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

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

#41

Post by jacknews »

Both AI and energy are extremely fashionable, and already being worked by plenty of smart people. Do you think you can have an impact there?

You could alternatively pick something that is not quite so fashionable. Eg the food system, which will require very serious attention, and perhaps have at least as much environmental impact as energy. There seem to be many areas in need of improvement, including distribution, waste handling, economics/politics/equality, arresting/reducing land use, innovating more sustainable tastes, innovating production; synthetic meat, dairy, juices, pulps, hydro-/aero-ponics, self-contained fish farms, etc.

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

#42

Post by DennisP »

Why don't you think energy needs to be worked on?

I wouldn't argue except you said energy is something you want to work on. Better low-carbon energy is one of the most important needs on the planet right now. Solar is coming along well but fully decarbonizing needs solutions that are a long way from production, like much better storage, advanced nuclear, etc.

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

#43

Post by stewbrew »

Healthcare is a rather complicated field if you are not already working in healthcare. Also, healthcare is highly regulated.

It really depends on what you did before but green renewable energy sounds interesting to me (who to some extent works in healthcare :-).

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

#44

Post by scrollaway »

worldsayshi wrote: post #28
tw1010 wrote: post #14

I'm all for egalitarianism in the public sphere, but in private I still believe that there's such a thing as natural born talent. Anyone can probably reach the top 5% in most non-athletic areas given enough time. But if your goal is to maximize your output having already accepted that your time on earth is limited, then the wise thing is to probably steer in directions that have high impact but for you feel dispropor…

Question to anyone reading this: What is your answer to "if you weren't working on it, this problem would not get solved"?

I'll skip over what I'm actively working on because I think this deserves a mention: I'm a hobbyist digital archivist. This is something where most people can likely make a meaningful and long-lasting impact, that nobody else could if they didn't.

Archiving, for me, is a way of travelling forward in time. Think about "time capsules" and what not.

Here's what I mean by this: If you write a message on a piece of paper, and read it the next day, your message has successfully traveled forward in time by a day. But as the days pass, the message's survival chances diminish greatly.

The goal of archiving is to give information the highest chances possible to travel forward in time, as long as possible. It's hard to evaluate how good our chances are now, but 2000 years from now, if archaeologists find information on our current society, is it more likely to be the piece of paper you wrote, or an archive that was given the best chances of survival?

It's extremely rewarding and it truly is meaningful. Archive anything. Sort and order it, index it, describe it, upload it. Do it for something you work on. The odds for you to archive something that was not done by anyone else are very high.

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

#45

Post by nestorD »

In his "You and Your Research" talk, Hamming focusses on the selection of the problem you should work on as a researcher. I believe it does apply even if you are not in academics : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw

(transcript : http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html)

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

#46

Post by pjc50 »

Not clear where you are in your career, but if you're determined to be someone who makes a key breakthrough, your career path is almost totally determined by your undergraduate education.

If you were going to be Elon Musk, you wouldn't be asking us for advice.

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

#47

Post by badpun »

tw1010 wrote: post #14

I'm all for egalitarianism in the public sphere, but in private I still believe that there's such a thing as natural born talent. Anyone can probably reach the top 5% in most non-athletic areas given enough time. But if your goal is to maximize your output having already accepted that your time on earth is limited, then the wise thing is to probably steer in directions that have high impact but for you feel dispropor…

> Anyone can probably reach the top 5% in most non-athletic areas given enough time.

I seriously doubt that. People who have no aptitude in a field, even if they are dedicated, will be competing vs people who are also dedicated, but have the aptitude. I'd say maybe that "almost anyone can reach top 50% of most non-athletic fields", but definitely not top 5%.

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

#48

Post by MrsPeaches »

worldsayshi wrote: post #28
tw1010 wrote: post #14

I'm all for egalitarianism in the public sphere, but in private I still believe that there's such a thing as natural born talent. Anyone can probably reach the top 5% in most non-athletic areas given enough time. But if your goal is to maximize your output having already accepted that your time on earth is limited, then the wise thing is to probably steer in directions that have high impact but for you feel dispropor…

Question to anyone reading this: What is your answer to "if you weren't working on it, this problem would not get solved"?

Teaching kids in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) how to build their own electricity generation systems.

Access to electricity is a massive problem and the number of people without access is actually projected to increase [1].

We need more people working on the problem and we especially need people from SSA working on it.

We are working to inspire young people and to provide them with the tools and knowledge they need to go and solve the problem of access to electricity. [2]

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/561428/forecast-of-popul...

[2] https://localelectricity.org/

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

#49

Post by ngcc_hk »

Be happy. A happy man will help your neighbour. And your fellow people.

You may be good at something but if you are not happy ... I think mao and hilter could. R said quite good in their deeds and mao is even now has no problem in killing 30m+ (more than 1 time - Great Leap Forward and cultural revolution).

Both are not happy men. May be they have sming pic but I have not aware much.

Be happy. Do no harm.

Assume that we are not in Olympic but we are always in the game of life. With that may I quote the motto, the most important thing in life is not about winning but about participation and you have tried your best.

Good luck.

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

#50

Post by tvanantwerp »

nnd wrote: post #35
MrGLaDOS wrote: post #11

These fokes devoted quite some time into thinking about your problem: https://80000hours.org/ From their homepage: "You have 80,000 hours in your career. Make the right career choices, and you can help solve the world’s most pressing problems, as well as have a more rewarding, interesting life. We’re here to give you the information you need to find that fulfilling, high-impact career. Our advice is all free, tailore…

My biggest issue with 80,000 hours is that it's a rational, but radically uninspiring advice in the end. It is a framework for those who buy into "don't follow your passion advice", and try to maximize their utility function instead.

A fair criticism. Personally, I've spent enough time around folks who followed their passion and seen where it got them that I'm 100% on board the utility function train.
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