Ask HN: I have no problems to solve | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I have no problems to solve

18 pointsjkaykin14 comments

It's interesting, everyone says to build something that solves one of my own problems. That's a valid suggestions seeing as solving ones problems can be both exciting and engaging. But when I think about it, I really don't have any problems of my own to solve. I have worked on side projects before but they usually end up on the back burner because I lose interest. Maybe I am not realizing that I do have problems that can be solved with tech.

So my question is: How do I find problems to solve (mine or others, doesn't matter)?

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I faced this issue myself. Then I realised something:

I wasn't striving for anything.

People face problems when they have an ambition. They want to get from A to B and the process in-between is often messy so they use software or information to make it less messy.

What I'd suggest, then, is to start picking up hobbies for the sake of having hobbies. I started going to the gym, for instance, and have thought of much better ways to create a workout tracker.

I started writing novels a couple of years ago and have the insight into making a better application for novelists.

When I started traveling, that also sparked ideas.

Stop thinking about solving a problem. You should really focus on giving yourself problems. Be a beginner again. Create an imbalance in your life, then resolve it.

I'm sure the problem is that you just aren't thinking about things hard enough* or just lack enough motivation to really follow-through, which is a separate (primarily non-technical) issue to solve. You would be unique in the world if you really had no problems that could be solved/helped with technology.

However, despite the common wisdom of scratching our own itches, when I'm working on outside hobby projects I often find it more interesting to solve other people's problems because it is more of a learning experience. Find a lab scientist or a teacher or a rapper (Jay-Z alone has 99 problems), and engage them in figuring out what problems they have that can be solved by technology. You are likely to learn a lot about what they do, which is cool, and you'll be more motivated by having a collaborator to work with on solving that person's problems. This may even serve you well commercially, if you care, because you can more easily find underserved niches. Every programmer wants to write a code editor, not every programmer wants to write networked, collaborative curriculum planning software.

[* Or perhaps you are thinking of them too hard. Sometimes it is good to just constantly be asking yourself if there is a better way to be doing whatever it is you are currently doing as opposed to sitting down and having some fruitless "brainstorming" session where you are trying to analyze what your problems are out of context.]

One simple way to find new problems is to follow the advice once given by Deep Throat: "Follow the money!"

What I mean is look into your own spending patterns (or those of your friends/ parents/ neighbours/ colleagues) and ask yourself why does something cost as much as it does? Can it be made more cheaper? Or if it is already cheap, can the difference consumer saves be used for some meaningful, complementary services/items?

Thinking this way can reveal many interesting and unexpected answers and the best thing is that this quest takes you out of your room, since you have to follow the money trail and understand how different businesses work. Doing that as an outsider is likely to spark many interesting thoughts.

I know!

I was the same, no real "problems" to solve, and the few ideas I did have amounted to fairly straight-forward CRUD-style solutions. I started implementing one of them, and then started reading an Algorithms book.

From there, a few very old ideas coalesced in my brain, and exploded. Now, I'm not solving a MY problem, so much as solving a challenging problem that I think will hold my attention for awhile. I'm hoping to have something to push out to github in the next few weeks.

Morale of the story: search for problems to solve, and you'll solve the problem of not having a problem to solve. :)

I have quite the opposite problem, too many problems to solve, and not enough time/resources to build everything. I figured I could describe my thought process, and maybe it will help you come up with ideas too. It's a pretty basic three step process; 1. choose a topic (or industry, or domain, or space, or whatever you want to call it) that you personally enjoy, or have deep knowledge/experience. 2. on a white board, write down all the different aspects or components that comprise whatever topic you choose, and next to each component, write down a person or role that's associated with each component. 3. take each association you've built and look for two things from the person's and/or role's perspective; within the context of the topic, look for a pain point and/or a new capability. In my opinion, the key is being able to rationalize things from other people's perspectives. Building the associations is a good exercise that will get the brainstorming going. Choosing a topic you personally enjoy or have deep knowledge/experience will provide you with insights and unique perspectives that you can leverage to build something of value. Some of my best ideas were the result of correlating these insights and perspectives with the pain points and/or capabilities identified above. Hopefully this thought process will help you come up with some killer ideas!

Regarding the problem I'm experiencing, I've been experimenting with a new approach that is similar to the Idealab approach used by Bill Gross. Understanding the effectiveness of focusing on one project at a time, this experimental approach is to validate ideas, protect their IP, and then build teams to execute independently. So while I work on one Project at a time, the team(s) I've built can execute other Projects (and resulting Products/Businesses). The value that I'm providing is the validation of each idea with potential customers, as well as the protection of any associated IP (via patents). The team would, of course, own the majority of each Business and I would take a small percentage. The way I see it, an approach like this is great because of two reasons; one, it's great practice for me in terms of team-building and customer validation. two, I get to watch these crazy ideas be executed, resulting in new Products that would make life better for everyone (me included!). It will be interesting to see how this works out! If you would be interested in checking out some of these Projects, let me know!

I would love to see some of the projects!

You need to look at the more discrete problems you face - there's probably lots of things you do that take 100x longer than they should because they haven't been automated or optimized for today's world.

If not having problems is a problem to you maybe you can start there.

Hmm. I just posted this Ask HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6574962

What do you do besides programming? Most of the projects I end up taking on come out of my non-programming interests.

Yeah, that why I tried to build a home brewing automaton https://jeena.net/brewing-automaton but yeah, I didn't get very far yet besides buying all the parts ^^

What do your friends and family do? Find someone you know who is really good at what they do, in a non-programming field. Ask about their workflow, and try to find the areas where they could have better tools. Then start to build those tools.

The most innovative and useful ideas seem to come from a mix of high level domain expertise, and high level technical ability. If you don't have both of those, find someone who has the piece you are missing.

Edit: sorry, assumed you were op.

I enjoy martial arts and tennis. I guess I don't have many other hobbies...

Those sound like great hobbies to base your idea on. Out of the two, I think Tennis would have more of a market (aka make more money). Just throwing out some random aspects/components of Tennis that you could bounce around; the game itself, the equipment/clothing, the training/education, the facilities where people play, the professional sports aspect, sponsors and marketing. Some of the people involved; the players themselves, the people that run the facilities, the people that hire tennis tutors/teachers (and the students), the people that watch the sport professionally, the people that sponsor the sport, the people that provide equipment/clothing. I do not have much experience/knowledge with Tennis, however my Cousin's Husband is a Tennis Instructor, so I'll go with that. One of the problems that he has is finding more students to teach and fill up all his potential slots. One of the problems that Tennis Students have is finding a good teacher with a reasonable price. Going off this, maybe one potential idea is to build a "Marketplace" for Tennis Instructors. Call it Yelp for Tennis Tutors. So instructors could post up their Business with their contact information, Students could review them, and you facilitate the connection of Teachers and Students. You're solving multiple problems. The Teachers find more Students, the Students find good teachers, and the best price. Your Business Model could be a re-occurring monthly revenue model that Teachers pay to add their Business to the Marketplace. A secondary Business Model (or replacement) could be a one time fee per transaction every time you facilitate a connection between a Teacher and Student (as in, the Student "Signs Up" for their Services). Anyway, just throwing out some ideas! Hope I've helped with some brainstorming!

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