Answers are easy. Finding problems are hard. | Hacker News Reader

Answers are easy. Finding problems are hard.

venturebeat.com

35 pointsdcpdx16 comments

Isn't there a problem with the headline? Maybe they're not that hard to find after all. If not then there is one with my english, which would still mean that finding a problem is not too hard :-).

Anyways I am not sure if it is really easier to solve a problem than to find one. I would say the hardest part would be defining a problem in way that it is approachable. You can come up with a lot of very general problems, the hard part is narrowing it down.

Yes, there is a problem with the headline. The latter sentence should read, "Finding problems is hard."

However, convention on HN suggests that it's appropriate to copy headlines verbatim from the linked article. It's unclear what the appropriate behavior is.

Unless we're talking about the particular class of problems which involve finding things. As in:

"Sorting problems are easy, finding problems are hard."

And of course, finding problems is a finding problem. No wonder it's hard!

Hm... I hadn't considered that. Touché.

I think in the context of the video clip they are more referring to product/market fit. Many startups fail because they either don't recognize the real problem, they build the wrong product to address a problem, or they burn through their cash before they find the point where their solution intersects with the market problem. I believe this is also why domain experience is important to one or more startup founders; the company can build a solution to an understood problem rather than a solution looking for a problem.

And don't blame me for the headline; I just took it from Venturebeat :-)

Finding good problems for the answers you already have (built) is hard, also known as seeking market fitness :)

I stumble on good problems with no obvious answers frequently, and my take is that approaching them with the mindset of "hey, what if...?" is what is really uncommon. Not hard, children do it all the time.

What's hard? Keeping that mindset of "what if...?" alive over the years! :)

You don't have to solve a problem to have a product. E.g. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/08/just-in

The link seems dead. The following works though: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/08/just-in-time...

If that link doesn't work, try this one: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/the-power-of...

Grammar are hard.

Most problems are trivial or impossible. Progress happens on the small margin of problems that are in between.

Yes, but don't discount the trivial-- that's where a lot of the money is made.

Richard Bellman, I think, is famous for pointing this out frequently.

The phrase "it turns out" has gone viral. Unfortunately somebody else got the domain before me.

It seems to me that complaining about the phrase "it turns out" is what's really gone viral.

Relevant link: http://jsomers.net/blog/it-turns-out

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