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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?

#731

Post by jl2718 »

jhow15 wrote: post #711

I had the same question recently and so built an app to surface rapidly growing google trends. It was a Show HN project not long ago and people seemed to like it: https://trennd.co I've also noticed a lot of larger trends that other commenters have highlighted too: - data privacy focussed products (DuckDuckGo/SimpleAnalytics) - everything machine learning - meat substitutes - alternative forms of entertainment (axe t…

The prevalence of IT topics is surprising to me. I didn't think there were that many of us out there. Is there any bias of the results toward tech topics?

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

#732

Post by bitcoinbutter »

johnmorrison wrote: post #693
deanCommie wrote: post #687

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those still living in extreme poverty today probably don't care about our worries of climate disruption. Tell that to 100Million people in poverty in Bangladesh that will become climate refugees if the sea level rises in any meaningful way. In the west, sea-side living is a privilege for the richest. And sea level rise is mostly ignorable with the virtue of new seawalls. In the developing world, the most poverty-st…

You're right about those people, but I'm not talking about them. There are people living in extreme poverty today who won't even be alive anymore by the time sea level rise causes a problem. Who are we to claim that climate change is the most pressing issue facing humanity, when much of humanity faces unrelated life threatening issues?

You're looking at humanity through the lens of an individual. The reality is that the threats to people in extreme poverty are not going to threaten humanity as a whole.

I am defining humanity as the progression and prosperity of the human race. Climate change could ultimately threaten the entire human race. It could even result in extinction in the worst case scenario.

I disagree with the comment that because of this, all minds should be focused solely on this issue, and that all other problems should be ignored. But the reality is that a small subset of humanity living in extreme poverty does not pose an existential threat to civilization or the human species.

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

#733

Post by zelly »

jhow15 wrote: post #711

I had the same question recently and so built an app to surface rapidly growing google trends. It was a Show HN project not long ago and people seemed to like it: https://trennd.co I've also noticed a lot of larger trends that other commenters have highlighted too: - data privacy focussed products (DuckDuckGo/SimpleAnalytics) - everything machine learning - meat substitutes - alternative forms of entertainment (axe t…

Cool app, I always wanted something like this.

Now I want to backtest this strategy: How long after something becomes a google trend does it become irrelevant? My intuition says that by the time something is trending, it's far too late to get in.

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

#734

Post by zelly »

godtoldmetodoit wrote: post #409
tsmarsh wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in Pharma, we're not worried yet. We've done a few trials of nano-fabs, essentially 3D printed labs where you inject the raw materials and drugs pop out the end. They kind of work, but its still a lot of work and would mean consumers getting hands on a bunch of controlled substances. Being able to produce meth in a 'lab' that fits in your hand is not crazy... except you can clearly see how crazy that is.

Ignore the legal aspect of this - if the technology gets good enough and cheap enough people will make their own nano-fabs and damn the laws. People would LOVE to pirate pharmaceuticals. It's an industry just begging for disruption.

A way to synthesize arbitrary chemicals in a printer is worth trillions of dollars. It goes well beyond pharmaceuticals, but for a start, it would drive healthcare costs down to basically free.

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

#735

Post by jhow15 »

jl2718 wrote: post #731
jhow15 wrote: post #711

I had the same question recently and so built an app to surface rapidly growing google trends. It was a Show HN project not long ago and people seemed to like it: https://trennd.co I've also noticed a lot of larger trends that other commenters have highlighted too: - data privacy focussed products (DuckDuckGo/SimpleAnalytics) - everything machine learning - meat substitutes - alternative forms of entertainment (axe t…

The prevalence of IT topics is surprising to me. I didn't think there were that many of us out there. Is there any bias of the results toward tech topics?

Yeah right now there is a tech bias since the scripts and sources on the backend are focussed more on that.

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

#736

Post by jhow15 »

zelly wrote: post #733
jhow15 wrote: post #711

I had the same question recently and so built an app to surface rapidly growing google trends. It was a Show HN project not long ago and people seemed to like it: https://trennd.co I've also noticed a lot of larger trends that other commenters have highlighted too: - data privacy focussed products (DuckDuckGo/SimpleAnalytics) - everything machine learning - meat substitutes - alternative forms of entertainment (axe t…

Cool app, I always wanted something like this. Now I want to backtest this strategy: How long after something becomes a google trend does it become irrelevant? My intuition says that by the time something is trending, it's far too late to get in.

I think it really depends on the trend. Some can be spikes or fads especially in fashion or food. But equally, some keep rising and turn out to be part of broader industry trends that you regret not getting in when you first discovered them. The hard thing is spotting the difference!

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

#737

Post by arnaudsm »

SeaSeaRider wrote: post #727
ncmncm wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most pressing problem for humanity is global climate disruption. Arguably, working on anything that doesn't help there is not just wasted effort, but actively harmful. Wind, solar power, energy storage still have huge room for improvement. Direct solar or wind -> liquid fuel will be essential to adapting fast. Windmills can drive production of liquid ammonia on farms (needing only air and water inputs), for use d…

“Without massive progress in the next decade, civilization will probably collapse by 2035.” This is deathcult type rhetoric which has no scientific basis whatsoever.

With a more scientific approach, the IPCC[1] models show we could see mass migrations between 200M and 1.5B due to climate change before the end of the century. Not a total collapse, but the collapse of a dozen of countries due to unsustainable heat and drought.

[1] https://www.ipcc.ch/apps/njlite/srex/njlite_download.php%3Fi...

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

#738

Post by zelly »

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…

Automating mouse clicks and key presses seems backward and stupid. Doing this manually will also get disrupted.

You should trace the executable and analyze the function calls. Get a million samples then form a statistical model. The production model replays the function calls given some input. Doesn't need graphical memory anymore and it also has higher resolution inputs (function symbols, addresses) than coordinates on a screen.

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

#740

Post by luc4sdreyer »

johnmorrison wrote: post #171

In the online world, it seems like there are two big things happening right now: - Neural networks / ML (eg GPT-2) Definitely nowhere near its potential for being applied to a wide variety of areas. Find a niche you like and apply there. - Security / Privacy (eg Telegram) Rapidly growing demand pretty much everywhere. Bonus points if you can make your product great for standard users and at the same time hackable/cus…

>Here's some ideas you might find interesting,

To expand on your key ideas: it looks pretty comprehensive but if you're interested in making the world a better place as well, have a look at 80,000 hours [1]. They've been thinking about this question for at least 8 years and it's quite extensive. They have a simple quiz that might also be an interesting starting point [2].

[1] https://80000hours.org/key-ideas/

[2] https://80000hours.org/career-quiz/#/

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