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Ask HN: What's an unsolved problem in your field?

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Re: Ask HN: What's an unsolved problem in your field?

#11

Post by zdw »

btbuildem wrote: post #8

Software development: how to make realistic estimates, and deliver a solution on time.

Software Development: How to identify unknown unknowns and communicate the effects of scope creep?

See also: https://www.quora.com/Engineering-Management/Why-are-softwar...

Re: Ask HN: What's an unsolved problem in your field?

#12

Post by rabuse »

btbuildem wrote: post #8

Software development: how to make realistic estimates, and deliver a solution on time.

This has been the worst for me. It seems near impossible to properly calculate edge-case development, alongside core functionality, while also building a good UX.

Re: Ask HN: What's an unsolved problem in your field?

#14

Post by tr352 »

linguae wrote: post #6

Here is a problem that I've been thinking about for some time: suppose I express using some type of logic that I want the shortest path between two vertices of a graph. Given this logical description of the problem, is it possible for a computer program to emit Dijkstra's algorithm or some other efficient algorithm? One of the things that have interested me lately is logic programming, but I'm wondering if there has…

Perhaps what you’re thinking of is inductive logic programming, although I’m not sure that field has advanced to the point where your particular example can be solved.

Re: Ask HN: What's an unsolved problem in your field?

#16

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

simonw wrote: post #10

In Python education: Getting new language learners to a functional local development environment as quickly and painlessly as possible. "Just use Anaconda/pipenv/the-Python-installer/Docker/etc" isn't a great answer, because they probably tried one of those six months ago, got into a weird state and can't remember what it did or where it put things. Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1987/

Noobie developers can install packages globally. Apt install python3-pygame would get the base, then use Geany as an ide connected to game.py.

Some terminal use will be needed, but it shouldn't amount to more than running "python3 game.py".

Re: Ask HN: What's an unsolved problem in your field?

#17

Post by Taek »

btbuildem wrote: post #8

Software development: how to make realistic estimates, and deliver a solution on time.

Only possible if you don't do anything novel. If you are building a website that's got all the same patterns as the previous 5 websites you've built, then you can provide a solid estimate and deliver on time.

If you're building something that nobody has ever made before, you've got unknown unknowns, and your best bet is intuition, which is inevitably going to miss the mark a bit.

Re: Ask HN: What's an unsolved problem in your field?

#18

Post by pjc50 »

Mathematics is the best field for this because a list of unsolved problems is kept, and many of them are relatively easy to explain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_m...

Chemistry/materials science: room-temperature superconductivity is probably the big one. There are a whole host of problems in the energy space which would benefit from improvement; while "electricity+CO2+water => fuel" is feasible at the moment it's uneconomic. Can it be done at close to the theoretical minimum energy input in a plant that's scalable and cheap to build?

IC design: is continually solving previously unsolved problems like EUV lithography, but has struggled for years with trying to go "3D" to overcome density issues. Also, is photonic computing feasible and would it achieve lower energy usage?

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