Ask HN: Why don’t I have any problems? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why don’t I have any problems?

6 pointsmoomoo1113 comments

I have been trying to think about ideas to work on and I realized that it’s quite hard. Why do I feel like I don’t have any problems? For each problem I have, I know an app or resource. Maybe I need to find new problems but how do I get problematic?

What’s a good approach to broaden my perspective here

View on HN

You don't have any problems, or you don't have any problems that you can solve with your current tool set and budget?

I don't have a problem for which I want to start a company to tackle. I want to build something, but I am struggling to find what.

Are you looking for a lifestyle-type business or a hockey-stick business? At first I was thinking that I had the opposite problem that you have, I've got loads of ideas for small-scale projects. But maybe it is similar to your problem, I don't know how well they would do as a profit making venture, so I don't have the motivation to follow-through.

Either, as long as it is something I can put 100% of my efforts into.

There used to be a Meetup group for people who wanted to code on ecological projects (or other projects directed on making meaningful impacts). And I've seen other events devoted to hacking on civic projects. (Just for example, Oakland has "City Camp Oakland.")

My biggest problem was always finding an interesting data set to mess with. But that's one place to start: look for interesting new data sets being created, and then find a way to leverage them. (Some people make interesting APIs available -- e.g. Google, Hacker News, etc.) Maybe NASA has some data?

You could also try prowling through GitHub to find inspiring problems (or projects that need help). If there's just no problems to solve, there's always...hardware hacking? Seriously -- you could try recreating some functionality you like in an entirely new form factor. (Voice-activated Alexa apps? Virtual reality headsets? Pebble watches?)

Hope this helps.

Is climate change a problem ? Could you make a product to help address it ?

Is malware / phishing / security a problem ? Could you make a product to help address it ?

Sure products exist in those fields. But none of them "solve" the problems. Lots of room for new products.

Instead of find new problems needing solutions, I would flip it around and find more solutions to the problems you have had or things you had solved.

Coming up with more ways to solve the same problem can be a very creative process and lead to a lot of ideas.

Subcategorizing your problems, and then finding more efficient solutions to these subcategories might also be helpful. You might be generalizing your solutions to address more and more potential problems that crop up, and while it will eventually solve the issue at hand, there may be more efficient or creative solutions.

Many ideas end up becoming, we solve x, but better than y ever managed to for z. AirBNB solved the finding a place to stay even though hotels already existed. Same for Uber. We have endlessly improved upon wheel designs for millenia. The possibilities are endless.

I used to work for a software company providing professional services to customers. Over the years, I heard the same feature requests from customers over and over again. I came up with a solution, and now it has more than 10,000 users.

My suggestion would be to identify group of people that are easily identifiable and cheap to contact, then individually contact ten that appears well connected and friendly.

Prior to reaching out, practice asking random people customer discovery questions:

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+do+customer+discovery...

First search result seems fine to start if you’re in a rush:

https://studiozao.com/resources/what-customer-discovery-ques...

Question I normally suggest people trying with random people is an obvious normal talking point, for example, the shoes they’re wearing, watch, etc — anything they’re likely to have put thought into purchasing. For example, “Nice shoes, mind if I asked you quick question about them?” — then go into the whole set of customers discovery questions; if at any point they appear to be annoyed, thank them for there time and politely move on.

While you might not find a problem to work on, you will for sure learn a lot going through this process.

Circling back to the first step, it’s important, since if you do find a problem that you’re interested in, knowing you have a meaningful list of potential customers to contact cheaply will make a huge difference in your future success.

There's 8 billion people on the planet and a large proportion of the world is poor or relatively poor. If you can think of some trade that adds value to interactions and network effects of people, then you can produce added value.

I journal ideas everyday, I am up to 450+ computer and business ideas. I journal my ideas in the open on GitHub and hope people do something with my ideas or engage with me. The state of computing could be drastically improved.

https://GitHub.com/samsquire/startups https://GitHub.com/samsquire/ideas https://GitHub.com/samsquire/ideas2 https://GitHub.com/samsquire/ideas3

https://GitHub.com/samsquire/ideas4

Lack of problems is a form of death. The brain exists to solve problems, and by having a lack of problems, it will dream up problems and create them without you needing to seek them.

All significant consumer problems are solved. It's about specialist or overarching organisational problems now.

Don worry about problems - find new challenges.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com