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?

#291

Post by mirimir » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:15 PM UTC

Zelmor wrote: post #238

teekert wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But don't you feel like there are things out there, things you truly enjoy so much that you will do them more than others and you will naturally start to excel at them and someone might even pay you for it? Maybe not now or tomorrow or next year, but there must be parts of your job that are not only tolerable but actually nice... would it hurt you to try to get more if the nice and less of the tolerable, year over ye…

You suggest making my hobby my work. Think about that for a second.

I've done that at least five times.

    got BS, and worked in industry
    got bored, and read a lot about [cool basic-science stuff]
    started grad school re [cool basic-science stuff]
    got PhD and did a couple postdocs in [cool basic-science stuff]
    got horrified by academic rat race, and got interested in [cool NGO stuff]
    [almost went to law school, to do patent law]
    got a job doing [cool NGO stuff]
    got frustrated by slow progress, and tired of being poor
    [almost did another postdoc]
    got a job doing [well-paid litigation stuff]
    got tired of the pressure, and started playing more re privacy-related stuff

And so, here I am.

What I get is that basically I like to play. I've rarely managed to be well paid for it, however.

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

#292

Post by Aeolun » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:19 PM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #175

Aeolun wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So the take-home here is take all your career risks before you take on dependents?

Yes, but probably not while your wife is pregnant.

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

#293

Post by itnAAnti » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:42 PM UTC

teekert wrote: post #240

Zelmor wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You suggest making my hobby my work. Think about that for a second.

I thought about it a lot, It's what I strive for, I'm liking it. It's more like: I'm suggesting you get paid for doing your hobby.

My observation:

Have you ever been convinced to re-read a horrible book you were forced to read in school, and discover that it's /brilliant/?

Have you ever been forced to re-read one of your favorite books on a strict deadline, and discover that it's a slog?

I've been paid for doing my hobby a couple times, and it quickly becomes work; I don't even enjoy those hobbies anymore.

My 2 cents:

Anything, when forced, is less enjoyable than when you're doing it just for enjoyment.

Don't kill a hobby by turning it into work.

Find tasks, types of work, etc. that you enjoy, and find a job that lets you do those things. It's still work, but most of the time you don't really notice it, and you don't kill a fun hobby.

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

#294

Post by z3t4 » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 11:56 PM UTC

I wanted to cure cancer and work on new propulsion systems for rockets ... I am currenty working on skinning a yak ... my advice, dont go at it alone, team up with others! and if you have the option choose life.

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

#295

Post by mirimir » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:20 AM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #275

teekert wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But don't you feel like there are things out there, things you truly enjoy so much that you will do them more than others and you will naturally start to excel at them and someone might even pay you for it? Maybe not now or tomorrow or next year, but there must be parts of your job that are not only tolerable but actually nice... would it hurt you to try to get more if the nice and less of the tolerable, year over ye…

> But don't you feel like there are things out there, things you truly enjoy so much that you will do them more than others and you will naturally start to excel at them and someone might even pay you for it? I’ve been alive nearly 40 years and everyday become more confident that the answer is no.

I agree that much of the "do what you love, and the money will follow" stuff is bullshit. But on the other hand, that's pretty similar to picking a major that you enjoy, getting a degree, and getting a job based on that degree.

It's arguably an unworkable plan for most hobbies, I admit. And it depends on how much you need to be paid. For example, when I started NGO work, I basically got warned that it'd never pay much, and that most people who did it long-term had trust funds. Or didn't mind being poor.

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

#296

Post by borderless-inc » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:24 AM UTC

Identify the intersection of value, skill and enjoyment.

Value = what the world needs.

Skill = what you're good at, or can become good at.

Enjoyment = what you like to do.

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

#297

Post by adim86 » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:32 AM UTC

Nec29 wrote: post #193

adim86 wrote: post #187

It is great that you are thinking of this and from my experience, it will continue to come up even after you have solved this one and you become more of an expert in the path you have chosen. Something to help with the paralysis is to note that you are in a very privileged position. Majority of the world is not plagued by this issue because the problem they have to solve is how to survive. So, in other words, there i…

HN guideline says it's okay to comment just to say "Thanks". So, Thanks for your comment :)

haha glad you liked it

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

#298

Post by selestify » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:35 AM UTC

dragonsky67 wrote: post #273

Why do you feel the need to work on a "Big Problem"? Do you feel the need to leave a legacy, or do you really want to make things better by working on paridgm changing enabling technology? I think there is a problem with trying to target your attention on world changing technology, in that it is very rare for the world to be changed in a big way by direct effort towards change. I think this is related to both the dif…

> History is full of people who made big changes to the world. Those who made a positive contribution seem to mostly have emerged from obsecurity after spending years labouring at improving something small and succeeding in a remarkable way.

Very interesting. Can you give a few specific examples of this for me to look into? How have you come to the conclusion that this is a trend?

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

#299

Post by selestify » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:43 AM UTC

marviel wrote: post #198

scrollaway wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do you do it To travel in time :) And also because I believe human knowledge is the sum of the past it can learn from. If information gets lost, it can't be part of that. It's the same beliefs that drive me to support open source & free software. > what tools do you use? I do a lot of data-mining as part of my day to day operations, in video games mainly. These are the main things I end up archiving, so I write…

On the flipside of this, thanks to archivists such as yourself, I've saved myself some time by developing a research perspective that first assumes ideas I've come up with may have been independently discovered in the past. This may be obvious to others, but for me it has been a game-changer for getting "to the meat" of problems, so to speak. Largely, this mindset stems from a group of characters in the book "Anathem…

How do you usually go about doing your searches for prior knowledge?

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

#300

Post by jonasaltman » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 12:44 AM UTC

What a question and one that I think more and more - certainty than any time before In history will be contemplating and most importantly, acting upon. I’ve co-written an article on it and will post here soon...