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Ask HN: What problem do you wish someone would solve?

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21–30 of 173 posts

Re: Ask HN: What problem do you wish someone would solve?

#21
post #9

Figuring out how America can go fast[0] again. Solving would be great but I would also settle for a theory of mind as to why we haven't been able to for the last 50 years or so. [0] https://patrickcollison.com/fast

Moving fast is only good if you're not mistaken.

Mao, Pol Pot and Hitler moved fast. But they were wrong. It was some of the largest disasters the world has ever experienced.

Re: Ask HN: What problem do you wish someone would solve?

#22

One thing that bothers me and still hasn't been solved is the ergonomics of everyday computing. I don't care if people have Herman Miller chairs and use ergonomic keyboards, and an expensive mouse. You're still sitting on a chair which will kill your back. I've tried standing desks, but never liked standing. As for phones/tablets; I've only ever used them as consumption devices and no 'deep work' gets done on them li…

Personally I've had good luck with the following:

-Herman Miller Aeron

-adjust height of chair so that feel are flat on the floor

-adjust desk so that keyboard is at elbow level and arms don't have to be raised

-raise monitors to put top 3rd at eye level

-scoot back and sit straight in the chair

I find if I check all these boxes I can work for 12 or 14 hours, stand up, and feel just as good as when I sat down.

Re: Ask HN: What problem do you wish someone would solve?

#23
post #12

Childcare, housing, climate change, the usual. I'm sort of joking, sort of not. The first two affect 99% of my day to day, the last only when I will run out of water or there's a fire nearby. Edit: in the childcare and education side, something more informative than Greatschools. I know some neighborhood schools that have been gentrified and test scores have gone up, but it's still the same teachers, admin, and avail…

Agreed. Also right wing extremism fueled and amplified by the internet. It's sort of technical problem, right?

In the short term you can just not log onto the outrage-o-verse. Long term solutions to the current state of affairs elude me.

Re: Ask HN: What problem do you wish someone would solve?

#24

One thing that bothers me and still hasn't been solved is the ergonomics of everyday computing. I don't care if people have Herman Miller chairs and use ergonomic keyboards, and an expensive mouse. You're still sitting on a chair which will kill your back. I've tried standing desks, but never liked standing. As for phones/tablets; I've only ever used them as consumption devices and no 'deep work' gets done on them li…

Change positions.

Standing. Kneeling chairs. Posture ball chairs. Laying down (what's lower stress than this?).

Re: Ask HN: What problem do you wish someone would solve?

#26

Lack of reliable service from plumbers, HVAC, appliance repair people. There are many people available but the quality and consistency of service is highly variable and chances of getting ripped off are high if you don't do your due diligence. I wish there was more standardization in these services where I don't have to worry about getting ripped off and can expect a decent quality of service without spending too muc…

So many of these contractors have zero comms skills or infra because they focus on the work and not basic customer relations.

My personal frustration: (0) have someone answer the phone, (1) tell me when are you coming, and (2) be there. I suspect they all have a family member with QB and an answering machine as their whole back office.

Someone should set up simple SaaS to do automated appointment slots, schedule updates to customers, and billing. Charge $1 per slot. Sign up all the contractors.

Re: Ask HN: What problem do you wish someone would solve?

#27

Lack of reliable service from plumbers, HVAC, appliance repair people. There are many people available but the quality and consistency of service is highly variable and chances of getting ripped off are high if you don't do your due diligence. I wish there was more standardization in these services where I don't have to worry about getting ripped off and can expect a decent quality of service without spending too muc…

Couldn't agree more. Services like thumbtack and yelp seem to try to get you in the direction of good contractors, but the signal to noise is incredibly high. There seem to be very few reputational penalties for poor performance.

Re: Ask HN: What problem do you wish someone would solve?

#29

One thing that bothers me and still hasn't been solved is the ergonomics of everyday computing. I don't care if people have Herman Miller chairs and use ergonomic keyboards, and an expensive mouse. You're still sitting on a chair which will kill your back. I've tried standing desks, but never liked standing. As for phones/tablets; I've only ever used them as consumption devices and no 'deep work' gets done on them li…

Also, keyboards need to be split apart and attached to a chair like the DataHand keyboard (without the connecting board) of years ago. Typing on a single thing in front of you is asking for body wear and tear.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DataHand

Re: Ask HN: What problem do you wish someone would solve?

#30
Making a truly squirrel proof bird feeder, that also lets slightly larger birds, such as robins, access the food.

This is surprisingly difficult to find, and many squirrel proof feeders on Amazon actually get destroyed by squirrels in no time. Those that can resist the squirrel assaults have a cage that's too narrow for robins to get inside.

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