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Stop tech-driven problem-solving

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Re: Stop tech-driven problem-solving

#51

Post by todayispotato »

_lex wrote: post #40

This article makes a ton of sense for people in smaller companies that aren't worried about rapidly shifting markets and the long time-to-delivery of new functionality that is made possible by technology. He's effectively arguing "why build android when j2me already exists". The problem is that when the iphone comes out, you want something you can quickly retool into a competitive product - otherwise you might get ki…

I'm afraid you then might have missed my point by a little bit. Let me try and clarify.

I think new technologies are awesome. But I think you shouldn't look at a technology and ask "which problems should I solve with this?", but rather at the problems you have and then consider "which technologies should I use to solve this problem?".

The last one does mean you have to become good at identifying problems in your company or product offering, which is much harder than finding technologies. But I think that is a very worthwhile goal.

Re: Stop tech-driven problem-solving

#52

Post by todayispotato »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #2

The author makes several important points, but I'm not sure he fully understands the mechanics of the market. As a founder, I don't necessarily have to think about solving a problem or making money. I just need to gather enough users. Once I go past a certain threshold, I can sell the company (with the users being the main value), and this is what many of my friends are trying to do. Of course at the heart of the app…

I'm not arguing about creating valuation on the market for founders. There are plenty of ways, on a sliding moral scale, to create a high valuation. I don't care about that.

I argue for creating actual value for users, on the long term.

Re: Stop tech-driven problem-solving

#53

Post by todayispotato »

jesperlang wrote: post #25

I think the author has an interesting direction but don't quite like the examples.. Taking a step back and looking at it more generally I see this as problem solving vs problem finding (in Alan Kay's words), where a perfect example would be the hype with self driving cars and high speed car tunnels. This is problem solving (traffic jams, car accidents, "I need to get there faster"). Whereas problem finding will ask t…

You might have a point. The article was written to be thought provocative, to make people consider what they are doing.

The actual underlying issue however is that finding and identifying problems to be solved is _hard_. It's much easier to focus on something concrete like a piece of technology.

An example is, well, your example. The problem "How do we build car free cities?" is already much better than "How do we avoid traffic jams". But it's simple to solve that problem, for example by banning all cars; that doesn't solve the actual problem though (and is a bit silly).

The actual problem (I think) is not that there are cars, the problem is that there are too many traffic movements necessary over a physically too limited space to get everyone's needs satisfied.

Rephrasing the problem like that allows you to consider the various aspects of the problem; how can we reduce traffic movements (public transport, carpooling)? How can we more optimally use our limited space (smaller cars, stimulate bike usage and bike lanes)? And what are the needs that are being solved by traffic movements, and could we satisfy those without them (working remotely, grocery deliveries)? And what would it be worth to us to reach these goals, compared to the problem we are solving?

Perhaps I'll write an article on this specific mode of thinking. If I can actually find a way to get it on paper of course.

Re: Stop tech-driven problem-solving

#55

Post by todayispotato »

whipoodle wrote: post #42

Sure, but look a little wider. Most of what goes on is bullshit. Not just tech crap. We're all just trying to make a little money.

Yes you're right. But next to making money, a lot of us are also doing our best to do something valuable and worthwhile. It's just an attempt to get people to think in a slightly different direction.

Re: Stop tech-driven problem-solving

#56

Post by todayispotato »

lvoudour wrote: post #3

I think the title of the article does not accurately reflect the author's thesis, which is more like "trending tech may not be the best solution to your problem". I agree that riding the hype train instead of using established "mundane" tools is probably a bad idea for most problems, but exploring existing tech that might help you also qualifies as "tech-driven problem-solving" IMHO

You might be right. I do like my title more than yours though, it's more catchy!

Regarding your point however, I think you might have missed my point by a little bit, so I'll try to clarify.

I'm not advocating for existing tech. I love new technologies, and they're often a better fit than what came before. What I'm advocating for is that instead of spending time and money on investigating new technologies and trying to find problems you could solve with them, you instead spend time on finding and identifying problems that your organization is running into, or developing a vision on where you want your company to be in 5+ years.

