Ask HN: What is today's most important problem/opportunity? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is today's most important problem/opportunity?

5 pointsmiguelrochefort4 comments

I am unable to settle on a problem to solve. I keep realizing that the problem I'm working is just a subset of a larger one, and my focus shifts on that new one. Repeat.

For example, one starts by noticing that the school's schedule management system could be improved. Then you realize that the calendar hasn't changed in ages and that you could reinvent it. Then you generalize the problem and realize that you could improve how anything time-related is managed. Then you realize that time is just one particular axis/condition to what is a much larger logistics problem. Then you start re-designing how task management is conducted (with dependencies, conditions, deadlines, etc). Then you realize that you're not just dealing with tasks, you're dealing with contracts. Then you realize that contracts are the basis of a semantic marketplace for intents and promises. Then you realize that you need to create a new communication framework or language to facilitate the communication of unambiguous stateless descriptions and intents. Then you realize that it's pretty much a programming language you need to implement, but that's not accessible enough. You assume that this can be fixed by doing it right (unlike all other languages before this one) and that it will be easy for anyone to use daily. Then you realize the opportunity to leverage AI and autocompletion-like mechanics. Then you realize that text is an inferior medium, and that we have dynamic interfaces that allows us to do MUCH better. I'm now studying linguistics in order to properly understand how meaning works in order to design the perfect computer-assisted language. I honestly believe that it is achievable and that everyone will soon be using it. This will replace 80% of all apps and websites. It will elevate human consciousness to levels we can't even imagine. At least, that's my belief.

With that in mind, where do I stop? What's the most important thing I could dedicate my life to?

That was the best thing I've read all day.

When I was younger and had time to spend on anything I wanted to, I did. I wanted to make a game. So I started making an OpenGL game, but I realized that any game worth a damn would support DirectX as well. So I set about abstracting out the functionality of the two graphics libraries into a standard interface. I didn't finish a game. I realized I didn't want to create a game. I could have used any game engine to do so, if I were sufficiently motivated. But, I did learn so much in the journey that I can't call the time wasted, simply spent.

So, I guess it comes down to whether you want to engage in thought experiments or create something. You can build castles in the sky all you want and there is a definite satisfaction in that. You can build a log cabin on the ground and live in it and see what it is like to live inside a cabin you built and maybe feel satisfaction that way. What does your heart tell you when you consider these paths?

Now that I don't have all the free time I once had, I am more focused on completion than conception, but every so often, I let my mind follow a path to a place that I will never go. But I am honest with myself about that.

Implementing a vision is where it gets messy and compromises arise. I want to delay that as much as possible, in order for the vision to be as best as possible.

I can't be the only one that went through that process. It took me 12 years to get there. I have not written a single line of code for that project, only design. What I'm looking for is someone that went through that process and eventually reached the end. Someone that can tell me what matter, so that I can finally start getting my hands dirty.

As much as people here tend to claim that ideas are cheap and that only execution matters, clear visions or prescriptions of what the future should be are a very scarce resource.

I think the most important part is really just starting.

All in your brain is good but the real task is in the implementation, and it will be a lot more work than you think. Start where you feel you can make an easy in then build from there. More than likely will take you in directions you didn’t expect, but you'll have a lot of fun along the way.

I would regret if I had started "doing" at any point in the above thought process (which spanned over 12 years). I would have slowed down the evolution of the vision, and implemented something that's less than worthy of my dedication.

I have now reached the point where I believe that creating a new communication platform for human and AI seems like an important thing to implement, yet I'm not sure whether that will hold true when I discover the next better thing.

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