I'd have them try to build a tool that allows finding the consensus answer to this question.
Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
71–80 of 93 posts
Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
#72Figure out what to do with people with IQ less than 90 that doesn’t involve turning them into landfill. Seriously. We have plenty of people who aren’t that academic and the world is increasingly leaving them behind. How do we usefully deploy them?
Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
#73Instead of worrying about the practicality of this, I'll answer your question directly. I would aim to create as many blueprints as possible for tools that can help more people live and work remotely and sustainably. There is no greater threat to human health, human happiness, and human productivity, than there is in meaningless desk work and commuting.
You think the ability to work remotely is a more significant health-benefit than tackling water-shortages, obesity, drugs, and climate change? It is OK to have a niche, and to use hyperbole, but when it comes to human health and happiness I'm certain there are more significant issues which are real, and growing, than where somebody works (if they can, must, or even do have a job).
Yes.
The problems you describe above would be greatly reduced.
- Less fuel consumption means less water use, less pollution
- Less wasted time commuting means more time to relax and less stress eating, more time to prepare better food and better sleep
The ability and effectiveness of working from home will have compound improvements to the other specific problems you listed.
Imagine if every worker had a couple extra hours to sleep better, eat better and time with family to solve the problems above.
Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
#74I would make them read everything there is to know on superconductivity (esp. high temperature superconductivity) and make them brainstorm ideas on how to get us closer to room temperature superconductors.
Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
#75I would train them on liberal arts, philosophy & politics so that we have 100 techno-humanists able to connect more dots while thinking of the future of mankind.
Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
#76Create a full replacement for Javascript based on Scheme and integrate it into Firefox.
What do you think about WebAssembly?
The last time I looked at it, support for Lisp was questionable: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11269736 I need to check again.
Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
#77I'd probably work on a mobile phone, based on some sort of SBC like rPI Zero or the Chip Computer.
But I'd work more on the hardware than on the software: I want a physical keyboard like the one the Nokia N900 has and I want a physical kill-switch for the GSM/UMTS/whatever radio.
As for OS an apps, i always thought that some GNU/Linux distro with some small-device-optimized wm and good selinux per-app policies could work very very well.
Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
#78100 people @ 100 days / 6 hours per day is 6,000 person-hours at best. 30% of that time or more would be spent on consensus building and chatter. 10% on LaCroix & Coffee runs. 5% on bio-breaks. I'm left with about 60% of the original time, which I would have to spend on the problem of preserving the original allocation. Certainly some software product would be the result, negating all the ritualized product managemen…
60,000 person-hours
Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
#79I'd tell these 100 Amazon employees to finally go on vacation... and for a 100 days :) Let's not burn these "resources" out.
Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 talented people for 100 days, what would you work on?
#80Figure out what to do with people with IQ less than 90 that doesn’t involve turning them into landfill. Seriously. We have plenty of people who aren’t that academic and the world is increasingly leaving them behind. How do we usefully deploy them?
We turn them into artificial artificial intelligence.