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Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

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Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#491

Post by gfxgirl »

mcshicks wrote: post #49
libertine wrote: post #13

Elderly care... in fact this pandemic showed precisely the opposite: our elders were neglected, converted into a statistic that dies more then young people. A complete lack of humanity in a lot of developed countries. This is the example we gave to the upcoming generations, we're fucked when it's our turn lol. I've been reflecting a lot on this, and thinking of ways to solve this, but it's not easy - it's bigger than…

My mother in law is 89 and lives alone in Japan. While it's not perfect it's amazing the difference between the system there vs the system in America. I think one of the problems with Elder care in the US is that it's hard to talk about Elder care while we are still arguing about universal health care. It's also hard to talk about how we could create a similar system in the US, because the basis for the system is adu…

It's not clear the Japanese system is going to survive the aging of Japan. It's also not clear to me the Japanese system works that well. People point to live expectancy but don't factor for culture, life style, diet, and genes.

There are tons of quack doctors in Japan. Apparently to be a doctor here is much easier than some other places. I love (I think) that it's relatively inexpensive (via price controls) and that their is government medical insurance so it's relatively easy to get covered. I'm not so sure I like that if you want a skilled surgeon you need to bribe them.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#492

Post by alexchamberlain »

torbital wrote: post #339
therealmarv wrote: post #109

Markdown for academic papers. We have this https://github.com/tompollard/phd_thesis_markdown (which is the best template I know and on a personal note I've written my thesis with that too) but the whole ecosystem can be still improved.

Speaking of academic papers, I'd love to see a focus on readability. So many papers are just too dense for readers outside of the specific field. This can be because of the complexity of the subject matter, but I often notice unnecessary specific vocabulary and over-complicating concepts. Because of this, it's impractical for the layman to go read academic papers outside of their field. This leads to reading some new…

I think that's by design. You could argue that it's a barrier to entry, but I think it's more likely just a means of efficient communication among experts, who already complain there are too many papers to read.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#493

Post by vbezhenar »

Content categorisation service.

For example news. There are thousands of topics. They are hierarchical. Every news article touches some of those topics to various degree. I would love to subscribe to some topics with some kind of tolerance. Like I want to know about most important world political news. I want to know about important IT news and my country political news. I want to know almost everything about Java, cryptography and my city news. I want to get every content from or about my favourite bloggers.

And that should be extended to all kind of new content. News, articles, videos, tweets and so on.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#494

Post by SN76477 »

screye wrote: post #252

A better whiteboard/notes/mindmap app. (for windows) I can't be the only person who uses graphs, flow charts and images as a primary mental model for idea representation. This a domain I have been obsessed with for ages. The tech seems to be there. Ocr, shape recognition, pen technology is all there. New devices increasingly have the ML hardware to support it. Why isn't it here yet? We are living in the midst of a re…

I currently use Notion. It isn’t perfect but it is getting better.

I hope their API opens a lot of possibilities.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#495

Post by dkulchenko »

baron816 wrote: post #243

In-person social organizations. Social isolation is probably the biggest cause of unhappiness in advanced countries. Having a strong social network has lots of advantages including providing better romantic and career opportunities, as well as improving physical and psychological health. Humans have a long history of dishing out lots of money to be parts of strong communities too--country clubs and fraternities have…

Agreed. Why is there no Tinder/online dating equivalent for making new friends locally?

Instead of dating-specific qualifiers, it'd ask for your interests, hobbies, values, age and other demos, then match you based on overlap.

Not Meetup - it's not quite solving the same problem, and so it solves things differently (focusing on shared interests and on discrete meetup events).

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#496

Post by kjaftaedi »

Klonoar wrote: post #423
gfxgirl wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No logo? So the Apple logo is ok? My 2017 14" 1060 Razer seemed exactly like a black Macbook Pro (which I also owned at the same time). Metal case, Razer logo where the Apple logo was. HD-DPI display.

If I could kill the Apple logo, I would. :)

Yes, I think people would agree, but suggesting companies shouldn't market their products is silly.

It's like adding 'I want a million dollars' to your list.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#497

Post by m463 »

Why don't cars (or even pickup trucks) have modular storage?

Why isn't there a way to load up your groceries in the store, put them in your car in a modular way, and help you unload them into your house somehow?

It could go even further to mini palettes that can be loaded and unloaded automatically. And even electrical cool or cold boxes to keep stuff at the right temperature as you drive home.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#498

Post by gfxgirl »

xeromal wrote: post #31
libertine wrote: post #13

Elderly care... in fact this pandemic showed precisely the opposite: our elders were neglected, converted into a statistic that dies more then young people. A complete lack of humanity in a lot of developed countries. This is the example we gave to the upcoming generations, we're fucked when it's our turn lol. I've been reflecting a lot on this, and thinking of ways to solve this, but it's not easy - it's bigger than…

Yeah, I've noticed in the US that we've lost sight of the old way of ensuring care for your elders and it makes me sad. I understand that "proper" first world countries should take care of them through social programs, but I'm just surprised it only took us a few generations to completely abandon the obligation to take care of grandma, grandpa, mom, and dad when they get too old to work. My buddy is a latino and as s…

Japan has a culture of obligation to take care of your parents but it has side effects. Dating sites for example you list if you're the oldest because people often don't want to marry the oldest since their obliged to care for the parents. Worse, it's often left to the wife to take care of the husband's parents.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#499

Post by FloatArtifact »

optimalsolver wrote: post #440

Python for serious game development. Python for browser scripting so we can have true, full-stack web development in Python. More aggressive expansion of Python into the embedded world. More Python for terminal scripting. Widespread teaching of Python to schoolchildren in order to make programming the new literacy. More aggressive attempt to make Python the lingua franca of the programming world. Did I leave anything…

Cross platform accessibility APIs for integrating with OS and programs with high level scripting language bindings such as Python.

Re: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

#500

Post by walleeee »

Sustainable agriculture.

Ag is the material basis of human society. We have to stop destroying soil. We have to stop poisoning ecosystems. We have to minimize artificial fertilizer inputs. We have to stop emitting and start sequestering atmospheric carbon to mitigate climate instability.

If we don't do this we will likely see widespread crop failures and food shortages within 50 years. Land use practices must be reformed to protect soil health. Agriculture must become carbon negative. It may be possible to tweak crops to increase CO2 incorporation rates and store more carbon in soil, for instance.[0]

I want to leave future humans a planet with fertile soils, a stable climate, and vibrant life. I do not want our grandchildren to live in concrete domes and eat out of yeast vats.

[0]: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature17174

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