Ask HN: How do you find problems to solve? Finding an idea is tough. | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you find problems to solve? Finding an idea is tough.

7 pointsizolate5 comments

So HN, I have the required skills and motivation, but I just don't have a good idea. How do I find it?

First step is knowing what you want to do. Easy. I want to participate in the convergence of healthcare and technology, especially so in developing nations like India.

Next step is finding a problem to solve, and that's where I fall short. All of my ideas are objectively banal compared to what others in this space are doing. I'm not a healthcare professional, so my ability to understand their needs is limited.

Is there anything I can do to explore and cultivate good ideas?

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Instead of worrying about the domain expertise you don't have, focus on how you can use the domain expertise you do have in a new domain. Some significant fraction of the healthcare problems faced in India, are just pervasive general problems from which healthcare is not exempt.

For example, getting an individual's blood sample in front of a diagnostician is a logistical or communication problem that can be solved similarly to any other information delivery bottleneck. It just happens to be carrying a stethoscope today.

One thing I will say, is that finding the problems won't be done sitting at a computer. You've got to care enough to get out in the world and observe the messy details.

Good luck.

In a simple answer that is meant to show you simplicity:

"Find a simple, common problem and provide an even more simple solution."

If you're trying to solve healthcare issues in places where people live on $1 a day, consider yourself a social entrepreneur/social worker.

You should also realize that technology cannot solve every problem out there. Perhaps you have an idea that is non-tech, don't abandon it because of that.

If you need a start on problems that might need further innovations, start with something like "child undernourishment/malnourishment".

PS. GMO crops is not the solution

Sounds like someone needs to take vacation and clear their head. Ideas don't seem to like to flow through the proverbial, worry-clogged tubes.

I don't want to sound like an "idea guy", but coming up with ideas is easy for me. I'm ancient (30) by HN standards, though.

We tend to focus too much on youth, but often good ideas just come from experience. If you actively fight the tendency to get set in your ways and complacent, you'll be better at coming up with ideas as you get older.

For me, the hard parts are:

1. It being a good idea doesn't mean it will be easy to capture value. The inventor of Tetris didn't make a dime until the late '90s. I wrote a card game that I know is very good but I have no idea how I'd make money off of it without compromising its integrity. (I don't want to create an app and "monetize" by sending users over to Zyngarbage.)

2. Selling a great idea is brutally difficult. If it's obviously good, you have to worry that people will steal it and give the work and rewards to their buddies. If it's not obviously good (and most good ideas qualify) it will be a bitch to sell.

3. Then there's the work. That's the easiest part, except for the fact that until you've had success at #1 (coming up with an easy way to capture the value so you can concentrate on making it great) and #2 (selling it, well enough that you can dedicate some time to it) you are going to struggle even to sell yourself.

How do you find problems to solve? Live. Get annoyed at shit. See things missing in the world. That's the easy part.

Agreed with michael.

To the OP: life will provide you with plenty of experiences. You don't need to look for problems because they are masqueraded as inefficiencies and frustrations. When you notice yourself frustrated, ask: why am I frustrated? What is frustrating? How can things be improved? Coming up with ideas is a creative process.

Creativity is a muscle that can be trained. A simple exercise is to take, say, a pencil and name as many uses for it as possible. That's not useful in reality as it's not directly related to a problem. You could, alternatively, find a problem, such as an itchy back or uneven desk legs, and think of ways to use the pencil. Thinking of using the pencil is easy. What's very hard is you have to remember the pencil, keeping it in the subsurface of your mind as you encounter problems. Of course, this is a grossly simplified example, but this is how problem solving works: by observing situations, remembering the attributes/qualities of objects (or resources) and appropriately recalling them when they can be a possible solution to the problem you are facing. Most people brainstorm the first way. They look for what they want to do, and find ways to make it work. Like michael mentioned, it is nice if you are doing something for fun, but it is not good for generating viable business ideas. The best business ideas are organic, as in they come from a real problem. People are usually happy to pay to make a problem go away, provided the solution improves their lives in some tangible way.

I would argue that the second way of brainstorming - the indirect way - is more powerful because you are training yourself to add constraints by tracking existing resources and recognizing when they are useful in a seemingly random problem with no obvious connection to the object in question. Back to our example: when you have an itchy back, there is not necessarily a pencil in sight. You have to pull it into your mind's eye. You are essentially turning your mind into a database or file cabinet; a must-have skill if you want to be a top-notch tech support person or creative problem solver. This is the secret behind the hype about connecting-the-dots and ideation. It's very easy to talk about, but very, very hard to practice.

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