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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?

#741

Post by denimnerd42 »

smusamashah wrote: post #704
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…

Not sure about India (lots of similarities) but in Pakistan people sending parents / grand parents to old homes is really looked upon. Only a fraction of population does that. There are not too many of them. TV shows people in old homes crying for their children abandoning them. I guess that's how most people end up in old homes here. On the other hand this culture has problems as well. It's not easy to take care of…

What about when you move to a different country and your parents can't come with you like so many Indians, Chinese, etc? Are the parents of those children who found new lives in a different country going to want to give up everything to follow? They don't even know the language.

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

#742

Post by dmitriid »

ineptech wrote: post #437

Personal server. If there were an open source project that made running server applications (personal blog, email, game server, file backups, mastodon, etc) easy for non-technical people, it would open up whole new use cases (in the same sense there are kinds of software now that wouldn't have made sense before everyone carried around a phone). It would also be a whalefall for the hosted vm industry if it caught on,…

Not just non-technical people. As a programmer, I don't want to send a significant chunk of my free time figuring out, configuring and then maintaining something.

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

#743

Post by cookiengineer »

dartharva wrote: post #728
cookiengineer wrote: post #697

Web Filtering, Web Automation and especially the UX behind it. I don't understand why the Web Browser ecosystem is stuck with Extensions, and why Web Browsers, the most used programs on the planet, are still unautomated for 99% of humans. This just doesn't make sense in any economical or rational view. Web Filtering and Ad Blocking are things that are stuck UX wise, because currently there are basically two different…

> Wouldn't a collective list of services and SDKs and their required assets in the form of a named "web service" list make more sense than the adblocking approach? Standardizing things at such scale would limit the implementation of new web technologies as sites have to wait for the overloaded browsers to catch up with their new technologies each time they invent something new. All in all, it would overcomplicate thi…

> Standardizing things at such scale would limit the implementation of new web technologies as sites have to wait for the overloaded browsers to catch up with their new technologies each time they invent something new.

Isn't this the state we're already in, given that most websites still use jquery, and the websites that don't use babelified codes for decade old web browsers?

My argument was meant from the user's perspective of an Adblocker. A user doesn't know what an included script from xyz.paypal.com/what/ever.js does. But a user recognizes PayPal as a service, and knows that they want to pay for something.

> web browsers are an intimate part of our lives (...)

This kind of contradicts your own argument, because Web Browsers as they are built right now don't give a damn about anything and will happily execute any code from any malicious website.

The only project that somewhat pushes this state (or default behaviour) forward is WebKit, and Firefox sometimes keeps up with how third party trackers are handled.

I don't know how you perceive this as taking control away from the user. I wanted to offer a button that says "Enable PayPal" and a concept that disables everything by default.

A user that doesn't understand the concept of uMatrix is a user without control, that will just enable everything anyways once websites stop working due to lack of understanding.

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

#744

Post by hn_asker »

social justice issues. I'm waiting for a computational model of government so we can question and improve these models without violence. It seems that (in America at least) politics is so tightly woven into a person's identity that to question their political beliefs offends them personally. Thus we languish without being able to critically think of better forms of government/politics.

Also mental health issues (which is closely related to human rights issues). After watching Medicating Normal, I've lost hope in the psychiatric/pharmaceutical system. Why are there no better solutions to depression? It seems to be affecting a large number of people.

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

#745

Post by isatty »

max_ wrote: post #712
Klonoar wrote: post #379

Premium-feeling laptops that aren't Apple machines. Yes yes, I get the economical barriers. I'm past caring. It is so incredibly frustrating to look outside the Apple ecosystem and feel like the entire PC industry is content to sell the bare minimum of quality (outside of Gamer hardware, which looks obscene - but I get that it's subjective). It's a horrible business idea on the numbers and nobody would do this, but i…

The Razer Blade 15?

Razer quality control is a joke and I would not consider them a good manufacturer of anything.

