concern for some…

That doesn't explain the popularity of mobile apps among the "everyman". They're not very customizable, but they're considerably more popular than either the regular or mobile web. > If your first thought is that desire for control is a niche thing, an instance of power users projecting their biases onto the rest of the world and not a concern for some mythical "everyman", you are wrong. Evidence? Sales numbers tend…

I think even electron apps would be better than web apps with an IPFS OS to make it load quickly

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#454

Post by _nalply » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 9:50 AM UTC

webwanderings wrote: post #44

Instead of building, strengthen the independent pipe which is responsible for flowing the data/information across the Internet. I am talking about RSS. I wish more technical and policy people would consider supporting, or reviving, the RSS. RSS is practically not owned by anyone (like how email flows from one platform to another without ownership restrictions). The modern API world has proliferated silos and boundari…

Yes. I am constantly telling people to switch to email after having contacted them on Facebook, WhatsApp and Quora. It would be nice if there is some enforced standard to exchange personally written information. Why not return to email? Perhaps upgrade email, for example by using utf-8? I have no idea, however, how to create a compatible upgrade path. This would be my wish: Someone should create a feasible upgrade path to email and create a standard which all mayor player have to follow.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#455

Post by neilsharma » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 9:51 AM UTC

curun1r wrote: post #297

neilsharma wrote: post #235

1) More high quality news analysis content. Think NASA Earth Observatory, The Information, or the best articles you've ever read, and put them behind a paywall. Consistently making top notch content is hard, but I suspect it can be easier if writers are paid good wages to explore their interests and the news industry decouples itself from advertising. I'd pay for it, and I suspect that over time, enough people would.…

I don't want to sound preachy, but having felt nearly identically to what you've described in #4, I can tell you that I've found my answer in meditation. It's allowed me to slow down life and realize what's really important. It's hard to get caught up in those ego-driven things now that my sense of self and ego has so inexorably changed. It has also helped with my posture too.

glad meditation has helped ya -- i think everyone gets different things about it. It helps me slow down and be more present instead of worrying about all those career things. It makes me feel a little more connected to the world. It helps me reflect on who I want to be.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#456

Post by meowface » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 9:57 AM UTC

personjerry wrote: post #268

vinchuco wrote: post #94

Just noting that many answers here are of the type "an aggregator for x" to unify something (news, messaging, sports data, storage across devices, ...). Perhaps interesting would be to find these themes that make good idea-builders.

Many small, money-making apps are just spreadsheets with better UI

Spreadsheets are just small-medium SQL databases with better UI.

The hard part is actually populating the spreadsheet/database and adding value to it. Almost anyone can envision and mock up the usability aspect.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#457

Post by neilsharma » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 10:14 AM UTC

dragon_king wrote: post #282

neilsharma wrote: post #235

1) More high quality news analysis content. Think NASA Earth Observatory, The Information, or the best articles you've ever read, and put them behind a paywall. Consistently making top notch content is hard, but I suspect it can be easier if writers are paid good wages to explore their interests and the news industry decouples itself from advertising. I'd pay for it, and I suspect that over time, enough people would.…

I am working on #2. There has to be some sort of incentive for the mentors for this to be sustainable. As a mentee what can you provide to the mentor? What do you think will make this relationship be sustainable?

I feel like the best mentor/mentee relationships aren't based on incentives, but a friendship/concern for one another. A small handful of senior ex-colleagues who I've worked with genuinely look out for me and my career interests. It takes time from their day and often unrewarded intros to their network. Aside from goodwill (and maybe a referral bonus if it leads to a job), there isn't much incentive for them.

If we treat it as transactional, then certain relationships will never foster. For example, if some high school kid got admission to a university I went to a few years ago and wanted my perspective on how to make the most of his education, I have no discernible incentive whatsoever to answer (assuming he can't pay me). Giving a quick response is either useless or hurtful without taking the time to understand his needs and wants. But that kid could probably benefit tremendously if someone took him under their wing.

I think some people want to feel they have accumulated a lot of skills and experience and simply want an outlet to give back in a manner that feels effective to them.

Maybe universities can tell their alumni network that if people mentor new students, they get access to premium recruitment opportunities on campus? Or cities can give tax rebates to people who take an underprivileged youth under their wing. Employers can promote more externship/shadowing opportunites and give invites to the employees. Or maybe senior positions at companies should have "train junior employees" as one of their top job objectives, and alter promotion criteria to bias towards that.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#458

Post by neilsharma » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 10:27 AM UTC

Obi_Juan_Kenobi wrote: post #423

neilsharma wrote: post #235

1) More high quality news analysis content. Think NASA Earth Observatory, The Information, or the best articles you've ever read, and put them behind a paywall. Consistently making top notch content is hard, but I suspect it can be easier if writers are paid good wages to explore their interests and the news industry decouples itself from advertising. I'd pay for it, and I suspect that over time, enough people would.…

> doing exercises to fix weak muscles What kind of exercises? If you're not doing e.g. deadlifts, rows, facepulls, squats, etc., you're likely wasting your time. There's no better way to increase overall stability and muscle tonus than hypertrophy. And there's no better way to drive hypertrophy than progressive overload with weighted movements.

I was physically most at risk after I had put on 50lbs of muscle and was routinely breaking lifting goals:

Too heavy benchpress / lifting under fatigue to promote growth --> high risk of accidents.

Too little stretching and lots of heavy squats /deadlifts made my back very tight and prone to injury.

A workout biased towards a high back:chest ratio didn't offset all the time I spent at a computer, so my shoulders would round forward but now my muscles/tendons are even bulkier and have more friction with my joints

I realized if I'm not strict with correct form, range of motion, rest between sets, proper progressions, stretching, etc, hypertropic workouts are more dangerous than beneficial. And if I am strict with everything, I can recover and get stronger at a much healthier pace even if I never lift more than half the weight I used to (just slow the tempo down). I might not get as muscular as before, but I got no benefits from being bulky.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#459

Post by bbcbasic » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 10:52 AM UTC

bbcbasic wrote: post #87

Razengan wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. It's baffling; we've "solved" email – anyone can have an account with any provider and is able to mail anyone else – why haven't been able to do the same with instant messaging already?

Email protocol was by fiat. We don't have that luxury anymore We have the free market. Hooray!

Downvotes?

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#460

Post by kkarakk » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 11:22 AM UTC

gravypod wrote: post #349

mapleoin wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the pyra/pandora? https://pyra-handheld.com/

I just wish that thing wasn't so much money. It's definitely worth it, lots of engineering behind it. It's still just a large chunk of change.

i don't care about the money, i have and will in the future spend lots of money on useless things what i'm always worried about with these projects is the potential lack of community engagement. tons of these type of things come out and die within six months because the major maker/hacker communities just do not give a damn about them, so they don't get iterated on or mixed with other things. makers/hackers are fundamentally cheap ie they like working with cheap components even if the overall scope creep on a project ends up eating a significant chunk of their salaries.

raspberry foundation did something really clever by going for the cheap/educational route. nearly everyone i know has heard/hacked on a raspberry pi

exciting to hear about and if the project makes it in terms of excitement within the maker/hacker communities, will definitely buy one