Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 947 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#41

Post by verelo »

Quick control-f tells me no one has said "Environment" or a phrase I'm hoping catches on "Green-tech". There's just no way this doesn't blow up into something big in my mind. Earlier today i was discussing with a biologist friend how there should be a better partnership between the environmental world and the tech world, citing examples of biologists learning to code v's focusing on what they're good at. The environmental fields have not paid well historically, but i have a feeling that if the climate is changing, eventually it'll start paying very well to attract the people it needs.

Stop optimizing driving routes for food delivery, selling CPG products to poor people...start worrying about humanity! It may not pay amazingly, but at least you're doing something that has the potential to be looked back at as important as fighting Nazi Germany or Polio.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#42

Post by maxhallinan »

peterangular wrote: post #38

I work in this field so I'm incredibly biased: automated business solutions that cut entry-level data employees out of the equation. You save TONS on the bottom line, and cut out human-driven process that is error prone and difficult to manage. I'm talking about things beyond "API-driven dev", more in the realms of Puppeteer, Microsoft Office automation, screen-scraping (mouse/keyboard), etc. I make API's out of thin…

How do you find processes that can be automated? I've often thought that there must be a ton of this stuff in various industries where programmers aren't typically embedded.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#43

Post by colek42 »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #21

Govtech and defense tech Super high barriers to entry, governments are spending more and more but people are demanding better more efficient services and won't put up with waiting in line at the DMV forever. In defense, it's hard to see the applications and what to build from an outside view, hard to get contracts and permissions, and hard to compete with established co's like Boeing that have all of the relationship…

Check out the SBIR program. It provides an easy way to get into the system and innovate.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#44

Post by AlexCoventry »

RosanaAnaDana wrote: post #4
richtapestry wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I've had it on my list of stuff to look into for a while. Any advice on where to start?

A well honed skill set in 'ML' isn't even about the algorithms or data structures or any of that. If you want to be competitive in ML, study and think about experimental design, and what it takes to be able to confidently state the accuracy, precision, and reproducibility of a given analysis when you apply it to real world data. The biggest issue/ liability with most 'AI'/'ML' is unsubstantiated/ irreproducible resul…

How do you go about developing skill in experimental design?

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#46

Post by _bxg1 »

verelo wrote: post #41

Quick control-f tells me no one has said "Environment" or a phrase I'm hoping catches on "Green-tech". There's just no way this doesn't blow up into something big in my mind. Earlier today i was discussing with a biologist friend how there should be a better partnership between the environmental world and the tech world, citing examples of biologists learning to code v's focusing on what they're good at. The environm…

> but i have a feeling that if the climate is changing, eventually it'll start paying very well to attract the people it needs

The problem is that it's a tragedy of the commons, so no matter how important it gets, unless governments really start putting money towards it there will continue to be little interest from the private sector.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#47

Post by jonaldbobson »

peterangular wrote: post #38

I work in this field so I'm incredibly biased: automated business solutions that cut entry-level data employees out of the equation. You save TONS on the bottom line, and cut out human-driven process that is error prone and difficult to manage. I'm talking about things beyond "API-driven dev", more in the realms of Puppeteer, Microsoft Office automation, screen-scraping (mouse/keyboard), etc. I make API's out of thin…

Is this similar to RPA (Robotic Process Automation)?

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#48

Post by aey »

penagwin wrote: post #37
aey wrote: post #28

Crypto! 17% of the worlds GDP is spent on financial services. Software can eat it all.

I think you missed the train friend.

Crypto is the internet in 1996, and you are telling me I missed the train because SUN Microsystems is going to be the first trillion dollar company.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#49

Post by fenwick67 »

gabythenerd wrote: post #8

Gaming on the cloud. VR and AR.

This is a great one, AAA game install sizes have been ballooning while storage space has plateaued and network speeds and connectivity are getting better.

Maybe develop some split model, where assets are streamed over the network but gameplay and rendering are local?

Or do most things on the server, but stream a spherical color and depth map, so the client can handle rotating the camera with zero lag, and then you can perform some compensation if the camera translates (similar to how Oculus does motion compensation)?

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#50

Post by kilimchoi »

peterangular wrote: post #38

I work in this field so I'm incredibly biased: automated business solutions that cut entry-level data employees out of the equation. You save TONS on the bottom line, and cut out human-driven process that is error prone and difficult to manage. I'm talking about things beyond "API-driven dev", more in the realms of Puppeteer, Microsoft Office automation, screen-scraping (mouse/keyboard), etc. I make API's out of thin…

sounds like RPA
Post reply on HN