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

#746

Post by sbierwagen »

WalterBright wrote: post #698
InvisibleUp wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a large part of this (in the USA, anyways) is due to how modern cities are structured. It used to be, 100 or 200 years ago, that your workplace, your home, and your usual hang-out place were all within reasonable walking distance of each other. It wasn't a huge deal to go out and meet new people, as you'd naturally bump into them every day. Nowadays we have a large portion of people in bedroom communities, is…

I miss living in the dormitory in college. Everything I needed was within a 3 minute walk. The dorm was full of my peers. There was always something fun going on. You had a room just big enough for a bed, a desk, and a sink. Everything else was common. If I was a developer I'd build a "dorm for adults" right next to places like Amazon, but at least around here zoning won't permit it. It's great if you're single and d…

Seattle briefly allowed microapartments, before single-family home owners fought back and got them killed again. You can see one here: https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/apa/d/seattle-apodment-su... $900/mo for 198 square feet. Kitchen sink, but no stove/oven. You do get your own bathroom, at least.

Feeling a little agoraphobic with the above floor plan? Don't like those vast sweeps of empty space? No problem, try $875/mo for 147 square feet: https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/apa/d/seattle-apodment-su...

Carefully examine the bathroom photos. No sink! You wash your hands in the kitchenette. Easy enough, when it's three steps away. (After all, where would you put a bathroom sink? The entire apartment is the size of an RV.)

One upside: if the landlord gets on your nerves, it would be real, real easy to move out. A one-backpack apartment.

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

#747

Post by hn_asker »

graaben wrote: post #226

Innovation in the mental health care space. Right now most of the top funded startups are working on either 1) Simplifying access for wealth people to the already available supply of therapists; or 2) Removing the human component entirely by creating with apps which have very little evidence to back them up. I see mental health care as one of the most important problems of out time, at the root of so many of the issu…

I agree. How can mental health issues like depression be affecting so many people, yet all we are settling for as a solution are pills that don't even work that well, haven't been studied in the long-term, create a long-term dependency, and have unholy side effects??

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

#748

Post by hn_asker »

thisistheend123 wrote: post #637

Hard problems: - Poverty - Inequality - Racial Discrimination - Affordable Health and Education - Old Age Care The list goes on. We are 200 years into industrial revolution and have made significant scientific and economic progress. Time we start looking for solutions to the really Hard problems.

I agree. The question to ask is "how do you boil those problems down to computational problems?". Those problems you've listed are broad but solutions to subproblems would go a long way. I'm surprised this hasn't been explored deeply yet.

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

#749

Post by Leherenn »

freehunter wrote: post #603
peruvian wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Pre-covid of course) I think about this often, but then I go for a walk (or in other cities, a drive) and see packed bars and restaurants every night with people from all ages having a good time. Makes me feel like the problem is on me - people are obviously able to make friends and hang out without any special apps beyond what is available now.

Pre-covid I went to bars a lot to hang out. Ranging from suburban “family dining” bars to downtown dive bars to hipster breweries, I’ve been a regular at a lot in the last 10-15 years. Most people at my bars come in with friends and really only talk to existing friends or friends of friends. Maybe/rarely the strangers directly next to them if they’re feeling extra social, but not much more than a bit of small talk. F…

Yeah, it's pretty tough, especially the older you get. You need to find people that are also looking for friends, it makes it much easier. A good opportunity is to look for language exchange or expats groups, local people are always very welcome in my experience since they are rare.

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

#750

Post by tonyedgecombe »

aminozuur wrote: post #631
gullywhumper wrote: post #543

Car-free or significantly car-limited communities. Cars that are safer for pedestrians (not just for occupants in cars). Better traffic safety enforcement. Automobiles kill ~6k pedestrians and almost 140k are sent to the ER in the US - many of which will have life-altering injuries. https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/pedestrian_safety/i...

this already exists google: Western Europe.

Some places are better than others within Europe. It isn't one homogeneous region.
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