...to avoid future regrets
I’d be a bit careful with this presumption. Why optimize for a point in time far in the future? Living your life such that you don’t regret it every single morning seems to be more reasonable
Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
111–120 of 460 posts
Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Some people can work just for material benefit to themselves and their families. However, eventually that juice runs out because money is just not useful beyond a point. Admittedly, material benefit to myself and my family isn't the only reason I work. However, the argument that "money is just not useful beyond a point" isn't a strong one in my mind. I'm in my late forties right now and make a reasonable sum of mon…
I don't think it is meant like "at some point you'll run out of things to buy", because, let's be honest, even the richest people still have things they can't buy. The actual meaning is in my opinion that at some point, when you can pay your bills easily and do not need to worry about money every day, increasing your income doesn't make you happier. Of course, buying more expensive things and increasing your income i…
> The actual meaning is in my opinion that at some point, when you can pay your bills easily and do not need to worry about money every day, increasing your income doesn't make you happier.
That’s not actually true though. There’s pretty robust research to show that happiness is correlated with log money. It’s not a function that becomes flat after a certain point, at least not as far as any research I’ve read says. Although the correlation or causation question remains: do happier people make more money, or does more money make people happier, or is there some underlying third variable that affects both? But the fact that lottery winners do end up becoming happier suggests that there is a causal element in the money->happiness direction.
Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh how I would LOVE to know more! Can you give examples?
Join a startup as a soon-to-be father, following your dreams, and have the thing explode in your face, then finally recover and get a job at a megacorp (a week before the baby is due)? Utility for the win! Following your dreams is fun and all, but the risk/reward ratio is just way out there.
Getting a stable job at a big company to be able to support your family after taking a risk on a startup doesn't sound like a terrible outcome to be honest.
Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
#114An advice a professor gave me at college a decade ago: Choose what you like, and like what you've chosen.
I guess whatever path you decide to follow, you'll need resilience to achieve impressive goals.
Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
#115I think it is the intersection of what is worthwhile to solve, what is solvable, and what I can solve better than others.
For example reducing the risk of artificial general intelligence meets the first two criteria but Sam Altman and Elon Mush already recruited the best people in the world to join OpenAI. My contribution would not make a difference.
Providing opportunity to people willing to migrate is something that is over-served politically but under-served with for-profit initiatives. I hope to make a difference there.
Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
#116To paraphrase scripture, it isn’t so much about what you choose to do as it is how you choose to go about it. Whatever you find for yourself to do, give it your very best. Do that, and there’s very little chance you will have regrets at the end.
Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
#117Unhappiness.
I find myself constantly drifting toward entertainment. I made mobile games for about 4 years, and now I run an escape room business. I guess I'm trying to get rid of sadness one small bit at a time.
Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
#118I always knew multiplayer was my passion, so I built a platform that would change multiplayer for the better:
http://fuse.rupy.se/about.html
It took 20 years, 10 years to learn how I wanted to build it and 10 to actually build it.
IMO healthcare is not a solution to anything, good food and people are much better doctors.
Energy is not a solution; but the problem of this century, AI is complete baloney.
I also learned to live like in the 18th century on wood for heat, dug-well for water and perma-culture for food.
Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am one of those bullshit jobs deniers. Would you like to explain why your job is bullshit? Feel free to change details to protect your privacy.
My employer is a big fin-tec company, the product does not work well, revenue comes from long contract times where people can't get out again (even worse: selling dreams that usually burst), if anything we can provide some sort of e-commerce optimization which either makes people buy more s * or makes them buy it at one instead of the other vendor.
So, if I understand correctly, the source of bullshit here would be some sort of soft coercion/engineering of consent? Over something that people don't need/shouldn't need? I.e. something like working on ad campaigns for cigarettes?
Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?
#120Work on curing aging.
Once we solve that problem, we'd have "unlimited" lifetime to work on anything else.