Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#1

Post by amadk » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 8:46 AM UTC

In other words, how do you decide between what you want to work on and what should be worked on?

I've been stuck with trying to figure what to do with the rest of my life. I can't decide whether I should be working on what I want to work on (Energy, AI) or whether I should work on what I believe should be worked on (Healthcare).

It's a short life, so I want to be careful with this decision, to avoid any future regrets. Because I can't decide on this, I end up not getting anything done. Time continues to march on, while I'm still stuck with not knowing what to do.

Has anyone had any experience with this before? If yes, then what and how did you make your decision? What was the outcome? Is there a middle ground or silver lining, where you managed to work on both cases?

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#2

Post by badpun » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 10:55 AM UTC

> I've been stuck with trying to figure what to do with the rest of my life. I can't decide whether I should be working on what I want to work on (Energy, AI) or whether I should work on what I believe should be worked on (Healthcare).

1. How about AI for Healthcare?

2. I don't believe you can do great work in an area you're not personally excited about. So, if the thought of spending the next 30 years working in the healthcare sector is not exciting to you at the moment, then, chances are that if you were to pick this path, you'd be OK at it at best, and that's not good enough to make any difference on a larger scale.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#3

Post by jaeh » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:13 AM UTC

" they sentenced me to thirty years of boredom, for trying to change the system from within. " - leonard cohen, first we take manhattan.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#4

Post by Nursie » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:14 AM UTC

Money amd free time.

I won't work on things I fundamentally disagree with but what's important to me is life outside of work. I try to maximise my income and the availability of non-work time.

As a contractor this is what I get to do, make a packet and take a few months off here and there.

People with a drive to achieve in a particular area may be after a different sort of satisfaction in life I guess.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#5

Post by anotheryou » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:16 AM UTC

I'm doing a bullshit job¹ and would be happy to find anything meaningful that still pays ok². Other than that I'm trying to reduce work days to work on side projects.

If I had more choice I'd choose things that interest and fascinate me anyways and serve some good. This would be (socially beneficial) science and empowering information tools for the web.

¹ https://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/

² Need a product manager for a cool product? Please let me know.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#6

Post by boffinism » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:17 AM UTC

If it helps, energy really really should be worked on. Do that.

Also, that's not really how regrets work. You will be comparing the path you took to what you imagine to be the roads not taken. It's very dependent on your own unique experiences and outlook, and very hard to safeguard against. Your way of evaluating your life will change over time, so optimising for your current values gives no guarantees. Best thing to work on is stoicism and self forgiveness in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#7

Post by yellowapple » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:19 AM UTC

Do all three: AI-controlled backup power solutions for hospitals. :)

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#8

Post by marmaduke » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:19 AM UTC

You're asking the wrong questions: you can't know in advance that a breakthrough in energy won't bring about a disruptive impact on healthcare. For example, if you were to able to stabilize a biobattery of mitrochondria, you might incidentally solve a problem related to diabetes (example made up). In other words, because you can't predict the impact of your effort, you can't reliably infer where to direct your effort.

By analogy with machine learning, instead of throwing lots of effort at a non-convex problem, you might instead choose a convex problem instead: e.g. what daily process allows you to achieve high problem solving output? what expertise can you acquire and put to use regularly, which is sustainable (no burnout, pays rent, etc)?

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#9

Post by cperciva » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:22 AM UTC

Comparative advantage. Is health care important? Sure. Are there lots of other people who can work on it if you don't? I'd imagine so.

You're going to make the biggest contribution if you work in the area where you're relatively better... and being excited about a field makes a hell of a difference in terms of your ability to contribute to that field vs. a field which you think is important but not all that personally interesting.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#10

Post by konschubert » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:26 AM UTC

I just feel like we really need to fix climate change, thus energy, if we want to preserve some semblance of the world that we grew up in.

Regarding personal happiness, consider that how you work is much more important than what you work on.