Work on Unimportant Problems (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#11

Post by aeternum » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 7:33 PM UTC

d_burfoot wrote: post #3

Important problem: you have to raise lots of money, work with a huge team, become a manager, fight with government regulators, do lots of marketing. Unimportant problem: you spend your days coding, you work alone or with a small team, you stay lean and don't worry too much about money, nobody can override your architectural decisions, the government has never heard of you, your product spreads via word-of-mouth from…

If your product is able to spread by word of mouth, then I'd argue you were working on an important problem. People generally don't recommend things that are not 'important' to them in some way.

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#12

Post by auonckl7384 » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 7:58 PM UTC

selectionbias wrote: post #10

parsoj wrote: post #5

I think this is a basic tenant of research - you can't always expect a specific outcome, sometimes you just have to explore curiosity and see what turns up. However the contrarian in me wants to call out a counter-point: > Working on unimportant problems can create important side-effects. If over-applied - this logic can essentially become the tech-investor equivalent of trickle-down economics. Who is to say that tho…

FYI, the word is 'tenet', a tenant is a person who lives in a particular residence.

This sounds a bit odd, but I've found your comment strangely informative and made an account just to say so. Thank you.

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#13

Post by hinkley » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 8:03 PM UTC

> For instance, GPU hardware was developed to run first-person shooters with increasingly fancier graphics. Today, it powers some of the largest high-performance computing clusters where "important" science is done.

When graphics hardware was relatively new, a better graphics card could make business applications like spreadsheets faster. It was practically a joke that people who wanted a video card to play games would rationalize their purchase by saying that they needed it for office applications.

The 'important work' surely benefited from the frivolous work that the hardware was purchased to run, but it was funded for a very long time under the guise of the important work.

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#14

Post by ooobit2 » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 8:20 PM UTC

aeternum wrote: post #11

d_burfoot wrote: post #3

Important problem: you have to raise lots of money, work with a huge team, become a manager, fight with government regulators, do lots of marketing. Unimportant problem: you spend your days coding, you work alone or with a small team, you stay lean and don't worry too much about money, nobody can override your architectural decisions, the government has never heard of you, your product spreads via word-of-mouth from…

If your product is able to spread by word of mouth, then I'd argue you were working on an important problem. People generally don't recommend things that are not 'important' to them in some way.

Eric Barone's success with Stardew Valley won this debate. Hell, Eric won this debate by virtue. He didn't have to do everything himself, but the very fact he's limited anyone else working on the game has played a huge role in every port of it continuing to sit in the top 10 for sales nearly four years on from its release.

I love Eric. Like, love him. He did something unimportant, but it meant something to him. And over time, it began to mean something to other people. Harvest Moon is not a massive selling franchise, so Stardew Valley was more likely to flop on that basis alone. Then you add in that indie devs get little exposure, no advertising, none of the connections that AAA companies have access to. And then there's the fact the game wasn't broadly tested before release. Eric had weeks of major bugs to patch right after release, and the pressure of hundreds of thousands of people who'd just spent $15 on his game. But maybe, just maybe, the patience and gratitude he received for his unimportant game was all the product of what he did and how he did it.

Any of the people could've said, "Just sell this to Valve. They'll fix it. You're in over your head, dude." But instead, he got a lot of, "Saves still corrupt. But make sure you get some sleep!" and a whole lot of "Can't get X to work, so I'm going to do Y." People could've abandoned the game. They didn't.

I like this idea of unimportant things. I can't be the only person thinking it's both absurd to spend time inventing a new way to keep shoes on our feet, but also thinking it's absurd we're using a piece of string still but sending billion-dollar machines to collect soil from nearby planets.

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#15

Post by michaelbrave » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 9:24 PM UTC

I'm reminded of how the Inca had wheels on their toys but never put them into practical use.

I kind of believe that similar things are happening now with video game tech, GPU mostly happened due to gaming and now benefits a lot of other fields, game engines are now being used in architectural, automotive and video production pipelines. I think there is a lot more to come.

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#16

Post by anateus » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

michaelbrave wrote: post #15

I'm reminded of how the Inca had wheels on their toys but never put them into practical use. I kind of believe that similar things are happening now with video game tech, GPU mostly happened due to gaming and now benefits a lot of other fields, game engines are now being used in architectural, automotive and video production pipelines. I think there is a lot more to come.

Useful to keep in mind that wheels confined to toys was due some combination of a lack of animals that are good at pulling (llamas aren't great as that) and metal use being primarily confined to decorative purposes (so durable axles unlikely) :)

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#17

Post by mlthoughts2018 » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 10:05 PM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #13

> For instance, GPU hardware was developed to run first-person shooters with increasingly fancier graphics. Today, it powers some of the largest high-performance computing clusters where "important" science is done. When graphics hardware was relatively new, a better graphics card could make business applications like spreadsheets faster. It was practically a joke that people who wanted a video card to play games wou…

I also think the GPU example is really flawed because ultimately it required other people who were working on “important” problems to execute the work of adapting GPU programming to their domains.

While “unimportant” work might lead to important developments, that only happens because other people were doing the important work, and saw the opportunity.

So at the end of the day if you still want these societal gains, you must be advocating for working on “important” problems.

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#18

Post by bobsil1 » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 10:08 PM UTC

d_burfoot wrote: post #3

Important problem: you have to raise lots of money, work with a huge team, become a manager, fight with government regulators, do lots of marketing. Unimportant problem: you spend your days coding, you work alone or with a small team, you stay lean and don't worry too much about money, nobody can override your architectural decisions, the government has never heard of you, your product spreads via word-of-mouth from…

Important problem: the smartest people want to work with you, your mission keeps you motivated

Unimportant problem: recruiting costs $$$

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#19

Post by beervirus » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 10:21 PM UTC

ssalazar wrote: post #2

Theres a decent point in here, but the examples given are far less convincing than the author seems to think. > C/Unix developed to improve global telephony (important) > the world of businessy/officy/enterprisey software (Windows, VB, Java, C#, ASP) Perhaps "unimportant" to the author but most of these were aimed at multimillionaire sales contracts or major consumer sales (important). Its a categorical difference fr…

Spying on users and getting ads in front of their eyeballs is also a business worth a lot of dollars. That doesn't make it important or beneficial.

Re: Work on Unimportant Problems (2012)

#20

Post by jkhdigital » Wed, Jul 08, 2020, 11:52 PM UTC

Nice article, but I got sidetracked by this line near the beginning:

> Office software arguably solves no important problem: as Berglas convincingly argues, office automation results not in increased productivity, but in increased complexity of rules and regulations.

I’ve observed this phenomenon in my personal life, where I use automation and productivity tools to make my life more complex instead of reducing stress (especially my finances).