Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech • Hacker News Board

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#61

Post by amelius » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 12:32 AM UTC

datameta wrote: post #60

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> usually because proprietary code is not a[s] profitable as proprietary data Bingo. This is why Google et al. would never sell your data; they just keep it for themselves and merely sell to advertisers the ability to precisely target you (“pick a demographic down to the shampoo brand and we can target your ads to it”). But those advertisers (or anyone else) will never see a single iota of your data. It’s simply too…

In a weird kafkaesque way this makes me feel better about my data.

Now when you click an ad, the advertiser knows which shampoo brand you use.

Next, when you click an ad, the advertiser knows which medical problems you have (because that's where they targeted their ad at).

Google has a data leak, and nobody seems to care about it.

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#62

Post by ummwhat » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 12:35 AM UTC

legerdemain wrote: post #7

Want to work on interesting problems? Build software for doctors' offices and medical groups! Help lawyers crawl out of their low-tech hole! Work on software to revolutionize public classrooms! Why work on interesting tech when you could throw yourself at intractable problems that we never get any closer to solving?

Those are the types of problems which I describe as "solving the problem is half the problem". Anyone can easily write the fixes to these sorts of problems. They don't because the real complication isn't the surface level obstacle.

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#63

Post by datameta » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 12:39 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #61

datameta wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a weird kafkaesque way this makes me feel better about my data.

Now when you click an ad, the advertiser knows which shampoo brand you use. Next, when you click an ad, the advertiser knows which medical problems you have (because that's where they targeted their ad at). Google has a data leak, and nobody seems to care about it.

Luckily I haven't clicked an ad in a decade!

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#64

Post by bernulli » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 1:27 AM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #46

bumby wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I sure am glad Curtis and the Wright brothers didn't take this stance after Lord Kelvin claimed "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible" before they proved him wrong less than 20 years later. Or NASA when Lee Deforest claimed flight to the moon was impossible "regardless of all future advances." Or when Einstein claimed ""There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.…

The Wright brothers didn't get off the ground by gluing wings to their arms, and Einstein didn't discover the theory of relativity in his study of alchemy. Entertaining silly or stupid ideas is risky, and for every Wright brother there's another 100 failed entrepreneurs who lost everything trying to make that dream a reality.

Case in point: Lilienthal, who wrote the aerodynamics book that inspired much of the wing building of the Wrights, died when he crashed with one of his gliders.

Amazing book by the way, there was a cheap reprint published a few years ago.

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#65

Post by mbrodersen » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 2:22 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #61

datameta wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a weird kafkaesque way this makes me feel better about my data.

Now when you click an ad, the advertiser knows which shampoo brand you use. Next, when you click an ad, the advertiser knows which medical problems you have (because that's where they targeted their ad at). Google has a data leak, and nobody seems to care about it.

Easy. Don’t click ads.

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#66

Post by bumby » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:13 AM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #46

bumby wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I sure am glad Curtis and the Wright brothers didn't take this stance after Lord Kelvin claimed "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible" before they proved him wrong less than 20 years later. Or NASA when Lee Deforest claimed flight to the moon was impossible "regardless of all future advances." Or when Einstein claimed ""There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.…

The Wright brothers didn't get off the ground by gluing wings to their arms, and Einstein didn't discover the theory of relativity in his study of alchemy. Entertaining silly or stupid ideas is risky, and for every Wright brother there's another 100 failed entrepreneurs who lost everything trying to make that dream a reality.

That comes across as straw manning. The point is that all kinds of problems are seen as intractable to the cynic, not that every optimist has the correct approach to solve the problem.

It’s easy and weak to just throw up ones hands and say it’s too hard but I don’t want to live in a society where 100% of people take that approach.

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#67

Post by kyleee » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:23 AM UTC

mbrodersen wrote: post #65

amelius wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now when you click an ad, the advertiser knows which shampoo brand you use. Next, when you click an ad, the advertiser knows which medical problems you have (because that's where they targeted their ad at). Google has a data leak, and nobody seems to care about it.

Easy. Don’t click ads.

And beyond that, block them ruthlessly without a second thought

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#68

Post by reureu » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:33 AM UTC

faeyanpiraat wrote: post #53

reureu wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Build software for doctors' offices and medical groups! Please please please go into these areas with humility. Having worked for health tech companies in SF for a decade, I've seen so many people come from Google/Facebook/Mozilla/Ticketmaster/eBay to healthcare in order to "disrupt" and "fix" it. Their disruption or fixes are many times illegal, impractical, vaporware, or completely ignore industry standards and s…

Can you give some examples for illegal stuff?

Theranos, uBiome, and Practice Fusion all have well known scandals. I'm aware of other issues at some other health tech startups surrounding misrepresenting their impact on quality of care, building biased algorithms that have a discriminatory impact on care delivery, companies looking at questionable payment models that seem like they'd violate stark laws, straight up medicare fraud, etc. I'll just say that I'm skeptical of health tech companies that claim/suggest any impact on a medical condition, that claim to have a predictive algorithm related to a medical condition that's their core product, or that somehow give free things to providers.

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#69

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:41 AM UTC

legerdemain wrote: post #7

Want to work on interesting problems? Build software for doctors' offices and medical groups! Help lawyers crawl out of their low-tech hole! Work on software to revolutionize public classrooms! Why work on interesting tech when you could throw yourself at intractable problems that we never get any closer to solving?

The parent comment does not actually define any specific problem.

"Build software for doctors' offices and medical groups!"

A problem that needs to be solved is _____________?

"Help lawyers crawl out of their low-tech holes!"

A problem that needs to be solved is _____________?

"Work on software to revolutionise public classrooms!"

A problem that needs to be solved is _____________?

Let us know when can provide even a single answer to any of these questions.

As other commenters point out, answering them means actually talking the people who will be using the software, or working in their shoes in these industries, before anyone starts programming anything.

Re: Work on interesting problems. Not interesting tech

#70

Post by nbombdropper » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:45 AM UTC

bloodyplonker22 wrote: post #47

reureu wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Build software for doctors' offices and medical groups! Please please please go into these areas with humility. Having worked for health tech companies in SF for a decade, I've seen so many people come from Google/Facebook/Mozilla/Ticketmaster/eBay to healthcare in order to "disrupt" and "fix" it. Their disruption or fixes are many times illegal, impractical, vaporware, or completely ignore industry standards and s…

I heard some woman with a fake deep voice is on trial now.

Found the seething incel