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Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

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11–20 of 158 posts

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#11
I live in Pittsburgh. We have a huge lack of talent at the moment. There are tons of startups with funding that are looking to hire people, but a huge lack of skilled people around. We've got companies paying $1,000 bonuses to anyone who can get a hire. It's crazy.

I'm not sure how to properly attract and keep talent in the city.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#12

We need to eliminate packaging waste. My laundry detergent ran out, so I had to go get some more. Why am I throwing this big plastic jug back into the recycling loop? Why can't I just take it back to the store and fill it up again? I could use the same jug for years and years and years. How many of those jugs do you think are just going into landfills every day? I saw a link recently to a "bring your own container" t…

I agree completely with this! In addition look at beer bottles. Glass bottles are very robust. Most have the potential to last several reuses. Yet recycling them means smashing them, and remaking a bottle. That's never made sense to me.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#15
post #6

Enterprise software sucks. We don't talk about it much here at hn, but think about it. Every man-made object you encounter every day was manufactured somewhere. And moved, more than once. Now add in all the sales, marketing, customer service, operations, accounting, finance, human resources, etc., etc., etc. needed to support that manufacturing and distribution. Next, add financial markets, healthcare, energy, entert…

Another trend I noted after sitting in on a VC pitch: Look where people use Excel as some sort of database/process management system because an existing app isn't there or just sucks. That probably spells out opportunity. The world's most used database isn't Oracle or MySQL, it's Microsoft Excel...

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#16
post #6

Enterprise software sucks. We don't talk about it much here at hn, but think about it. Every man-made object you encounter every day was manufactured somewhere. And moved, more than once. Now add in all the sales, marketing, customer service, operations, accounting, finance, human resources, etc., etc., etc. needed to support that manufacturing and distribution. Next, add financial markets, healthcare, energy, entert…

So true. Also don't forget how many people actually major in information sytems in college. The whole industry is self perpetuated by overly complicated software. The more complicated the more they can milk their clients.. Such a waste.. Although I suppose in the current environment it's better to have these guys employed instead of looking for jobs.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#17
post #6

Enterprise software sucks. We don't talk about it much here at hn, but think about it. Every man-made object you encounter every day was manufactured somewhere. And moved, more than once. Now add in all the sales, marketing, customer service, operations, accounting, finance, human resources, etc., etc., etc. needed to support that manufacturing and distribution. Next, add financial markets, healthcare, energy, entert…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#18
post #6

Enterprise software sucks. We don't talk about it much here at hn, but think about it. Every man-made object you encounter every day was manufactured somewhere. And moved, more than once. Now add in all the sales, marketing, customer service, operations, accounting, finance, human resources, etc., etc., etc. needed to support that manufacturing and distribution. Next, add financial markets, healthcare, energy, entert…

Ed, do you feel this same principle applies to all business software, not just enterprise software (ie- large companies)?

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#19

We need to eliminate packaging waste. My laundry detergent ran out, so I had to go get some more. Why am I throwing this big plastic jug back into the recycling loop? Why can't I just take it back to the store and fill it up again? I could use the same jug for years and years and years. How many of those jugs do you think are just going into landfills every day? I saw a link recently to a "bring your own container" t…

I agree completely with this! In addition look at beer bottles. Glass bottles are very robust. Most have the potential to last several reuses. Yet recycling them means smashing them, and remaking a bottle. That's never made sense to me.

it all comes down to cost benefit analysis most of the time.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#20

We need to eliminate packaging waste. My laundry detergent ran out, so I had to go get some more. Why am I throwing this big plastic jug back into the recycling loop? Why can't I just take it back to the store and fill it up again? I could use the same jug for years and years and years. How many of those jugs do you think are just going into landfills every day? I saw a link recently to a "bring your own container" t…

I agree completely with this! In addition look at beer bottles. Glass bottles are very robust. Most have the potential to last several reuses. Yet recycling them means smashing them, and remaking a bottle. That's never made sense to me.

In other countries they clean and refill beer bottles. When you get a Corona in Mexico you can tell the same bottle has been used many times before. I guess we Americans are just too good to be drinking out of a beer bottle that has been used before?

edit: interesting article related to this stuff http://thetyee.ca/Views/2008/03/11/OldBottles/

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