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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?

#641

Post by hanniabu »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #631
hanniabu wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this rebellious generation as those paving the way for financial revolution with permissionless and trustless blockchain technologies. They are ignoring suppressive regulation and moving forward building the world they want to see.

I see idealists making all the mistakes that led to the monetary system we have now. They may end up in a different place, but they'll make lots of mistakes and it'll blow up in their faces many times before they're done.

Can you point out some of these mistakes? Also, traditional finance has had it's share of blowing up in their faces. The difference with DeFi is that economies are being being build on an economic model rather than an economic model being built on an economy.

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

#642

Post by mantap »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #621

People are all talking about niches over here. Work on fundamentals. Strong fundamentals are an investment that pays dividends. If you want to learn something niche like ML, because you think it's gonna be big, then learn the math and calculus and stats that underlies the ML. Then if ML really becomes something most devs should know, you'll be able to pick it up better than the people who have to only get the surface…

Absolutely this. Linear algebra has been the gift that has kept on giving since the 1800s underpinning everything from quantum mechanics to video games.

Unlike most mathematics where you quickly hit a usefulness ceiling, the more linear algebra you learn the more useful it gets - linear algebra is just such a rich subject that there's an ocean of useful things to learn and apply.

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

#643

Post by alexashka »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #592
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…

Rebranded nihilism. The trend of positivity focused, directionless hedonism seeking self actualization is no better than lying around drinking all day or addicted to opiates. Find something outside yourself to be devoted to. Do the hard work to determine what that is, test and iterate. Happiness is a side effect of a job well done, not a goal.

I'd love to know why you think you know what's better or worse for a stranger on the internet. Have you discovered objective reality that completely accounts for every subjective experience of every human being and can conclusively prove what is better or worse?

My, those foolish philosophers and scientists can finally retire - Andrew Kemendo has arrived, we just need to listen and do as he/she says.

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

#645

Post by prad9104 »

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…

Hey. I am 22 (from India), suffering from depression and with zero skills which can get me a job. I have wasted last 4-5 years without doing anything or learning anything. All i do is sleep, laying on bed and daydream through out the day. Can you tell me how should i go about improving my life?

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

#646

Post by spicyramen »

I worked in Unified communications for many years and is a very well established and solid technology with protocols like SIP, RTP, sRTP and webRTC as we move to space and that area is growing, inter space communications Is an interesting are to work on. How to transmit via other media (radio, light) to be able to communicate across the solar system

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

#647

Post by wayoverthecloud »

prad9104 wrote: post #645
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…

Hey. I am 22 (from India), suffering from depression and with zero skills which can get me a job. I have wasted last 4-5 years without doing anything or learning anything. All i do is sleep, laying on bed and daydream through out the day. Can you tell me how should i go about improving my life?

Have you seeked medical professional help?

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

#648

Post by newman8r »

tunesmith wrote: post #159
neltnerb wrote: post #138

Cooperatives. The economy needs to shift away from giant companies with pay ratios of a thousand to one between CEOs and average employees and employees need control over their workplace to move to the next stage of capitalism. Make it easier for collectives to start up businesses that aren't purely focused on profit and instead focused on employees taking ownership of their work. It may not be the biggest profit pos…

I've always thought it would be interesting to figure out the smallest number of people needed to create a pop-up town or microtown. If you get a sufficient number of people together, plop them down anywhere, run water/electricity/sewer, and start a community. It might be that most of them would have to telecommute for revenue, but then you'd also have the local general store or whatever else you'd need. But the peop…

I'm also interested in this and have spent considerable time learning/practicing off-gridding. The key is finding good land in unincorporated areas with a permissive county code. There's a few good counties in California for this.

Some counties are more willing than others to grant variances for experimental communities.

It's feasible for the first time ever because of the opportunities for remote work, cheap PV, delivery of anything via amazon (yes, they'll deliver to places on dirt roads which is awesome - negates a need for a general store), etc. There's also an increased interest in being closer to nature and away from the city for a variety of health reasons apart from the considerable savings.

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

#649

Post by peterangular »

hnick wrote: post #577
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…

That's funny, the multi-national company I work for is removing all MS Office automation because MS apparently told us that unattended automation is against the licensing terms. It's OK if you're watching the computer I guess, but not on a server. Personally this didn't match what I found online (they said it was not supported i.e. if it breaks tough luck) but what would I know. Money must be spent retrofitting other…

They have specific solutions that are integrated into things like SharePoint to handle this so they're just putting the hurt on the big guys in order to get more monies.

Total Microsoft play on that for sure - I've never ran into the same issue though.

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

#650

Post by johnisgood »

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…

I have been working on automating data entry, and the consequences of this is many people (in this case Indians) losing their jobs. I am facing a moral dilemma. I have been writing free software for my entire life, I volunteer, but I live in really poor conditions. I want to get forward somehow, and this seems to be my best chance of getting forward at this point in time and space. I am probably not going to go through with it. It seems to be the case that my principles, my moral values have been holding me back from improving my life. I do not want to lie to people, I do not want to deceive people, I do not want to fsck them over in any way. I do not want to contribute to anything nefarious. But from where I am (the bottom), it is extremely hard to climb up without doing that. :/
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