Ask HN: What problems do you have? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What problems do you have?

6 pointshelghardt15 comments

It has to be a problem you have. It can be a personal problem or a business problem. It can be big or small. If you have tried finding solutions, explain whether it worked or if not, why not. If anyone else wrote a problem you experience too, elaborate in the thread.

A problem I have at the moment is finding clearly defined problems, like a directory of problems….

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Here is the current set of world/human problems:

http://encyclopedia.uia.org/en

Software can contribute to most if not all of the needed solutions.

Cheers!

I stumbled upon this page once and then had a hard time finding it again. Thx.

I do a lot of my work outside and I have to re-apply sunscreen every few hours. I get sunburnt every single day even if I wear a hat and extensive face covering.

Suggest you protect your eyes and ensure your hat covers your ears also vitamin D daily may be a good idea https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36580363/

Which societies are left that have as a Purpose the Progress of Civilization?

It's the 30th of July and I still have not cleared an apprenticeship position (IT) for 1th September. The mental load is increasingly wearing. I'm not having a good time.

It's not that I get declined, but I struggle sending out applications in the first place (because of reasons).

Prioritization. Everything seems equally important. It's exhausting.

You do not prioritize through just "importance", but also with "urgency" and "cost".

You prioritize evaluating "urgency - how pressing", "importance - how impactful", and "size - how consuming".

Some things are to be dealt with earlier independently of the importance, and other things are dealt with speedily so it is worth to have them done earlier to alleviate the queue.

There is a scalar resulting from the three dimensions, and that ranks your priorities.

Alternatively - one step easier - is the Eisenhower Diagram. It looks only at the aspects of importance and urgency, which gives you four different categories for priorization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management#The_Eisenhower...

Oh great! I didn't know it was his idea! I thought it was someone else's. It is a great procedure.

> I thought it was someone else's

Eisenhower did not say it was his idea. See https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/05/09/urgent/

> It is a great procedure

That is a classification procedure¹, not a ranking procedure. It does not satisfy the original poster's request.

¹(Acted upon immediately; scheduled for action; delegated; dropped.)

What you describe (act, schedule, delegate, delete) looks like 'ranking' to me. Under 'classification' I'd understand a seperation without ranking entities. And that at least falls under the request of OP (whether it satisfies it or not).

What I don't understand about your comment is the similarity to your scheme that just has the 'cost' dimention addionally. The 'cost' doesn't make the entities any more 'rankable' though. So why wouldn't I apply your critic to your own proposed system?

This comment is not in bad faith. I'm just a little confused about your point. If you have some sort of experience or qualification in this field, I'd be happy to be corrected.

> looks like 'ranking' to me

With that process (the "Eisenhower") you distribute items into four classes; the classes are in a way ranked (between each other), but the items within each class are not sortable with that method. You obtain buckets full of "equal" things.

(And the problem of the OP was having all items under the same scalar of importance. The decisor using the Eisenhower method will obtain a distribution in two sets - "act" and "schedule" - but will still be at a loss about what to tackle first.)

> The 'cost' does[...] make ... rankable

It does - it makes the "ToDo" set of collection of fully ranked items (more precisely, it contributes to it with the other two parameters - it adds insight and complexity with a new dimension).

Take a set of items, build a function of (urgency, importance, lightness), attribute per each item a scalar to each of (u,i,l) and a scalar ("priority") is returned which allows for fully sorting the set of items.

> If you have some sort of experience or qualification in this field

Yes :)

A friend told me some advice he gleaned from the book 7 habits of successful people. One involved trying to consider what you are doing or will do in a set of quadrants numbered from 1 to 4 from left to right and from top to bottom.

Top are things you must do or should for success. Bottom are things you don't have to do.

Left side is urgent. Right side is not.

#1 are things that need immediate attention, from literal fires in your kitchen, to losing your keys while you are outside of your locked house.

#2 are ongoing projects or tasks to which are being done for a ongoing goal. Something like building a guest house in your backyard for a visitor someday. Or a side project. Or planning for retirement.

#3 Addictions. It is good to understand for anyone with a few brain cells left that this one is not ideal. Other things here might be watching TV and so on. Not great place to be and I'm here a lot. It probably isn't good to be entertained on the ride to hell.

#4 Recreation, planning for vacation. Typically not as negative as quadrant 3. Remember that time is more important than anyone alive can really know fully. No one knows when we are told to put our pencils down in the test of life besides God. But while we are here we should enjoy friends and family and make time for others. Even volunteering would fit here well.

I didn't even read the book. But the story about it from my friend was useful recently.

Too many low IQ humans.

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