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

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

#581

Post by momentmaker »

mcs_ wrote: post #543

Yourself. One of the most complex areas, having lots of users, that need to be fixed, is human beings. Spend all your time to know who you are, why you are like that, and change this world starting from the most promising thing it has on it: you. In the meantime, try to carry out activities that you like (ride your bike, walk alone or with real people). Do it disconnected from any device or social network. Do things…

Yes. Ask constantly the simple yet deep question "Who are you?"

Who sees when you see?

Who hears when you hear?

Who feels when you touch?

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

#582

Post by paulz_ »

uwuhn wrote: post #528
paulz_ wrote: post #433

Virtual Reality. If you're reading this and you haven't tried VR yet - I can't recommend it highly enough. Particularly a higher end experience connected to a PC with tracking (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, or Valve Index). The lower end ones like a gear VR are fun and novel but it just isn't the same experience. I have introduced dozens of people to VR for the first and you just can't explain it to people. Videos are no he…

Do you have a link to a recommended parts list? Or a recommendation for somewhere I could go in/near SF to try it without purchasing my own parts. You have me interested. It would be great to experience something similar to the late 90s internet again.

For parts you basically want a high end gaming PC[0] + a Valve Index.

SF is probably a great place to find VR Arcades. Googling it looks like there are a couple here is one[1].

Might be better to ask / google around and see which ones have the best reviews.

edit: this one looks good too[2]

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcforme/comments/dfpwr0/1000_...

[1] https://sandboxvr.com/sanfrancisco/

[2] https://www.theherohangout.com

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

#583

Post by nostrademons »

mcs_ wrote: post #543

Yourself. One of the most complex areas, having lots of users, that need to be fixed, is human beings. Spend all your time to know who you are, why you are like that, and change this world starting from the most promising thing it has on it: you. In the meantime, try to carry out activities that you like (ride your bike, walk alone or with real people). Do it disconnected from any device or social network. Do things…

This is good advice, but frequently one of the best ways to work on yourself is to pick a promising area and work hard on it. Your self does not exist in a vacuum, and you learn a lot about you by how you choose to navigate the world around you.

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

#584

Post by johnmorrison »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #559
johnmorrison wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

· Liquid fueled MSR, safety is best of any other source. So, we think regulators will lower barriers over time as we prove this. · Waste management is easier since our waste will be ~5x less mass per kg fuel (~500x less mass per kWh energy), and also returns to natural radioactivity much faster (one or two centuries). We actually plan to sell most of the fission products as useful materials. · As of now, our reactors…

Thanks. There's been quite the resurgence of interest in salt since it just about disappeared in the 70s or 80s. I hope you manage it - though I tend to think we'll have a mix of sources rather than making renewables irrelevant. That may be reserve from having heard the "too cheap to meter" slogan a time or two too often. :) Even properly competitive nuclear will make decarbonising far easier, as I'm not at all convi…

Yeah, I agree with you completely.

I think we will probably get fission to like 4/5 of the world energy supply and 95% of electricity within our lifetimes.

Solar panels are a great thing to have on your house if you can afford them and want the security in the case of some kind of grid problem. They're also good if you need energy in the middle of nowhere. We want to put fission reactors in most remote communities, even small ones, but if small enough groups of people are going out into uninhabited places it doesn't make sense, so solar panels are better.

I don't really see any utility in wind energy at all, other than in areas where solar doesn't make sense.

Batteries are a really environmentally bad idea for non-transport/device energy supply, because of density. So I think it's best we avoid intermittent sources for most of the grid power.

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

#585

Post by GreeniFi »

energybar wrote: post #534
GreeniFi wrote: post #492

What I’m going to say is a little different to most others on this board. I’m an environmental economist - quite a specialised field. I work with a team of software developers to embed environmental economic knowledge systems in software, which makes those knowledge systems scalable and accessible. It’s been quite an experience to lay down that knowledge - basically my life’s work -in a way which democratises its use…

Are you willing to share an example of the embedded environmental economic knowledge system you mention? I'm having a hard time understanding what that means?

Sure - check out ecosystemequity.com and follow links from there. Amongst other projects - a core banking system that integrates natural capital values into credit decisions. Sorry the umbrella website is a bit rough at the moment, it’s just a placeholder for a short while.

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

#586

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

jason0597 wrote: post #473
kofejnik wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

strongly disagree 1. you _won't_ be happier running a fast food joint - the work is gruelling, and it's so easy to go bust. And you won't bring home six figures 2a. people who _actually_ can code are scarce, even in the tech industry. Source: conducted over 300 interviews 2b. quite logically, your coding skill will be most appreciated and compensated at a Big Tech Co, not at a government department where they will be…

>2a. people who _actually_ can code are scarce, even in the tech industry. Source: conducted over 300 interviews As a young person with an interest in software programming (currently studying chemical engineering but still write C code now and then), what do you look for when trying to find out people who can _actually_ code?

Literally the ability to write working code. You'd be amazed how few interviewees can even put together a working for... loop.

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

#587

Post by jchook »

mcs_ wrote: post #543

Yourself. One of the most complex areas, having lots of users, that need to be fixed, is human beings. Spend all your time to know who you are, why you are like that, and change this world starting from the most promising thing it has on it: you. In the meantime, try to carry out activities that you like (ride your bike, walk alone or with real people). Do it disconnected from any device or social network. Do things…

Reminds me of a quote...

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

-- George Bernard Shaw

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

#588

Post by aaronblohowiak »

gameswithgo wrote: post #407
safog wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I've never been able to figure out is that given Crispr, why it wouldn't be possible to engineer an organism that can suck much more CO2 out of the air than any existing tree / algae could. Even more ideal if we can make a good building material out of the engineered plant to sequester Carbon. It's easy to see how the manual selection process would work here - plant a bunch of trees, see how much O2 each pr…

trees have been optimizing that problem for a long time already, and then if you don't bury the tree and prevent decomposition, you don't really solve anything but create a short term buffer.

using the lumber in high rises (through gluelam construction) is cheaper than steel and is carbon negative.. virtuous cycle indeed.

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

#589

Post by ademars94 »

mcs_ wrote: post #543

Yourself. One of the most complex areas, having lots of users, that need to be fixed, is human beings. Spend all your time to know who you are, why you are like that, and change this world starting from the most promising thing it has on it: you. In the meantime, try to carry out activities that you like (ride your bike, walk alone or with real people). Do it disconnected from any device or social network. Do things…

How do I make money while I am doing this?

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

#590

Post by kofejnik »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #586
jason0597 wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>2a. people who _actually_ can code are scarce, even in the tech industry. Source: conducted over 300 interviews As a young person with an interest in software programming (currently studying chemical engineering but still write C code now and then), what do you look for when trying to find out people who can _actually_ code?

Literally the ability to write working code . You'd be amazed how few interviewees can even put together a working for... loop.

yes, exactly this
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