I believe that the best and most suitable technology is always already out there, as long as you know what you need to build.

The thing is of course that looking at new technologies is easy, and identifying worthwhile problems to solve is very, very hard. But that shouldn't stop us from considering that way of thinking.

Re: Stop tech-driven problem-solving

#57

Post by davemp »

bitwize wrote: post #20

Funnily enough, microcomputers themselves were once the technology solution in search of a problem. The "home computer" fad of the 80s promised lots of applications that didn't quite pan out, including finance, "helping kids with the homework", "the little lady can store her recipes", and home automation. The only ones that really panned out were games (including edutainment), spreadsheets, word processing, and maybe…

> finance, "helping kids with the homework", "the little lady can store her recipes", and home automation. The only ones that really panned out were games (including edutainment), spreadsheets, word processing, and maybe small single-user databases.

finance -> spreadsheets

"helping kids with the homework" -> word processing

"the little lady can store her recipes" -> small single-user databases

Sounds to me like they all panned out except home automation.

Re: Stop tech-driven problem-solving

#58

Post by jesperlang »

todayispotato wrote: post #53
jesperlang wrote: post #25

I think the author has an interesting direction but don't quite like the examples.. Taking a step back and looking at it more generally I see this as problem solving vs problem finding (in Alan Kay's words), where a perfect example would be the hype with self driving cars and high speed car tunnels. This is problem solving (traffic jams, car accidents, "I need to get there faster"). Whereas problem finding will ask t…

You might have a point. The article was written to be thought provocative, to make people consider what they are doing. The actual underlying issue however is that finding and identifying problems to be solved is _hard_. It's much easier to focus on something concrete like a piece of technology. An example is, well, your example. The problem "How do we build car free cities?" is already much better than "How do we av…

Yes! I was deliberately phrasing my problem finding as "how to build car free cities", which is too tech, phrasing the problem in relation to tech! But you will quickly get to even bigger questions like "why do we move", "why do we work" which will quickly lead to thinking about deep political issues..

Re: Stop tech-driven problem-solving

#59

Post by jaclaz »

The linked to document is unavailable, but there is a google cache of it:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bZt3Y3m...

Which is not that bad in Google translate.

Essentially:

Blockchain when requesting wheelchairs Blockchain is a new technology whose impact is compared to the arrival of the Internet. The Quality Institute of Dutch Municipalities (KING) organizes pilots to investigate what Blockchain technology can mean for municipalities. Stichtse fought with the research question whether Blockchain is useful when requesting a wheelchair. The pilot shows that Blockchain can offer many benefits. For example, the process of requesting issue with Blockchain is faster and more transparent. Residents with Blockchain have more views on the status of their application, as with Track & Trace in a mail package. In addition, the administration around the application becomes a lot easier for all parties.

On the original page there is a link to a dedicated site:

http://hostedby.frogjump.nl/blockchain-magazine#!/stichtse-v...

where there is a link to an actual .pdf (largely in English):

http://cdn.instantmagazine.com/upload/6826/blockchain-sticht...

with a detailed process analysis from which it is clear how the "blockchain" has actually no meaning/usefulness in the whole stuff the "problem" (or "non problem") can seemingly be solved by much more traditional technical approaches (which is the article Author's thesis).

Re: Stop tech-driven problem-solving

#60

Post by alexeiz »

virmundi wrote: post #32
anovikov wrote: post #18

Big data: they nailed it! Every single application of 'big data' i ever saw was hype-driven, and much easier solved by boring, traditional things that were there in K&R era already: hash maps, Berkeley DB, and memory-mapped files. Sometimes taking 100x less resources, like literally doing on a single computer what took a huge Hadoop cluster. Maybe on a Google scale of data, that doesn't work as easily. Maybe when you…

I used Hadoop well on an important fraud system. When we first deployed, we only dealt with 59 GB at rest worth of data per day. What I knew would occur is more models would run over the data with each release. I assumed that the models would become more complex over time. They would eventually need to perform calculations overs years worth of data. Hadoop provided a data-centric approach to parallel computing. Using…

Why do I feel a sudden urge to pay you $250/hr?
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