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Ask HN: What's an important problem that more people should work on?

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Re: Ask HN: What's an important problem that more people should work on?

#21
It sort of depends on what you bring to the party of course. But it is always a good question to consider and fun on a Friday afternoon.

Education would be a big one for me. Part of the issue with today's world is that we see the world differently through the lens of how we were educated. If we ever hope to have a planetary wide society we need to start with a common understanding of the world.

Re: Ask HN: What's an important problem that more people should work on?

#22
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's solved in every industrialized country besides America. It's an issue of political will. I think it's a great thing to work on, and desperately needed in the US, but it's not a question of how to implement it but rather the political change to implement it. Edit: it's not even, strictly speaking, nation-wide. Idaho for example, does a great job on this. California had most of its mental health facilities shut…

>>That's solved in every industrialized country besides America. Whoa. That's an interesting unsubstantiated statistic. A quick (albeit unnecessary) Google search begs to differ: https://homelessworldcup.org/homelessness-statistics/

It's really not. First, I said industrialized. I know that homelessness is high in some poorer countries. I'm talking about the wealthy countries such as most EU countries.

Switzerland, for example, doesn't remotely have this problem.

Re: Ask HN: What's an important problem that more people should work on?

#24
post #5

One strategy that I adopt is to think of industries that are highly manual labor and dream of ways to fix that. I forget the name of the company, but there's a startup in the Bay Area that builds drones for farmers. Right now, farmers wake up early in the morning and drive through small sections of their fields and spot check things to decide what needs water or fertilizer or what-have-you. They have to spot check, b…

Expanding on that from the opposite direction, what new industries can be created that can employee the previous workers disrupted by new technology? He who figures that out will never be for want.

(This isn't an argument against the parent comment at all, as I agree with them too. Their comment just got me thinking.)

Re: Ask HN: What's an important problem that more people should work on?

#25
Work on LARGE scale, e.g. pick a project from pg's frighteningly ambitious startup ideas (http://www.paulgraham.com/ambitious.html). This was from 2012 so a bit dated now but the general thought applies. Disrupt a segment, but one where there aren't huge clear antagonists that can squish you immediately, e.g. healthcare.

Two examples that are important to me:

* Investigate the rising cost of higher education. Start with public data (for state universities), create a nice visualization on where the money is going. Extrapolate to private colleges. Then find ways to attack and change the status quo.

* Increase quality of education of poor kids (not just inner city, but that may be easier to start with). For example, can the shuttered grade schools in poor areas be repurposed into startup spaces, providing office to startup at very low cost, but they have to provide tutoring teaching for local students.

Re: Ask HN: What's an important problem that more people should work on?

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>That's solved in every industrialized country besides America. Whoa. That's an interesting unsubstantiated statistic. A quick (albeit unnecessary) Google search begs to differ: https://homelessworldcup.org/homelessness-statistics/

It's really not. First, I said industrialized . I know that homelessness is high in some poorer countries. I'm talking about the wealthy countries such as most EU countries. Switzerland, for example, doesn't remotely have this problem.

I can only assume you haven't spent a lot of time in the EU... Switzerland (which is not in the EU) is the only European country I've been to that does not have a very visible population of homeless people.

Re: Ask HN: What's an important problem that more people should work on?

#30
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not. First, I said industrialized . I know that homelessness is high in some poorer countries. I'm talking about the wealthy countries such as most EU countries. Switzerland, for example, doesn't remotely have this problem.

I can only assume you haven't spent a lot of time in the EU... Switzerland (which is not in the EU) is the only European country I've been to that does not have a very visible population of homeless people.

20 years in Europe. I've never never never never tripped over crazy homeless. It's all I do in Berkeley and SF.

It's not a small, nuanced difference but literally night and day. Have you really seen tents downtown in any city in Europe?

I'm American but most Europeans I know struggle with living in the Bay Area because it's such a shock for them.

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