Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime? • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by apo » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 4:55 PM UTC

Many of the most important technologies came from side hustles/projects, not from a deliberate attempt to solve a problem:

- Twitter sprang from a failed startup idea rendered obsolete by a tech giant

- Apple grew from two guys making blue boxes for grins and pranks

- The iPhone grew from Apple's experience in producing an MP3 player

- Amazon started as an online book store

There are counterexamples, but they seem more rare (the light bulb, and most of what Edison/Tesla did, for example).

The point is that it's very hard to identify good problems de novo. Instead, problems tend to come to you if you're actively working on even modestly relevant projects with an open mind.

So, you might try this: start a frivolous side project. No big commitments, no major expectations. Then follow it wherever it takes you.

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

#152

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 5:07 PM UTC

[deleted]

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

#153

Post by kurthr » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

monk_e_boy wrote: post #102

tvanantwerp wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem occurs when passion and expectations differ. An artist who expects a good, easy life, to be wealthy as a plumber etc. Utility is fine. Packing shelves is fine. Do you have time to follow your passion out of work? Can you make your passion pay enough? Most people I've met who gave up on their passion seemed to want praise, fame and/or notoriety rather than the 'art' or whatever they were producing.

Exactly, I know so many part-time artists/musicians... even a few part time scientists. If the passion/art is really important to you, you'll find a way (there's a homeless guy I know who paints and chalks). You may not get what you want, but maybe you'll still get what you need.

Somewhere in here there's the Peter principle that people rise to their highest level of incompetence... it's true in art as well as engineering/business.

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

#154

Post by drited » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

How developing an AI control system that reduces energy usage in health care?

I'm half serious but all in earnest. Most people specialise. In a world of specialists, perhaps you can distinguish yourself by knowing a little about several fields. Health care folks will look at you as the magician who knows about AI even if you're a dwarf by comparison to other AI folks.

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

#155

Post by DenisM » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

"Follow your heart [rather than your wallet]" is generally a bad advice [1], but if both tracks are equally well paid you might as well indulge, if only for long enough to get a feel for it.

Meaningful work is one of the pillars of mental health, don't take that away form yourself unless you have to trade it for another pillar.

[1] It's a bad advice because it often turns people to soul-sucking cafe ownership, hand-to-mouth musician careers, and other loveable but hurtful things. A much better advice is to find an intersection of (things you love) and (things that pay well enough for it to not be a bother) and (things you might be good at) and (...).

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

#156

Post by revskill » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 5:17 PM UTC

Find out what sucks in current tech stack or business problems, then use all of you to solve it. You mainly are on your own to reach the goal.

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

#157

Post by DenisM » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 5:21 PM UTC

Also, old medical records are extremely valuable for inferring correlations between symptoms, diagnoses, treatments, etc. But it's a giant natural language mess, sometimes hand-written. A huge field for NLP/ML/AI research, and so I heard it's rather hot right now with major hospitals making major investments.

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

#158

Post by DenisM » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

yboris wrote: post #82

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…

Before 80,000 Hours started, there was Giving What We Can - which gave me meaning in my life. It reminded me of how incredibly fortunate I am to be where I am: earning even $50k/year puts me in the richest 2% of the world! https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/how-rich-am-i/ This means giving 10% of my income to cost-effective charities that help other individuals is entirely within my means. Over the years, w…

On a tangent, but did you bond with any of them?

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

#159

Post by j2kun » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

harias wrote: post #40

d--b wrote: post #15

You’ll never regret choosing something you want to work on. Especially when what you want to work also makes money like energy or AI. Also, these fields are not evil or useless like weapon design or hedge funds. They are actually useful to society, so you feel like contributing to the general good. Don’t worry about healthcare, there are thousands of people who work on healthcare. And, if I may, if you did work on he…

Why do you think Hedge Funds are useless or evil?

The only good quality of a hedge fund is promoting "market efficiency." I can understand how most people don't buy that as an excuse for the havoc they can wreak.

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

#160

Post by bsenftner » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

YOU are not going to decide; individuals in positions of screening power are going to evaluate you in contrast to their immediate needs, your education, and more importantly "your fit" into their social / professional / political framework. The only thing you can do is be the best version of you, you can be and hope the individuals in their screening positions of power are like-minded. This is the reality of careers.